Writing Romance

I have been having such a hard time writing lately.  I don't know if it's because of lack of time or if it's just plain old writer's block.  All I know it that everytime I sit down to write, it feels like I sit there forever, and I'm lucky if I get a hundred (usually crappy) words down.  That's not what this post is about though.  As much as I would love to complain about that for a whole post, I won't bore you with that.  This post is about writing though.

I love books that have a bit of romance in them.  The book doesn't have to be centered around romance, but I've never found having a bit of romance in a book to be a bad thing.  If any of you have read my writing, you'll know that I haven't written anything that I'd consider entirely romance, but a lot of what I've written has had a bit of romance in it.  Truthfully, the idea of writing something that's just romance is a little intimidating to me.  It sounds way too easy to screw up.

It's a bit difficult to explain why I feel this way.  I guess the short answer is there are so many things you have to be careful of when you write romance.  First, it usually helps if the readers want the two characters together, although this doesn't really have to be the case.  You also have to be careful that you make the relationship happen realistically.  You can't just have them professing their love for each other after only meeting five minutes earlier.  Then, you have to be careful that you don't insert too much pointless drama.  I guess all of this stuff is true no matter what you're writing, but it just seems more intimidating in romance.

My fanficition Avatar: The Next Generation was the first time I really attempted to write romance.  Those who have read it know that there really isn't much romance at all.  The characters are young, and the two couples in the story aren't going to be very serious.  Still, it was the first time I really wrote about relationships that evolved.  I had to write about crushes, starting to date, and the actual relationship in that story.  It wasn't the focus of the story, and it wasn't entirely romantic, but it was the first time I'd ever really attempted something like that.

The project I'm writing now is about friendship more than anything else.  Still, the characters are teenagers, so I could avoid romantic relationships completely.  The main character has a crush that, while not entirely important to the plot, is still there, and another character has her first boyfriend in the story.  I didn't put these things in the story to focus on the romance.  They have other purposes.  These kids are fourteen, so I'm not writing about them finding their true loves.  If I was, I'd probably get intimidated.

Maybe someday I'll write something more romantic, but for now, I think I'm going to steer clear of it.  To be honest, I probably wouldn't be writing romance even if I didn't find it intimidating.  Like I said, my current project focuses on friendship, and for the moment at least, I find friendship to be just as interesting of a subject to explore as romance, if not more so.