[lofi music] Is this what I want to be doing right now? Yeah, no, I need to film videos. Okay, hello and welcome back to the channel. My name is Lynn D. Jung, I am a science fiction
and fantasy writer, and I'm back to, you know, filming videos, pre-recording them so that I have
something to upload while I'm out of the country. Today I wanted to actually give a
little bit of advice on something that I'm not terribly experienced in,
but that I've been thinking about a lot. So, more unsolicited advice as per usual. This is not meant to be taken in any sort of
prescriptive manner. It's very tongue-in-cheek, and also like, just based off of
things that I don't, you know, like. I don't really know what this is I'm
not—I majored in Zoology, okay. Like, if you're coming to me for
professional advice: don't. But today I wanted to talk a little bit about
writing romance arcs, because I feel like it's something that everyone at this point, if
you're writing genre fiction—especially if you're writing young adult, etc. has to
sort of try, but not everyone can pull off. And I feel like when you don't pull off a romance
arc well, it can really mess up your book. So it's something that is so
crucial for a lot of readers, especially when it comes to popular literature,
and yet can so easily like, just mess you up. So, I wanted to talk a little
bit about what I have noticed, and what I think works personally, and what
I have tried to implement in my own writing, even though honestly, like, I'm
a real big fan of the slowburn. So a lot of the—both books that I've
put out and stuff did not have like real—actually no the second
one did have a romance arc. Yeah, honestly, I don't have a ton of
experience writing these romance arcs, so who knows if I'm even good at this basically. But I think I do have an eye for
what things do tend to not work, at the very least, so I wanted to
talk a little bit about just tips that I had in mind for people who
want to beef up their romance arcs. Because you know what? At the end of the day,
I am a Libra so, you know, romance is my life. This is going to be a numbered list, because I
don't know how to organize things any other way. So, let's go ahead and get started. Number one is to consider the
characters as individuals first and figure out their respective
arcs before mashing them together. I think the most crucial element that
I see missing in a lot of, sort of, romance arcs that I've been reading
or noticing in books lately is that the characters clearly exist to be
in a relationship with each other. Either one or both of them is just
not complete without the other one. And yeah, "you complete me" is like, a nice line, but you want these characters to
be able to stand on their own. You want them to feel like fleshed out people, both of them, so that you can actually as
a reader root for them to get together. Because real people have obstacles when it
comes to dating, love, romance, whatever. Real people have things that get in their way. If someone exists just to be a
partner to this other character, they're not going to have the same obstacles. Anything is going to feel flimsy, or the
obstacles are going to be very one-sided on behalf of the character who may
or may not be a fleshed out person. There's just so many reasons why you
want both characters to feel developed, besides just wanting them to feel like
real people that you can root for. In a similar vein, I think it's also
important to give them histories. Like, first loves are nice and, you know,
it's maybe more realistic in young adult, but if you have like full-on adults in these
relationships then they probably have, like, exes and heartbreaks and things that
didn't work out. Missed connections. And you want to acknowledge that, because that very much does influence
peoples' relationships in real life. Again, it's another way to sort of give them
some dimension, give them reasons that yeah, maybe, like, they shouldn't realistically
work out, but they will, you know? And that's the thing that
they overcome to get together. I think basically what it comes down
to is I notice a lot of these love interests in genre fiction—all sorts
of fiction, it's like across the board, it can happen to anyone—where this love
interest is a blank slate, tabula rasa, just hasn't doesn't have anything going on
in their life outside of this partnership, doesn't have anything interesting
about them, doesn't have any history. Like, they feel just so paper
thin, and it's really hard to care, even if they are written as super physically hot. Number two is to ask yourself the
obvious question that I think a lot of people might not really consider
sometimes, especially if, you know, in the case of many of these it seems like they
were maybe pushed into throwing in a romance? I know that a lot of the time, like, people
don't actually want to write this romance, they don't care about it as much as the rest of the
story and I think that's totally understandable. Like, I was that way, which is why I straight up just didn't write romance
arcs for a really long time. The thing is, though, you
want to do the bare minimum. And so, the bare minimum is asking why
these two people actually like each other, or why they're drawn to each other. It could be a love at first sight
situation, it can be, you know, falling in love gradually—but
what what makes them fall in love? There's always something. It's not just, like, physical,
it's not just because of their—I don't know what people are into honestly. But you know how a lot of heterosexual
media—that's what I'll call it—just sticks to people together because they're pretty
and stand next to each other sometimes? There's got to be something tying people together, drawing them into each other, even
if they can't fully articulate it. Even if it's something that
they have to discover with time, even if they hate each other at first,
like, what draws that emotion out from them? I think that is another thing,
actually, just to go on a tangent. With a lot of these, like, trendy
