posted
I'm working on my novel and after scrapping about the tenth try (20-30+ pages) I'm trying to decide something. I decided at the beginning I didn't want the possibility of a romance between my two characters. I'm also not really sure who is the protagonist of my story (master/student).
But after getting back into some fiction reading I've begun to realize that I am an absolute sucker for romance. Not the romance novels with the dirty covers but the romance you find in sci-fi/fantasy novels. I'm wondering if there is some reason that it seems to work so well in these situations. I guess I'm wondering if I should leave the romance possible.
One last thing, this is a major breach in stereotype and would probably make life hard but I'm thinking about having the master be a female. It's either the master or the student. I want one to be female.
posted
I quote a heard from a movie---more of a paraphrase actually.
quote:This story isn't about me, but like all good stories, it's about a girl.
Every since I heard this, it's always had the ring of turth to it for me, and it shows in my writing. (I'll e-mail you more on this later)
I don't think people will mind a love interest and will be expecting it to a certin extent, but just try not to make it forced or cliche. Bing something different to the relationshio.
posted
I think that people want a romance. You can put in the potential for a romantic involvement. Even guys like the idea of the guy and girl getting together {as long as it isnt' mushy}. However, they don't have to get together, you just have to present the potential.
RLR "People care more about the ones they love than they do themselves."
posted
Whenever you have a male and female in your story, you have sexual tension. There is no way out of this--unless, of course, both are gay. So if you don't want sexual tension--i.e., romance--then make your characters the same sex.
However, I have a qeustion. It seems odd to me that in a master-disciple relationship one would be a male and the other would be a female. Sure, in our western society, that seems possible, but a male-female master-disciple relationship would exists in other cultures. So here is my question: is this relationship "forbidden," or is it a non-issue in the culture? And if it's a non-issue, then how does the culture itself think about gender, geneder-roles, sex, marriage, etc.?
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited April 30, 2003).]
posted
Uber, if you aren't sure who the protagonist is, then maybe you haven't got a story to tell yet. You should probably ask yourself those classic questions OSC poses in Characters and Viewpoint. Two of the best: Who suffers the most in this situation? Who has the power to do something about it?
As to romance, I believe that you cannot overstate its importance to humans. In many ways the desire for romance exceeds the desire for sex. We are wired to want relationships, and we are wired to want people we care about to have relationships.
So you can use a romantic plotline to help make your reader sympathize more deeply with a charter. If your reader already has plenty of sympathy for your character, you can use romance to build suspense and tension. Will the two of them ever get together? Will she ever dump that loser and realize that the hero is in love with her? Will he ever allow himself the happiness and fulfillment he could find in her arms? You'll have to keep reading to find out.
Romance doesn't need to be the main plot, but it can be a subplot that will help build tension and make your story more fun.
quote:Whenever you have a male and female in your story, you have sexual tension. There is no way out of this--unless, of course, both are gay.
I don't really agree with that - though I will admit that it lessons the idea that they will get together at the end. Attraction is a strange thing - how many times have you been attracted to someone and couldn't for the life of you figure out why... or for that matter, why are so many men (gay in addition to straight) attracted to Madonna and Cher as well as many others?
Aside from that though, there is the idea that Romance really doesn't need to be the driving story, it can well be something in the background that shows from time to time. - basically, don't force it, but then don't try to smother it when it tries to come to the surface. This can often lead to great plot points down the road in the story.
On the topic of who the protagonist is... I sat down recently and looked over my stories to see who I can honestly say is the protagonist, and antagonist... I did this with other stories also. And the funny thing is that I didn't always have a "person" in both of those roles. The other thing I realized is that often in a novel there are actually more than one... there is one for the main story, then there are often others for side stories.
As far as Females being the Master roll... why not? if you have a good reason for it, then that is all that should matter. Of course if you are placing that person as a token master, then you will have problems no matter if they are male or female. - just make sure to give the reader a reason to feel that that person honestly is a master and capable of teaching others.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
Too late. The possibility is always there. Maybe the old saw, "Love makes the world go 'round" should be amended to "Love makes the galaxy spiral."
