A "force" keeping the MMC and FMC together?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Ambri

Plotting something
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Messages
726
Reaction score
55
Location
Second star to the right, straight on till evening
So I've been reading On Writing Romance, by Leigh Michaels (I highly recommend it). She mentions that one of the things that makes a romance novel work is an internal or external "force" that keeps the hero and heroine physically together for long enough to get past any initial wariness, and let the attraction and love develop. A few examples might be the couple marooned together in a cabin while a blizzard rages outside, or the hero hired to be bodyguard to a heroine who's being stalked.

My issue my current WIP doesn't have this "force" throwing the MCs together. Is it really necessary in a successful romance? Off the top of my mind, I can list a few novels I've read recently that made use of this force idea. I'm having a harder time remembering novels where it wasn't present. So, basically, am I SOL?
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
Surely your two characters have some reason they are spending time in the same place? It could be something as simple as they are both in the same circle of society and keep getting invited to the same parties, or they are neighbors, or something more complex like one has an ambitious plan that requires the other's involvement or that of some person or object near the other...
 

lastlittlebird

avem narrans
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
1,316
Reaction score
161
Location
Australia
Website
lastlittlebird.blogspot.com
I guess it's described as a force because presumably there's an equally compelling something that's keeping the lovers apart.

Otherwise there wouldn't be a story, because they would just meet, fall in love, and that's it. No conflict.

So if your MCs aren't being kept together somehow (even if only because of a job, or because they feel like they have to be somewhat polite to each other at family gatherings, a la Bridget Jones), how is that push/pull dynamic worked out?

I could enjoy a very gentle romance with a couple who just keep running into each other and fall in love without much resistance if there was another really good story happening in the background, but you'd need to be careful to keep the highlight on the romance, rather than the background story (if you are set on making it a romance, rather than shifting it into another genre).
 

girlyswot

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 1, 2007
Messages
2,227
Reaction score
389
Location
Cambridge
Website
myromancereviews.wordpress.com
I think you could make that work if you have one character 'chasing' the other, though to be really satisfying, even the chasing character will need some internal conflict.
 

Sorin

Rollin' up my sleeves
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 15, 2011
Messages
270
Reaction score
26
Location
In a land where Procrastination is queen
I think you could make that work if you have one character 'chasing' the other, though to be really satisfying, even the chasing character will need some internal conflict.

Or the character being chased.

I have a heroine who has some major issues due to past circumstances, which keeps her from getting emotionally involved with anyone. So while the hero is pursuing her like the alpha hero he is (and they work in the same industry so she can't avoid him), what is stopping them from being together are her issues.
 

job

In the end, it's just you and the manuscript
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 27, 2005
Messages
3,459
Reaction score
653
Website
www.joannabourne.com
my current WIP doesn't have this "force" throwing the MCs together. Is it really necessary in a successful romance?

Do you mean your characters are physically separated, especially for the first quarter of the story?
This is not so good.

A genre Romance is not about space pirates, Hollywood movie making, finding gold or hunting werewolves. Genre Romance is about the fine-tuning of The Relationship. The Relationship shapes the scenes and motivates important action. The story starts when The Relationship starts.

Compare genre Mystery. In a Mystery, we can meet this character or that going about the useful and interesting business of gardening or running a bookshop. But the story begins with the murder. A majority of the action centers upon solving the murder. The Mystery is about solving the murder.

A genre Romance rule of thumb (that I just made up) is you want your MMC and FMC together by the time you hit 5% -- 1/20th -- of your total word count. That's before 3500 words of a 70K story or 5000 words in a 100K story.
Overall, (I'm making this up too) you want the MMC and FMC interacting roughly 50% of the whole wordcount. A little more than that for shorter works. Could be a little less togetherness for longer work.

Continuing with my rampant and uncalledfor rule-of-thumbness here: many manuscripts where the MMC and FMC are not together in the early action just need to have the first three chapters chopped off. The author is starting the story in the wrong place.

Now, there are doubtless well-known genre Romance books where the MMC and FMC are not together this much or this soon. You want to maybe have people bring up examples for you to study and see how the author got away with it.

But speaking generally, getting the MMC and FMC into the same physical space and keeping them together, face to face, is one of the classic plotting challenge in genre Romance.
 
Last edited:

qdsb

Cynical Idealist
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 7, 2007
Messages
513
Reaction score
116
I suppose another way of looking at it is...how do your main characters interact and communicate with each other? How does their relationship develop if they aren't together in some way? So it doesn't necessarily have to be an event or "force" that locks them in the same room, but there has to be some reason for them to interact. Maybe they work together (as someone above posted) or go to school together or both serve on the PTA of their kids' school or are spies trying to steal the same secret plans from the goverment...

