I love romance. It's true. Anything romantic and my knees begin trembling, and my breath shortens just a teeny tiny bit. The Notebook, Titantic, A Walk to Remember; I cried the whole way through those. I had emotional wreck on lock down. Granted, I was eight when I first witnessed the greatness of Titanic, and I had a life size poster of Leonardo DiCaprio on my door (I kissed him every night before I went to sleep), but as a grieving eight year old, Jack Dawson sinking to the bottom of the ocean has made a lasting impact on me.
So what's the problem? Both my novels are romantic. I get lost in the love my characters have. I create passionate romance every single day... But only in my books, because when it comes to leaving my fantasy world it's romance shut down. I do not have a single romantic bone in my body.
But it must be in there somewhere, right? I was writing about romance when I didn't even know what romance was.
When I was sixteen, I began the amazing journey of writing my first story. I sat down at my computer; excited to build my charaters with my words, and express each drop of emotion from my lips to theirs.
I was writing a crime novel that lasted all of one page. I was so determind not to write anything about disgusting love. It didn't even exist. Like I said, I was sixteen, romance felt like the plague. And then BAM! Before I knew it my characters were falling madly in lust and love, and doing some crazy inappropiate things.
Fast forward two years and I meet the man of my dreams. Gorgeous, sexy, handsome, older(just by 5 years but I loved that), and God damn it he was the most romantic thing to walk the earth. Every girl's dream. He showed me more love and romance than I ever knew possibe, which evidently, translated into my novel.
I love him, but sometimes it's like Man on Fire and The Ice Queen have collided; lost in a mystical forest. I suppose the expression "opposites attract" is more true than anyone knows because over three years later he's still romantic as hell, and me, well I'm thawing out a little.
A girl can only try.
I know we all get lost in our writing and love to create a fantasy world of our own, but has anyone found there niche in something they can't truly express in real life? Or is your genre just you?
~Laura-Ashley~
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What an interesting question! I write historical fantasy, but I guess I'm not given to fantastical ideas all the time. Maybe writing helps us tap into something hidden within us.
ReplyDelete~Debbie
I agree with you Debbie. It's a treat to have characters live out good times we could only dream off and bad times that we only ever want to stay in our books.
Delete~Laura-Ashley~
My life isn't romantic in the way I write either. My husband is a sweetheart, but let’s face it, he isn't Mr. Romance either. I don't know that my books are crazy romance though, so I guess for the most part they are a reflection of what I see with a few more romantic pieces tossed in. I suppose it's a talent to write in something you really don't reflect. I agree that writing can tap into places we don't normally see, or allows us to peek at someone else who we just can't be in real life.
ReplyDeleteMen are fantastic at knowing when to be romantic. They have their moments. Of course, if you get in their way while they're watching a game, or doing other manly stuff, they'll make sure to tell you just how not romantic their feeling. But I agree with you 100% Michelle, what we write is a reflection of what we would like to be sometimes. But writing it in a story is sometimes that much more rewarding. It lets us, and our readers escape; if only for a little while. What could be better than that?
DeleteI really enjoyed reading this post! I couldn't help but laugh at what you said about Titanic and kissing Leo's picture at night before bed, because I had done the same thing! lol
ReplyDeleteI started writing at the age of 12 (creating a series). When I was seventeen I started to rewrite that series and of course my characters fell in love. I had no actual experience with falling in love, but it came so easily to write about. Sometimes we give our own dreams (of falling in love, etc.) to our characters. :)