In my opinion, books seriously lack something special when there isn’t any romance involved. It doesn’t matter how great the story is, I just don’t get the same feeling out of it unless someone falls in love. It’s just an added bonus. Even if it doesn’t end well or doesn’t have a happy ending, the love concept of a story really does something for it that is almost indescribable. We like to read about things that we can relate to on some level or another or maybe read about something that we secretly crave in our own lives. Romance comes in different forms. Love means something different to everyone and because of that, it looks differently to everyone. It’s like the “Road to Success”. No one can tell you that you’ve succeeded. Only you can know that. The same goes with love. No one can tell you that you’re in love. Only you can know…because it’s a feeling that erupts from the inside out. That’s why Love and Success are so difficult for most of us. Both are constantly changing it’s appearance, but the recipe to both is always the same. With that being said, because Love is different for everyone, and because Love has a different meaning depending on who you are and what your specific needs are, is there a bad way to express romance in a novel? As authors, we try our best to write real situations, real characters, real love. But…real in what sense of the word? Is it our reality or the reality of our audience that we are trying to convey? Do we have a certain responsibilty to our readers to manifest their truths and desires or are we simply manifesting our own desires and truths in hopes that our readers will relate? We write a story about a young girl who falls madly in love with this mysterious stranger who just so happens to be a psychopathic killer. Sounds bizarre but it is 100% probable in real life. Most people would find that a wonderful story of love and discovery, while others may find it sickening. Perhaps at the end of that story, the young girl, because of her undying love for her beloved psychopath, convinces him to give up his sadistic ways. That sounds like a really beautiful ending, an ending most people would probably get teary eyed over. Or, perhaps at the end, the young girl, loving her psychopath so much, decides to join him on the dark side, participating in his schemes to lure people to an untimely death. That sounds like a beautiful ending as well in the fiction. Both endings exhibit a realization of love and willingness to put their own logic aside for the one that they love. Most people would find that disgusting and would probably condemn whoever writes something like that. But why would that ending be any different than the first? Or why would that ending be any different than Bella falling for a blood sucking vampire in Twilight or that chick falling for the vampire Lestat? Both of them were willing to turn into an immortal demon for the one that they loved. Maybe there isn’t a bad way to express romance in a novel. Maybe our job as authors is only to tap into the most basic idea of love, which is shared by everyone, and translate that into a work of art. Don’t ask what that basic idea is, because I don’t have a clue.***
The DOMErevelation
by Nova Sparks
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