Technically, they don't have to be in the same physical space--they could communicate through letters or email or something (like in the movie "You've Got Mail"), but I think that's hard to do successfully in fiction these days. I suppose you could also have situations like the movie "Serendipity" where the couple meets once and spends the rest of the book obsessed with trying to meet each other again.

But the point is there has to be something inherent in the situation that causes them to interact and therefore develop a relationship.
 

Datepalm

Registered
Joined
May 14, 2012
Messages
39
Reaction score
6
They could be learning things about eachother while they're apart though - the heroine might not see the hero for a while, but meanwhile she's met his sister and found out about their tragic past as circus acrobats, which puts that thing he said about clowns in a new light and makes her think about him differently and so changes/progresses the relashionship, without actually interacting. (rather limited mileage there though, IMO, even without the circus.)
 

JanDarby

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 26, 2006
Messages
3,553
Reaction score
1,121
Another way to look at it is "why can't the h/h just give up and never see each other again?" It's the same basic element as in any story -- if the protagonist and antagonist can just shrug and walk away from their struggle, there's no tension to the story.

To some extent, the h/h are each other's antagonist, at least with respect to the development of their relationship, if not for the story as a whole, so if it's easy for them to go their separate ways, then there's no tension to the story, no reason to keep turning the pages.
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
A genre Romance rule of thumb (that I just made up) is you want your MMC and FMC together by the time you hit 5% -- 1/20th -- of your total word count. That's before 3500 words of a 70K story or 5000 words in a 100K story.
Wow, that's soon. I'd give a little more leeway there ^_^; maybe 10k words of a 70k story. Though, usually one character will know in a general sense they are going to meet the other before that point. For example a woman might know that she is intended to enter an arranged marriage with a man of some faction, but she doesn't know which particular one, or knows his face or name but not his personality. Or a man may be given a description of a female criminal he is to hunt, but have no idea she will turn out to be his love interest.
 

job

In the end, it's just you and the manuscript
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 27, 2005
Messages
3,459
Reaction score
653
Website
www.joannabourne.com
Wow, that's soon. I'd give a little more leeway there ^_^; maybe 10k words of a 70k story. Though, usually one character will know in a general sense they are going to meet the other before that point. For example a woman might know that she is intended to enter an arranged marriage with a man of some faction, but she doesn't know which particular one, or knows his face or name but not his personality. Or a man may be given a description of a female criminal he is to hunt, but have no idea she will turn out to be his love interest.

Yes, indeed. There would be lots of ways to establish character interest in each other. A sort of 'pre-relationship' as it were. But I do see this as stuff that happens before the relationship begins.
 

Ambri

Plotting something
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 5, 2010
Messages
726
Reaction score
55
Location
Second star to the right, straight on till evening
I think you could make that work if you have one character 'chasing' the other, though to be really satisfying, even the chasing character will need some internal conflict.

I think this is kinda, sorta what I currently have in my MS. The hero and heroine have a sexy cute-meet in chapter 2, she flees, he tracks her down to return something she lost, and kinda pursues her from there. But the more I mulled it over, the more it bothered me, as feeling kind of episodic.


Do you mean your characters are physically separated, especially for the first quarter of the story?
This is not so good.

A genre Romance is not about space pirates, Hollywood movie making, finding gold or hunting werewolves. Genre Romance is about the fine-tuning of The Relationship. The Relationship shapes the scenes and motivates important action. The story starts when The Relationship starts.

Compare genre Mystery. In a Mystery, we can meet this character or that going about the useful and interesting business of gardening or running a bookshop. But the story begins with the murder. A majority of the action centers upon solving the murder. The Mystery is about solving the murder.

But speaking generally, getting the MMC and FMC into the same physical space and keeping them together, face to face, is one of the classic plotting challenge in genre Romance.

Those are great points. My MCs are thrown together very early in the story, but when the heroine's panic and various plot points push them apart, the only thing that pushes them together again is the hero's interest--and a need for a distraction from his problems. And I think in its current version, my WIP focuses too much on the hero's career, his relationship with his friends and ex, and other stuff that takes the spotlight off the budding romance.

Another way to look at it is "why can't the h/h just give up and never see each other again?" It's the same basic element as in any story -- if the protagonist and antagonist can just shrug and walk away from their struggle, there's no tension to the story.

To some extent, the h/h are each other's antagonist, at least with respect to the development of their relationship, if not for the story as a whole, so if it's easy for them to go their separate ways, then there's no tension to the story, no reason to keep turning the pages.

Jan, I think you've nailed it. It sounds like in addition to not having this internal or external force, the stakes for my MCs aren't high enough. Looks like I need to go back in and work some more on the foundation before I get to painting the trim pretty pastels. :)

Thanks, everyone, for the excellent advice!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.