5 Things I Learned About Love from Writing a Romance Novel
My family wasn’t surprised when I said I was writing a novel, but they were skeptical when I said it was going to be a romance novel.
My feelings on the topic are often known to be indifferent, and my skepticism about the foolishness of passion is often vocalized. Why a romance novel then?
The easy answer is it amused me, but beyond the quip, I knew it would be a challenge worth writing.
At the heart, a romance is a conflict of two people. Replacing the classic protagonist — antagonist form of storytelling we know with two people who we want to fall in love. However, due to circumstances and situations, falling in love has become difficult, tragic, or comedic.
For the past four years I have annually written an article about dating and relationships from the single man’s perspective, somewhere near the Valentines Day mark, but often hitting publish nearer March. This year, I propose (pause for laughter or groans) to instead share what I learned about love by writing this novel.
I cannot claim the observations are original, because nothing ever really is. I cannot claim you will find each of them insightful, to you reading some may appear painfully obvious. They are the lessons I learned, some of which I feel are overlooked in the popular…