• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Tips on incorporating a romantic subplot in epic fantasy?

I've been writing and brainstorming around one of my epic fantasy stories for a while now. And I'd say I have the main plot outlined pretty well, but I'm still feeling iffy about the romantic subplot I want to include.

To give come context, I have a young adult (basically early/mid-twenties) male MC who serves as my primary "perspective" character (i.e. I use third-person limited and explore the various perspectives across the different chapters, but primarily focus on my MC's) along with a consistent "party" of about five other characters, all of whom are working towards a shared goal. The party's journey is admittedly bit stereotypical, with them travelling the world with the end goal to save it. But as I said, that's not really the part that I'm worried about.

My MC and his love interest (a girl also in her early twenties) kind of already know each other at the beginning of the story, as they were both colleagues before being thrust into the whole "world-saving adventure" thing. As far as backstory goes, I'll say that they've already known each other for about a year beforehand, having built up a nice slow-burning friendship & rappor in that time. It isn't until after the adventure begins, at which point they get temporarily separated from each other before reuniting after some time, that their friendship starts to boil into romance. Now of course, the way I imagine it, their friendship was eventually going to turn into a romance either way, it just happened to get somewhat interrupted by them being thrust into an unexpected situation.

I've been Googling around here and there for tips on how to write romance, seeing as how I've never done it before. And I've been beaten over the head with the same generic tips. Mostly stuff like:
#1: Avoid overly-done tropes like love-triangles, insta-love, romanticized abusive relationships. All stuff that is apparently egregiously done in many YA novels (I haven't read many myself, so I have no idea how badly/how often it's done).
#2: Don't drag it out too long. They have to get together eventually.
#3: Make sure both characters get development. Don't just let the female character turn into a stereotype, like a damsel in distress.
#4: Don't force everything to be romance. Male and female characters can be "just friends".
#5: Don't overly sexualize your characters. i.e. If using a male character for perspective, don't just have him always talk about how "hot" or "sexy" she is all the time.

Okay. No problem. Avoiding these issues and tropes doesn't seem all that difficult. My two characters in question already avoid plenty of them simply due to their natures. There's no love-triangle, they don't instantly fall in love but they also don't take forever to get to the point, they both develop well as characters in my plot, they both become good platonic friends with the rest of the party (which consists of an equal amount of both genders. 3 guys, 3 girls essentially). And while my male MC would probably have a decently healthy/normal amount of sexual thoughts for a guy in his mid-twenties, he would also not be one to incoporate such thoughts when describing another character to the audience (or perhaps it's simply that I as the writer wouldn't do that). Either way, no issue with overly-sexualized female characters there.

So what's the issue?

For starters, I'm still not exactly sure how to incorporate it. It's only a subplot and not the main plot, so obviously I don't want it to be too much in my readers' faces. But at the same time, I want to make it clear that they have chemistry so that when they do end up together, it doesn't feel forced or sudden. One would think that building chemistry between two characters wouldn't be all that hard. Unfortunately, like my characters, I also happen to be a mid-twenties guy with only a small amount of relationship experience (it's better than none, but I wouldn't say its enough experience for me to actually draw upon when writing). And admittedly, I'm a little afraid that the relationship I've imagined up between these two characters isn't realistic enough or believable. Primarily because, in my mind at least, they would probably get along a bit TOO well. They both have considerably selfless, heroic, good-hearted personalities, and share a lot of the same morals. As such, its a bit difficult for me to imagine what kind of conflicts or arguments they would have, if any. And a relationship with near-zero conflict might be...boring to readers. Or at the very least, unrealistic and hard to believe.

