The Romance Plot — Part III
When did you know you “fell in love?” Both lead characters need to do it. #WritingRomance101 @donnalhsmith @a3writers #TheRomancePlot Click to Tweet
To review: In our contemporary romance, Tovah has rejection issues, and Judah is a beta male who’s hiding something. They met at synagogue when Tovah’s homily papers flew right at Judah’s feet. She found him so attractive, she stuttered. Very unlike her, because she is usually an accomplished public speaker.
The realization of love
We’ve watched our characters be attracted to each other from the beginning. From page one, the romance novel must show the lead characters be attracted to each other.
They can fume, they can argue, they can gripe, and they can try to deny it. But these two characters are falling in love. They’re deciding that the other is “the one” for them.
“Formula” says that women usually “fall” for the man first. Not so with my parents. On the first date, Dad said to Mom, “You’re the one I’m going to marry.” If I remember the story right, she laughed at him. I think it probably took a year or two to bring her around, but eventually, Dad was right—and they married on June 21, 1942.
It doesn’t really matter who falls in love first, but the inevitable will happen. That’s the fun part of writing it. There are a myriad of ways to bring that about.
Let’s go back to our little romance, “Romancing the Rabbi.” Recap is above. How and why will they begin to fall in love?
I think actually, that they will both “realize” it around the same time. It’s just that one of them would have to speak it out. And since both have issues, it will take them a lot longer to spit it out, and actually get together.
Typical romances begin with attraction. Then, they begin “dating.” Or in the case of historical romance, “courting.” Then something happens to push them apart. A hindrance. How can they overcome it?
Then, they continue seeing each other after the first hindrance. Drawing closer together, they have feelings for each other. But is it love? They’ve got to ponder that for a while.
Once they figure it out, someone has to be brave enough to tell the other person.
Next time, we’ll talk about different types of romance plots. Great fun.
How is it that we fall in love? Who falls first? Who says so? Both the leads must fall for the other. @donnalhsmith @a3writers #TheRomancePlot Click to Tweet
Donna L.H. Smith 
Well, I think men fall in love a lot faster than women do because men have that human instinct about women on the first sight. For a perfect example, my mom and my dad met each other at my mom’s work in a grocery store. That wasn’t all, but they met each other on their birthdays, February 17th. Mom, being a cashier, was all giggles, needed to see his ID, and before he showed his ID, he asked her why she was so full of giggles, she said she was turning 20 and needed to get all of her teenager giggles out because she needed to be all grown up next day. Dad told his best friend that he was going to marry her soon. They had a long distance relationship becaus my dad worked in Torrance, CA, and my mom worked in Stafford, AZ. His family lived in Glendale, AZ and her family lived in Stafford. Eight months later, my parents got married on Oct. 24, 1959. So, falling in love on the first sight is a common; however, some women take a little bit longer.
For me, it took me 10 years to see yes to Greg, my husband. That was because he also was physically disabled, and he wanted to marry me 3 months after we met. After 10 long years, we finally got married. Why did it take so long? We met in a group home for disabled people, and I didn’t know where we could live. I finally moved into my own accessible apartment with aides coming and going and coordinators on site to assist everyone. Greg and I will be married for 8 years on Sept. 4th.
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Thanks Cuz! What a great story! Every romance has a story. Blessings! 🙂
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