HEA, HFN, GMAFB

9/10/2011

Flickr Attribute Jan Willemsen

A romance novel must always have a happy ending or at least the promise of one. Always. No exceptions. No ways around it.

The very idea of never, can't be and shouldn't be done, rankles. My muse glowers at me every time I try to force him to conform, to deal with rules and limitations. I can almost hear him saying 'I could make you write a romance and kill everyone'.

Scary thing is, I bet he could.

Maybe my idea of romance is different. Plays like Romeo and Juliette, like Othello, which I always considered romantic, are called 'tragic comedies'. One of my favourite books by Barbara Michaels, Black Rainbow, is gothic suspense. Any other book I'd list is probably not a 'real' romance.

What about Phantom of the Opera? Or actually, any opera? Aren't they all tragic? And the stories romance, no? Then there's movies like Titanic, Ghost, Pearl Harbor...

Flickr Attribute Professor Mortis

I could probably go on and on and you could probably shut down my every argument by simply saying either, 'that's not really a romance' or 'But that had a HEA'.

Come again?

Can you have a HEA if one of both of the main characters die? Does the great love they experienced, and the closure of saying goodbye for now, knowing they will be together again, someday, meet happily ever after criteria?

Flickr Attribute Lily Warrior

I think it could. Then again, to me a romance isn't definied by how it ends, but by that moment when, as a reader, I truly feel that what's between the hero and the heroine is real. Nothing can take that away or make it something less—not death, not betrayal, not competition. What happens after is irrelevant. I would say a 'romance' that lacks that precious moment doesn't deserve the title. Let the hero and the heroine marry and grow old together, resolve their predictable misunderstandings, never ever stray. How sweet. Without either of them touching on that purest form of love, something we can all identify with in a raw, basic way, they're just a couple with a story.

Flickr Attribute Elyce Feliz

To me anyway. But I intend to take writing 'dark erotica' (a label given to books that might have romantic scenes and love but don't meet HEA requirements) to a whole new level. Might take me awhile, but one day I'm going to write a gothic romance and trash convention. And no one will be able to debate that the story is a romance.

If I can pull that off, my next goal is learning to fly ;)

Note: I was really bad assuming everyone would get the acronyms, sorry about that.
HEA- Happily Ever After
HFN- Happy For Now
GMAFB- Gimme a Fucking Break

5 Comments

Kallypso Masters link

9/10/2011 05:43:17 am

Oh, I read through twice before I figured out what GMAFB meant. *sigh* Yesterday, someone had to spell out BAMF to me.

Now to the blog. I labeled MASTERS AT ARMS a romance with BDSM erotica--and it had very little of any of those. But then I did say up front it's not "the end" yet for any of them.

I put these guys through hell. The romantic in me can't see any way other than to give them their HEAs in the next three novels. They've earned them.

I've read romance since I was a teenager. My young years were tragic, but when I pick up a romance, I know that the characters can go to hell and back and they damned well will have a HEA.

A reader asked me, after reading MASTERS, "Just tell me one thing--does Savannah die?" I don't know if it's that I'm an indie author without publishers screeners of such dark plots or what, but this was a romance writer and reader. How would she think I would kill off Savannah? Sure, I did kill off another character's brother--but I never let the readers see that character on the page other than in that character's thoughts. (I did have another reader who talked with me after reading the beginning of the book and before she read the end say that I could have the brother be a spin-off character and continue the series. Um, well, no, that's not going to be possible--unless I write Ghost or something. LOL)

I read a romance this summer that had an epilogue in which the hero of the book is dead and the heroine is going to his grave. That disturbed me when I read it and I screamed NO! Sure, intellectually, I know we all have to die sometime. But don't tell me about it after I've just had my HEA! (I'll let you know the name of that one, Bianca, so you can enjoy it! It's actually a lovely sweet romance.) LOL

So, I guess I am going to disagree on the endings. But we both agree there has to be that moment in the story where the two become real. I definitely think I achieved that with my five main characters in MASTERS. But now I have readers begging for their HEAs. And I plan to deliver them. :)

Kally

Bianca Sommerland link

9/10/2011 05:52:34 am

You've got some very good arguments, Kallypso, and I knew you would ;)

To that I would probably say, out of respect for the reader, 'tragic' should be added to the label of a book without a HEA so they know what they're getting into. Just like 'erotic' is added so no one's surprised at the sudden appearance of juicy bits!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,
Bianca

Cari Silverwood

9/10/2011 11:27:30 am

Hi Bianca,
I wrote a novella (another pen name) where they had that moment of love and then I went on to kill off the hero (suicide), and he dies thinking the heroine was some sort of monster LOLOL

But he still loved her -- conflicted but in love <g>
So I beat you to it.
However that was before I understood that in today's 'romance' terms Romeo and Juliet is not a romance.

Thing is, if you stray too far you risk losing all the readers.

J.S .Wayne link

9/10/2011 12:19:42 pm

Hi, Bianca!
On one hand, I agree: The HEA/HFN matrix is almost de rigeur for romance nowadays. You can dodge that requirement by labeling it "dark" romance...but why?
If the entire point of romance is to bring two (or more) people together and make them fall in love, then why does introducing death into the mix make any difference? Love is love, unless you're delving into the necrophiliac aspects. (*Barf*) You may recall Espiritu Sancti? That STARTED when one of the lovers was already dead! But, and this is just the author's opinion, it was just as romantic in a very Gothic way as anything out there.
The point is, I think everyone defines romance a little differently. One person may see Romeo and Juliet, et al, as romantic tragedies, others just as tragedies. Like so many other things, the definition really is in the eye of the beholder.
Terrific post!

L.C. Dean

9/12/2011 07:22:58 am

Good points, Bianca. I am old school enough to believe that Wuthering Heights is romantic though tragic. I cry every time I read it. Today's market does cry out for HEA or HFN so adding the other notations is always a good idea. Love isn't always pretty and it isn't always easy - it can be brutal and messy and sad - none of those things make it less real in my mind. However, though I like to include reality, I tend to write HEA or HFN mainly because I like them and because it is what readers seem to demand - apparently I am a slave to the market.

HEA, HFN, GMAFB

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HEA, HFN, GMAFB

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Reader's Choice Links:

Kinky Book Reviews

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Blogs I Love

Archives

Categories

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