Romance fanfiction?

[SMWhat]

The title of the thread makes it clear enough--I'm trying to figure out romance fanfiction. Analyze it, in other words. Yes, I like that word much better--analyze. I'm analyzing romance fanfiction. Or maybe romance fiction in general? I'm analyzing it. Sounds so scientific.

Tell me, please, if I miss anything or get something inaccurate.

Also, what I've written may be more true for hack writing than actual, good romance fan/fiction. Your opinions on this?

-Hook. Where the protagonist first notices the subject (Is that a good word to use? Subject? Well, whatever). "Notice" meaning "really notices", as opposed to "hey, it's so-and-so in the background, okay, moving on". Could be anything from one of them falling upon the other or a brief conversation the protagonist finds interesting.

-Repeated encounters. Wherein the protagonist "starts to fall in love" with the subject. Difficult to pull off, because how the heck do they manage to keep coincidentally bumping into each other? Protagonist gets progressively smitten.

-Indicators. The protagonist thinks something to indicate how far he's fallen for the subject, but himself dismisses the thought. You know--"He thought she looked beautiful"--no, wait, that's a stupid one. Let me hunt through my favorites list and see if I can find something. "Her smile caught him off-guard"--no, wait, that's stupid too. You know, the sappy-but-not-definitive stuff. "He felt something twist within his stomach when she smiled". Stuff like that.

-Problem. Self-explanatory, but really really hard to come up with, in my experience, anyway. For example, in a Kyon/Tsuruya story, the problem could be the pressure from both Haruhi's world-destroying potential, and Tsuruya's Agency-supporting family.

-Realization/Confession. When they realize/confess their love, obviously. Stereotypically, it somehow involves an unplanned kiss. It might branch off from a bit of tension--he falls on her, and both their faces go red, and their faces come closer, closer, et cetera, et cetera. Or, some tragedy brings the two of them closer together but not definitely classified as a couple--the vagueness of "what are we, good friends or something more" can be a good source of tension as well. Or, perhaps as they're just normally parting, and one of them takes the initiative. It can occur after the problem, being a precursor or part of the solution, or before the problem, causing them to face the new problem as a couple.

-Solution. Actually entirely optional, because sometimes things don't fit into nice little conclusions. A solution might be found (I can't think of one for my "problem" example). Or, a solution might not be found, and the protagonist and/or subject might go "forget the rest of the world; it's our right to live our lives like this".

Anything else anyone want to add?

 

[lord geryon]

That's a pretty fair representation of the methodology of romance fics, yes.

Although, your 'Solution' I would retitle to 'Continuation' and have it deal with the aftermath of the confession. Some romance fics don't end with a solution, they keep going, showing us the couple in practice.

 

[PCHeintz72]

Hmmm... If you are doing this so you can write romance fiction, then you are basically attempting to write to formula.

Many successful romance authors do this, it is one reason they are able to pump out as many novels as they do. Harlequin and Silouette paperback series for example have many contributing authors that do it. The neat thing is, since they all use their own, they are all slightly different enough form each other to provide the illusion of them all being different.

While your post and my above example are for romance, almost anything can be written to formula unless it is meant to be in series. Star Trek for example works well in Pocket Paperbacks as formula, but Babylon 5 would not.

 

[Alzrius]

I agree with PCHeintz in that genre-specific writing is formulaic. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as any professional author will probably tell you that ALL writing is formulaic, which doesn't necessarily make it unoriginal.

In this case, I think SMWhat summed up the formula for romance fiction nicely (or at least, I can't find fault with the layout given). That said, the Problems category is somewhat mutable for where it occurs. You can have a jealous third-party attempting to interfere with the burgeoning couple at any point, for instance (e.g. the beautiful but vain girl who wants the leading man to notice her at the beginning, and makes continual attempts to seduce him away from the leading lady at virtually every stage of the story).

All of that aside, there's more to a story, romance or otherwise, than how well you adhere to the basic plot structure; writing an Introduction, Rising Action, Climax, and Denouement aren't enough to make it a good story. The characters have to be realistic in their depiction, and the reader has to care about them. This is why fanfiction is both easier and harder to write for - we already know (and presumably care about) the characters, but as they're someone else's characters, it can be easy to write them wrong.

 

[Escalon]

Formulaic indeed, but I enjoy the type of romance where there aren't any ridiculous gimmicks to initiate the contact. In short, a realistically depicted relationship.

I mean, how many seriously written romance fanfictions do you see where there isn't some sort of extreme problem with the romance itself as a result of some ridiculous doubt from one of the parties? It's more natural if it actually plays out like a relationship from whatever age group the characters in question are in (ie, if you're writing Evangelion you were fourteen once. You remember what that was like).

