How can love, distance or helplessness be created for an audience to experience?
I have been reading romance novels, trying to experience and understand how others are in love. I know these stories are highly sensationalised, but I do find it interesting the formula that these novels tend to subscribe to.
Woman and man meet. There is a strong, mutual sexual attraction, yet they hate each other at first. The man has dark curly hair, blue/grey/green eyes, a strong jaw, proud nose and muscular shoulders. The woman has a fiery mane, long golden tresses or raven black curls, darker than midnights shadow. She has a twinkle in her eye, a defiant air and a heaving bosom. She is a strong woman who snares his attention and when the crowd parts, his breath catches and his heart races and she glows, throbbing with divine light.
So they meet on several occasions, have sex to varying degrees, use the word 'possessive' a few times and at the end of the story they get married and say 'I don't want anyone else ever except for you'. Both are lacking in self-confidence in regards to each other and are prone to irrational fits of rage when jealous.
I've read Wild West romances, Highlander romances, Medical romances, Mediterranean romances, Historical romances, Viking/Navy romances, Vampire/Alien/I've-Got-Supernatural-Powers-And-I-Love-You-Babe romances - the list goes on and on.
This image is part of an unfinished painting I've done of Fiona, where I've tried to capture the the drama of romance novel book covers. If the heroine is not looking into her lovers eyes, she is gazing to the distance, thinking of someone (perhaps someones?) far far away....
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