Today we are having a chat with Rachel Dove - Author of the Flower Shop on Foxley St. Avaliable here .She has written a post on Conflict in love & romance and i hope you all enjoy reading it.
CONFLICT IN LOVE AND ROMANCE by RACHEL DOVE When you think of people writing romance novels, you might think of Jane Austen, writing in beautiful Bath, or the Brontes, scribbling away in Yorkshire whilst trying to navigate the perils of being talented, educated women in their time. The reality is the majority of romance writers are women (and some men of course!) with busy lives, day jobs, children, pets, homes to run, deadlines to meet, husbands and partners to at least acknowledge from time to time. Often, life gets in the way of writing.
This is of course true with life, and love. We don't all just have our lives set up, perfectly poised to meet THE ONE and sail off into the sunset. And if we did, it wouldn't make for a very interesting story, would it?
One very important element of a good romance story is the conflict. There has to be something, or someone that mean the couple can't immediately fall into each other's arms. In Pride and Prejudice, it was Mr Darcy's pigheaded snobbery, the societal constraints of a woman without a dowry or social standing, and the improper behaviour of her family. In New Adult romance Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire - it was their pasts that keep them apart, how they were perceived by their family or peers. In The Chic Boutique on Baker Street, it was city girl meets country boy. Amanda and Ben were seemingly polar opposites, damaged by their love lives to date, but they still find a way.
The conflict is their story, it's what keeps a reader flicking the pages over. We want them to dump that love rat, jump that hurdle, realise that they are meant for each other and fall in love before our eyes. A good romance book will make you want them to beat the odds, even if their snatches of happiness are short lived. We go for the underdog, we cheer on the geeks, we want the better man to win. Think of any romantic film, and we see the conflict between the characters, and how it forms their journey.
Nora Ephron's You've Got Mail is one of my favourites, and it is full of conflict. At the start of the story, both people are involved in long term relationships, have different life plans, family backgrounds, financial situations. They meet online, and slowly fall in love. Meanwhile, they meet in real life and hate each other with a passion. They are fierce business rivals, yet we see how actually torn they are. On paper, they don't work at all. Yet at the end of the story, I am always at the end of my seat, waiting for Joe Fox and Brinkley to round that corner to the bridge. It works, and you just know that they will have a happily ever after. Conflict be damned.
When I am planning a romance novel, I look to real life for inspiration. The best couples have the best meet cute stories. Some stranger than fiction, and that's the best kind of all. Life is complicated and messy, but we all want our happily ever after. It makes the ending of the novel all the sweeter.
Author Info
In the meantime I nearly always remember to brush my hair, seldom have time to look in a mirror and write many, many to-do lists.
My first solo novel, Crossing Life Lines is out now in Kindle and paperback format. Look out for my horror shorts, published through Bayou Brew Publishing: The House of Sugar Blood, August 2013 and Uni Assassin, out now, and my short story, Mallow Girl, out now. I
n July 2015, I won the Prima magazine and Mills & Boon Flirty Fiction Competition, with my entry, The Chic Boutique on Baker Street, out now in ebook and paperback.
I love to chat on twitter so come say hi! @writerdove
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