This week: Speed Dating - More Common in Fiction Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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Romance/Love Newsletter by Dawn
A look at how things start for the characters, and a common, potential issue in believability for a romance story. The insta-love problem is real, yet necessary at times. So, we have to consider how characters might fall in love very fast considering the time space allowed within a story. |
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When it comes to the romance in a story, things tend to happen rather fast. Some stories can take place during the timespan of just a single weekend. Others may take years but it's harder to write something that covers time unless going for a longer word count type of novel. So, one may find that there is a lot of insta-love in the genre when reading short stories and novellas.
Think of it sort of like speed dating, only there usually aren't many contenders for the love interest. Though some stories use speed dating as part of the set up. I read one story, once, that had a little speed dating moment at a convention for penguin shifters (humans who could shift into penguins). The speed dating scene in that one helped give the sort of mute cute moment where the main character met the love interest when they didn't expect to meet anyone. They hadn't even planned to take part so it was all kinds of surprise.
For short fiction, the quick fall in love pattern works because limited word count also means limited time in the world for the characters. There is a limited amount of space to put everything you want into a story, whether you are writing 969 words or 45,000 of them. Only so much can be put into the scenes, a limit to what the characters can say to each other before things move along and such.
Then again, there are characters where insta-love words. I think why the whole animal shifter thing is sort of popular in romance and erotica has in part to do with how fast the characters can fall in love, in particular the wolf ones. Because they do the whole "mates" that are a version of a soul mate, there is going to be a strong connection with the love interest. And since they have super natural level senses, most anyways, they can tell if someone is their mate by how they smell. Get in close proximity with the person who is supposed to be the love of their life and the animal within them shouts in their mind "mind" or "mate" and it's a done deal. Quick but given a reason it is allowed to make sense for the situation of the story.
Other characters make it a little harder to believe that they would think "I'm in love" within a short weekend. Like when they attend a wedding, just for the weekend, and by the time the bride and groom are on their delayed honeymoon, the other characters think they are in love. That is what I would call insta-love and may be hard for some readers to believe.
In the case of flash fiction stories and the like, however, we also don't need to think it's a guarantee forever. We may not even need to think that it's love, in order to be satisfied with the romance part of the story. How you tell or show the elements of the story that involve the emotional range and connection between characters will make the difference in how the speed is viewed by the reader. That, or you can just have a tattoo show up after 48 hours to tell if it's a true connection or not. That may be taken by an author about dragon shifters but there probably are other ways to write something similar.
There is nothing wrong with writing a story where two characters are quick to fall in love. You just have to consider some things when creating that kind of story. Remember, you don't have to please every reader. However, it does help to take readers into consideration when creating a story. Develop the characters, the story and the ways love is shown and readers will appreciate what you have to offer. Have fun! Give your characters a little love, even if it's a fast fall. Keep writing.
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How fast do your characters fall in love? Is it a quick affair or something that simmers over time?
Since we don't get many comments sent in for the newsletters at this time, we'll go with a writing prompt based off the topic this week.
Prompt: Write a story that included the start of a romance that happens at a speed dating event. If you can find a way to make the event something unique, all the better. Have fun and let's see how your characters can fall for each other at warp speed.
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Romance/Love: March 06, 2024 Issue [#12447]
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