# Lecture --- Romantic beats
%title Lecture - Romance Beats

[TOC]

## Lecture notes

* Craft book - [*Romancing the Beat* by Gwen Hayes](http://gwenhayes.com/free-stuff/)
* Diagram to go through the beats
* Can be used for friendships/ace/aro, but example is not
* Theme comes ready made - love conquers all, just need the two+ examples
* In romance, there are at least 2 heros
    * Character is king
    * full arc, all the beats
    * Thinking of each character as protagonist helps with other genres
    * All beats are mirrored
* Industry standard terms (meet cute) plus some changes.
* Tool that plays well with other tools
* space with it by design, gives room for other elements, combine with 3-act structure, etc
* Some are scenes, some are just sentences
* Path:
    * Each character's intro:
        * need a clear idea of them, no vagueness
        * Hint at the hole in their heart, their wound (snake fangs biting)
        * Goal/Agenda
        * bonus if that goal/agenda is in conflict with each other's
        * Cross paths, they need friction for sparks.
        * Should still have something to do with wounds
        * Intro is when characters are as far apart as they will be in terms of distance (emotional/reality)
    * Meet cute:
        * Sparks will fly
        * Memorable
        * Slice of life with a hitch - not just like every other day, even if still slice of life
        * Involve the senses - setting readers' anticipations for the rest of the book
        * Rooted in the bodies, even if not planning on having explicit sex
        * The two heros are in a room together for the first time we know of, so the reader wants to be there with them
    * No Way!! #1:
        * Walking away thinking "hmm, hmm...but no"
        * Usually (almost always) a line "I don't believe in love/will never love again/don't deserve love because..." and then backstory
        * False relief
        * That was interesting, but want to get back on track
        * This will be the farthest away from each other they'll ever get again; there's been a change
        * Trouble come, trouble go - they think they've dealt with it. Hitch is over with (false relief)
        * If you make it explicit, enables you to use refrain, repetition with a bit of change - doesn't work if you only hint
        * Internal plot (revelations about emotions) more important than surprise
        * Back on track with my life...
    * Stuck together (adhesion):
        * Neither can walk away from each other
        * Literal (snowed in, locked in) or figurative (have to rebuild, volunteering in an event, presentation at work)
        * Where you get to bring in all of your tropes (they can come in before in lesser way e.g: sunshine vs grumpy)
        * Not just metaphors that become cliche, but a storytelling device/shortcut/convention, manage the reader's comfort and surprise in order to build anticipation
    * (That was first 25%)
    * External goal:
        * First trouble came and went, now complicate things
        * Emphasis was internal prior to this
        * Time for all the endearing shit, both for audience and characters
        * Shows that them interacting could (maybe already is) make them better
        * This is the two-step, gotta be fun to watch
        * If beta readers say they don't buy the I-love-yous, this is probably the part to revisit. Tweaking these will help. But fuck that, leave that for editing
    * No Way!! #2:
        * Revisit/stop and think about #1
        * Maybe consider, but then!! "Eh, no way"
        * Really satisfying when it comes up
        * Should be mirrored, ideally for both people, or first No Way is for character A and this is character B (this loses the repetition, but this tool is made for a longer narrative, maybe not a short story where space is at a premium)
    * Smol but important: Inkling:
        * Both heroes witness something that happens which makes them wonder what being in love with this other person might be like
        * "I'm against the concept, but now that I've pictured it, oh shit"
        * They've said No Way!!, but it's too late, they've pictured it
        * Good place for callbacks
    * For real:
        * Slow slide towards bone town
        * Desire becoming specific
        * Offering glimpses of who the other is
        * Dripping out backstory (not everything)
        * Not necessarily wrong about you, but now I'm getting to know you
        * Starts to soften up the No Way!!s
        * Can't deny the other person is more than their internal arguments - not just arguing against yourself, arguing against evidence
        * Room for desire
        * Here is where the external can distract/interrupt them - bit cheap to do it before here, may distract too soon from backstory
        * But not too much because:
    * (first 50%)
    * Bone town:
        * Sex at 60 pages
        * Either first time they have sex or, if they've had sex before (sure, let them hook up!) this time is whoa different
        * Bonfire of intimacy
        * High high, such a high high that it is the false high of the story
        * The *intimacy* is not false, but this feels like the solution yay I'm fixed
        * The issue is that the gates of their hearts are open but the walls have to come down
        * Still defensive of their tender wounds
        * But because we are cruel gods...
    * Seed of doubt:
        * Just a small bit of real estate
        * A sucker punch and reminder of their wound (still there and painful) even though they're getting closer
        * Don't linger, it's quick
        * Hell, it can happen right there on the pillow
    * Dark vines of doubt (bummer vine):
        * Stretch out these No Way!!s, basically a big ol #3
        * They're trying to make it seem like they're farther apart even though they've gotten close
        * The internal is intruding now, interrupting the narrative they think they're living:
            * Wallow #1:
                * Explicitly say it (to themselves or someone else)
                * Name the hole/fear/wound that's in their heart
                * Name it fully, explicitly, they can't ignore it anymore
                * "I knew better than to believe in love/love again/deserve love, because when I let my guard down, this happens"
            * Immediate retreat:
                * Stings really bad
                * Make the reader feel it
                * There's no more subtext because now we know the text of their backstory
                * They're not healed yet. They're stucked together or haven't expressed their doubts to each other
                * Love conquers all, but it's on the hero to heal themselves
                * The other person isn't going to fix the hole, love is
            * Choose fear:
                * I could choose love or fear, ding, gonna choose fear
                * This is the breakup, or if they've already broken up, this is when we feel it
            * Wallow #2:
                * (colors go from sexy sunset to dark skies)
                * Long dark night of the soul
                * Rock bottom
                * They made the choice, they each have to feel it
                * Now they have to understand what they did
                * Have to say out loud "I hecked up, that was a mistake"
                * Good place to say it to others because this is when they're willing to listen to advice
                * Won't solve everything, they have to heal themselves
                * You've already created all of these footholds to get out of the wallow-pit: all of the endearing shit from earlier
                * Callbacks are key, offer opportunities to drag themselves out
        * Take an ax to the vines, and...
    * I choose love:
        * A second choice: this time choose love
        * Realization and exhilaration: oh my god, I love Josh, 100% butt crazy in love
        * Sets up all the nervous risk
        * Internal, but explicit, no prevarications
        * Gotta do something about it, has to be a sentence
        * Helpful to connect an internal decision to something external/concreate (e.g: they were fighting over the last book in a store, "I'll give you the book because it's more important that you have it", signifies their internal choice)
    * Very last far point, planning and risking:
        * They're all in!
        * They've chosen love
        * May not be together on the page
        * There has to be risk - they don't know if it will work, the cost will be big
        * Both of them are doing this (maybe not at the same time)
    * Grand gesture:
        * Never been kissed, asks #1 to kiss #2, risk of rejection
        * Trying to tell the person they're in love with "I value you, I love you, most importantly I see you and am putting myself on the line for you"
        * Could be one for each:
            * One could be qualified yes could lead to a second gesture - "Yes but I'm not ready" "yes but there's still a problem"
            * happens at the same time
        * One big moment that ends in...
    * YES:
        * YES
    * Payoff:
        * Shows what the relationship would be like
        * A snapshot of life of them together
        * A freeze-frame of them being together
        * I'm proving that I'm going to work on my wound so that you can work on yours
    * Epilogue/hope:
        * *always* in romance as a genre
        * Payoff was what happens after the YES
        * Happily ever after or at least happily for now
        * Hope for the future. The spark lives on
        * Not perfect, but they can grow together - sparks still require friction
        * Reward for all the angst you've put the reader through
* Big parts are the nodes where they come together, but don't forget the space apart
* Need to have really good wounds for both protagonists because that's how they land
* Courtesy of treating each character as a protagonist - character is king
* A model like this frees you up to focus on the character, adds richness
* Repetitions add emphasis/discovery/depth make it feel less clunky
* Indulge in the rigidity of the tool to play with it - two characters bound to each other through all stages of growth
* Works for friends, anyone bound together
* Use it to start from scratch, or maybe you already have a draft and need some help shoring it up
* Consider with multiple partners, all of the different shapes! Could have a braid shape or a spiral shape or argyle
* Start in any direction, hop on at any node and work backwards or forwards

