Do writers have something against romance?

[DRTJR]

The reason most formulaic romances fall flat is that love by it's very nature is illogical and by imposing logic it seems false and hollow. hence why good writing can over come any of the inherent flaws in the formulaic nature of romantic fiction.

 

[Salad Is Murder]

And was the community college joke really necessary?

Yes.

More talking out of my ass than anything else.

That's why I took the opportunity to make fun of you. For someone who thinks as highly of himself as you do, your comments and observations lack the verve and conviction you obviously attribute to them.

But I would know, I went to University of Harvard in UC Berkley and I write 28 hours a day, 9 days a week...minimum.

 

[lunavixen]

I don't write romance because it's really hard to do right without falling into some form of cliche, I prefer to write crime & mystery, science fiction and fantasy.

 

[NightmareWarden]

Also, outside of politics, I think the reason most romances are shit is because they are found outside of romance novels, where many are tacked on simply because they "have to" be. Like, Star Wars or something, the main point isn't romance at all. It's space and laser and shit. So the romance that is present is as basic as the writers could make it. Then those shitty romances become the norm, and are thus duplicated until the end of time. And eventually, people start to forget that actual legitimate romance is a thing. (There are real people who I have met who were surprised to find out that romance was even a genre all to itself.)

Plus, most writers just don't care about romance. It would have to take someone (like you!) who really does care about that facet of the story to make it good, regardless of genre.

I don't mind a good romance story either, it's just hard to make a good one that isn't cliche ridden. In fact, I wish that if the plot does not revolve around romance in any way, don't shoe horn it in. I hate it when a love story is thrown in just for the sake of it, it feels forced and never turns out well.

It makes me feel VERY happy to know that I'm not the only one that feels this way. Once I'm done here, I'm going to search for what are considered (online at least) "the best" romance stories.

My favorite part of any story, regardless of medium and not counting stories which focus on action over the actual story, are the ways different characters interact. This is most interesting when the characters are well flushed out and hold strong beliefs toward...well, anything. This is the entire reason why crossovers can be so so SOOOO interesting! With properly detailed characters that are reasonably deep, romance can be very powerful and it can tug on the heart strings. The audience can form very deep bonds with fictional characters which make them incredibly happy and incredibly sad depending on what happens to characters they care about.

Let's look at the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet. The ending of that story is supposed to be so impactful because the audience understands the feelings Romeo and Juliet had for each other, yet their happiness was stolen from them by pure chance. That is a real tragedy the fact that Romeo killed himself JUST BEFORE Juliet woke up. One reason I like Naruto is because of the fantastically (in my opinion) well done character interactions. The relationship the genin held with their sensei was always so powerful, whether it was simple or complex. Any time Naruto was learning from Kakashi, Jiraiya, Asuma and even Ebisu had a strong impact regardless of the tone because it fostered character development in the student and revealed character depth in the teacher. Who does not recognize how powerful the relationship between Rock Lee and Might Guy is?

My point is that putting that sort of spin on a realistic fictional relationship which *gasp* is not driven on misunderstandings and conflict and instead fits the concept erttheking suggests would be a beautiful and compelling story. Let's say you are writing a romantic fanfiction between two deep, reasonable, and beloved characters. The proper way to make a quality romance between them would be to craft a connection between the two based on qualities the opposing party holds and then conversing on them. "You hold X belief about the importance of family? I hold Y belief, tell me how you came to believe X for I grew up in very different circumstances". They both have pasts so they converse and bounce ideas off each other, fostering more character development and making a real romantic connection which isn't solely based on looks or something shallow. Isn't that a reasonable way to make your audience hold feelings for the relationship itself as opposed to feelings for the individual characters? Isn't that how you can convince an audience that there is a real romance between two people rather than just saying "I love him/her" until the term loses all meaning? You know, show not tell?

Well, that's enough rambling from me.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Simply put, I like romance the best when it's between two Human beings who have personalities and lives OUTSIDE of the romance. I also like romance that skips all of the BS, none of that Tsundere crap, none of that intentionally acting cool and aloof crap, for FUCK'S SAKE none of the annoying contrived misunderstanding break ups, none of the two of them going back and forth like snarky smart asses. I mean it CAN be done right I read something I really liked that was less the two of them being smart asses and more them genuinely HATING each other until they actually learned more about each other and began to calm down, but the problem is that most people don't do that. I don't think a simple relationship built off of trust, mutual respect and gentle affection should really be that hard to write but apparently everyone else disagrees.

Does anyone have any idea why this is the case?

Because I guess it's pretty hard to write characters who aren't defined by the plot.

Speaking of lives outside of Romance, this was one of the things that I loved about the Yuri Romance Manga, "girlfriends".
Sure it has a fair number of the tropes, but these characters seem like a good couple because in additon to being girlfriends they are also *gasp* friends who are both girls (i.e. girlfriends). They have stuff to do outside of romance and can be together and enjoy each other in non-romantic ways. Characters that love each other start out as friends at first; remember this aspiring romance authors.