What is the most interesting part of a romance novel? The first date? The wedding scene? The love scenes? (sorry folks, there aren’t any in inspirational romances!)
For me, it’s the best parts of a romance novel are the fight scenes. I always perk up when the hero and heroine delve into a great, air-clearing, rafter-shaking fight. As a person who has conflict-avoidance coded deeply into my DNA, fighting is something I dodge in real life, but in a novel? Yes, please!
Think about the great romantic pairs. Rhett and Scarlett. Maddy and David (Moonlighting) Sam and Diane (Cheers) Barrons and MacKayla (Karen Marie Moning’s incomparable Darkfever saga).
Some of my favorite fight-scene-writers derive from mainstream romance: Lisa Kleyaps, Judith McNaught, Kristan Higgins, and the aforementioned Karen Marie Moning. Watching the way a couple argues is a great way to reveal layers of their character and inject a healthy dose of angst into the story.
A great romance novel should have a variety of good, conflict laden fights. Not the stupid bickering types of fights (although those can be fun, too!) I want to see the heart-rending fights, or break down and weep fights that require a good grovel afterwards. Perhaps most powerful are the arguments where both parties are RIGHT. I wrote The Rose of Winslow Street with a plenty of conflict that had no easy exit because both Michael and Libby were fighting with Right on their side. To my mind, these healthy arguments make getting to the finish line of a romance novel that much sweeter!
Comments 2
Oh, I LOVE a good fight scene as well! Gone with the Wind has some great ones…I laugh every time Rhett gets Scarlett’s dander up-which is 99 percent of the time. In real life hardly any one would want such a tumultuous relationship, but on screen it makes for some memorable viewing! 🙂
Loved the disagreements between Michael and Libby in The Rose of Winslow Street too. They added such great tension!
Author
Thanks for noticing, Christina! Michael and Libby bicker plenty…. not always nice or comfortable, but no low-blows. I want the reader to respect them even more as they lock horns!