Thursday, January 6, 2022

Epiphanies in Romance

A common resolution in romances is the Beauty & the Beast resolution--the hero is about to transform permanently into a beast or statue or snake or ghost or corpse, etc. etc. when the hero's lover declares, "I love you!" and the spell is broken.

Rather like The Lord of the Flies, it's the kind of resolution that deserves to be done once, but then--

But then, it gets a trifle easy, a resolution without real effort. One even begins to suspect that the lover is a bit daft for not catching on sooner. Hasn't the lover seen Beauty & the Beast?

A better resolution is when the lover has to prove love. I'm not advocating this as a solution to true-life relationships--having to jump through hoops on a daily basis would get rather tiresome. But from a writing point of view, it has the merit of "show don't tell." As Supernatural illustrates, continual sacrifice gets a little repetitive but it has the merit of being exciting! Battles against devils. Last-minute rescues. 

*Spoilers*

In Charlie Cochet's North Pole City series,  Donner's book tackles the "give all for my love" resolution the best. Donner is stabbed by the wicked Gunn when he attempts to protect his brother elves and Calder. Gunn's brother, Calder, uses his magic to transfer Donner's wound to himself. But then Gunn surprises the spectators--and the reader--by willingly drawing the wound he inflicted from Calder to himself. His motive, from the beginning, was to force his family back together. When his actions so radically backfire, he pays the price for his own crimes. 

That is clever! The declaration, "Oh, I love you so much" finds expression not only in action, but in action based in the story's rules.