A while back I did a tip on how to make Love triangles. As seen here
http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/post568816.html?hilit=Love%20Triangles#p568816
This is part of dealing with love series that I have planned. Love triangles was part one. This is part two.
Now I want to talk about subtly when putting romance in your story. If the story is straight up romance then a in your face sort of romance could work but when it’s a subplot in a grander scheme then it should be subtle.
I decided I would do this after reading Terry GoodKind’s Sword of Truth Series. The female character after a day of knowing the main character Richard says. “He makes my heart smile.”
I wanted to throw the book across the room, for not only knocking me over the head with her feeling with such a stupid statement but for doing it so soon. So naturally the first tip is to give it time.
1. Give it time- Call me cynical but love at first sight is a farce. It is simply a physical attraction. If you admit this then fine, but don’t try to pass it off as destiny. That all being said depending on the situation it could take weeks, months, even years to truly fall in love with someone. So take your time and spread out the progressive feelings.
2. Go through all the stages. In my opinion there are five stages to love. The order that a person goes through them is different, but for the most part it is always the same. Make sure your character has ample time in each of these stages. Although I must say age can change the length of each stage.
A. Physical attraction- Even in this you should be subtle. Have the character in question notice small things. In previous descriptions have the character notice a few things about another individual, generic stuff like hair and eye color. Then in a separate scene have them notice their future love with more detail. Don’t make them sound perfect, just more detailed. Notice shape of face, bone structure, etc. Try to keep the details neutral with both negative and positive traits. Like I said before, this must be in a separate scene from the other descriptions, so it isn’t initially obvious that your character paid more attention to this character. As a note, never ever use the word sexy.
B. Crush- This is the brief period when the character knows the bare facts about the other person; name, age, possibly occupation. This coupled with the physical attraction develops the crush stage. The character may not be aware they are in the crush stage or deny it, but there is no doubt they must hit this stage before moving on.
Example: Ginny knows who Harry Potter is in the second book but knows little to none about who he really is.
C. The Comfort zone- This can also be called the friend stage. This is where your character knows more about their future love and feels good when they are around them.
Example In the Harry Potter series Harry stays at the Weasly’s and during this time he becomes friends with Ginny. This could be extended to his growing comfort of being around her mainly at the beginning of the sixth book.
D. Puppy Love- The first little dates of romance that blind a character with their new relationship. Too often this is used as the whole relationship, not taking into account this is merely a rest stop and not the destination point. This is the stage where there is sappiness. All the clichés of love are common place in this stage. Marriages and Honeymoons are often in this category.
Example: Harry and Ginny’s relationship during the sixth book in which they have picnics and cuddle and all that cute couple stuff.
E. Love: This is the stage in which the two characters have become accustomed to all of their significant other’s traits. There will of course be fights from time to time, but they smooth themselves over. It is here where people sacrifice themselves for the ones they love. If you haven’t had the other stages and your character says, “I would die for you,” then something is seriously wrong.
Example: Harry not wanting Ginny to get involved with him and breaking up with her at the end of the sixth book, and all the subsequent meetings after.
Note these are the mere outline for the stages, each stage can shift and change, depending on the individual. There is no doubt that all are needed to work. As stated before this takes time, but if all the stages are included you’ll have a nice even pace. If it’s a series of books you could devote a whole book to a stage.
3. Have competition- I’m not saying have a Love triangle. That’s a whole other ball game but keep the characters options open. A good way to do this is to develop multiple friendships. When it comes to the friends you can subtly mix in some of these stages in varying degrees. Such as most normal friends will have a Comfort Zone. And in some friendships it is possible that at one time they may have even had been in the Crush stage. And for those strong best friends they may even sacrifice themselves. If you mirror the stages of the friends with the actual love in a natural way then a bit of mystery is added to the overall relationship.
4. If the stakes are high- It is believed by some- including me- that if two people survive a traumatic event they grow closer. Assuming that the love is a subplot and there is a main conflict, then this one should be easy.
If you wish, add tips that can help with making love subtle in your story. I may add to this. Relationships in books are my biggest pet peeves.
I'm adding a romantic subplot in my book between two characters and I didn't know how to make them fall in love without it being super obvious. Thanks so much!
