Would this make the romance seem rushed or fake?

Question

In my planned trilogy (I'm writing the second at the moment), two of the characters fall in love with each other over the series. One of the characters begins to feel affectionate towards the other at the end of the first book, both start to open up and fall for each other in the second, and in the third book the two characters are deeply in love.

The romance isn't a major part of the plots, but I'm having trouble as to how much time I should spend writing about them growing closer. At the moment, there is a scene where one of the characters, Petal, is tending to the other, Lauren. They talk between them, but I don't know if I should spend time on the two talking and becoming closer or to describe after-the-fact about their conversations and their feelings.

Would it make a romance in a story unappealing or uninteresting if it doesn't describe all of the characters' bonding moments?

Answer 1

If possible, I would try to sew in some of the bonding with the plot. For example, Petal is concerned about some conflict going on - demonstrate how Lauren bonds with Petal through that; if she's affectionate toward Petal, she probably doesn't want to ignore Petal's anxiety. And if they talk together about it, they could be foreshadowing something or telling the reader something new.



Definitely get some bonding moments in there. I think it's all about where you put them and [possibly] varying the lengths of them. Bonding moments don't have to be just conversations - they can turn up because of some event that happens. Like... character A gets arrested and character B goes to talk to them during visiting time, saying how they'll get them out and all that. Okay, bad example D:



Reference time! : D

So, BlackLillian's characters, Annie & Proffesor, are shown talking together in Unknown-Person's animation on deviantart. Annie is having an argument with the Proffesor who doesn't seem to share the same opinion about how they should run their lives together. This topic was partly due to having to evacuate a town. So, their argument is not just about their relationship, but the climax of the story as well. Even though they're arguing, they're arguing because they care about eachother.



Hope that helps~!

Answer 2

I had the same problem and am still kind of struggling with it (I want about sixty pages to cover around six months in which time two characters fall in love as a subplot). But I think I found an alright way to handle it. Write all the scenes you want in your first draft. Get them to truly connect, add in all the fluff. Then, when you write your second draft, cut out a lot of those scenes. They still happen during the course of the story, we just never get to see them. You can have your characters reference them in thought or conversation, just don't write the entire scene. That way, there is less of an overload.



Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Subtle hints work better than a step-by-step romance - kinda like Ron and Hermione because J.K never really portrays them as a couple throughout the series but she dropped small hints like the bit when Snape calls Hermione an "insufferable know-it-all" and Ron starts shouting at him. Then at the Yule ball in the Goblet of Fire too.



In conclusion, if the book isn't a pure romance then I think its better if you don't describe all of the *bonding* moments. Hope I helped?!

Answer 4

I think it would be alright if you skipped a few of the bonding moment. Like a boring conversation that really doesn't effect the plot and might not be attractive to the readers.Obviously, you'd still need to have in some of the more boring ones, but if you skip, say two or three, maybe four or five depending on how often it happens, it'll be fine.

Answer 5

No, it won't.



(Or I hope not. In mine I skip around a month in which my two MCs got to know each other in between books.)



IMO, the more 'unneeded romantic interactions' there are, the closer to the romance genre you get (okay, duh, but I do have a point). Like - in the romance genre, you can afford to allow more unnecessary interactions, because that's what readers will ultimately expect. But if you aren't going for 'full romance', they won't expect all of the bonding moments unless they are pretty essential to the plot.



It's your call :)

Answer 6

I think it would be better to describe their feelings at the time they actually happen. You don't have to describe all of the bonding moments, but a few very intense moments.



Can you help me?

https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20110822191515AAGdecC

Answer 7

Try to start off with subtle movements. If you know anyone who has dated or is currently dating, you can ask their opinon on how they got that far.