Another anon mentioned they had wanted to show you something to get your reaction on it. You said you understood the desire. This isn’t social justice and I’d like your opinion about this as a romance writer?
How many of you guys have played a game in the Harvest Moon series?
In this game, your romantic interests have a “heart level.” It starts from black, then as you give them gifts, interact with them, do events with them, buy from their store, etc, etc, the heart level goes up from black to purple to blue, green, yellow, orange, and finally, red. When their heart is red you can marry them, as long as you’ve bought the upgraded house and the large bed.
Along this road to winning them over, there are certain “heart events.” They’re basically scenes in the storyline where you and your love interest have a special moment. Sometimes the conversation is about the relationship, the love interest’s past, their passion, a secret—it really depends. But it’s a one-time intimate moment that brings the two of you closer.
Depending on the heart level, what that person says to you will change. At the black heart level, their lines are generic. They’ll mention something random, work-related, genetic—nothing with depth: “My mother minds the store, and my brother looks after the chickens!” As the heart level increases, the things they say will be more specific to you. They aren’t things they would say to absolutely anyone. Like Gray, at his green heart level: “Grandpa and I are very impressed by you!” And we can assume by that, he really means “I’m impressed by you” and he’s using his grandpa because he’s embarrassed by how much he likes you.
Now think of this way of pacing, and apply it to your own stories. This is how Harvest Moon tends to organize things:
Black heart event: This introduces you, the player, to the love interest. It’s a first impression to who they are, their personality, their family, their role in the town, and so on.
Black heart: Your characters might start off with a black heart if they hardly know each other. Conversation is shallow, boring, and generic—more like small talk. In the picture, you can see that Gray even starts off a little rude.
Purple heart event: Typically in the purple heart event, the player will be given a choice between the love interest and another character—usually not something serious. For example, “I want to send him roses, and my mom wants to send him daisies. Help us pick!” Obviously, you need to pick your love interest’s side. This is probably when the love interest notices or recognizes the player as a friend.
Purple heart: The conversation will get a little friendlier. Not much in the way of flirting yet.
Blue heart event: In the game, the love interest gives the player an item, but obviously you don’t have to stick to that.
Blue heart: At the blue level, things are definitely at or ever-so-slightly beyond the friend stage. Conversation is no longer generic—it’s tailored to you. There may be some minor flirting.
Green heart: Flirting. All the flirting. They will compliment you and want to spend town events with you.
Yellow heart event: The event is more serious than at the blue or purple level. The topic may be more solemn, such as their father leaving or angst in the family. At the end of the event, the love interest may admit they like the player (as a friend, or maybe more).
Yellow heart: We’re starting to get sappy. Major flirting.
Orange heart: Conversation is romantic. Probably goopy. At this point, the love interest is definitely into you. They may start asking what your future plans are.
Red heart: They’ll marry you if you propose. I’m sure you can imagine what a game character madly in love with the player would talk like.
Obviously you need to tailor these levels and events to you story. And even if your characters are too young to think about marriage at the red heart level, that’s fine. The point I’m trying to make: you should occasionally have “heart events” between your two characters, ranked in order of seriousness—they shouldn’t mention love until the later heart events. Between events, their relationship will be more friendly or comfortable than it was at lower heart levels.
At the same time, you don’t want to mash in a heart event every other chapter. They need to be spread out with lots of romantic tension between so that your readers are aching for your characters to reach the next level!
First of all, thanks for an interesting question! I never played these games, but you described the schematics in a very clear and detailed way. I’d also like to say that I’m not a professional writer, I’ve never read books about the process of writing or took any educational courses, so what you’ll read below is just my opinion based on my experiences with writing fics and reading literature.
Personally, I think this scenario represents the “classic” development of a relationship. This is the way it usually goes, with slow buld-up between stages and the road from being strangers to having a stable and strong romantic feelings. However, I believe that there are also other ways of developing a relationship, both in real life and in fiction. For example, the characters could start with physical passion and then begin learning more about each other and growing to care. There can be no later stages; the relationship won’t turn romantic, but it will be a very strong love nevertheless and can make wonderful life partners. The characters can also start out as enemies *coughMegOPcough* and have a rather complex relationship charged with strong emotions, which change their nature in the process. In all these cases the storyline and the characters’ interactions would be different from the game’s scheme.