Another issue I've run into is that most romance writing advice I've seen online makes alot of assumptions. Like, assuming that the characters won't OFFICIALLY get together until later in the story. Or that their relationship is going to be intense and passionate, with lots of lust and blatant sexual tension. I don't particularly care for any of this. I would much prefer for the characters to officially become a couple somewhat early on in the story, with their relationship being more subtle and down-to-earth as opposed to being exaggeratedly passionate and intense. If you've ever heard the phrase "your significant other should double as your best friend", that's essentially the kind of relationship I'd like to go for with these two. Essentially, they'd just be a normal, relatively happy couple that gets together early on, slowly gets to know each other better as they travel, and emotionally supports one another as they face hardships in their journey to save the world and all that jazz. A wholesome relationship between two morally-good, heroic characters. Not to say that there wouldn't be any slightly-less-wholesome moments here and there. I personally wouldn't write any sex scenes, but I'd probably imply that it happens every now and then (I mean, they're both in their twenties and have healthy sex drives. It's bound to happen at some point. I just wouldn't want to dwell on it too much because it's not that important to me, personally).

My point is: Is all of this too...boring? Don't most audiences want a bit more "spice" in their romances? More conflict? More tension, sexual or otherwise? I'm still not entirely sure what kind of audience I'm writing for, but regardless, I'm afraid of boring my readers with a relationship that's too wholesome or normal/down-to-earth. Or what if they feel cheated because some of the friendship/relationship development already happened before the story begins?

I think at this point I'm just rambling, so I'll stop the post here. Idk, I guess I'm just wondering if any other fantasy and/or romance writers have advice to give. I've tried to provide plenty of context, but I can always provide more if needed.
 
Last edited:

WooHooMan

Auror
My general advice for romance: do both characters want to be in a relationship?
If yes, then you’re set. If no, it’s a tragedy.

Writing a relationship is ultimately little different than writing a single character: you got a goal, a motivation, strengths (things that will progress towards the goal) and faults (things that would hinder the goal). Then there’s usually an arc with an inciting incident, some build up, a low point, a climax and so forth.
If the major fault is that the characters are too busy with their adventure to get a stable relationship going than you could frame their relationship as their reward for accomplishing their adventure. And if that’s the case, there isn’t much need for conflict or sensuality or whatever you want to call it.
 

Mad Swede

Auror
Personally I'd just write whatever seems right for your story. Sure, there's lots of advice out there on how a romance should be developed. I read a lot of that and then thought back on my own life. And then I just wrote what I thought was right. The key, I think, is character development. Whatever happens has to develop both characters and it has to fit in with what else is happening, because you can't suspend belief too much. But the rest is up to you.
 

Chasejxyz

Inkling
It is very, very hard to "plot"/outline characterization. It mostly springs up naturally as the writing happens. The characters need to have those moments interacting with each other so any sort of relationship happening is natural, and not them falling in love because the script told them to.

Example: in my current WIP, the PLAN was to have MC + LI be sort of "will they/wont they" by the end of the book and have it actually happen a few years later in the second book because...well I thought it would be more dramatic for the relationship to start (and then abruptly end) at that point. There is a love triangle but all of that is pretty in the background because the MC is more concerned with not dying. So once I started writing the end of the book, the big bad is defeated, there's been tons of good interactions between MC + LI...and then I realize if they DIDN'T get together it wouldn't make sense. But their ability to do anything with it is very hampered because they're busy doing Hero Stuff, but they wouldn't want to stop doing that yet since the world is still kinda Bad and they know they can make it better for any future kids. This divergence from the original plan has introduced a lot of new conflict and problems for them to work through, which never would have happened if I stuck to the outline.

So let your characters have changes as they go along the story. Maybe write some scenes just for yourself from the other person's point of view; how are they seeing and interpreting the conversation? What do they think about the situation? What are their feelings like? Knowing that stuff can help you make things happen.
 
