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I don't know how to write romance. Help.

help me plz I think Im a robot I may be dead inside

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10 replies to this topic

#1
Ravenous Raven

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My brain just hits a wall when it comes to the romantic portion of a story.

 

I once tried writing a romance novel to try and practice because I'm terrible at this - I wrote two or three chapters just fine. They set up the premise of the story and introduced the maincharacter, and I thought they were pretty well written (I mean, I wrote it more than four years ago so there's a good chance it's terrible by now, but w/e.)

 

Then the love interest got introduced and I just stopped. Brain shutdown and I didn't know what to do anymore.

 

I tried again more recently with a simple short story. As soon as the two got on 'screen' together, their relationship instantly became BROtp. I couldn't change it. It would be a waste if they were anything but friends.

 

 

I'm pretty sure I'm a robot. HALP.


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#2
danfare

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i think you shouldn't try to force anything when it comes to characters. why do you need to write romance anyway? is it mandatory to write about a romantic interest? 

maybe it's just not your strongest trait. nothing wrong with that.

how about instead of developing a relationship between two, try writing about a couple that's been together for years.

you can also write about a couple without being explicit. 

 

i love writing about romance, but i try keep it out of any story i write since it sometimes distracts from the plot.


Edited by danfare, 13 May 2016 - 04:39 AM.


#3
nadaNada

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What makes you think you're bad at writing romance?

 

I think what makes good romance (or any feel related) novel/story success is using first person point of view. Because it makes audience easier to connect with main character and his/her feeling.

If you worried about your character interaction, then you can start with designing your couple/soon to be couple character first (their traits, like and dislike etc.) then you can make certain things that makes them feel to each other / things that connect them (B like the way A talk to B, A and B ride the same train every morning, A and B dog are couple etc.). After that just put them in some situation. then start writing it.

 

Hope it help  :)



#4
hentoki

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Wow, that's nice trying to master a genre you aren't used to. Well, i think if you ever got stuck when writing a novel, just try to peek the others' life. Use your own past or your ideal about something as reference is also fine. 



#5
2hot4you

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Youre going straight to yaoi arent ya :P

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#6
Ravenous Raven

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i think you shouldn't try to force anything when it comes to characters. why do you need to write romance anyway? is it mandatory to write about a romantic interest? 

maybe it's just not your strongest trait. nothing wrong with that.

how about instead of developing a relationship between two, try writing about a couple that's been together for years.

you can also write about a couple without being explicit. 

 

i love writing about romance, but i try keep it out of any story i write since it sometimes distracts from the plot.

It's not mandatory, per se, I just don't like having weaknesses, lol!

 

  Well, to put it in a better way, if I ever feel like adding a romance to a story, I don't want to be held back by thinking 'I can't.'

 

Now that you mention it, I actually do have a married couple that I was able to write well enough. Thinking about it, I think the part I'm unable to write is the 'falling in love' portion. The flirtation ship or whatever. 

 

 

What makes you think you're bad at writing romance?

 

I think what makes good romance (or any feel related) novel/story success is using first person point of view. Because it makes audience easier to connect with main character and his/her feeling.

If you worried about your character interaction, then you can start with designing your couple/soon to be couple character first (their traits, like and dislike etc.) then you can make certain things that makes them feel to each other / things that connect them (B like the way A talk to B, A and B ride the same train every morning, A and B dog are couple etc.). After that just put them in some situation. then start writing it.

 

Hope it help  :)

I think I'm bad at it because I borderline can't, haha!

 

The idea of designing characters so that their meant to fall in love with each other might actually work. I'll try that out.

 

 

Wow, that's nice trying to master a genre you aren't used to. Well, i think if you ever got stuck when writing a novel, just try to peek the others' life. Use your own past or your ideal about something as reference is also fine. 

Yup, the next genre up for bat is sci-fi. :P

 

Hmm. Now that you mention it, I wonder if I could find a reddit thread or something about how people fell in love with their significant others. As for myself, I half pretty much zero reference to base it off of, lol.

 

 

Youre going straight to yaoi arent ya :P

You caught me !

 

:batoto_002:


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#7
Caek

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Could you, by any chance, post one of them? I'd love to try and add to it and what not. In exchange, I'll give you an excerpt from something stupid I wrote last year.

 

Spoiler


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#8
danfare

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in most cases (at least in my experience) falling in love just happens. like a lovely or horrible mistake.

 but there are also cases where ppl have been friends for years and then bam. so many varieties.

flirting is hard and can be misinterpreted or might be one awkward phrase after another, so play around with that.

make your characters suffer 

 

you can do it!



#9
Ravenous Raven

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Could you, by any chance, post one of them? I'd love to try and add to it and what not. In exchange, I'll give you an excerpt from something stupid I wrote last year.

 

Spoiler

I will, but only because of this amazing short story, lol!

 

Now excuse me while I dive into the depth of the cringe hole know as my old writing folder. Auuggggghhhhh.

 

Here it is in all it's unedited, unfinished glory:

 

Spoiler

 

So, as you can tell this story started off as a totally normal by-the-books modern day school life romance. The story was meant to be very short, but I never finished because it just seemed so... typical, I guess. Though, to be fair I guess this is the closest I've ever gotten to writing romance, even if the characters aren't even at the point where they realize they like each other yet.

 

Then, I decided that even if the story was a bit boring, I should take the same characters and rewrite it, because I liked the characters a bit. So that's what this one is:

 

Spoiler

 

And somehow. Somehow. The school setting changed to a dojo, the 'modern' changed to urban fantasy, the high-school changed to twelve year-olds, the antisocial love interest changed into an elf, and the romance changed to super platonic best friends 5ever.

 

Like, as I was writing it, I realized that in this world elves are very bestial, and they don't mate with humans. Humans find them beautiful the way they find animals beautiful, but they would never be romantically or sexually attracted to one meaning, you know, the romance angle was out the door in about five minutes...


in most cases (at least in my experience) falling in love just happens. like a lovely or horrible mistake.

 but there are also cases where ppl have been friends for years and then bam. so many varieties.

flirting is hard and can be misinterpreted or might be one awkward phrase after another, so play around with that.

make your characters suffer 

 

you can do it!

Yeh, after doing reddit research, I was quite blown away by how many guys were like 'it was love at first sight!' and how many girls were like '...so I realized I liked him three months later.'

 

Seems like love at first sight seems to be more of a dude thing because of how visual they are or smthn.

 

Thanks man! I'mma certainly try!


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#10
Emerald39

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Those extracts are really superb; they are appropriately subtle, they have a colloquial tone to them, and the first person perspective in the first compliments the piece beautifully. I'm no expert novelist, but if I were extending out that piece, the next step would be to bring forth some sort of attempt at a connection, but one that is ambiguous on whether it's a success or not. Sometimes, it's better if the romance is paced a bit faster, especially if it's tested to its extremes early on; but for a passage like that, it would be better to drag out the relationship, let it develop and slowly approach the moment, not too fast, not too slow. Overall, you have a lot of potential as a conversationalist writer :)



#11
Ravenous Raven

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...


Edited by Ravenous Raven, 07 July 2017 - 01:17 AM.

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