* 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
