Where are the romance stories or stories with romance focusing on the couples afterward?

The Chatters
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Enemies to lovers.
Friends to lovers.
Strangers to lovers.
What really happens after the whole will they or won’t they become a they will story?

I have a story idea that ALWAYS seems to ponder off and on about two married and former chosen heroes go back into heroic duty to save the world after losing their daughter, the new chosen one.

The story is meant to focus on how new changes in a couple’s life change the relationship entirely. They both lose their daughter, they have to become heroes again years later, they have to save the world and finally kill the evil villain for good, and they have to do it while still grieving for the death of their daughter along with going back to the basics.

I watch a YouTuber discuss why she might not be into romance. She wants to know what happens after the couple gets together. I find this interesting because I will only write romances like that if I wanted to (preferably they are fantasy and science-fiction, central focused). She doesn’t mind a will they or won’t they romance if it’s intriguing enough. She just gravitates to old soul kind of romances more.

These types of relationships are found in secondary characters more than main primary characters.

I don’t hate romance, I do watch some at times. I just don’t want to always watch people falling in love where there is a tug of war between the main leads, then it ends with they will for the most garbage reasons, when it was better that they never fell in love to begin with.

I want to know what happens afterwards. What happens after the enemies turned lovers get married and be closer than ever before? Are they still madly in love or can we only assume that they are? The same applies for friends or strangers to lovers.

I want to see them growing older together until death drives them apart unless they are immortal (still something or someone gets killed off by some reason).

I am not a romantic person, never been in a relationship ever. Still, I don’t mind a good romance every now and then.

However, when I write or plan to write a romance, I want to focus on what happens went two people in a married relationship or they’ve been dating for a while are placed in the situation where they plot is basically toying with their relationship. “If your love for each other is so strong, let’s see if it can withstand anything I dish out at you two. Can your love make it to the end?” I want nothing more than to write things like that.

Thoughts and feelings?

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@Akje
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I like knowing their future, too. This is why I’m prone to at least short epilogues.

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I’ve never read a romance like that, since romance novels are about the romantic tension that leads to a couple finally getting together. Once they do get together the tension is over, so the book ends. But that might make for a really interesting story! You don’t have to do things the way everyone else does.

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Bah! You can create tension out of anything if you can figure out what to do about it!

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Exactly! (*＾-‘) 乃

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It’s pretty uncommon in commercial/ genre romance.

General/ literary fiction does explore this situation a bit more. Most of the time the tension is the relationship breakdown. I think portraying a relationship that’s never tested and going strong is a bit fluffy. I’ve read a couple of books that deal w middle relationships: On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan; Memorial by Bryan Washington; Boulder by Eva Baltasar.

Your idea sounds fun tho

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Not enough romance stories represent the middle, because it tends to be the most boring and least dramatic part. A romantic subplot might be closer to this.
Most fanfiction about ships are about the middle. I guess the Carry On series by Rainbow Rowell would count, but you and I have seen too many shounen type stories about the hero overcoming impossible odds to become stronger so it really would just piss the both of us off.

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My grandparents argue over absolutely nothing all the time!

“You didn’t put enough salt in the mashed potatoes!”

“How am I supposed to know what things taste like, I lost my taste with Covid!”

Oh, and don’t get them started on women’s basketball. Last time I was at their house, they complained about the game the whole way through!

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I agree. There aren’t enough of Now what? stories out there. But I think there’s a reason for that. People are drawn to the will they or won’t they stories because they like to root for someone. I think they’ll care about an established couple of they had a chance to get to know them.

In my trilogy, the first book covers will they or won’t they. They will, but then they’re ripped from each other. The second book asks Will they find their way back to each other? They do. And the third book is the stuff you’re talking about, Will their established relationship survive the new challenges?

I wouldn’t be able to explore the relationship themes if none of the stuff before didn’t happen. Like relationships, it needs time to develop that kind of commitment from the readers.

So I think to answer your question, why aren’t there books like that, there are, but they might not be as easily visible. They’re either further in the series or maybe it’s in the book one which isn’t as successful because Will they or Won’t they sells better.

When editing Soul Survivor, that’s the conclusion I came to: the romance was shallow. And it made sense. They’ve only known each other for a few days. They haven’t had a chance to put their relationship to the test. I realized that if the romance plot ends badly, it would solve the remaining issues I previously didn’t know how to fix.

I deliberated the decision a lot because HEA is such a sought-after ending. I knew if I ended it badly, I wouldn’t be able to market it as romance. I was making marketing harder on myself but it was the right thing to do for story reasons.

This reminds me of a book I was critiquing. The love story was stretched through decades. Now I’m curious if he ever published that book. How he edited it. It’s tricky to span such a long time (plus he had a time rewinding concept that’s tricky in itself).

The issue in his book was that since the couple started as teenagers and a big chunk of the story happened when they were that age, when time passed, it felt out of place. As a reader, you came to expect the whole book to be YA so the adult parts were weird.

I think setting the expectations right from the beginning is important.

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Interesting insight.

Seeing this comment sorta upsets me. It makes me think that already established couples can’t have a cheer squad because of that reason. It can happen, just not all the time.

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Yeah, most grandparents are like that.

It’s cute sometimes.

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See, this is where something like Romantacy can come in because the middle section of a proper romantic life needs it’s everyday life, and that can be a fantasy realm, pretty easily.

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I do wonder what happens after, but I don’t want to know at the same time if it’s too jarring.

Where the Crawdads Sing did show a couple

and the author was able to connect it all back to the main plot in a good way so it’s not jarring that we’re suddenly shown them in their old age

But there wasn’t anything about their married relationship. The only one I can think of that showed a married relationship a little bit is the Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale.

A couple from The Goose Girl later appear married in another book and shows their married relationship a little bit to contrast with a new, young couple struggling to be together. The wife of the married couple gives advice at one point to the girl which was refreshing to see.

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Bump.