THE GRUMPY AUTHOR - ROMANCE IN FANTASY
It's that time again. Time for the Grumpy Author to come out of his den and chat about something that irritates him (and the list is seemingly endless, it's not just your imagination). This week's subject is romance in fantasy books.
Does romance belong in a fantasy book? Personally, I think it absolutely does. In fact, I find fantasy books that have zero romance in them fall a bit flat. That might come as a bit of a surprise to you, but it's true.
Why? Well, quite simply, I like my fantasy to have many, not just large stakes. It's great if your characters are out to save the kingdom, the continent, the world, the multiverse, or whatever. And they can certainly be motivated to do so solely by altruism. But I find if they have someone to fight for, it adds another wrinkle to things. It opens up a lot of introspection that might not otherwise be there, and also gives the character something larger than himself - even if he is truly altruistic - to fight for.
Of course, this does come with drawbacks in the form of some badly over-used tropes. The first of those, naturally, is the "oh noes, my boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/not-as-subtle-as-the-author-thinks-love-interest has been captured by the villain and now I have to save him/her/them/whatever!" As stated, this is so horribly overused that I implore you to think twice (or three, four, five, or fifty times) about using it. It gets used a lot. Never well. And it's one of the fastest ways to make a reader roll their eyes at your plot.
Another badly overused/misused trope is the infamous "I want to make my boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/not-as-subtle-as-the-author-thinks-love-interest proud and/or protect them, so I become invincible when they're in danger." You can even find this one in the Eragon (Inheritance Cycle) series. And it's just as ludicrous as it sounds:
"The soldiers threw themselves at him in an attempt to subdue him through sheer numbers, but to no avail: Katrina was in danger, and he was invincible." -- Chris Paolini, "Eldest"
Because yeah, naked teenagers can always beat up an entire squad of armed and armored professional soldiers when their girlfriend is in trouble, didn't you know? But I'll touch more on this in next week's column, "Get Bent, You F-" ... Whoops, sorry, that's for a different group. Next week's column will be, "We Write Fantasy, Not Lunacy."
Other bad tropes and misuses of romance in fantasy include things like "I wanted to add some porn," "I'm shamelessly trying to market to particular groups," "I'm a White Knight" (see my column from last week), and so on.
If you're going to put romance in your fantasy book, make sure it serves a purpose other than checking off a box or giving your "hero" someone to save so they can somehow be selfish and altruistic at the same time. Use it to round out your characters, to show that they're part of the world they're trying to save, that they truly care about people beyond seeing them as some object to save, and that they're looking forward to the day they're not on an endless road of war.
On the other hand, don't let it be the main plot of the book ("Oh, gee, do I shag the fae, the werewolf, or the vampire? Decisions, decisions...") or overshadow the plot of the book. If the romance is the plot of the book, you haven't written a fantasy novel, you've written a romance novel. And if you let the subplot overshadow the main plot, you essentially end up in the same place. "Romantic Fantasy" and "Fantasy Romance" are not the same thing! And strangely enough, both belong in the categories the second word points to.
But otherwise, by all means, put some romance in your fantasy book! It's just another facet of "show, don't tell" that lets you paint a broader, more nuanced portrait of your character, what they believe, and what they fight for and why.
Just don't be like Dean...
