Romance

It may or may not be apparent from reading my stuff I've put on here, but I'm a big sucker for romance in stories. Can't help it, it's just a part of who I am. It would probably be impossible for me to write a full story without and aspect of love to it. There are a lot of people who don't agree with that, who think that love can sully a story's plot and depth. I don't necessarily disagree with that, but I certainly don't think that a little bit of love is a bad thing. You can't go through life and expect there not to be any love in it, after all.

That being said, I don't think that every story should have romance in it, and love certainly shouldn't be the main focus of every story. Just because my stories will likely invariably have love as a factor in them doesn't mean that every story ever written should. There are many, many stories out there where love is misplaced, misused, and misrepresented, and those stories would likely be better off if love had never been a part of them, or at the very least, less used.

But I also don't think a story should be looked down upon for utilizing romance as a plot point. Love changes a person. I've seen it happen a dozen times, and I've experienced it myself on a constant basis. Is it the only way a person can change? Of course not. But it's a fantastic way of helping a character evolve. It gives them a reason to keep going, to better themselves, gives them something to fight for. And if you're anything like me, seeing a character grow and evolve over the course of a story is your favorite thing to see happen.

Depth in a story is when there are multiple things happening at once, and they're not all necessarily apparent. At least, that's how I look at it. And love done right is the same way. Therefore, who's to say that a well written romance story can't have a good amount of depth to it?

Like I said, this is not always done well. But nothing is. We've all seen stories ruined by underused, overused, and straight up misused plot elements. But for some reason, I see romance called out for this so much more often than other things. Maybe it's just because it's a thing I enjoy, so it's something that I pay attention to. But I don't see how a love story is somehow weaker than any other. Sure, it may have less to work with, but that's why I enjoy mixing love with adventure. Personally, I think the two go hand in hand.

Now, I don't care who is loving who. People can argue all they like over what kind of love is over and under represented. I don't really care. I'm more concerned personally with love written well. Love should never feel forced, just as no other element of a story ever should. The more organic a story feels, the more naturally it flows from one moment to the next, the better. We don't like being thrown into unnatural environments in our everyday life, where we don't know what to expect, and nothing feels the way it's supposed to. So why should we enjoy it in our stories?

Of course, I grant that some stories are intentionally written that way, but that's another story entirely.