Love is Madness.
She kissed him softly, making his senses flood wildly throughout his body. Tingles rushed to the surface of his skin, and he stiffened, unable to move in her grasp. Then she pushed him away and began laughing once again, but Sam couldn’t laugh. He could only stare at her, his lips still burning hotly from the surprise kiss...
To Love is to Be Alive...
Take the roughest, toughest, brute on the planet, and they will still enjoy a good romance story on occasion.
Man or woman, young or old, we were all created to have an innate response to love and affection. Regardless of our experience with romance in the past, at some deeper level we all crave the kind of god-given relationship that reminds us that true love is real. The kind of love that exudes loyalty, responsibility, affection, and of course forgiveness. The kind of love that still makes your heart flutter, even after twenty years of marriage.
Ask an older couple who has been married awhile. They will tell you love is real. They might not be able to explain it, but they still know it.
“Thinking of you keeps me awake. Dreaming of you keeps me asleep. Being with you keeps me alive.”
Romance in writing.
Good writing almost always includes a romantic element. You read it in the best stories: Song of Fire and Ice, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and even in the Left Behind series. There is usually a protagonist that isn’t necessarily seeking out love, yet somehow love find them. Something happens in the story that thrusts the character into a situation where he or she can’t get away from it. If it is a good story, hopefully the happy couple will be together in the end.
The romance isn’t always this way, however. On occasion the romantic story doesn’t end up the way one would want. A tragedy, yet somehow we can relate to the disappointing outcome.
To Love is to Burn...
"To love is to burn, to be on fire."
Sure, there are many of us that have sour experiences with romance in the past, me included. On a few, I have even contributed to the toxicity.
That doesn’t mean love as a whole doesn’t exist. Nor that we will never experience the powerful draw of romance again. There is room for redemption in all love stories.
We can’t ignore love. We can’t deny it. And as authors, we can’t leave it out of our writing.
Learning to Love...
I had a bit of trouble finding my groove in writing romance. If I were honest, (and I am sure some of my readers would agree) I have a long way to go.
Perhaps it’s because I haven’t a clue how to be romantic. I suppose that could be a question for my wife, Stacy. Fortunately for me, however, she isn’t much for the mushy-gushy stuff either.
Regardless, I needed to learn how to write romance into a story. It is such a part of our lives, that if I left it out, there wouldn’t be the depth that other stories have achieved.
So how have I fared? Perhaps I will call on my readers for advice. Calling all romantics, I would love to hear what you believe makes for a good romance element in a story. Email me at troyhooker@descendantpublishing.com and tell me how you feel.
For now, I search my heart for what I believe readers would find desirable in a budding romance, building on those powerful emotions I have experienced over the years. My characters wrestle with intrigue, confusion, anger, infatuation, hurt, and longing.
Through the story, they may even learn to develop what it means to have maturity and loyalty when it comes to their love-interests. These are the foundations for true love, as God intended it to be. Not the simple emotions we feel and then fade like the sunset. No, true love passes all understanding, all barriers. It persists. It never goes away.
What a powerful thought! It can have such an impact in writing, and it would be a shame to leave it out.
