In romance, the paramount part of the story is developing a relationship. Hero and heroine should meet quickly, have an emotional reaction to each other, and create the capacity to further the relationship in a romantic way. <\/p>\n
Thirty pages of the heroine\u2019s or hero\u2019s past, told from her\/his own and others\u2019 points of view, is not developing the relationship. Backstory has no impact. Backstory is the past, always static and never changing. It is also simply a passive retelling of events. And remember, romantic fiction works better when you show, don\u2019t tell. <\/p>\n
Start the story where the hero and heroine meet. Establish an emotional bond as quickly as possible. A physical bond, such as noting the other\u2019s attractiveness, is an okay start, but by delving straight into emotion, the bond is stronger and the reader begins to identify with the protagonists much quicker. <\/p>\n
Spend the rest of the novel keeping the hero and heroine together as much as possible. Find reasons for them to meet, whether by accident or design. Play up each meeting with emotional impact \u2013 what they are feeling, rather than what they are seeing. As I\u2019ve noted in other articles, a good way to do this is to pretend your character is blind, and then use the remaining senses to tell the reader about that character.<\/p>\n
\u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d Jeanie moved towards the door, pulling her scarf tighter against the chill outside. Stepping out into the crisp winter day, she sighed with delight. \u201cOh!\u201d Even though no descriptions of the actual characters are used, the reader gets an implied sense of character from how the protagonists are reacting to the various stimuli around them. Jarrod is fun-loving, spontaneous and interested in Jeanie. Jeanie is polite, yet adventurous. Both are observant and Jeanie is making memories in her mind. All those subliminal messages are picked up by the reader, placing them not only in the scene, but making them enjoy it. This allows the reader to identify with the characters even more. <\/p>\n Refrain from introducing a third character who describes or spends time listing all the hero or heroine\u2019s attributes. Not only does this detract from the developing romance by putting a \u201cthree\u2019s a crowd\u201d aspect into the novel, but it is telling, rather than showing. <\/p>\n You can write a little bit of the past into the hero and heroine\u2019s point-of-view, but only if it pertains to the developing relationship. Perhaps the hero has a small child. He can let the heroine know he adopted the child while he was overseas, or his wife ran off or died. A few paragraphs are the limit of what is needed to explain to both the heroine and the reader. The wife doesn\u2019t even need to be named, she is non-essential to the developing relationship. <\/p>\n What happens in the here and now is where your hero and heroine should be. The present. Not the past. Show, don\u2019t tell. Make your readers remember the characters long after the story is finished. Give your hero and heroine a future, a Happy Ever After.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In romance, the paramount part of the story is developing a relationship. Hero and heroine should meet quickly, have an emotional reaction to each other, and create the capacity to further the relationship in a romantic way. Thirty pages of the heroine\u2019s or hero\u2019s past, told from her\/his own and others\u2019 points of view, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cPretty, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Jarrod Smith stepped forward, a brightly colored shopping bag in his hand.
\u201cIt\u2019s like a Christmas card.\u201d The scent of cinnamon wafted from the bakery next door. She looked up at him, noting his eyelashes were coated with snowflakes as he lifted his face into the sky.
\u201cThis is my favorite time of year.\u201d His laugh was infectious and she joined in.
\u201cMine, too!\u201d
\u201cI love the smells, I love watching people scurry about, although I\u2019m not too fond of shoveling the wet stuff.\u201d He grinned. \u201cListen!\u201d
Then she heard it. Bells jingled as two horses came dancing down the street, pulling a small sleigh.
\u201cWant to go on a sleigh ride?\u201d He didn\u2019t wait for her answer. He grabbed her mittened fingers and ran across the street. Jeanie felt warm hands around her waist as he lifted her into the seat.
\u201cHot cider in the thermos, warm cookies in the insulated bag.\u201d The driver pointed as they snuggled under a wool blanket.
As the bells rang and the snow fell, Jarrod leaned close and gently kissed Jeanie, tasting of cider and sugar cookies. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n