MAKE LOVE WITH YOUR CHARACTERS

- Part 3

Love, or self-preservation.

The core conflict of any romance.

This is why writing romance is so fun (and difficult) because our job is to define what we feel the concept of love is. Is it worth eternal damnation? Is it worth facing every single fear you have run from your entire life? Is it worth every sacrifice, any pain, any humiliation? That’s why it is so important to give our main character a partner worthy of that love and sacrifice. Who the other character is will justify whatever decision your main character makes.

Last month, we looked at Kym’rin, the dark hero from my current WIP, Prince of Darkness. Let’s take a look at his partner, my heroine, Anoria. If Anoria was a bitch (and there are some heroines out there like that, believe me!), I would be cheating my reader by making Kym’rin choose her life over his. Think for a moment. What does the partner mean to your character and why?

Anoria is everything Kym’rin sees in the world that he can never have. Life, goodness, simplicity, purity, and light. Why? He sees life in her. For thousands of years, as part of his curse, he had to live in complete darkness. The darkness had killed off every living organism in his kingdom. He craves for the fresh smell of grass and the sound of children’s laughter filling the long vacant hallways of his crumbling castle. He sees goodness in her. All he’s ever known was hatred from his father. She was the first person that made him feel like a person and not a dirty doormat. She was the first person (aside from his mother) who was kind to him. He sees simplicity in her. She’s a royal princess to the most powerful kingdom in their land, yet she doesn’t care for status or power. She finds (and prefers) enjoyment in nature and leading a quiet life. He needs her simplicity to ease the constant hatred and greed that surrounds him from his father. He sees purity in her. He feels tainted. Cursed. There’s a great evil growing in him. He wishes that some of her purity will rub off on him and cleanse the deed of his parents’ death from his soul. He sees light in her. Again, this goes back to his curse to darkness. Naturally, he will crave her light. She is like a beacon in his darkness.

OK, that’s a start. But is all that enough to have him give up his soul for? Why should he give up all for her?

Dig deeper. Hone it down to one instance in time. What has she done to make her deserving of his sacrifice? Sometimes, love is simply not enough. You have to have something to back it up.

Kym’rin was cursed to darkness. Anoria believes it only fair they share the same fate, so she curses herself blind live in darkness too. One point for her. She challenges the wrath of the Fates and both his kingdom and hers for him when he could not. Another point. She saves his life on more than one occasion. Kudos of points. She loves him … but that goes without saying. So as you can see, she does a lot for him, but we must narrow it down to one big reason.

Now previously, I mentioned something about big. Emotions, correct? Big, strong, powerful emotions. If you look at all the examples listed above, they all have one common, underlying factor. Anoria believes in Kym’rin, full-heartedly. How that makes Kym’rin feel is the deciding factor in his decision. Her trust in him makes him feel worthy, something he’s always wanted, something that he never received from his father. She makes him feel worthy of love, worthy of redemption, worthy of life and goodness. That one emotion is strong enough to face any fear and make any sacrifice.

Find that one reason that makes your character choose love over life, love over material goods, love over money … love over anything. Remember, the core of writing a romance is love over self-preservation. Remember the movie “Titantic”? Jack chose love so that Rose could live. In “Armageddon”, Bruce Willis’s character sacrificed himself to save the world – or at least that’s what it looked like. In truth, it came down to his life, or his daughter, Grace’s fiancé’s life. As a father, he didn’t trade his life to save the world. He traded his life so that his little girl can have her fiancé returned. It was her happiness that mattered most to him. It was her life that was worth dying for.

And it doesn’t have to end in death, because what is love but life, right? A good example of this is the movie “50 First Dates” with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, where because of an accident, Drew’s character cannot remember past the day of the accident. When she wake’s up to a new day, she thinks it’s the day of the accident again, which happens to be her father’s birthday. She doesn’t recall that there had ever been an accident. Adam’s character finds her, the perfect woman. They hit if off great and the next day, he’s devastated that she cannot remember him at all. So everyday, he tries to make her fall in love with him all over again, knowing that she’ll forget him come the morning. When Drew’s character realizes that her relationship with him is keeping him from fulfilling his dream of sailing the world, she cuts if off and destroys any reminder of their love. Because of all he’s done for her, it made his dream all that much more important to her than their love. Her decision had been to hold onto a man with the patience to try to win her heart everyday, or to forego that love so that he can accomplish his dream. To hold onto her happy ending, or give him what she believes is his happy ending. Self-preservation, or love (in this case, not their love, but simply her love for him; she cuts off their love because she loves him). And yes, it’s a happily ever after ending. They find a way to make it work where he can achieve his dream with her by his side. And yes, Kym’rin and Anoria gets a happy ending too. I’m a romance writer, remember?

We have just done some pretty deep thinking. This doesn’t even cover character arc, but just a color in the spectrum. Stay tuned for Part Four of “Make Love with Your Characters”, where we will go deeper with POV and emotions.

          - Not to be reprinted without author’s permission.