I believe that the true conflict should be as a result of an external force, but otherwise the characters themselves actually act normally. Want Y to hook up with X? Y does your typical pre-psyching up thing and just plain asks X out. No random encounter bullshit leading into 'not dates.'

I actually applaud Tsukihime as a visual novel for this. Shiki is as casual as can be, and doesn't hesitate calling outings with Arcueid dates. The universe and plot are as ridiculous as expected but the characters interact realistically within the confines of that world. Focusing on any one of the attractive female characters makes Shiki grow to love them due to spending so much time with them. Though in reality I would guess that anyone else in Shiki's position would have a nervous breakdown rather than act as he did but that's unnecessary thought within the boundaries of this topic.

There's a certain amount of tension to be found in stories where the two leads are in that state of denial. A teenage guy's perfect situation where he continuously coincidentally bumps into the girl despite lacking the fortitude to just admit infatuation and go with it. It's all too unrealistic for me, though.

So what I guess I've been saying is that I dislike the 'repeated encounters' part of the formula. Sure, they have to have repeat encounters. But do they really need to be coincidence like that?

As for the other topics...

Hook- Easy if they're two characters who meet on a regular basis in canon. Even easier if there's romantic overtones within canon itself. And in the case of original fiction it's all a matter of creating a realistic scenario (ie, same class, coworkers, etc.)

Repeated encounters- I suppose you should refer to the bulk of this unorganized post for this. In short: No continuous coincidences. Once or twice? Fine. But the rest should be initiated of their own accord or due to a routine they both happen to be in.

Indicators- It's pretty obvious when you're attracted to someone. As such, the characters should just acknowledge this. No need to beat around the bush unless you're doing some random harem thing. Don't get me started on Rei-types though. Discovering emotions is all good and well but sometimes the way its written is completely ludicrous. i.e. "What is love?" and then much time is spent beating around the bush asking random people what love is. Or, in the case of one Nagato Yuki, researching love via books/the internet. Plot devices ahoy, then.

Problem- Required if your fic isn't some random fluffy relationship thing. In most cases the problem is the relationship itself. Easy. Plenty of hurdles to overcome in an actual relationship, and more so if your characters have all the caricatured idiosyncrasies of their canon counterparts.

Realization/Confession- Should just happen naturally. No accidental kiss and then fucking on the sofa. After dating/spending countless days together there isn't much more to say than 'I love you' unless the relationship went wrong.

Solution- I am a horrible person to say anything about this topic given my propensity for abusing plot devices to further the plot. Needless to say that the one easy solution to your proposed Kyon/Tsuruya pairing would be Kyon ending up as the true god himself, but that is a terrible solution in the end unless your story revolved around the idea.

This is a bit of a mess, but I think you'll all get what I'm saying.

 

[SMWhat]

Yeah, you're right. Definitely--every time shouldn't be a coincidence, just once or twice, and then it starts to go into a deliberate routine instead. The problem with me is how to make the transition from coincidences to routine.

As for being obvious how much you're attracted to someone, yeah, that's true. I guess what I meant was "a character being not sure how much he cares about the other person". I mean, you can care as a friend, or as something more, et cetera.

As for the sex right after confession--that's actually one of my pet peeves. Seriously.

---

I wasn't so much trying to write a guide for writing fiction, as much as I was trying to form something based on what I've seen. So...following any "guides" I write is definitely a bad idea (except for the whole problem-solution thing, I guess? Ha ha ha).

 

[lord geryon]

As for the sex right after confession--that's actually one of my pet peeves. Seriously.

Some of the best romance fics I've read didn't have any sex at all, not even off camera.

An example is 'Deadpan Love' on FF.net in the Teen Titans fandom.

Of course, there's good romance fics that have sex too.

A good example of that is 'In the Swim of Things' on mediaminer in the Eva fandom.

 

[TheBetanWerecat]

If you're serious about getting a handle on the concept of romance fiction, go ahead and visit the sites of some of the real professionals. Depending on the author, you can pick up a great deal just checking out their sites and following the links to forums or blogs.

I have a friend who makes a living writing romance novels. She's of the opinion that most stories that aren't about the physical hardware of the universe are either in or touching the romance genera just because once you get to stories that are character driven, you get to interpersonal relationships. And all forms of romance are about interpersonal situations. This applies if you are writing fan or pro actually and has some real validity to it. So again, if you're really interested, check out the pros.

 

[Xekstrin]

As for the sex right after confession--that's actually one of my pet peeves. Seriously.

*guilty* ._.;;

I ONLY DID IT ONCE! >.> The story was insane to begin with, anyway...

EDIT: To stay on topic:

Switching POVs is a pretty common tactic used, with each chapter alternating between the parties involved so we can see the relationship progressing through both of the character's eyes.

Just randomly "realizing" how hot the previously-not-an-object-of-sexual-lust has become =/= good romance.