Quote:
|
she falls for the skinny weird looking guy who she meets on the road.
|
I have issues with that constant portrayal too, however. Ever notice how the homely guys can get the pretty girls, but the homely girls can never get the pretty guys? (and I'm talking about girls who actually
aren't the Standard of Beauty, not ones who just need to be shown the right way to do one's makeup and hair).
It's the one thing that I consciously did with my characters in my story. The heroine is actually an average-looking person; her own description of herself is "I can be attractive, in the right clothes and hairstyle, but I'm never pretty, and sure as hades never beautiful." She's also the one my elven hero is in love with. Go figure. ^~
But to the original question: yes, I feel impelled towards romance. The relationship between my hero and my heroine is a major plot point for the story; of course, it's sometimes a very disfunctional relationship, and my romances are no beds of roses. And I throw curve balls; some of the male/female relationship (or even applicable male/male!) are quite simply platonic. :: shrugs::
Quote:
|
What about making up languages?
|
I think it can be way overdone. I tend to make up a very few words, curses, exclamations and greetings, that sort of thing. The kinds of things that actually do come out in your native tongue when you're startled, as I know from experience (three weeks in France, speaking only French, completely bilingual . . . I still cursed in English when I hurt myself). Otherwise, well, my POV character speaks French and English; she doesn't understand anything of what my elves are babbling on in their own tongue, anyway, so why write it?
Quote:
|
How much control do you exercise over your characters?
|
Very little. And when I try, they become flat, stale and boring; me, forced through a male perspective, or something like that. Letting them simply percolate in my head makes for much more rounded charas, but it can be maddening for plot purposes.
Quote:
|
The heroine and hero don't even find each other until book two and they start out as allies and end up as teenage 'garden of eden' lovers who don't quite consummate and then must part forever
|
Ahhhh. 'His Dark Materials'. I adored those books so very much . . .::laughs:: and I personally didn't have the faith-persuasion problem, but I can understand where it would stick. It's one of the things I've never understood; such a fuss is made of Harry Potter, and yet His Dark Materials is ignored, and it's the one that violently attacks Christian conceptions .. . :: shrugs::