I have read a somewhat disturbing number of Romance novels recently, particularly since I am a literary snob and until recently avoided the genre on principle. While I was pleasantly surprised at how much of a brain vacation the novels could be, but only because I mananged to find some fairly intelligent examples (there's a lot out there that isn't worth the digital ink it's printed with--and that goes for every genre), I still found myself wondering what this foray could teach me about plot, and story more generally. After a while, I became very tired of the Regency marriage plot, because: formulas. But formulas themselves can be instructive, especially when you're stuck. And let's face it; I'm stuck. I never quite envisioned the Alina and Bren novel/trilogy(?) as a Romance novel, but I do want it to have an awful lot to do with relationships, expectations, and what happens to naive love in disastrous circumstances. It can grow, yes. But after a separation, with the circumstances completely changed, is it reasonable to expect it to rekindle, come together, etc? I pose that different circumstances call for different kinds of love. With people who have been together, and who remain together, and who are committed, this means that love can grow and adapt to fit the circumstances. This is hard, but it happens. Heck--in many ways this is what marriage is meant to do. But when one half is committed to pursuing his own thing, and the other stays to hold down the fort (as the world crumbles)--well, expectations need to be readjusted. And that is more or less what I want to communicate. And yes, it is about the nature of love. With puts me squarely into the Romance genre, at least in terms of purpose (though often what we really have is the nature and power of sex/attraction, but that's an entirely different topic; or maybe it isn't...)
So trying to see whether the formulas I've seen in Romance can get me unstuck, I want to try an experiment: imagining what my novel(s?) would be like if they were Romance novels.
I'm not sure that the first installment/backstory would exist, except to explain Alina's disposition. She was--well, not exactly spurned, but certainly given the message, though she might not have gotten it at first, that she was not the most important thing to Bren, even though he was the most important thing to her, and though she was willing to sacrifice so that they could be together. Rather, he selfishly left her behind so that he could pursue his own identity. We might or might not blame him. I mean, it's hard to give yourself to someone else if you don't feel particularly whole. Nevertheless, given her loneliness, and subsequent events, she might just possibly get bitter.
If Bren is the male love interest, this bitterness would be something for him to overcome. Except that he becomes cynical and jaded and hopeless but still desires her... and yet finds her untouchable.
Scenario 1: Bren realizes while he is away that he is desperate for Alina, returns, and tries to win her back, but finds her untouchable, damaged. He courts/woos/seduces her--breaks down her barriers gradually to thaw her with his charm and good character.
Scenario 2: Alina and Bren are thrown back together and react with mutual hostility, though remembering their past and what they have been to one another. Their hostile interactions are thus fraught with sexual tension, and by acknowledging their desire they come, gradually, to acknowledge the feelings that still exist between them.
Scenario 3: Bren returns to find Alina already engaged to someone else, probably from convenience. While he does his best to support this, feeling that he has failed her, at the last minute he realizes that he can't live if she is with another, and intervenes. She has realized her continued attraction to Bren, and is released by the other man, who is perhaps relieved to be out of the way.
Scenario 4: Bren has done horrible things and been a bad, promiscuous, exploitative person while he was away, but he realizes that this was all because he wanted Alina so badly and he is now prepared to do anything that he can to win her over. Meanwhile, she must be resistent, but able to make allowances because he was away from her, and men do these sorts of things, after all... She will probably succumb physically, but reserve her affection until he declares absolutely that he loves her and will be satisfied with her alone.
The fact that both of the characters are supposed to be basically virtuous and that they both really do want to be married throws a wrench into several of the Romance scenarios that I have seen. Also, any scenario involving Alina and Bren reconciling would either have Alina giving up, and acting from desperation or necessity rather than love, or would change the main point: that love has a chance of surviving upheavel when the lovers are together, but changes shape when one has grown differently from the other, as Alina in particular has done.
To be continued...
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