Love Conquers All

Wish I'd watched the rest of the Mills & Boon documentaries before NaNo - apparently their books only run to 50,000 words. Could have killed two birds with one stone. Or could I? The books are strictly formulaic - dialogue driven, hero meets heroine in chapter one and are pure fantasy.

The hero may well have 'Alpha Male' physically branded on him somewhere like the stamp on an Action Man's underpants. He is usually: handsome, dark, tanned, immensely wealthy, so full of testosterone you could bottle it, and of course at first the heroine loathes him. She is no longer the virtuous serving wench/impoverished governess/nurse of old and may even be financially independent (gosh). Basically they meet in chapter one, loathe turns to love and by the end of 50,000 words he saves her (giving her financial safety, status etc) and she saves him (through redemptive quality of her love). That's it. Cue sunset, roll the credits. M&B know what they are doing - their fanbase is huge and a book is sold somewhere every three seconds.

Is that your kind of love story? Personally I've always fallen for the kind of complicated tale where - to use Dan's brilliant phrase from the other day - everything happens gradually ... then suddenly. Marta was talking yesterday about developing sympathetic characters that go beyond the usual stereotype. These are the kind of love stories Nouvelle Vague are singing about so beautifully in the video clip:

In a manner of speaking I just want to say
That I could never forget the way
You told me everything
By saying nothing

In a manner of speaking
I don't understand
How love in silence becomes reprimand
But the way that I feel about you
Is beyond words

That's at least what I'm trying to do - conjure a feeling that is beyond words using the best ones I can find.

TODAY'S PROMPT: It's cold outside - everyone's probably feeling a little tired after a long week, so let's stoke up the fire and think about romance. Do you think you could write a M&B? Would you want to? Male/female relationships lie at the heart of most books whatever genre you write in, but what dynamic do you tend to enjoy writing most - head over heels or hands at each other's throats? Love, sex, flirtation, fantasy - any story benefits from the energy these elements bring. If you're stuck for ideas, why not think about some of the most romantic things that have happened to you, or close friends and turn them into fiction - work up some scenes for your characters that will have the ring of truth.