Do you need to believe in love to be able to write romance?

Guest Blog by Suzanne Jefferies

Love is a many splendoured thing. All you need is love. Love to love you baby. All the great lyricists know that there’s no more abused word in the entire lexicon than ‘love’. Not only can it heal wounds, but it can also perpetuate them, “But I love him/her, even though he treats me badly, kicked my dog, ran off with my best friend/mother/extraterrestrial neighbour.” Love bites. Why don’t you love me? Love me, love me, say that you love me. See, any good writer knows that the fortunes of love can run from overflowing then end up in the red within moments. And any great writer knows that ‘love’ can and does happen to everyone – it’s our universal glue.

I know what you’re thinking though…you’re thinking boy/girl, girl/girl, boy/boy lurve. Wrong, wrong, absolutely wrong.

All protagonists have some sort of love affair that moves them to do the things they do. To go on an adventure across a shire, to solve a crime that seems impossible, to protect their family, to get that date with the hot chick, to make the soccer team, whatever. Are you going to tell me that your hero/heroine is kinda lukewarm about their romance? Nu-uh. They’re usually fiercely passionate about it, even if they seem reluctant to move at first. Of course, they’re reluctant, who wouldn’t be reluctant? Embarking on any kind of romance runs the risk of having your precious heart absolutely shattered against the rocks of fate, fortune and chance. Hands up to the writer who has not experienced this kind of romance, the kind that has you slaving away, year after year, rejection after rejection, as you refine your craft? Is it love? Abso-frigging-lutely. Do you need to believe in it? Hell, no. It just is.

And we haven’t even got on to the topic of the ‘love interest’. What do they do? Provide complications? Naturally. The course of…, and so on and so forth.

All novels are romance novels at their heart (oy vey, bad pun). They’re a romance between writer and novel, reader and novel, reader and writer, protagonist and goal, protagonist and love interest. You don’t need to believe in love to write it, you just have to need to know how to keep someone hooked. Isn’t that what romance is all about?

About the Author

Suzanne Jefferies is the author of The Joy of Comfort Eating, a contemporary romance novel set in cosmopolitan Johannesburg. The book is currently available at Amazon. Check out Writer’s Support 5-minute interview: Suzanne Jefferies Interview .

Connect with Suzanne

Twitter:  @suzannejefferies

Website:  www.suzannejefferies.com

Facebook:  suzanne.jefferies7