By; Yade Medina
The art of writing stories can be mysterious, difficult, all consuming or it can be straightforward, easy, and fun. Those stories we read and write have structure, they have themes, and they are bound by them. Genres, one of the many ways we as readers pick what it is that we want to spend our time with. “What world will we jump into next”, we wonder.
The fun of it is when they come together when stories of one genre feature plotlines that rely on another.
Romance can be fundamental on its own, but can be an even more crucial piece in other possible stories. The question is, “Is romance needed to make a successful story?” The immediate answer would be no, many stories function without romance.
However, do the ones where it makes a notable appearance need it? Would these stories, and how they flow or develop change to be unrecognizable?
Romance plots in stories with separate worldbuilding like Sci-Fi, Dystopia or Fantasy are often expected, we all know about Anakin and Padme or Katniss and Peeta, how would their stories have unfolded if they hadn’t fallen for each other?
Personally, I believe that romance might not be necessary, but based on the path of the story, the characters, the intended development it can add that layer or the air of completion that the story wouldn’t have had before.
Padme and Anakin’s love story ended in tragedy but their children are intergalactic heroes. Katniss and Peeta experienced more loss than anyone should at their age, but they had each other and their love lasted through every horrible thing they were put through.
Changing the structures of these stories to exclude the romantic aspects would do them a disservice. Luke’s triumph is only bittersweet because of who his parents are, it would have made the story dull if he had been just some person in the universe. Katniss would have died right along with Coin at the end if not for having Peeta to support and love her by stopping her.
What about the Lara Jeans and Peter Kavinskys in storytelling? The Nicks and Charlies, the stories grounded in reality?
They may not be battling galactic injustice or dystopian dictatorship, but romance still allows for the telling of more serious and representative stories.
For all the flack that the “To All the Boys” and “Heartstopper series get, Lara Jean’s family working through the loss of her mother and what that means for her culturally and as a developing teenager is meaningful, and Peter helps her leave behind her fears of love and her fears of abandonment.
Nick and Charlie support each other, not just through Charlie helping Nick come out and be himself, but Nick helps Charlie work through his eating disorder and the overall struggles of mental health, and without each other and their friends they wouldn’t have had the strength they needed.
Overall, romance is such a layered and nuanced topic to discuss, that this small overview and perspective won’t be enough, so that means that there is a lot more to come.
