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@anne-of-lothlorien

Wow, 9 pages long. This is quite the topic. But now that I’m here, I’m going to give my 2-cents worth.

First off, I love romance. Not physical, constant kissing romance(ugh!), or cheesy, won’t even attempt to own up to the fact that you like each other romance, but good romance.

I’m not even going to brush love triangles, because that topic can take up 50 pages of forum space.

I’m also going to say, yes, I have a “boyfriend”. Honestly, he’s more of a fellow-mischief-maker-dude-friend-where-there-happens-to-be-a-mutual-like-for-each-other. Yeah. And he’s a great dude, the kind of guy who still says “yes ma’am” “yes sir” to everyone and doesn’t try to get physical more than a yearly swing dance. So yeah. That’s awesome.

But due to that fact, I can say I have a slight amount of experience in the field. So I’m going to rant about it for a moment.

First off–make it realistic. People do not suddenly kiss because they feel like it. Just doesn’t happen for normal people. Toddlers, maybe, but not normal teens. Especially Christian teens. I’m going to tell you right now that my boyfriend and I have been “together-ish” for almost a year and a half now and we’ve held hands like–three times. Twice was during a barn dance, so that doesn’t really even count.

So basically, what I’m trying to say, is that normal people who fall in love don’t just suddenly start wanting to hold hands and hang out all. The. Time. Like, I like my boyfriend and all, but we still have our own lives, and we’re perfectly fine not seeing each other every day, or even every week or month. I went nearly all summer without seeing him this year, and I’m still alive!

*applause*

Yeah.

Also, don’t make it some overly complex where the girl/guy takes offense at everything. Just… don’t. Please, for the sake of all sane in this world, don’t. It’s terribly droll and irritating to see a girl get angry and not speak to her boyfriend for a week just because he helped another girl with her car. Or a guy get angry and break up with his girlfriend because she may have laughed at a joke he didn’t say.

Sure, jealousy is normal in such situations, but not a full-blown temper tantrum. Not unless you’re trying to make all teens look like immature brats who only care about themselves, food, and dating. Not a great impression.

And you mentioned it before, that there will be no kissing. Great. That’s awesome. But make sure you’re not going to perfect on us. No, I don’t mean that you should ever write something you’re uncomfortable with just to make something more interesting. What I mean is… don’t try and make your characters perfect to portray a “good” relationship. Have them disagree(not a temper tantrum–disagree). Argue. Fight. Have them forgive each other, and move on. Don’t have them never fight, because a “perfect” couple supposedly never does. Everyone fights. Everyone.

There’s my 2-cents. Hope you enjoyed it, and good luck! 😉