This is wondering Wednesday here on the PASIC blog and a recent discussion on Hollywood’s idea of romance in recent movies got me to thinking about the words romance and romantic. From two of my Webster’s dictionaries one of the definitions of ROMANTIC: “marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of the heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized characteristics of things, places, people.”Thinking back to books that inspired me as a child I think of Jack London. White Fang and Call of the Wild were romantic without a speck of man/woman romance.Heading into the movie realm, I think of old swashbucklers as romantic as well. Those movies are romantic because of the high seas adventure and the romanticism of the larger than life characters, not because of Maureen O’Hara and Errol Flynn’s love story. Maureen was feistier than most actresses and Errol was superbly athletic. They were each romantic…not just together, but apart, because of their larger-than-life characteristics.
When I write I think of my characters in a romantic way…larger than life, more active, more passionate, more alive than anyone you’d meet. I don’t know if I pull it off on the page, but I certainly try!
I have two single titles and two novellas set in a haunted brothel (Midnight Confessions I and II and BUILT ~ out now) with one character that seems more romantic than the others: Belle the spirit of the original madame of Perdition. She’s enigmatic, amused by the antics of the living, a narrator who shares almost nothing of herself while telling the tales of love lost and won in the house. Not particularly heroic nor adventurous, Belle is nevertheless mysterious and certainly idealized, therefore to me, she feels romantic.
So I’m wondering, what makes a character/setting/story romantic for you? And what definition do you use for romantic?Bonnie Edwards
