In my current story, my main character is going to be having a romantic relationship with two different characters at two different times. The problem is trying to figure out how to make her move from one relationship to the other without it coming off as being unbelievable. Here I will give some details of what I have planned. My main character is a teenage girl (though her age is considered to be the first steps to adulthood in her society) and bisexual. She and her best friend found that they shared feelings for each other that went beyond friendship, and they pursued a relationship in secret for only a few months. Both are priestesses and romantic and sexual relationships are forbidden, no matter who it's between. Inevitably, the nature of their relationship was discovered and the MC's friend was excommunicated from the temple and sent back home to her family. The only reason why the MC wasn't also expelled was because she has a very important, vital position, and no one can fill her place if she was to be kicked out (long story...). So, that relationship is now over, as the MC's friend had to make the tough decision of breaking up with her before she had to leave in order to prevent the MC from becoming distracted by her emotions, wanting her to be dedicated to her duty. It will take some time for the MC to recover from all that. However, romance is still in the MC's future. Earlier, she had met a boy her age in the city who helped her out when she was in a tough situation, and the two connected pretty easily. She has since interacted with him several more times, found out more about his history, and has grown a tender spot for him. There even was a scene where she questioned whether she was starting to like him a bit more than would be recommended, worrying about what her then-girlfriend would think if she found out. But now that her friend is out of the picture, I can eventually pursue developing the MC's romance with the boy. BUT, I want it to be taken seriously. I don't want the reader to feel that there's any "rebound romance" going on, that the MC is only growing close to the boy because she has lost another love. I've been trying so far to show that she naturally has feelings for him as much as she did for her friend, so that once they do fall in love it isn't out of blue. She's going to have to go through a tough period of coming to terms with her separation from her friend and ultimately move on. I know I can at some point write a scene where the MC, upon realizing she is falling in love with the boy, have second thoughts for a while, wondering if it makes her "unfaithful" (even though her previous relationship has since sailed away). Those types of inner-thoughts scenes could help show the reader that she's not just jumping into a new relationship to make up for the one she lost. However, one thing worth noting is that the time table of this can't be very long, as there still will be tons of important things going on in the rest of the story, and fiction can get away with making everything go faster than in real life without being too harshly criticized. What do you guys think? Do the ideas I have so far seem believable/realistic, despite the short time frame of the story? What would you do if one of your stories had this kind of situation?
Hey there BlitzGirl! I don't see any problems at all with what you've got here. Human beings are complex social creatures, and our ability to develop relationships with multiple individuals has helped us survive for hundreds of thousands of years. People can fall in love multiple times with any number of people, and experience all of the turmoil and strife that comes with it! Now, if we're being realistic, I'd still prefer to see this exchange happening over at least three or four months: I think any reasonable person in this circumstance wouldn't rush out into a new relationship out of respect for their previous partner. But if she's hanging out with the boy because its convenient, and slowly realizes that she's developing feelings for him, that kind of thing isn't much under her control. She might try to escape it or avoid him once she's conscious of it, but it's tough to tell your feelings to behave logically!
I think what you have it really good, as well. And, I agree with @Infel that it should take place over a few months. Naturally, it should take at least a little while for her to come to terms with the fact that her first relationship is over. Give her a little bit of time to grieve. And, by showing her grieving, you get to show the reader how much she really cared for her first partner.
There's another vibe you might consider as well. Falling in love creates terror sometimes. The kind of terror that arises when you realise that the person you love is, essentially, irreplaceable—which means losing them will be extremely painful. Your MC has just lost somebody she loved, through external circumstances. The relationship didn't die a natural death. If a relationship dies naturally, then the feelings of relief at being free from it will go a long way towards mitigating grief. If the relationship was strong, however, and it was killed by external circumstances—such as forced separation, death, whatever—the fallout is different. As well as grieving, she may be scared of allowing love back into her life, especially as you said relationships with priestesses is forbidden, no matter who they are with. This new relationship will also be vulnerable, won't it?
I'd agonise over it for ages ... mainly because I do have this kind of situation, but possibly worse. Main character's girlfriend dies, and then she ends up in a weird love/hate relationship with her dead ex's twin brother when they're both forced to go into hiding from the people who killed the girlfriend in the first place. As you can imagine ... how the fuck do you walk that tightrope? It's messing with some seriously heavy emotional stuff, and there's a lot of things to consider. How soon is "too soon" etc. I think an important thing you could put in is regret. When Kaina moves on, make sure there's some regret and sadness for what was left behind, that way it won't look to the reader like she's just doing something as casual as changing clothes. Perhaps she can be comforted by the knowledge she'll always have the good memories, to show she's not just severing all emotional connection because there's the "new boy". If you like, she can also always have had doubts about whether she really loved her friend in that way, or if they were simply close friends who sometimes made love. She's young, maybe it was just teenage experimentation, as teenagers do.
Oh, that's definitely a good point, and something I've been considering (but need to get around to implementing). The fear, as you've pointed out so excellently. The MC will know that she's developing feelings that she technically isn't supposed to have...once again...and after what happened last time, yeah, that would spark some borderline PTSD (not clinical, but...you know what I'm trying to say!). If she's caught again, then the worst that could be done (since it's too great a risk to excommunicate her) would be to essentially lock her up in the temple, prevent her from going into the city streets, and have her watched all the time. And then she'd effectively never see him again. As I said in my OP, I just am hoping that I can find ways to make this transition come off as more or less natural, and the posts here are definitely giving me ideas, or confirming the ideas I already had, and that's making me feel less worried about it. I just need to get around to implementing it in my story. And if the relationship develops over the course of a few months, then I need to make sure that the main plot/drama unfolds at the same pace. It's a big conspiracy type of situation that I'm still puzzling the pieces together and trying not to make anyone show their hand too soon.
We can fall in love fast. If you make sure the separation from her first love is in no way her (or first love’s) doing. It's all external forces doing this. From what I understand this is the case. And you let her be very open about her first love when she interacts with second love. She tells him that she still loves first love but it's impossible because of external forces. (gives you a lot of internal conflicts to mess with also) If you play it that way your readers will accept a quick new love. She can sort of love them both and then after a few months be not so upset about it. Readers will accept her loving two at a time without four months of solitude. (But of course the first must be totally not possible)
