The course of true love never did
run smooth ~ William Shakespeare
And let’s hope it never does.
Think about it. If true love did run smooth, it would provide a straight shot
from boy meets girl to boy and girl live happily ever after. If that happened,
where in the world would most of us romance writers be?
Manuscripts would be sooooo much
shorter. And not nearly as pretty.
“Hello. How are you?”
“Fine, thanks, and you?”“I’m good. Thanks for asking.”
“By the way, you’re kind of cute.”
“You are too.”
“I love you.”
“I feel the same way, too.”
“Marry me.”
“I’d love to.”
Okay, so maybe manuscripts would
be pretty in the aesthetic sense. They sure wouldn’t be very interesting. If true love did run smooth, there’d
be no angst, no suffering (both external and internal) no drama, no coming to
realize moment, no growth of characters. No sacrifice for love. No tension. No
attraction-revulsion; attraction-acceptance (albeit grudging);
attraction-attraction.
Oh, we could probably get some conflict
mileage out of evil family members (especially those of the step variety) but
that’s about all.
If true love did run smooth day after
day after day after day, there’d be no spurned lovers, no women scorned. None
of our beloved tropes to adhere to. No constantly thwarted goals for our protagonists to strive for. Also, there’d be no need for (gasp!) the Big Black Moment.
All of our collective writing
lives would be so much different. We probably wouldn’t even need critique
partners. Yikes!
In her column here on the second
of this month, fellow Rose and my personal critique partner, Jannine, talked
about the joys of working in close collaboration with someone. (Yeah, I
couldn’t let that one go without comment, now could I?)
From the CP perspective, the need
to work together to generate success would go right out the window. There’d be no brainstorming sessions about
character motivation, or the lack thereof. No discussions about conflict - good,
bad or indifferent.
Indulge me in a shout out here, please. Here's to the good times, Jannine! Thank you. Now to continue.
Indulge me in a shout out here, please. Here's to the good times, Jannine! Thank you. Now to continue.
The course of true love never did
(or does) run smooth.
Thank goodness for that. Otherwise,
how very boring would our world, and our writing lives, be?
What do you think? Agree with me,
disagree or neutral?
My days to blog here are the 11th
and 23rd. For more about me and my stories, please visit my website
