  Romance/Love
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My name is Crys-not really here and today it is my pleasure to be your guest editor for the Romance and Love Newsletter!
Today, we will look at some dialogue from Bridges of Madison County and discuss what makes it so effective and how you can write more realistic relationships between your characters. |
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If you’ve ever read Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller you’ll know what I’m talking about here. If you haven’t, then you’re not alone. I haven’t either. But when I stumbled upon this example from the novel and an explanation about how effective the dialogue is in conveying the love between a man (Robert Kincaid) and a woman (Francesca Johnson), I knew I had to share it with you all.
The story can be summed up as this: A man walks into a woman’s life for only four days, and then walks out again, taking her heart with him and leaving a piece of his own behind with her. That’s basically all you need to know.
The following lines were spoken from Robert to Francesca after she explained to him why she could not run off with him:
Robert Kincaid was silent. He knew what she was saying about the road and responsibilities and how the guilt could transform her. He knew she was right, in a way. Looking out the window, he fought within himself, fought to understand her feelings. She began to cry.
Then they held each other for a long time. And he whispered to her, "I have one thing to say, one thing only, I'll never say it another time, to anyone, and I ask you to remember it: In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live."
Ask yourself, what makes this piece of dialogue so effective that thousands (perhaps millions) of female readers all over the world swooned, cried and cheered? Was it the mere fact that pretty much any woman on the planet would love to hear those words spoken to her from her true love? Or is there more? How can you write dialogue between two people in love that sends shivers up your readers’ spines like Waller did? Most of all, how do you prevent your characters from sounding cheesy when they express their love for each other?
Remember that love (whether it is between a man and a woman, a woman and her cat, or a mother and her daughter) isn’t all about hugs and kisses. Real-life love involves struggles, arguments, and sacrifices. If the love between your characters is too perfect, your reader isn’t going to believe it. In the passage above from Bridges of Madison County, there is plenty of conflict. Both characters want something that they cannot have. However, there is also resolution. Robert knows that Francesca cannot go with him because of her responsibilities at home, and despite how hard it is they both accept that fact.
A common internal conflict is love versus fear. When a human is in love, he or she also feels fear— fear that that things will not go well, that he or she is not being a good partner, that they will lose the love of their lives— so your characters should simultaneously feel love and fear as well. An authentic scene between two people expressing love for each other has to include both love and fear in one, or both, of the characters. Without fear, the reader has nothing to root for and your scene will end up cheesy and sappy.
Finally, remember that real relationships take time to grow. Don’t expect your characters to fall in love right away. Instead, spend some time building the relationship between your characters through dialogue as well as action. Your readers will relate to two individuals who bicker, fight, discuss and make up more than two characters who are instantly attracted to each other and then ooze sticky-sweet words of love to each other that no one would say in real life.
Dialogue by Gloria Kempton is an excellent book in the Write Great Fiction series, from which I summarized for this article. |
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| I'd like to hear your favorite romantic lines from novels. Tell me, what makes you swoon when you read it? What makes it so romantic? Is the relationship realistic, and why or why not? |
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Romance/Love: December 16, 2009 Issue [#3413]
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