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Yeah - I'm procrastinating. I don't wanna practice, so I'm coming here to ramble.

Sorry for being such a drag these past two entries - this one'll be more cheerful, I promise. It's all about romance - your own way!

Heh. You know, if you asked me who my favourite romantic pairing in the entire world is, I would answer two real people? It's strange, but after hearing about them, romances in books seem a little cliche at times. Their relationship is all their own... nothing is cliche and nothing is as it seems. It makes me smile just to think about them. Yeah, I'm a bit of a romance-stalker. ^^, But whatever. It's all them, with none of the cliche moments or old scenarios thrown into books to highlight the romance.

Really - Romances in books have to be well-written and well pulled off for it to work out. You have to take the characters and make their relationships all their own. A truly well-written romance will make you laugh out loud because it's just so them. If you changed the names, it'd still be them.

For instance, in the 'Trickster' series by Tamora Pierce, Aly, a super-spy and Nawat, a crow-turned-man, have a romance. I can never get enough of those two. It's just so funny and sweet at the same time. There's Aly, trying to focus on her job and unwilling to believe that after all the flirting and teasing and then rejecting she'd done before, her heart had been captured by a crow-man. Then you have Nawat, trying to win Aly's heart and learn to be a man at the same time. In the first book, when he kept offering her bugs to eat and talking about having their 'nestlings' mob people crow-style, I couldn't stop laughing. Nothing seemed contrived between them, nothing was dull or unoriginal. Their romance was the highlight of those books for me. Not that the books weren't excellent - I highly recommend them. READ THEEEMMMM.

The way to write a sucessful romance is to take the old situations and turn them on their heads.

For instance - a dancing scene.

Let's call our characters Jane and Jim for the sake of easy typing. Jane is clumsy, but Jim is a good dancer. Here's the easy way to do a dancing scene.

Jim asks Jane to dance.

Jane: No way, I'm a terrible dancer. I'll trip, or step on your toes, or...

Jim: It's okay, trust me. I'll be leading. You'll be fine.

They dance. Jane manages to follow Jim in dancing and not tripping, and the two are in a world of their own.

Now here's a more characterized dance scene.

Jim: -smiling gently- hey, Jane... are you going to stand there all night? Why don't you dance? Would you like to dance with me?

Jane: You kidding me? I can't dance.

Jim: -steps closer, takes her hand- There's no reason to think that. It's simple. Dancing is fun - I'll show you. Just follow me.

Jane: Fine. But when I break your toes, I'm not paying for the hospital bill.

Jim: -laughs- come on. It's like this. -takes her hands-

There are a million possibilities to finish this scene. Jane could step on his toe and blame him for distracting her. Or just as they start to go into their own little world, Jane stops and protests 'cheesy cliches' and everyone has a laugh. Jim could become distracted by marvelling at the girl he's dancing with and step on Jane's toe, leading to much mockery from her. Or she steps on his toe so many times that they give up, laugh, and go get a drink. If she's wearing stilettos, the night could end painfully for Jim. See? all of those would be so much more characterized than the first.

And people are that way too. You have to relax into a romance, let it take the character it will based on your personalities. Then you'll enjoy it so much more than if you try to make it fit convention.

Some romances will be full of tender moments. Some will be incredibly romantic and one or both will be constantly swept off their feet. Some romances will be full of laughter, some will be so confusing and tangled that an observer would be hard-pressed to realize it's a romance at all! But all romances will have their love, and that's what's special about them. What shape it takes all depends on you.

Tenderness and laughter,
innocence and caring,
parting sometimes but always coming back together again.
Just sitting silently together and holding hands.
Talking of tomorrow or yesterday.
Sharing our dreams and flights of fancy, no matter how silly.

Bokura No Love Style English Translation
(Ouran High School Host Club)

What's yours?