enemies-to-lovers romances, there's no reason for them to
not like each other, really. I just want to see more meat to it. I want to see
internal reasoning, I want to see irrationality, I want to see all these, like, emotional
things that make people nuts about each other. Number three is: what is the
conflict that's keeping them apart? A lot of romance arcs, you know, it's totally
fine to have something normal, like if it's not the main plot then they're just gonna date and
fall in love and get together at some point. But there should always be some sort of conflict. I feel like if there's a plot device, I
mean, I don't know personally—I've never had any sort of dating situation
where there wasn't a conflict. I think that says more about
me than it does about writing. You want the relationship to grow
under some sort of adversity, because that is just going to get
the reader so much more invested. That's going to allow for those,
like, sweet moments of Yearning. If you're doing a whole, you know, subplot
romance arc, whatever and it can be something about their individual personalities or their
life paths or whatever. Or the story itself. The plot, the actual main conflict, or the
world—like, something is keeping them apart. Personally, and this, you know, is
personal taste, I just love it when just... so much sh*t gets in the way of two people
who just really want to be together. Like, they are obviously, you know, perfect
for each other. They match each other in all the right ways, but just the world or
their parents or whatever, it's just... It's, you know, it's making it forbidden when
under normal circumstances it wouldn't be. It would be the most obvious,
logical choice in the world. And this is like, such an opportunity for them to
overcome things, to to overcome these obstacles, to find that inner strength for
each other's sake, you know? Like, show that they have these impossible
things to get over, but their love is strong enough that they will spit in the face of God
and, like, move mountains for the other person. Like, that's romantic as hell. Number four is: consider how
they complete each other. So, this is more on a personality
sort of level. Yeah, it's just opposites tend to attract in certain ways. For example, I'm an extrovert—I think, I don't know if that's even a real category
of person at this point because of COVID, but I am theoretically an extrovert. But I primarily surround myself with introverts,
like my friends, my entire family: introverted. The people I date tend to be introverted. It's like I like being balanced by a calmer
presence, and I like someone who not like, reels me back or keeps me in check, but just
sort of reminds me that, like, it's time to go. You can't stay out until 4am, you're too old
and you will die of dehydration, let's go home. Like that sort of calming energy,
it's just good for me basically. In a similar vein, if you're writing
a romance arc with two characters that are very outwardly different, you can play
off how they're similar internally as well. So they're foils. One thing I was thinking
about was like, if you have a character who is just vilified, and another one who is put
on a pedestal/is like the hero of the town, whatever—and then you get them to connect because
they're actually both really lonely—I think stuff like that just works really well to play off
of each other's differences and similarities. Like how they connect, how they
mesh ,how they complete each other. Number five is to consider
different types of attraction. I think a lot of the time, yeah, we're a very, you know, visually-based sort
of species a lot of the time. The first thing you're going to see in a
description of a love interest is their physical characteristics,
and that is totally fine. People are hot, it's great. You want your love
interest to be hot, that's great. Personally, I like it when my love interests are
scrungly, but I don't know that's just me. But considering different forms
of attraction. I did, actually, a video a while back with my friend
Ming that talks about how the aro-ace spectrum plays into their writing
and how they approach romance arcs. And I'm, you know, an allosexual person,
so it's a little bit different for me, but I think it is important
to consider that perspective. Not necessarily to write
your characters as aro-ace, but to think about what draws people
together, again, beyond the physical. And you want to think about
what your main character, your point of view character, and the love
interest are attracted to in each other. Like, there are things when you
date someone in real life that you're just like—I don't know
why, but this drives me wild. And it's like, it doesn't always make
sense! But if you take that into play, I think it can be really fun and can really make this feel like a more well-rounded and
realistic depiction of a relationship. Another thing to consider here
are the five love languages. I think... Oh God, I don't know them off the
top of my head, but like... physical touch, gift-giving—I like how I named to mine first—um, acts of service, uh, words
of affirmation, quality time. I did it. Those are different ways that, you know,
if you get those fulfilled by your partner, you're going to be more appreciative of that. And people have different love languages, and
just sort of, like, considering how those play into each other, how that's going to affect how
they behave and how the other person might feel attracted to the things that that other person,
their partner, does to complete those needs. Number six is to consider what their lives
will look like after they get together. I think this is another thing that
tends to be sort of left to the wayside. You think about the conflict that gets involved
in the arc and like, how they get together, and the stories tend to end with like,
that first kiss or that first night. I don't know. You know, like, there there
are definite endpoints where you kind of stop caring as much. This happens to me when