However, no matter what the details are, I think that the idea behind this scheme is, indeed, very fitting for writing romance. What I love the most are those scenes the game developers called “heart events” (I’ll be using this term, it’s nice). To me, heart events are those important moments that change something in the relationship, or represent, signify the change in characters’ attitudes. Those moments are the best things in a romance story, in my opinion; these are the perfect moments to make the readers’ hearts flutter and hands cover cheeks in excitement. As a reader, I adore when such scenes are written well, I can read and reread them many times. The best one is (for me) the first kiss. 🙂 I freaking love truly well-described kisses, they get me going even more than smut! Sadly, I’m not confident about writing kisses myself, but this is something I aspire to learn one day. Another thing that can make those heart events even better is UST aka unresolved sexual tension. Usually it comes up somewhere in the middle of the path from “black heart” to “red heart”, and it can spice up the waiting between the heart events, pump you up by teasing you and make you crave the next step. The same goes for what you wrote: you don’t want to mash in a heart event every other chapter. These things must have impact!
What I also liked in the scheme you posted is the combination of romantic and personal stuff in the development of a relatonship: while ascending through the stages the characters open up, begin trusting each other and show their care by talking about their past, interests and points of view. This, I think, is a very important part that separates a bad romance story from a good one: most people want to see characters there, not cardboard cutouts. It gets a little more complicated with fanfiction. Many people who read tons of fanfiction sneer at “normal” cheesy romance novels, while a good deal of fanfics (not all, of course) are, in fact, very similar to those novels. I personally can read and enjoy fanfics of a very varied quality: some are fantastic, some are okay, some are not very good, but a certain phrase or a plot point makes me enjoy it. However, I cannot read cheap romance novels: apart from being badly written, they simply are boring to me. Why is that?
In my opinion, the difference is in character development. As I said, a good romance story needs interesting characters in order to be engaging. In fanfiction we already have those: we know them from canon, we’ve seen them outside of the romantic plot, we know their interests, their life goals, their mannerisms; in short, we’ve already grown attached to them. A fanfic can have bland character writing, but this can be overlooked in favor of the romance/smut, because we already know and care for these characters. In “normal” romance novels we meet the main characters for the first time, and if they are bland… this kills the fun. Why should I care about some ridiculous stereotype of a damsel and her smooth-chested roguish stereotype of a rake? I’d rather go read a story about Optimus and Megatron getting at it. :3
For some people romance novels still work, because all they need is a setting, and then their imagination breathes life into the “cardboard cutouts”; the damsel becomes you, her suitor becomes the man of your dreams. For others, it doesn’t work. Fanfiction to the rescue!
However, I think that all major rules of literature apply to fanfiction as well, so a story with well-developed characters who have life and thoughts outside their bed and the embrace of their lover is a very welcome, very precious gift. 🙂 I love reading those the most. Even a PWP can be one of those! And really, a well-written PWP with psychological depth and issues being explored? OH HELL YES.
I hope I didn’t go off-topic, and sorry for this post becoming too lengthty. ^^ I just… find the complexities of human psychology and the laws of literature too interesting.
Anonymous asked: I was just wondering what you think about love at first sight? Do you think it’s overdone or non realistic? I have a couple in my book who I know are going to end up together no matter what and I don’t really want to add a bunch of random conflict in their relationship just to drag out the inevitable.
“Love at first sight” is not a real thing, because you can’t fall instantly in love with someone. However, you can become attracted to someone in less than a second. So, very often when we talk about “love at first sight” what we’re really talking about is “physical attraction at first sight.”
A romantic relationship goes through several stages:
1) Attraction and Infatuation – this is the “love” at first sight stage, where they become physically attracted to the person and can’t stop thinking about them. This is the time when they contrive reasons to see them and even go out of their way to make that happen. (See: Subtle Signs of Love)
2) Learning and Bonding – this is after a mutual connection is made and they are getting to know one another. This is when questions are asked and things are shared, and when mutual interests are discovered. Often this is the stage when first dates occur, and more learning and bonding occurs in the early stages of dating. (See: Getting to Know Your Neighbor, Sexual Tension, and Writing Romance without Experience)
3) Questioning and Fighting – this is after the pair can be considered a “couple” and, as they grow more serious, they begin to question whether or not they are ready for this growing commitment. They may also begin to question each other’s loyalty and each other’s long term intentions.