Some of this comes down to personal taste and I feel like romance is constantly written into things just for the sake of it. Does this story need a romance? Does it enhance the plot? Does it lend a hand to the themes you're exploring? Not every journey in life we go on ends with us getting with someone and it's the same for novels. I prefer to read a damn good friendship or sibling relationship because I feel we don't see them as frequently. So, for me the main question to ask yourself is: Does it need to be there? If, not really then leave it out and focus on making a solid friendship...that friendship could always change if you want to write further books.
 

ladyander

Scribe
Generally I tend to avoid advice online romance writing advice. I've learned they assume that when you are writing a romance novel or smut. All of it written with the assumption that the romance is going to provide the reader with their fantasy romance. Often times, romance is full of overused conventions that really only just appeal to a certain percentage to the population. I've yet to read a single romance not that comes close to what I would consider a fantasy of mine. Could be because I read one romance novel a year, and usually it's the exact same thing that I read before in terms of plugging points in the same tired formula.

Thankfully, you aren't writing a romance novel. You don't have to write anything spicy. Some of us readers out there would appreciate if you didn't.

I would love more a down to earth relationship that the often lets rush characters to declaring their love for each other for no reason other than that's what romance does. And the next story will be how their romance is tested.

My favorite relationship of all time is Aralorn and Wolf from Patricia Briggs's Masques and Wolfsbane. Nothing about their relationship is spices. In fact, I would say their relationship is unique to who they are as characters. In fact, compared to a lot of the things out there, theirs feels unique. They don't start out, I guess very romantic, they are friends. They've known each other for a few years and as the first novel progresses, they ebb closer and closer to each other. None of it leading to sex because well, no time for that sort of thing. They've an evil wizard to kill. I guess you could call it down-to-Earth I suppose. But either way, I would love to read more relationships like it.

Usually when I write a relationship, I'm not going for steamy or spice. Character relationships are their own. They are based on how the two personalities and how they work together and how they compliment each other and what they may clash on. And how to incorporate a romantic subplot would be to make sure it still ties into the story and not some separate thing that exists outside of it. That's really the only advice I can give on that front.
 

Ned Marcus

Maester
Don't force it. If it seems natural, then incorporate it. The simplest actions by the characters can lead to readers assuming there is romantic interest, whether your develop in your story or not. I incorporate some romance, but I don't get explicit (because that's not what I look for in fantasy) and I keep romantic interests in the background. After all, I'm writing fantasy not romance.

But if you really want to develop romantic subplots, then beta readers will help later. Just make sure they love fantasy. If they're primarily romance readers then you may get advice that won't work for fantasy. If you ever get to the stage where you want an editor, you may want to choose one who has edited fantasy (of course) but who also has some interest in romance.
 

eartshala

Dreamer
It sounds like you already have it worked out, mostly. The thing you are doing wrong now is overthinking it. Don't overthink it. If you know your characters well, which you should, then just let it be.
 
I think you can put that in without making it heavy handed. And you can draw on your own relationship experience, limited as it may be. You didn't say you've never had any at all, so presumably, you at least know what it's like to develop those feelings for someone. How does your MC feel about this girl? It can just be an occasional mention of how nice he feels it is to be near her, or he looks at her and realizes what pretty eyes she has, something like that. That slight touch that suggests that, in addition to everything he likes about her as a friend, there's a little something more.

If you're writing any of this from her point of view, she can have similar feelings about him. Don't worry about not having a female perspective yourself, basic romantic/sexual feelings are essentially the same across genders.

And they might be the kind of couple who always agree, more or less. Couples like that exist. One person's boring is another person's security. Perhaps they're both the kind who prefer a secure, harmonious relationship, even if they like spice in other areas of their lives.

Realistically, even those harmonious couples will have the occasional argument when they're living together long term and dealing with the realities of life, but you're not writing them at that stage.

It would be downright refreshing to read something like this in a novel. A break from all the romance tropes that have been done to death.
 
My number one rule is this: if you're going to put the characters together - the reader has to want them to be together.

Depending also (of course) on the level of sex content you want in your book, you might be interested in a blog post I wrote years ago which spells it all out. I've posted this before, but it's always popular...

