books – Laney Wylde

It is a rare thing to find your last love in your first. No one told me the same applies to writing fiction.

As I mentioned in my post “The Evolution of Sawyer”, I originally planned for Never Touched to be the love story of Sawyer and Guy A, with her personal trauma creating secondary conflict. In other words, I wanted to write a romance novel without Guy B.

As I wrote my first draft I learned three things:

(1) I am not a romance writer. Maybe it’s my personality. Maybe it’s that I’m philosophically against HEAs. Maybe it’s that I want you to believe those reasons and not the fact that writing romance well is a monstrous task. I used to laugh and tell my husband that love stories were the easiest thing in the world to construct. Oh, how little did I know.

(2) Sawyer is not a romance protagonist. If you asked Sawyer if her story was about finding love, she would laugh in your face. Then she’d pour you a shot of whiskey and say, “We only have a few minutes before he catches us with hooch. Let’s begin…”

(3) Sawyer’s story would be flimsy at best without Guy B. No. That’s not true. Guy A, Guy B, and Sawyer aren’t a love triangle; they are the three legs that her story stands on.

Just because this isn’t a romance novel doesn’t mean Never Touched is devoid of love. It means that love is so much more than attraction and electricity and sex. It’s compassion and devotion and holding the hand of someone who needs you even when they fight to be rid of you. It’s indignation and grief and undeserved heartache. It’s thirst and hunger so the other can be filled. And, sometimes, it’s surrender.

Sawyer and Guy A have all of this. Sawyer and Guy B do, too.

That’s a love triangle.

In other words, if Never Touched was a war for Sawyer’s heart, Guy A and Guy B would be equally matched. They would be worthy opponents. You know how I know? Because Guy B was never supposed to get the girl and he did. I had no choice but to let him after this one stupid chapter I wrote back in November that changed the momentum of the entire story (it’s in the final draft; see if you can spot it). Because half my beta readers were outraged by the ending and half were giddy. Because even Sawyer didn’t know until that critical moment who her heart belonged to.

It’s a stretch to say I crafted this love triangle. Truly, I stumbled upon it. Sawyer forced my hand. That’s just how she is. Guy B is pushy too. I blame him a little. But that’s the most rewarding kind of writing, isn’t it: when you learn your characters’ desires better than they do and scramble to write down their choices as they make them?

I can’t wait to hear what you think of Sawyer’s choice. Until then, here’s what I want to know: what’s your favorite love triangle in literature, television, theatre, or film? Mine: Jane, Michael, and Rafael in Jane the Virgin. I sympathized with both Michael and Rafael. I rooted for either in different episodes. I couldn’t predict who Jane would choose in the end. That is a well-crafted love triangle.

That’s my favorite. What’s yours?

Psst…that’s what the comment section is for.

I accidentally wrote a book in a genre I had never read. Yes, it’s embarrassing. Let’s move past it.

Anyways, the last few weeks, I’ve been scrambling to read as many New Adult romance and New Adult contemporary books as I can to rectify this problem. From what I can gather, it seems like most of these books fall into the same pattern:

Guy is tortured/secretive and hot

Girl may or may not have her own demons

They meet

Girl is attracted to guy because he is both sexy and mysterious

Guy is attracted to girl for some reason (we’ll get back to this)

Conflict

Twist (hopefully)

They end up together

HEA

All you avid readers are probably like, “Obviously. That’s how the romance genre works.” And that makes sense. I don’t want to read the last page of a Coleen Hoover novel to find that the love interest dies or something else awful (OMG, if this happens in one of her books, don’t tell me. I’m still working my way through them.).

But, I’ve noticed that, even in the best written, most binge-worthy reads, the female protagonists tend to be likable, more or less moral, and known by their circumstances more than their personalities. In other words, flat. Even the guys can’t really articulate what’s so great about these girls besides how they feel when they’re inside them.

For instance, in Ugly Love, which, was stylistically incredible and impossible to put down (I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and couldn’t go back to sleep until I finished the chapters I had remaining), I walked away feeling like I barely knew Tate besides the fact that she was a compassionate nurse/student who allowed a guy to use her for 10+ chapters.

Is this a hallmark of the genre? Is it normal for the romantic plotline to overshadow character development? This isn’t a critique. I’m really asking. I haven’t read enough of anything to know what I’m supposed to expect. Maybe the problem is that I keep hoping that I’ll open to the first page and read the female lead saying something like:

“I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.”

“I didn’t stop giving hand jobs because I wasn’t good at it. I stopped giving hand jobs because I was the best at it.”

Of course, these aren’t the first lines of romance novels. They’re words from Gillian Flynn’s protagonists for Dark Places and The Grownup, respectively. Flynn knows how to write a character so real, that you feel like they exist outside the pages of the book. For instance:

Amy, Gone Girl: Selfish, cunning, manipulative but easily manipulated. Brilliant. Cold-blooded. Starved to be someone’s everything, but to be completely herself while doing so instead of the fictionalized version of herself that her parents created or that men create. Oh, did I mention, selfish?

Whatever. You guys deserve each other.

Camille, Sharp Objects: self-inflicted pain, self-inflicted treatment to make up for her mom who neglected her for not accepting her “care.” Associates sex with violence. Desperately wants to find some redeemable quality in herself. Raised around sexism, racism, classism, with a weak father-figure.

Libby, Dark Places: Depressed. Assumes her self-worth is soiled by her blood relation to her brother who slaughtered her family. Desperate to survive but not dependable enough to make a reliable living for herself. Klepto-ish. Terrified to face the night of her family’s massacre, or any night, with the lights off.

Again, none of these women are in a romance novel. And, if they were, would we even be rooting for them? Or would we be hoping the guy rides off into the sunset with someone less crazy? Is it possible to have a complicated, even unlikable, protagonist in a mushy-gushy love story?

So, my question for you is, do you know of any romance novel starring a Camille or a Libby or an Amy? Think: someone you definitely don’t want to be friends with. I’m sure there are a ton, I just haven’t found them yet.

If you know of any, comment below because I want to read them.

Posts

The Evolution of a Love Triangle

Unlikable