people get together in a show I'm watching, a long-running show, and all
the tension and drama is like, gone and they're domestic—I kind
of don't give a sh*t anymore. But I think it's important to
consider when you're writing, even if you don't get to that point where you're
showing... their day-to-day life on the page. Think about what future they want. What
do they have that they're working toward, fighting for, outside of just this mutual
attraction? What are they building towards? What do they need out of each other
at this point? What sacrifices are they going to end up making? What does
their idea of a happy ending look like? Is it the white picket fence, is
it traveling the world together, is it, like, having a dog and owning a cafe? Just think about what that would look like, because then that is something that
they could lose out on, you know? Think about what the happy ending looks like
beyond the last couple of words on the page. Number seven is: consider how the two
individual people view each other. There's often a huge disconnect in this. I think, especially when you think about the
stages that a relationship hits, like the first six-ish months or the honeymoon phase, and that's
when you're really infatuated with each other. After that, what do they see each
other? How do they view each other? I feel like a lot of the time we tend to
get pretty delusional about our partners, especially when it's early on or
when that, like, courtship phase. So, I think it's important to not just
depict the point-of-view character's view of that person, but to also think
about what they actually are like. I'm presenting this in as
neutral a fashion as possible, because I think there is definitely
a way to make this super romantic, because you know, you think about
characters that are vilified by society, or kind of... outcasted, and then you think
about how their partner views them as perfect. Not perfect, but just amazing, incredible,
and like how that—like, being viewed a certain way by even just one person can just totally
transform your life and your concept of yourself. I think that's really important for, um,
certain characters' journeys as well. Number eight is: don't forget the sizzle. I just... I miss when stories had genuine tension
and sizzle and spark, and like not just tropes. I'm sorry to say it, but I just like
to see it when characters who are, you know, romantically linked are put into
situations that are uncomfortable, vulnerable. Where they have to bare their soul to
the other person for the first time, or when they're like forced into proximity. Not in like a "one bed" way—I
kind of, I'm sick of that. The one trope that I do really tend
to like is a hurt and comfort scene, like a patching the wounds,
sort of vulnerable moment. That always, you know, like, feels really authentic. Especially if there's proper
build-up to it. And it can just reveal a lot. There's just so much that you can do, so many
situations you can put your characters in to, like, force this sort of
vulnerability out of them. Number nine is: consider how
the characters behave around each other versus how they
behave around other people. I think this is a ton of fun!
It's a great way to show contrast, to sort of show without telling that maybe
this person who is super mean and sarcastic and kind of closed off around others
is goofy around the person they like. It's hinting that this is someone that they like, someone that they can sort
of be themselves around. It's a great way to show, a very
effective way to show rather than tell that there's something
else going on under the surface. That is another thing that I will point out,
just right here, is that it's very trite, I think to lay out someone's feelings for
another person on the table in your writing. I think it's really aggravating, because I think so much of what makes
a romance intriguing is the subtext. It is the hidden meanings, the stolen glances,
it's like the layers of it that you have to unravel and you have to sort of know before
they even know that something is going on here. And I think that is the key to making
a romance arc successful in the sense that readers actually care about
it and want them to get together. But that's just my opinion as a slowburn fan. So, okay number 10 is: more focus on buildup. Again, slowburn bias, but I think depending on
whether the focus of your romance arc is physical, emotional, etc., just building up
those moments over the course of the subplot/plot, culminating in that
big confession, or a kiss or whatever— If it's physical it starts with small touches
like the Pride and Prejudice hand thing. Maybe it leads up to a hug? This sounds
like Middle School. But I swear to God, building it up over the course, building up the
level of intensity over the course of the story is so good, and it just makes it so much more
engaging, because you're waiting for that next like beat to hit. And there's the sense of
"the dam can only hold it back for so long." That's what makes it good, because it's
like these little leaks that lead up to that big bursting of the dam... That was
more sexual than I intended it to be. The same goes with emotional growth. It's
like a little bit of vulnerability followed by a bigger moment, and then a bigger moment. It
culminates in that big drawn out—not drawn out, but long—I don't know, that big
dramatic confession at the end. And again, you're going to consider
individual characterization here. You're going to think about how
people... open up over time, and your experience with that, if you
have personal experience with that. Okay, that is it! Those are my
thoughts on writing romance arcs. I hope that this was entertaining, if
not slightly helpful. It's definitely stuff that I've been considering
now that I'm moving more into, feeling more comfortable, basically,
writing these romantic subplots. So, yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and sign off for now, and I will see you guys
next time! Thank you so much for watching. :)