How to Write an Excellent Bonking Scene
 
I think there is a lot you can do with characters who are bound to be in a healthy relationship without much conflict. Often the journey from friends to being in a relationship is ripe with conflict, so I would start there. Here are some ideas:

- Both MCs sound pretty altruistic and heroic. One or both of them could be concerned about starting a relationship during the quest/main plot/journey and if that is really fair to the other person since they could die or their love for the other could be used against them by the villian.
- Think about romantic relationships the MCs have witnessed, such as the relationship between their parents or other role models like an older sibling, aunt, grandparent, etc. If any of these people had bad/toxic relationships, they may be uncertain about being able to have a healthy relationship with a nice person.
- Do either of them have any form of physical or mental illness that could prove a challenge in a relationship? They could worry about hurting the other person due to this. Or worry about exposing their own limitations on a deeper level.
- If they rely on each other as best friends, they could be worried that if they make a move romantically and the other doesn't reciprocate the feelings, it could forever change the dynamic of the friendship.
 
I've been writing and brainstorming around one of my epic fantasy stories for a while now. And I'd say I have the main plot outlined pretty well, but I'm still feeling iffy about the romantic subplot I want to include.

To give come context, I have a young adult (basically early/mid-twenties) male MC who serves as my primary "perspective" character (i.e. I use third-person limited and explore the various perspectives across the different chapters, but primarily focus on my MC's) along with a consistent "party" of about five other characters, all of whom are working towards a shared goal. The party's journey is admittedly bit stereotypical, with them travelling the world with the end goal to save it. But as I said, that's not really the part that I'm worried about.

My MC and his love interest (a girl also in her early twenties) kind of already know each other at the beginning of the story, as they were both colleagues before being thrust into the whole "world-saving adventure" thing. As far as backstory goes, I'll say that they've already known each other for about a year beforehand, having built up a nice slow-burning friendship & rappor in that time. It isn't until after the adventure begins, at which point they get temporarily separated from each other before reuniting after some time, that their friendship starts to boil into romance. Now of course, the way I imagine it, their friendship was eventually going to turn into a romance either way, it just happened to get somewhat interrupted by them being thrust into an unexpected situation.

I've been Googling around here and there for tips on how to write romance, seeing as how I've never done it before. And I've been beaten over the head with the same generic tips. Mostly stuff like:
#1: Avoid overly-done tropes like love-triangles, insta-love, romanticized abusive relationships. All stuff that is apparently egregiously done in many YA novels (I haven't read many myself, so I have no idea how badly/how often it's done).
#2: Don't drag it out too long. They have to get together eventually.
#3: Make sure both characters get development. Don't just let the female character turn into a stereotype, like a damsel in distress.
#4: Don't force everything to be romance. Male and female characters can be "just friends".
#5: Don't overly sexualize your characters. i.e. If using a male character for perspective, don't just have him always talk about how "hot" or "sexy" she is all the time.

Okay. No problem. Avoiding these issues and tropes doesn't seem all that difficult. My two characters in question already avoid plenty of them simply due to their natures. There's no love-triangle, they don't instantly fall in love but they also don't take forever to get to the point, they both develop well as characters in my plot, they both become good platonic friends with the rest of the party (which consists of an equal amount of both genders. 3 guys, 3 girls essentially). And while my male MC would probably have a decently healthy/normal amount of sexual thoughts for a guy in his mid-twenties, he would also not be one to incoporate such thoughts when describing another character to the audience (or perhaps it's simply that I as the writer wouldn't do that). Either way, no issue with overly-sexualized female characters there.

So what's the issue?

