Ireth
Myth Weaver
I've run into this question while outlining a short story idea for a writing contest. The basic premise is of a young Fae man falling in love with a young human woman, and urging her to go to Faerie with him forever. Their love is not at first sight; they spend a matter of months becoming friends and developing a mutual crush that blooms into romance. The crux of the plot hinges on the human woman's answer to the question "Will you come with me to Faerie?" I still haven't decided whether to go with a happy ending (that being an answer of "yes") or a more bittersweet ending ("I'm not ready to go with you yet; I have things to do here first that could take years. Are you willing to wait for me?") Said "things" include plans for college, working to save up money for tuition for said college, etc.
I understand that paranormal romance is all the rage lately, and my original idea for this Fae character (first mentioned here: http://mythicscribes.com/forums/brainstorming-planning/9840-mc-without-story.html ) was that he would NOT have a purely romance-focused story. But my initial idea was to put him in a novel-length work; the short story idea only came about afterward, and I figured a cute little romance would be a nice chance for me to get to know the character better before plopping him into a larger story.
To the point, I don't want this story to end up like so many other paranormal romances out there, even though it's a common one that probably dates back to when people first started having notions of the supernatural. I tried to avoid the FMC looking totally shallow and boy-oriented by giving her life plans that don't involve her love interest (namely the college thing), and a choice between endings. But I also know that people tend to like happy endings, and that unfortunately runs the risk of making her look shallow again ("Screw college, I have a boyfriend who's immortal! Off to Faerie, woo! Bye, family!"). Also, I have a limit of 1200-1500 words for this story, so there's not a whole lot of room to include other perspectives, like the FMC's family (all of whom are both familiar with and part of the supernatural world, being a family of mages). Any thoughts on how I should proceed?
I understand that paranormal romance is all the rage lately, and my original idea for this Fae character (first mentioned here: http://mythicscribes.com/forums/brainstorming-planning/9840-mc-without-story.html ) was that he would NOT have a purely romance-focused story. But my initial idea was to put him in a novel-length work; the short story idea only came about afterward, and I figured a cute little romance would be a nice chance for me to get to know the character better before plopping him into a larger story.
To the point, I don't want this story to end up like so many other paranormal romances out there, even though it's a common one that probably dates back to when people first started having notions of the supernatural. I tried to avoid the FMC looking totally shallow and boy-oriented by giving her life plans that don't involve her love interest (namely the college thing), and a choice between endings. But I also know that people tend to like happy endings, and that unfortunately runs the risk of making her look shallow again ("Screw college, I have a boyfriend who's immortal! Off to Faerie, woo! Bye, family!"). Also, I have a limit of 1200-1500 words for this story, so there's not a whole lot of room to include other perspectives, like the FMC's family (all of whom are both familiar with and part of the supernatural world, being a family of mages). Any thoughts on how I should proceed?