I'm doing a comic called Olympus, which is really, at heart, a love story between a mortal and a goddess. Quite aside from being troubled that this is a cliched Geek Fantasy Stereotype ("Beauty and the geek"?), I'm really concerned about the difficulty of writing an opposites-attract romance. I've been keeping them apart so far as a bit of a dodge-- I'm not sure how to write them together convincingly, and I'm getting to a point where I really need to.
Patrick O'Ryan is a former Pennsylvania IT consultant with an excellent memory for useless facts-- which he was able to parley into winning "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"
Diana is the greco-roman goddess of the moon and the hunt, a mythic symbol of unattainability. Definitely athletic and outdoorsy, hobbies include hiking and archery.
How do you show-not-tell that seemingly incompatible characters enjoy a certain chemistry between them?
Writing romance right
firstly i loooove your art `3`
At the base of a coming from two different "worlds" love story is the concept that for each person the other is something they've never experienced, like nothing they've really known. Coming from a different world they think, act, live differently than what the person has always been exposed to. Usually filling some deep longing for something missing, something different.
The characters need some kind of common ground. I know they're complete opposites but without even something shared it makes it difficult to make it lasting (especially for oh say an eternity). For them it could simply be the difference between them to establish the relationship. But finding a common ground for them may help you write them together. Right now they have the excitement of a new experience (I'm assuming she's not had a boyfriend really from what Apollo said and if she has than perhaps not one like him).
For some reason my brain is all mucked up and I can't think. I'll try to write more later.
At the base of a coming from two different "worlds" love story is the concept that for each person the other is something they've never experienced, like nothing they've really known. Coming from a different world they think, act, live differently than what the person has always been exposed to. Usually filling some deep longing for something missing, something different.
The characters need some kind of common ground. I know they're complete opposites but without even something shared it makes it difficult to make it lasting (especially for oh say an eternity). For them it could simply be the difference between them to establish the relationship. But finding a common ground for them may help you write them together. Right now they have the excitement of a new experience (I'm assuming she's not had a boyfriend really from what Apollo said and if she has than perhaps not one like him).
For some reason my brain is all mucked up and I can't think. I'll try to write more later.
NJ: "You know the drill, you're AWESOME!"
I am the artist formerly known as M2
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Sasjhwa
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Perhaps...
He reminds her of a former mortal that she loved way back in the day. The memories are strong enough she believes he might be a reincarnation. Regardless it gives her incentive to make the first move, perhaps without revealing her divinity at first. They fall in love and then he learns the truth only to feel betrayed as nothing more than a mortal plaything.
Check out http://fractuslux.comicgenesis.com. That is a great comic about gods and their problems. It is called Sea of Insanity.
He reminds her of a former mortal that she loved way back in the day. The memories are strong enough she believes he might be a reincarnation. Regardless it gives her incentive to make the first move, perhaps without revealing her divinity at first. They fall in love and then he learns the truth only to feel betrayed as nothing more than a mortal plaything.
Check out http://fractuslux.comicgenesis.com. That is a great comic about gods and their problems. It is called Sea of Insanity.
<a href="http://www.heroesofaudioland.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v335/ ... asjhwa.jpg" border="0" alt="Sasjhwa's Studio"> </a>
That's very much the case (which would be a lot clearer if CG would actually update Friday's strip), though in this particular case it's complicated because he shouldn't be capable of reincarnating, being a constellation and all. That said, I'm still nervous about writing them together.Sasjhwa wrote:Perhaps...
He reminds her of a former mortal that she loved way back in the day. The memories are strong enough she believes he might be a reincarnation. Regardless it gives her incentive to make the first move,
Reading Sea of Insanity now, seems cool, thanks.
Thank you so much!mvmarcz wrote:firstly i loooove your art `3`
Hm. Yes, yes they do.At the base of a coming from two different "worlds" love story is the concept that for each person the other is something they've never experienced, like nothing they've really known. Coming from a different world they think, act, live differently than what the person has always been exposed to. Usually filling some deep longing for something missing, something different. The characters need some kind of common ground. I know they're complete opposites but without even something shared it makes it difficult to make it lasting (especially for oh say an eternity).
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Adobedragon
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Well, assuming your two protagonists will eventually have a "happily ever after" ending as they say in the romance novel biz, then look for characteristics that will be the "relationship glue" in the long run. Then let those things come out in their conversations and interactions.
Obviously, there needs to be some physical attraction initially. But long term relationships are based on respect and mutual admiration, admiration for character traits, not just physical attributes. Rather than treating their different aptitudes as negatives (opposites), think of them as strengths, with each person bringing something important to the relationship.
As a reader and a writer, I like romantic dialogue that shows that the two actually like each other, and that they are good friends as well as [potential] lovers.
One question you might ask yourself is, "Would these two like each other if there wasn't any physical attraction?" I.e., if they were just two men (or women), would they be friends? If so, why? Keep in mind, surrounded by loads of hunky gods, Diana may have had her fill of the standard muscle-bound hero type. Or maybe Patrick finds Diana a breath of fresh air, literally, after years in the Dilbert-esque workplace.
I've read a lot of romance and romantic fiction, and I'm a bit leary of "opposites attract" plotlines. Done well, they're awesome. But too often the writers push the "opposite" too hard and forget that the hero and heroine need to share important commonalities in order to be a believable long-term couple.
Frequently, writers rely on the tired old practice of "attraction disguised as antagonism." I.e., the two characters bicker throughout the entire story. Don't get me wrong, witty banter can be hot. But if that's all the two ever do, it's difficult to believe they're really compatible. (If the point is just to get them in the sack and have Teh Sex, then love/hate plotlines work just fine.)
Point, being, if you are going to go the route of witty, acerbic, banter...cool, just don't overdo it.
