since when I'm writing original characters, they often end up in relationships I never planned. It seems to me that I get better chemistry by letting the characters just interact for awhile without plotting to get A and B together, because it may turn out that A and C are way more interesting as a couple. Plots I will plan out to the last detail; characters falling in love, not so much.
Oh, I generally agree. You really can't predict chemistry. That said - Farscape cast for chemistry between Aeryn and John Crichton and did plot out that relationship more or less, so it can be done. And often when it is plotted out it works better. Not always though.
But if characters do start to interact in a way that might cause readers to think I'm planning something romantic for them, I kind of hope that I would notice that...
This is the bit that bothers me. When they don't notice. Don't see the relationship that is taking off or the one that has clearly ended. Or don't see a thematic arc, although I'm more forgiving of that. Particularly when they've built in little bits here and there, clues...that feel deliberate, until you realize - the writer wasn't conscious of them or put in those clues to resolve a completely separate and one-time plot point - such as just getting character A out of the basement.
Example: In Kim Harrison's novels - the protagonist has to move a very big, very forboding black stallion, in order to sneak into a security grid. Everyone is scared of the stallion. But the stallion loves the heroine. She touches him and he doesn't bite her to her shock and amazement, instead he butts her hand. And she notices that his name plate is Tulpa, the same word that she randomly picked to spindle energy in her head, and she realizes that the horse is the "familiar" of the guy she is robbing and it's the same horse she rode once in summer camp with this guy, she's robbing, over 10 years ago, but can't remember. AND they had a game of theft back then, where she stole his hoof pick and he stole stuff from her, yet always returned it. ALSO at the very end, he takes her riding with him. YET - the writer states on her board that she was amazed readers saw a romantic pairing between the heroine and the guy she's robbing?? And while it's possible the guy likes or has feelings for the heroine, she's not so sure about the heroine?? And that she wants to introduce a new love interest for the heroine??? (Is the writer stupid?)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 04:32 pm (UTC)Oh, I generally agree. You really can't predict chemistry.
That said - Farscape cast for chemistry between Aeryn and John Crichton and did plot out that relationship more or less, so it can be done. And often when it is plotted out it works better.
Not always though.
But if characters do start to interact in a way that might cause readers to think I'm planning something romantic for them, I kind of hope that I would notice that...
This is the bit that bothers me. When they don't notice. Don't see the relationship that is taking off or the one that has clearly ended. Or don't see a thematic arc, although I'm more forgiving of that. Particularly when they've built in little bits here and there, clues...that feel deliberate, until you realize - the writer wasn't conscious of them or put in those clues to resolve a completely separate and one-time plot point - such as just getting character A out of the basement.
Example: In Kim Harrison's novels - the protagonist has to move a very big, very forboding black stallion, in order to sneak into a security grid. Everyone is scared of the stallion. But the stallion loves the heroine. She touches him and he doesn't bite her to her shock and amazement, instead he butts her hand.
And she notices that his name plate is Tulpa, the same word that she randomly picked to spindle energy in her head, and she
realizes that the horse is the "familiar" of the guy she is robbing and it's the same horse she rode once in summer camp with this guy, she's robbing, over 10 years ago, but can't remember. AND they had a game of theft back then, where she stole his hoof pick and he stole stuff from her, yet always returned it. ALSO at the very end, he takes her riding with him. YET - the writer states on her board that she was amazed readers saw a romantic pairing between the heroine and the guy she's robbing?? And while it's possible the guy likes or has feelings for the heroine, she's not so sure about the heroine??
And that she wants to introduce a new love interest for the heroine??? (Is the writer stupid?)