Re: How to delay a moving van?

Dorothy J Heydt <djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The central couple is _Salamander_ are kept part until Chapter last+1 by
the fact that they are somewhat shy, and used to thinking of their lives
in terms other than "search for a mate."

That works. What doesn't work, and is so often attempted, is the
female thinking "Oh, he doesn't like me, I mustn't show I like
him," and the male thinking the converse, for {number of chapters
minus one} chapters.

As always when someone points out a flaw in someone else's writing, I
have to do a quick mental check to see if my own work suffers from the
same flaw....

:rueful grimace:



In novel the first the lovers are kept apart by:
He being engaged to someone else.
He being on the rebound from someone who is too like her so he's looking
for the opposite of what he actually wants.
He being a bit occupied with other aspects of his life, and it not
occuring to him that the perfect girl for him is available untll she
thrusts herself into his notice.
That's three different couples. There were two other set of lovers too.
I paired off far too many people in that book. Especially for a book
that is too short to market. :P

Novels the second and third don't really have romantic plots.

Novel the fourth has couple kept apart by.... well it's complicated.
'Cultural expectations' is probably the best short hand. Niether one of
them *ever* says 'oh he/she doesn't like me so I mustn't show that I
like him/her' though so I guess I'm safe.

Novel the fifth, has some romantic tension as a subplot, but the couple
*doesn't* get together. For the record, she spends the book going, 'oh,
no, I can't possibly like *him* can I?' And he spends it going, 'you
know, I think she might like me, I wonder why?'

Novel the sixth lasts four days. The couple *doesn't* get together.
She has been very interested in not getting invovled with anyone, and
there just isn't time for her to change her mind about that, no matter
how attracted she is.

Novel the seventh...
Pavane. I find myself very reluctant to spoiler this one here, and I
can't figure out how to describe the problem without doing so. I'm
pretty sure nobody is being stupid, though. :)

Novel the eighth is the sequel to novel the fifth, in which he admits to
her that he cares about her, but this revelation does *not* serve to get
the two the them together.

Which brings me to the Black Flag stuff...

ONE. Is a romantic triangle. She is attracted to two guys, and needs
to decide between them, and then convince them both that what she
decided really was her decision, and that it was the right one for her.
This takes a bit of convincing, which is why I frequently worry that
it'll read as stupid. But it isn't the kind of stupid Dorothy was
complaining about.

TWO. This is the forty-eight year old guy and the seventeen year old
girl. The seventeen half of that makes it illlegal, so he is unwilling
to admit that he's attracted. She has trouble recognizing her own
feelings for what they are, and when it becomes obvious that he is
attracted to her, she worries that it is because, as she well knows, she
resembles someone from his past. I don't think anyone is being
particualrly stupid there -- his past is a pretty big issue in this
case, and deservedly so. Once she figures out that she is in love, she
propositions him (as of her eighteenth birthday), since he is clearly
attracted, whatever the reason, and they might as well both get what
they can out of it. (Which is at least forty years of marriage and four
kids.)


THREE. This one revisits the 'too young' trope, but this time they are
both very young and this one adds in the complication of an older (and
therefore legal) but unfortunately untrustworthy rival for the heroes
affections. He figures out that relationship would be bad very bad
news, but is prevented by the 'action' plot from disengaging from it
entirely.

FOUR. Kept apart by culture clash, and a language barrier.

FIVE. Kept apart by iron bars. The romantic leads spend most of the
story imprisioned.

SIX... er, which one *is* six, anyway? Is it the one where his father
is the terrorist who grabs her as a hostage, or is it the one where I
haven't even figured out *what* the romantic plot is yet? Well which
ever of those two isn't six is seven. :shrug:

EIGHT. They were just starting to get to know each other when this
civil war breaks out, see, and during the firefight it turns out that
she isn't who she's been pretending to be, and he isn't who he's
pretending to be. Which makes the the *only* thing that either one of
them had been willing to be honest about was the fact that they were
attracted to each other. VBEG.

And...
In Scent of Spring there are age differences that don't end up getting
in the way and class differences that do. :)

In Mark of the Beast there's this little matter of him being one of the
bad guys. >:)


At the very least, I think I'm managing to not duplicate myself much.

Though Jean Auel, IIRC, repeatedly
asked us to believe in her characters sharing a cave or tent
non-chastely and THEN going through "he/she doesn't like me" for
800 pages at a stretch.

I sort of do this once (although not for 800 pages.)

It's *entirely* one-sided.

But I do, seriously, have a guy who thinks, roughly, 'she may think she
cares for me, but it's really just that I'm a good lover, and she'll get
used to that soon and realize that it doesn't mean a whole lot.'

You may all throw things at me now.



--
Michelle Bottorff -> Chelle B. -> Shelby
L. Shelby, Writer http://www.lshelby.com/
Livejournal http://lavenderbard.livejournal.com/
rec.arts.sf.composition FAQ http://www.lshelby.com/rasfcFAQ.html
.

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