## Additional notes

* Gives you ideas for shorter narratives: show a chunk of the caduceus in a short story:
    * some sections more satisfying (if you end on the wallow, that's mean or not a romance)
    * from meet cute to first trouble come/go
    * stuck together to bone town
    * stuck together to I choose love so long as you imply what it might be)
* For crush:
    * The author knows, but maybe the character doesn't
    * Audience might pick up some of the mirroring, wonder if it's as unrequited as it seems
    * Rejection? Maybe, or could just end earlier like Choose Love
    * Reader may not see other character, but author knows to generate angst
    * Stretch out timing for the spaces (stuck together, but takes foreeeever to get to bone town)
    * Character that feels their love is unrequited, but ends in intimacy and truth
    * Oh...we know each other, uh...okaaaay let's go from here
    * Allowed to keep secrets from the reader for hero #2, but when they're shown, they have to be there, #1 can miss them
* The grand gesture for poly romance:
    * Fiction and real life not exactly the same thing
    * Some sort of public action (maybe not hyperpublic, but witnessed) because there's no going back
    * You're saying "I'm willing to risk myself for you because I'm seeing you fully and I love it"
    * Maybe coming out and saying these are my boyfriends is maybe not the best because that's kind of a coming out story
    * Each character gets a snake
    * Don't have to dive super into every character's path, but author has to know
    * Has have to tailor to a basic structure (e.g: plan is everyone huge dinner at big restaurant with something everyone loves; all going to LARP and they all have feelings)
    * Some members of the relationship team up for the final grand gesture to get the last person in
    * Celebrate the complexity
    * What if the snakes are couples (e.g: one person trying to come in and the couple trying to bring them in)
    * Caduceus connecting to another snake part way through, or two caduceuses connecting, intersecting at the seed of doubt leading to stuck together
* Maybe there's another wound there if you go into a second book? Past or new trauma - maybe we only got to bone town and are just realizing that
* romantic tragedy, caduceus joining with another going in the opposite direction, break-up and new relationship at the same time
* Specialized form of a very generalized character arc - this one is just fitted to romance, the beats in that order:
    * "Limerent Object" - that's a breakup story, so plotting a caduceus in reverse might help restructure the story
    * Same could be done for a character and a job or character and city, and the job/city are essentially personified
* If you break the tool, it's still super useful, you just may not be writing a romance. Just using it to make the characters the most important part of the story by giving them stages to grow through

## Assets

* <a href="/assets/romance-caduceus.pdf">Romance Caduceus</a>
* [Scrivener template](http://gwenhayes.com/free-stuff/romancing_the_beat/)
* [Romancing the Beat (free on Scribd with trial account)](http://gwenhayes.com/books/romancing-the-beat/)
