Thursday, March 25, 2010
Forbidden Romance
I'd like to say a few words about the topic of forbidden romance in novels, particularly YA novels.
As we all know, there are many different kinds of forbidden romance. Romance forbidden by parents. Romance forbidden by society. Perhaps it's a romance forbidden, not by outside forces, but by the characters' own convictions that the relationship would be risky for them.
All of these appear frequently in books, and can be great subject matter. But that's not the type of forbidden romance I came to talk about today.
I came to talk about characters who fall in love despite being forbidden to by their author.
Kind of a strange thought, right? But consider for a moment. How often do we authors talk about our story as if it has a life of its own? We say things like "I must get to know this character better to continue writing about them"--as if that character exists somehow outside of us. It's a bizarre but true phenomenon, and often leads to characters doing things you didn't expect. Or want.
I'm struggling right now with my female protagonist. I had Flynn's love interest all planned out in the plot line, but apparently she has other ideas. She seems to be developing something with another guy--something which, although not totally unforeseen, I did not expect to amount to more than a crush.
But now Flynn seems rather insistent that she likes this guy, and the more she leans toward him, the more their pairing makes sense to me!
Of course this has completely shot a few things about the ending to pieces, and I still don't know if I'm going to allow this or break them up. Yes, I'm a cruel parent, but what else can I do? In the end, I feel this relationship could never have a happy ending for her, and I'm not sure that a non-happy romance ending really fits in with what I want the focus to be at the conclusion of the FLYNN trilogy.
So we will see. Flynn is risking everything about her plot line to be with this guy, so I hope he's worth it!
What about all my other writerly sorts out there? Have you ever had two characters run around behind your back?
Happy Writing,
Rachel Heston Davis
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I actually had the opposite happen to me. I was desperately trying to push two characters together, and even though they really liked being friends, there just wasn't any chemistry. It totally ruined the tone of the book. It's still waiting for a re-write :)
ReplyDeleteThis is so very true. Characters don't always do what we plan, and that includes who they fall in love with.
ReplyDeleteI have this ideal for my characters to find their love and stay with them even in a long series but that's becoming not the case in the slightest. As I develop the story more things change, drama occurs and different love interests exist. Who knows what the end product will be at this point but it will be fun finding out. I'm just the writer, I'm along for the ride and the characters are driving. lol
I am struggling with one character right now that apparantly wants to have a bit of fun before settling down. Ahem. So not cool! But, hopefully I can show it in a way that doesn't make her sound like a floosy, but just a naive girl who doesn't really know what she's doing. *sigh* The things our characters to do us!
ReplyDeleteRachel, this is an awesome post. I had every intention of Tameina & Zydeco falling for each other, only I wanted it to occur way way later in the story. They insisted! Those two do a lot of things that change how the story goes. I'm very used to outlining in detail when things happen, but I really allowed the characters to breathe in Mythos. This is what when you let a couple of hormonal teenagers breate. :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky I guess, my audience is too young for romance so I don't have to worry about that. That's not to say my life is any easier though. Kids can be a pain in many other ways, you can't take your eyes off them for two seconds!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Rachel.
Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one who struggles with this problem!
ReplyDeleteI have never had two characters resist a romance connection that I was trying to force on them, but I am expecting that that could happen with Flynn if she ends up liking this other guy instead of the original plan.