October Review Challenge, #17 - Romantic line

October Review Challenge, #17 - "What’s your most romantic line?"

So I actually love romance. I love the dance of two people who are drawn to each other and tracing the path of how it breaks down reserve and obstacles to find their way together. I really enjoy writing it into a larger adventure, though I tend to not like pieces that are solely in the romance genre— I recently realized that it’s because I feel like in pure romance I don’t get to see the characters as people pursuing their own needs and goals outside of the relationship, and therefore have a harder time understanding why they fall for each other. But when it’s part of a story in another genre, I adore it.

I love when characters say romantic things to each other. Just the right line can hit you in the guts and take your breath away. They can be tricky to write— I mentioned I find the “picking of the words” part to be the hardest part of writing anything —but I think I’ve managed a few.

The most explicitly romantic piece I’ve ever written is probably Adonis. The genre is alternate history epic, but the relationship between Diana and Aidan is the heart of the story. A goal of mine for that story is that they are not excessively articulated, as both characters are going through things they don’t really know how to talk about it, so there’s honestly not a lot of individual lines that are particularly romantic out of context. It’s more the whole gestalt that makes the feeling, I’d say.

I also like writing romance that is... a little fucked up. I’m not sure why that is; probably I get a little transgressive thrill. People who probably shouldn’t be together. Unrequited loves. Things where the power dynamic might be off, like with Aidan and Diana. So I get a kick when I can make the audience’s guts twist because there’s something devastatingly romantic about a situation where things are messed up. I think there’s something compelling about Aidan, almost destroyed at the hands of powerful women just like Diana, terrified of being vulnerable to her, wanting her so badly he cannot help but lay himself open to her. But the foremost example I can think of this is the sad case of Colonel Reginald Prescott Hawking, completely in love with a woman who could never feel the same, and who in trying to love, he did the worst wrongs anyone could do to her.

I think there is something absolutely heartbreaking about what those two did to each other. They were friends once, but his falling in love with her was the beginning of the end, because she could never return it. And in this incompatibility, they caused each other irreparable harm. But it was important to me to structure their scenes in part IV: Gilded Cages together, where it explains how things happened between them, to feel romantic in order to make the true point— it didn’t matter how romantic their interactions were, because she did not and could never want that from him. So I really wanted the romance THERE.

He has a bunch of lines that hit it, I think. When Victoria doesn’t understand why Reginald is so willing to do whatever she needs, his answer is a gut punch: “My God, Victoria. Don’t you know?” And when he tries to assure her he’s there for her, I had him say “Never doubt me, Victoria. Please.” It was my attempt to evoke Hamlet’s poetry to Ophelia, “Doubt thou the stars are fire / Doubt thou the sun doth move, / Doubt all truth to be a liar, / But do not doubt my love.” But one of the absolute most devastating ones is actually in a supplemental piece, where they are together for the first time on their wedding night, which Victoria dreads without being able to say why. He promises her, with all the adoration in the world, “I’ll be gentle. I promise.” And proceeds to commit the gentlest rape in the world.

I guess I ought to mention something that is romantic in a less fraught way. I’d probably pick Arthur in his marriage proposal to Mary in Fallen Women. It’s been a long time in coming, but as much as he wants them to be together, he doesn’t know if it can fit into her life, and in powerful contrast to the Colonel, he is resolved to not allow that to impose on her life. Instead of trying to take charge and fix everything for her, he asks her to show him the way, promising, “Lead, and I’ll follow.” A solemn vow of low to go wherever she goes, and be what she needs, while being certain to obtain her consent. That may not always factor into the things I find romantic, but it can sure pack a hell of a wallop when it does.


Photo by Dan Fox