Writing Romance: Being Together
Once the characters get together, it’s all about the direction the relationship takes. Real people change in relationships, so the characters should change too if the relationship lasts long enough. But that’s not an excuse to completely change your characters. The progression of the relationship should feel natural.
In Amber Abandonment (year five), Neville and Luna start dating. They get along well together, but circumstances separate them. In that time, Luna changes, growing stronger and more independent. She does so because she believes that she’s holding her friends – Neville in particular – back. Even then, her odd self is underneath the new exterior. That desire to not burden him motivates many of her actions in the following year as well, causing her to remain hidden after she becomes blind.
Another way characters change in a relationship is when they try to “fix” one another. While this didn’t take too much of the focus of Villain in Vermilion, Lavender Brown did this with Ron Weasley. She nudged him in different directions, and often made him feel uneasy when he realized she was doing it. As this type of a relationship often does, this caused conflict between them, and likely would’ve caused them to break up if Rose hadn’t forcibly ended the relationship herself.
Not every conflict should threaten to break them up, though. People can argue but understand that it’s only temporary. In the show Firefly, Zoe and Wash argue when Wash feels she listens to the captain more than she does to him. At no point is there a chance they’re going to break up, but it still causes tension and conflict, shaping the rest of the episode. Even when Luna and Neville are separated, they still care for one another.
There are a lot of ways to write a relationship, and I’ve found that it’s the characters that ultimately decide how it will happen. The same principle applies to the plot. If they have the ability to shape it, then they will. As the writer, it’s up to you to find out how.
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