Obviously, there needs to be some physical attraction initially. But long term relationships are based on respect and mutual admiration, admiration for character traits, not just physical attributes. Rather than treating their different aptitudes as negatives (opposites), think of them as strengths, with each person bringing something important to the relationship.
As a reader and a writer, I like romantic dialogue that shows that the two actually like each other, and that they are good friends as well as [potential] lovers.
One question you might ask yourself is, "Would these two like each other if there wasn't any physical attraction?" I.e., if they were just two men (or women), would they be friends? If so, why? Keep in mind, surrounded by loads of hunky gods, Diana may have had her fill of the standard muscle-bound hero type. Or maybe Patrick finds Diana a breath of fresh air, literally, after years in the Dilbert-esque workplace.
I've read a lot of romance and romantic fiction, and I'm a bit leary of "opposites attract" plotlines. Done well, they're awesome. But too often the writers push the "opposite" too hard and forget that the hero and heroine need to share important commonalities in order to be a believable long-term couple.
Frequently, writers rely on the tired old practice of "attraction disguised as antagonism." I.e., the two characters bicker throughout the entire story. Don't get me wrong, witty banter can be hot. But if that's all the two ever do, it's difficult to believe they're really compatible. (If the point is just to get them in the sack and have Teh Sex, then love/hate plotlines work just fine.)
Point, being, if you are going to go the route of witty, acerbic, banter...cool, just don't overdo it.
-- When in Doubt, CheatYeah, that gets old. Especially considering that I've never in my life been attracted to someone whom I disliked. It's such a common trope in stories... but it just doesn't ring true to me.adobedragon wrote:Frequently, writers rely on the tired old practice of "attraction disguised as antagonism." I.e., the two characters bicker throughout the entire story. Don't get me wrong, witty banter can be hot. But if that's all the two ever do, it's difficult to believe they're really compatible. (If the point is just to get them in the sack and have Teh Sex, then love/hate plotlines work just fine.)
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Adobedragon
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I suspect some are trying to emulate the kind of banter typical of movies in the 30s, like "It Happened One Night," where snarky dialogue was the only means of conveying sexual tension. Trouble is, nowadays, the dialogue often isn't all that witty, and it typically makes the woman look a loony shrew with the man left as the hapless whipping boy. (Pitt and Roberts in "The Mexican.") Hardly the stuff you build a real love story on.NakedElf wrote:Yeah, that gets old. Especially considering that I've never in my life been attracted to someone whom I disliked. It's such a common trope in stories... but it just doesn't ring true to me.
-- When in Doubt, CheatIt's a self-fulfilling trope that lets a writer have a romance plot and some sort of countervailing tension to the story at the same time.I suspect some are trying to emulate the kind of banter typical of movies in the 30s, like "It Happened One Night," where snarky dialogue was the only means of conveying sexual tension. Trouble is, nowadays, the dialogue often isn't all that witty, and it typically makes the woman look a loony shrew with the man left as the hapless whipping boy. (Pitt and Roberts in "The Mexican.") Hardly the stuff you build a real love story on.
Plus, like I said before, writing people who actually LIKE like eachother, convincingly without being sappy, is actually challenging. Banter is cheap and easy.
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Dan The Lefty
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Cheap and easy isn't always the best way to go. There are better ways to show the differences between characters. For instance: because the have had such different life experiences (especially with Diana being immortal) they will have different opinions of and reactions to things that happen in the story. If your characters are supposed to be open-minded ones (which I'm assuming they are) then it may be in these new and different ways of thinking that they find their attraction to each other.Plus, like I said before, writing people who actually LIKE like eachother, convincingly without being sappy, is actually challenging. Banter is cheap and easy.
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Geekblather
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I think that the love/hate meme is played out so often because romance is drama. Drama needs conflict to survive. It can be the two of them together against the world, or it can be tension between them and other characters, but it has to be there, or else the "romance" becomes relentlessly ho-hum. Romeo and Juliet? Conflict. Jerry Maguire? Conflict. Harold and Maude? Conflict. Not between them, but with the rest of the world. If it's just "Oh pretty goddess and regular guy meet, look they such good fwends, oh fall in lovehappilyevaraftar" well, you could do that in one strip. Maybe two. And it wouldn't be that interesting.
The question also isn't what makes for good romance in life. If you're writing for an audience, it's what makes for entertaining romance in a comic strip. Love/hate shows up because when its well written, it's entertaining. Not everyone likes wangsty banter, but a lot of people do. In something like Penny and Aggie, even the other characters comment on how their tension omfg just HAS to be something else!!eleventy, which is used as a tool to learn more about other characters. (But that also works because T is a fantastic writer.)
Anyway. That's- my two cents about it.
Oh!
go go gadget pun!
The question also isn't what makes for good romance in life. If you're writing for an audience, it's what makes for entertaining romance in a comic strip. Love/hate shows up because when its well written, it's entertaining. Not everyone likes wangsty banter, but a lot of people do. In something like Penny and Aggie, even the other characters comment on how their tension omfg just HAS to be something else!!eleventy, which is used as a tool to learn more about other characters. (But that also works because T is a fantastic writer.)
Anyway. That's- my two cents about it.
Oh!
Wouldn't that be beauty and the Greek?Geek Fantasy Stereotype ("Beauty and the geek"?),
go go gadget pun!
It's about fluff, angst, drama, comedy, gaming. Come play in our world.
Eh. Don't most romances climax (no pun intended) during the timeframe when the main characters are exploring or questioning their feelings for the other? That slice of time when a character is submerged in the wondrous, colorful, and downright annoying phase of figuring out how they really feel?
Everything external to that can just be fluff, really. I say go for it.
Everything external to that can just be fluff, really. I say go for it.