This is a guest post, hosted by Win’s Books and written by Anita Belli. This post is a part of the Amour Books blog events.
There are phases to everything in life and, like the moon, Love in Romantic
Fiction follows a cycle. First comes denial, which is where my heroine Ruby Sixpence steps in and plays Cupid in the lives of reluctant lovers, using her arcane skills to give them a gentle nudge.
Then The Dance begins; will they, won’t they? Is it a tango or a waltz?
The story opens with this dance and it always a tango; the push and pull; the
tangled emotions and the discordant beat. They dance around each other as they explore their boundaries; they quarrel and flirt; they test each other and then they fall….
As Ruby Sixpence says:
Falling headlong, like our two young lovers, helpless from the first trip of
curiosity to the stumble, and then the liberating act of falling helplessly in love.
And so, the dance continues. They fall in love; hopelessly, obsessively until … and this is the dilemma for any author. Do external factors confound them, or it is their own behaviour which muddies the path of true love?
For Ruby Sixpence, it is both. She Whistled up a Storm to keep the lover’s
together, then she tries everything she can throw at them including fog, snow,
floods and incursion by sheep. In the end, it is Joe’s meteoric career rise and
Katie’s own damaged personality which are the final hurdles to overcome.
The character’s ‘damage’ usually relates to their backstory which adds more grit to the oyster.
They may be unable to give themselves wholeheartedly because they don’t trust people; or they have been damaged by growing up amidst quarrelsome parents. They may be trying to prove a point and rectify some failing from their past, in which case, they have developed an obsession with work. In all of these cases, falling in love hasn’t even made it onto their shopping list of life.
These realisations occur gradually between our lovers and add to the roller-coaster ride of the story. And for the characters, this is where the learning is, and hopefully, the healing of the hole in their soul.
Katie is like a missile in a pinball machine, fired into the world to ricochet off
experience. The problem is, she was forged through the fires and hammers of an
overbearing family and that has left her soul a little misshapen; so, she rebounds
haphazardly and defensively and this will have serious consequences if she
doesn’t realise it soon …
The Dance is nearing its climax and our lovers are facing their Long Dark Night of the Soul when all seems lost. Something, or someone steps in to intervene. The most satisfying love story resolutions come from the healing of that hole in their soul identified throughout the story from past hurts. It is a gradual realisation of the two protagonists that in order to love, they must leave the past behind.
And finally comes the Last Dance; a romantic Waltz under a canopy of stars. And Ruby Sixpence has the last word. ‘I lead them to the first kiss. Their Happy for Now, or Happy Ever After, is entirely up to them …’
About the Author
Anita Belli is a former dancer and filmmaker, now a full-time author. She has
published three Contemporary Romance and two Historical Fiction novels as
well as four non-fiction books about writing. As a Hybrid Author, she publishes
Romance as an Indie author through Hard Pressed Books, and Historicals
through Publisher Lume Books.
Anita is also a creative writing tutor, working within local communities, schools
and libraries across Essex and London, and online, to inspire more people of all
ages to write and publish their own work.
Author Links:
| Links to Novel | Links to Non-Fiction | Platforms and sites |
|---|---|---|
| Ruby Sixpence Whistles Up a Storm was shortlisted for The First Chapter competition in 2018 | Write Your Life Workbook | https://anitabellibooks2020.wordpress.com |
| Divas Dogs and Dreamers 2020 is set backstage in the Theatre. | Kickstart Your Writing | https://writersupportschool.teachable.com/ |
| The Traveller and The Rose, an epic love story set in the Spanish Civil War, was a contender for the Joan Hessayon Award, 2017 | Unlock the Block | www.anitabell.com |
| Once Upon a Blue Moon was shortlisted for The Selfie Awards 2018 | 100 Questions for Fiction Writers | @anitabellibooks |
| The Art Forger’s Daughter 2015 with themes of art and war. | https://www.facebook.com |
