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  1. lady_augusta

    lady_augusta New Member

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    I can't make the romance go and everything is on fire.

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by lady_augusta, Apr 10, 2019.

    Hi all!

    I'm working on a historical fiction novel and I have pretty much the skeleton of my main plot. Joveta, 17, is the Heiress to a lordship on the constantly warring frontier of Edessa, a Crusader state, in 1130. Her family is close and because of her Heiress status she is expected to marry later than her non-inheriting female counterparts, such as her best friend Rothaide who married at 10 and was widowed at 12 and now lives at home with her parents, swearing to never marry. But at the start of the story, an injury reminding her father that he won't live forever makes him want to see Joveta married before the year is up, and his preferred candidate is Roger, who is an excellent warrior but totally dismissive of the fact that Joveta has been raised by her father to be a capable and successful heir to him, and that she knows every inch of her land and is totally devoted to it. Joveta, who wants control of the lordship herself, tries to forge a partnership relationship with Roger but he dismisses her at every turn. Meanwhile, she is having to deal with some huge changes to her life, and she absolutely detests change and wishes they could all remain in the idyllic days of her childhood forever. But as her younger sister falls in love, marries, and moves far away, and eventually her best friend also relents and allows her mother to force her into a second marriage with a man she doesn't know, she has to deal with the fact that everything is changing and everyone else is taking their places in the adult world.

    So all of that is going on. And it's going...like, okay. It's going fine. But I kind of want/need Joveta to also have a love interest/romance plot. At this point, I'm not positive what his whole deal is, other then that he's living at Joveta's castle as a household knight, but he's not of the knightly class but the noble class, I'll figure out why later. I'm sure I can justify it in some way. But...it's just not happening. And I don't get why. I'd say most of the writing I do has some kind of romantic subplot, excluding all of the stuff I write with romance as the main plot. I'm not an expert, but it happens. Not so for this book.

    Of course, I know in general, books don't have to have romance to be good and a lot of readers would find it refreshing without a romance plot. But for my purposes it really is kind of necessary, because I would like Joveta to be married/engaged at the end of the story, because it's kind of a historical necessity that she is married asap. I've thought about an epilogue like 'then a year later she married Random Guy we never heard of and lived happily with him' but I don't really like that. I'm also wary about marriage for love in the twelfth century, but my chief inspiration for this story is Kirsten Lavransdatter, and that's what the first two parts are basically all about, so I think I'm ~okay there. So basically my only issue is that I can't really get it to happen. I feel like this is in part because I can't get a good handle on the character of her love interest, so he doesn't really have a goal of his own, he's just kind of there (tbh he hasn't even made it into more than like 5 lines in the 70K so far I have nothing for him ahhh). But at the same time, i can't think of anything for him to have/do, so I can't figure out what he's like. And it's...frustrating.

    Does anyone have any tips on writing/generating romance as a subplot? Honestly whatever you have to say about all the words I just wrote, which I hope make sense but I am not overly optimistic that they will. Thanks to anyone who responds!
     
    jannert likes this.
  2. Reece

    Reece Senior Member

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    Hmm.. Well you might not know him, but you know her. What does she like/dislike? What in a man would interest her or catch her eye? That said, what about her would catch a man's eye? Why would he be smitten with her? Where do they meet? Under which circumstances? If you have some words on him, which words are those? Maybe interview him a bit and find some more out about him.

    What is your name?
    How tall are you?
    What colour is your hair?
    What colour are your eyes?
    What are your hobbies?
    Who do you hate most in the world and why?
    What is your favourite smell and why?
    If you had a windfall of money, what would you do?
    What is the one thing that is guaranteed to make you blush?
    What is your preferred drink of choice?
    Favourite meal?
    Dogs or cats?
    What is it about Joveta that you love the most?
    If you could go back in life and change something, what would it be and why?
     
    jannert likes this.
  3. cosmic lights

    cosmic lights Contributor Contributor

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    It sounds very Pride and Prejudice so maybe try reading that first, your plot is so very similar.

    If it's not working why try and force it? I would rather read no romance than a forced one and maybe a theme could be unrequited love and how your character thwarts expectations. Women had their place in the time your writing about so I understand you have to be careful. But maybe make her ahead of her time thinking wise?

    Love interest often have only one purpose in the story: to be the love interest. Or the writers goes to the next stage and gives them a purpose but underneath they are still just the love interest and a forced character. Any other men in your story you could use? Maybe Roger wins her heart after all.

    The other things I've noticed is, that some writers make the love interest their own person and that's great! But they don't give the love any purpose. The two characters could have just been friends and it wouldn't have changed anything. When in love, that person affects your actions and your decisions. Love is an important part of people's lives. You can still keep it a sub-plot but make it mean something to the story – that love could be a flaw. Maybe her sister has a good suitor but turns him down to run away with a stable boy she's madly in love with and it all goes very wrong for her. You've done well to show unhappy marriages but try adding in a good one to balance things.
     
    Jenissej and jannert like this.

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