Hey everyone! So I’m kind of at a dead end right here. So I’m writing the sequel to my novella and it’s a reunited romance. Long story short (and spoiler for those who haven’t read it: The MCs were best friends who realized that they loved each other when it was too late. Now, they’re back in touch, and my FMC struggles to realize if she still loves my MMC too much. And she’s afraid that if she tells him, she’ll lose him again
I’m sort of at a limbo because I really want to make things as realistic as possibly can. My novella prequel really benefitted from staying as realistic as possible and I think it can really aid my sequel. I’m just not sure how to fill in the gaps. I know the beginning and end, but the middle I’m stuck at. I also want to avoid as much cliches as possible, but again, not sure how to do that.
So, what are your tips and tricks for writing reunited romance? And what do you think are some things to avoid?
I have limited experience with the genre, but the biggest cliche to me is when the current partners of the MC and love interest are made irredeemably bad to justify their looking elsewhere for affection. It’s an easy way to clear the path to the MC and LI coming together, but do you really want that to be such a smooth path? I think there are more interesting stories to tell if no one is particularly in the wrong.
Some of the things that I find people miss is the age of reunion colors everything.
Midlife crisis: the fear that those rekindled love is trying to recapture youth instead of genuinely about a love for the other person.
Genuinely loving more than one person. If we could only love 1 person and unequal loves couldn’t be rewarding, then no one would have kids, let alone more than one.
The person who writes love triangles the most is @MiniMoxx , so she might have some thoughts from that end.
Era and personal interest: I was fortunate to grow up in a time where my worth wouldn’t be in breeding babies, so I never tied my husband a child of both of us. But while women can have children all the way up until menopause completes (sometimes into late 50s), fertility decreases in your late 30s. If you have a beat friend whom you love that you’re reunited with and they don’t have an heir and your children cannot be reasonable substitutions as well as the likelihood of you not having any more kids, you may push the love of your life towards a younger wife, a loveless marriage, so he can have an heir, and he’d have to fight to show that you are more important than leaving your worldly goods to any other person, when life is short.
The role of provider is a strong issue as well. A man who has been through a divorce so badly that he ends up homeless is going to be difficult to get into a relationship with… that’s basically where my roommate and her boyfriend are at. They barely see each other, and he’s loved her since they were children.
A lot of illness and lack of self-care happens towards time apart. Hair thins out, bellies grow…not that things can’t improve with work, but if this person is in a mental slump, they won’t see themselves as worthy for being less than they once were.
If they have had a partner die, they are very keen on how short and transient life is. My father remarried within 6 months. I knew he would from the beginning. My father wasn’t “over” my mom and rpobsbly won’t ever be, but he’s called to live a life and he’s going to do it. Other people become paralyzed and quit living and have to be pulled back into life. Either they will come to love the savior that pulls them out of their emotional death or they will let go due to not needing the crutch anymore.
Then there’s ghosts of the past. Yes, there are echoes of the person you once loved, and they’re still going to have their core elements, but they aren’t the same person and neither are you. Someone who hated coffee may be an afficonado now, but that may not change how they drink a hot beverage. You can see the little boy with a mug of coco sitting across from you, in rare moments, but this isn’t a boy, but a guarded adult who doesn’t show their heart on their sleeve anymore. Things like that.
Age of children. Younger kids will accept a new relationship better, as will young adults who have their own lives, but this is devestating for mid early teens, and so kids get in the way.
Oh, interesting! I don’t want to really create that. I initially had an idea where my MMC’s current SO would cheat on him in the later chapters, and after he breaks it off, my MCs get together. I felt that was too easy. My main obstacle stopping my FMC from realizing things is fear. She fears that a) her mental issues will scare him off and b) if she tells him, he won’t feel the same, and the friendship will become strained and lose him again.
It’s more things that aren’t often well thought out in most stories. There’s a lot more younger writers writing lost loves instead of older ones who have lived it.
I actually use #7 in my Assassin series because the writer was aware of her mentor/husband when they were both children. No older than 12/17 the first time they interact, between 14/19-17/22 when she reads his journal…and I think it’s in the first book where she’s comparing the boy he was, the burgeoning man he became and the stern instructor she was under, showing the disorienting aspects of how alien he was from himself.
and it’s so cool how you really fleshed it out in your book