4) Expectations and Shaping – by this point the couple is in it for the long haul, and at this stage they are forming and challenging their expectations of one another and learning who they are as a couple.
5) Trust and Commitment – a couple that makes it to this stage is likely to be together for the rest of their lives. They have each other’s full loyalty and trust and are 100% committed to the relationship and to each other.
The amount of time a couple spends in any given stage varies from couple-to-couple and situation-to-situation, and some couples alternate between stages three and four for many years before moving on to stage five if they ever do at all.
What’s the fastest you could get to stage five? It really depends on the circumstances of a relationship. If the couple met and bonded on a harrowing six week journey where they spent every second together, they could conceivably be pretty well bonded by the end of that period. But even a relationship like that is dependent upon what happens at the end of those six weeks. If it’s back to “the real world,” the couple will have a whole new set of challenges as they try to adjust their relationship to different circumstances. One thing that’s for sure, however, is you’re not going to get to stage five after a few months of dating in high school, and that’s a mistake a lot of writers make, unfortunately. So bear that in mind as you write your characters’ romantic relationships. 🙂
Writing couples is both enchanting and exhausting. How do you make people ship your couple? How do you make them an OTP? How do you make your couple matter to the story? Or matter at all? To answer all these questions, I’ll explain three major must-have characteristics for couples:
1. Realism
Falling in love is a slow process. It’s different from person to person. People are flawed. Relationships are flawed. People make mistakes. People fear rejection. Not everyone will find their soulmate exactly when they need most. People show love in different ways. People are not flirty all the time. Realism is important. Development is essential.
When writing a couple, visualize yourself as one of the characters (or
both). Imagine their love story as if it was happening to you in real
life. See how different it goes? Maybe not as fast and a thousand times
clumsier, but also charming and interesting.
Example of strong realism: Carl and Ellie (UP), they take a lifetime to mature their love and mutual respect. Neither are perfect. The relationship goes through bad times, but their love only grows.
Example of weak realism: Caine and Jupiter (Jupiter Ascending), they fall in love in two or three days, not enough scenes are dedicated to developing the relationship. In the end, it feels strange.
2. Balance
Give your couple opposite but complementary features. This is basically the Yin-yang symbolism that a lot of stories shows. If one character is all love-and-peaceful, maybe the other is a furnace of anger. If one traveled the whole world, maybe the other never left their village. If one is a millionaire, maybe the other is homeless. If one is short with dark hair, maybe the other is tall with light hair. However, no matter how opposite they are, always keep the balance. One shouldn’t overshadow the other. They must shine together, but also as individuals.
Example of strong balance: Fix-it Felix Jr. and Sargent Calhoun (Wreck-It Ralph), they belong to different worlds, they would probably never meet. He is a sweet pie that always tries his best, a peacemaker. She is, on the other hand, an explosion, a warrior. They are both relevant in achieving victory. Also, both are the heroes of their own games.
Example of weak balance:
Sasuke and Sakura (Naruto), he is way more powerful than her, he doesn’t respect her as a ninja, he doesn’t like working with her. He tried killing her more than once and was never sorry about that. She accepts being overshadowed. She lacks character development compared to Sasuke. There is no opposite-complementary features tying them. It’s unbalanced.
3. Synergy
Make them work together. Make them accomplish common goals. Make them a power duo. Make them laugh of the same jokes. Make it easy and natural for them to be together, talking, sharing and having a good time. Make their conversations flow. Make it easy to touch, and stare, and embrace, and kiss. Make their mind and body work together.
Example of strong synergy: Cat Noir and Ladybug/Adrien and Marinette
(Miraculous Ladybug), they are the heroes of Paris. No, they are partners in saving the world. It doesn’t feel uncomfortable when they interact, fight and save each other. It feels right. It feels natural. You crave for interactions.
Example of weak synergy: Kim Tan and Eun-Sang (The Heirs), they are the type of couple that are always fighting, but sometimes indulge in a passionate kiss. However, there’s no synergy between these characters. They are never on the same page. They are never partners. The magic of their relationship never sparkles. Even their kisses are uncomfortable to watch.
Now, think of your favorite couples (even non-canon ones) and try spotting the realism, the balance and the synergy in them. If you ship it,I’m pretty sure it’s there.
Try applying these characteristics to your next writing.
Inspiration Haven 