 Romance/Love: September 17, 2025 Issue [#13340] |
This week: Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder Edited by: Annette  
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| "Semper in absentes felicior aestus amantes" ~ Roman poet Sextus Propertius around 15 BCE. |
Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
Typical romance deals with two people glommed together as much as possible. Time spent apart is described as painful and longing for a reunification is all consuming. This works well for Young Adult stories. But what about those stories that have older characters?
It's not normal to spend all day every day together. People need time to be themselves, time to work, time to be creative, and time to meet other friends. At that stage of a relationship, the butterflies are a little less wild. The union is no longer based on being a couple, it's based on living with each other and getting through life together.
For some reason, there aren't many romance books that deal with times of separation as a good thing. Separation is usually described as something put upon the people from the outside.
It would be nice to see more stories about two people who are each a whole human and want and even like to spend time apart. In long term relationships, the day to day can easily smother previously felt passion to death. It doesn't have to be like that.
When setting up a romance, even if at the beginning the story deals with the typical craze of young love, ask yourself at what point will you separate your characters for a while. Don't let the separation be something forced, but one that they want to have. One wants to go visit relatives. One wants to go be an archeologist in China to help carefully digging up Terracotta Warriors. Think about the way that they say goodbye. Think about the way they communicate during the separation. Consider their feelings when they find each other again.
Allow your romantic characters to be mature in your story.
Have you traveled without your significant other? |
| | | Cavalier (18+)
Lily, a time-travelling assassin, defies The Society. Historical Fantasy.
#2159809 by A E Willcox  |
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Replies to my last Romance/Love newsletter "Romantasy"
Cadie Laine  wrote: The genres are okay to be mixed because sometimes the story needs to be both romantic and an aspect of fantasy. When it comes to placing the book on the shelf, the author needs to choose one genre to shelf the published work. What happens when you mix romance and action/adventure - romaxion or romventure? |
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