For starters, I'm still not exactly sure how to incorporate it. It's only a subplot and not the main plot, so obviously I don't want it to be too much in my readers' faces. But at the same time, I want to make it clear that they have chemistry so that when they do end up together, it doesn't feel forced or sudden. One would think that building chemistry between two characters wouldn't be all that hard. Unfortunately, like my characters, I also happen to be a mid-twenties guy with only a small amount of relationship experience (it's better than none, but I wouldn't say its enough experience for me to actually draw upon when writing). And admittedly, I'm a little afraid that the relationship I've imagined up between these two characters isn't realistic enough or believable. Primarily because, in my mind at least, they would probably get along a bit TOO well. They both have considerably selfless, heroic, good-hearted personalities, and share a lot of the same morals. As such, its a bit difficult for me to imagine what kind of conflicts or arguments they would have, if any. And a relationship with near-zero conflict might be...boring to readers. Or at the very least, unrealistic and hard to believe.

Another issue I've run into is that most romance writing advice I've seen online makes alot of assumptions. Like, assuming that the characters won't OFFICIALLY get together until later in the story. Or that their relationship is going to be intense and passionate, with lots of lust and blatant sexual tension. I don't particularly care for any of this. I would much prefer for the characters to officially become a couple somewhat early on in the story, with their relationship being more subtle and down-to-earth as opposed to being exaggeratedly passionate and intense. If you've ever heard the phrase "your significant other should double as your best friend", that's essentially the kind of relationship I'd like to go for with these two. Essentially, they'd just be a normal, relatively happy couple that gets together early on, slowly gets to know each other better as they travel, and emotionally supports one another as they face hardships in their journey to save the world and all that jazz. A wholesome relationship between two morally-good, heroic characters. Not to say that there wouldn't be any slightly-less-wholesome moments here and there. I personally wouldn't write any sex scenes, but I'd probably imply that it happens every now and then (I mean, they're both in their twenties and have healthy sex drives. It's bound to happen at some point. I just wouldn't want to dwell on it too much because it's not that important to me, personally).

My point is: Is all of this too...boring? Don't most audiences want a bit more "spice" in their romances? More conflict? More tension, sexual or otherwise? I'm still not entirely sure what kind of audience I'm writing for, but regardless, I'm afraid of boring my readers with a relationship that's too wholesome or normal/down-to-earth. Or what if they feel cheated because some of the friendship/relationship development already happened before the story begins?

I think at this point I'm just rambling, so I'll stop the post here. Idk, I guess I'm just wondering if any other fantasy and/or romance writers have advice to give. I've tried to provide plenty of context, but I can always provide more if needed.
I’m a big fan of romance - if done well. This being said, I’ve read books with a romantic element that have not been believable enough, and I would personally say that this is a pitfall for many writers. It’s harder than it seems to write a plausible romance. Building a believable dialogue outside of physical contact is important, as this will build the foundation for the reader to root for your two MC to get together eventually. How they interact with each other and what they say is important.

You target market is crucial to pin down firstly, so as YA story is your audience young males or young females? It’s more likely that young females will be interested in reading fantasy that has romantic elements overall I would say. When you’re thinking about your target market, be super specific - who is he or she? What are they interested in? How old are they specifically? What kind of romance are they interested in reading about?

There are other important factors such as how you build the tension. Will it be romantic tension or sexual tension, or both? Sometimes by omitting a sexual element this can result in a more believable story, or can be at least as appealing to read - if done well.

You say you’re personally inexperienced in relationships - doesn’t matter - many YA reader will be in the same position, and your target market will want to read about an ideal relationship that they can imagine themselves in.

You’ve mentioned some of the research you’ve done regarding what to and what not to include. Yes it goes without saying to some extent but this also related back to your target market.

Consensual sex, recognising abuse, contraceptions etc are all themes you could include and explore.

Finally, what kind of romance appeals to you? Would appeal to your audience? This would probably create a more realistic romance because it’s true to life wether it’s a real life experience or not. Sometimes the best romances live in our minds.
 
To add, after having slept on this, I would highly suggest actually reading books that are renowned for their romantic elements. I think reading other books can be super useful for research in comparison to reading the blog posts and writing classes you’ve mentioned.

You might not need to read the whole book, or you could watch the film/series adaptation of the book - though this probably won’t be as thorough.

