I read a couple of creative writing articles on “how to write realistic romance” that essentially boiled down to knocking “insta-romances.”
As a hopeless romantic myself, I’m a firm believer in love-at-first-sight. I knew that I had found forever the moment I met my husband (told him so, too), we eloped shortly afterward, and ten years later the passion is still going strong. So, don’t lecture me on what doesn’t count as realistic!
Love is like magic: it has to be believed in and practiced in order to have an effect.
My number one source of knowledge for the romance in my stories comes from my own experiences, and I can’t imagine getting any more realistic than real life. That includes love-at-first-sight, which just so happens to be my favorite.
Just because I’m outside of the majority doesn’t mean that my life and marriage are impossible or doomed to fail, and I don’t write stories to express the norms that I don’t belong to.
And given that the marriage rate is at a record low, I don’t believe that people know as much about romance as they think they do.
So I’m going to do what I’ve always done, and ignore what everyone else says about romance, even if I earn criticism for it.
By Autumn Rain 