After having one of those romantic dreams last night (you know the ones), I began thinking about romantic involvements in the book that I’m working on. I currently don’t have plans on having a romantic involvement in my story, yet it seems to me that this is almost all of what writing is about. I’m not sure I like that, and maybe I leave that out just to try to buck the trend, but then I feel like I may be endangering myself with a large segment of my possible readership.
We do need love don’t we? Every major novel, movie, play, or song all has love in it somewhere, even if it is minor. As I write this post I am watching “The Usual Suspects.” A movie about convicts and crime, and yet the main character has a woman that he is deeply in love with helping him out of jail and push events. No, the movie isn’t about love, but it still exists in it. Many people think that “The Matrix” was largely ruined because of Neo’s involvement with Trinity, and yet it was still there and a vital part of the story. And what would Shakespeare be without love? Nothing.
I think about the only story that I can think of that doesn’t have some sort of romantic involvement is largely a story about children. Take [amazonify]0618711651::text::::”Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer[/amazonify]. This novel was a bout a child looking for his father. Now there was certainly still love in this book, but it wasn’t remotely about romantic love. The mother of the story, who was married to the father obviously, wasn’t even a major character and thus not a factor. Yet even children isn’t an entire safe haven. I recently watched “Bridge to Terebithia” and while it may not have been exactly like the book, the boy was without a doubt in love with the girl.
And so, I wonder, are stories and romantic love joined at the hip? Are we as Americans, heck as Humans, so infatuated with love that any story that is portrayed that doesn’t have love feel somehow empty or shallow? Or is this just something that is so entrenched in how storytelling is done that to do without it is so difficult for a writer that it isn’t even worth trying? Can we as a public accept a story without love and find it good even so?
One reply on “Romantic Involvements in Writing”
As a survivor of two semesters of creative writing and a devourer of fiction all sorts, I can safely tell you that no, romance is not required for a story. In fact, there are people who would prefer that writers not throw in a romantic subplot just because everyone else is doing it.
Unless the characters would naturally get into romantic entanglements, you don’t need to give them romantic subplots and, in fact, you shouldn’t. Let them decide. That’s what matters.