The queen of romance is Jane Austen who I’m a huge fan of, and yes it’s pretty tame stuff compared to todays standards but she was clever in the way that she built a believable dialogue that often led to palpable romantic and even sexual tension between two characters resulting in love matches. She used other clever little tricks such as adding in another potential love interest that sparks jealousy, overhearing or eavesdropping into another conversation that either misleads or gives valuable info regarding the romance and family members who oppose the romance. All these things add peril or roadblocks and encourage the reader to want our MC’s to become romantically involved. There are often moments where the MC’s show their deepest flaws to each other, which is probably a healthy foundation for any relationship, as a good relationship should make it so two people compliment each other helping to self improve.

If you’re going to include a sex scene what kind of sex is it going to be? Keep your target market in mind again, and keep this in line with the tone of voice of the entire book. Use language that’s also in line with the rest of the book. Are you going to use the actual terms for things or are you going to get creative to it’s not too explicit? How are you going to incorporate the fantasy element into the bedroom so to speak, does a kiss feel more intense because of the fantastical element for example.

Have a look at ‘York notes’ for Jane Austen as this is what gets used in (UK) school curriculum when learning about how to analyse a book, super useful for getting a grasp on how to structure a book too.

I understand that this would be a subplot for a much larger fantasy plot however the same rules apply no matter how significant a role the romance plays in any book. Romances don’t need to be front and centre stage but they do need to be believable as you’ve said.
 

Dragon tea

Dreamer
I've been writing and brainstorming around one of my epic fantasy stories for a while now. And I'd say I have the main plot outlined pretty well, but I'm still feeling iffy about the romantic subplot I want to include.

To give come context, I have a young adult (basically early/mid-twenties) male MC who serves as my primary "perspective" character (i.e. I use third-person limited and explore the various perspectives across the different chapters, but primarily focus on my MC's) along with a consistent "party" of about five other characters, all of whom are working towards a shared goal. The party's journey is admittedly bit stereotypical, with them travelling the world with the end goal to save it. But as I said, that's not really the part that I'm worried about.

My MC and his love interest (a girl also in her early twenties) kind of already know each other at the beginning of the story, as they were both colleagues before being thrust into the whole "world-saving adventure" thing. As far as backstory goes, I'll say that they've already known each other for about a year beforehand, having built up a nice slow-burning friendship & rappor in that time. It isn't until after the adventure begins, at which point they get temporarily separated from each other before reuniting after some time, that their friendship starts to boil into romance. Now of course, the way I imagine it, their friendship was eventually going to turn into a romance either way, it just happened to get somewhat interrupted by them being thrust into an unexpected situation.
I've just been browsing some forums, and I would love to know if you have progressed or completed this brainstorm? What direction did you take for the relationship??
 

CrystalD

Scribe
I read a ton of clean fantasy romance, so to answer your question no a non-steamy relationship isn’t boring. I much prefer a relationship built on friendships blooming into something more, or the characters slowly starting to understand each other, and through that understanding themselves and what they truly want, so it can totally work. It sounds like you have it pretty well figured out though, so I’d say don’t overthink it and just go into writing the characters, because they’ll mold their romance as they see fit when yu start writing :)


I’m writing an enemies to lovers fantasy romance, and initially, I had the Female MC just disliking the Male one for entirely too long because he captured her. When it came down to it, I realized that there needed to be some sort of common ground between them even in that stretch of the book, because otherwise I felt the reader would be like this switch has flipped all of a sudden, why do I care? So I rewroe the intro chapters with it more obvious that the Male MC is stuck doing something he doesn’t want to do via capturing her, and she’s being defensive and protective of herself because she’s been thrown from one bad situation to another, so she was ignoring that even given the situation he was being kind to her. The Female MC just realized she was over reacting, and to give the guy a chance in my current chapters, and if I hadn’t just started writing and saw the characters figure it out for themselves, I wouldn’t have gotten there.


My biggest advice would be to write and don’t think too much. When that tiny “Is this good enough?” voice pops in your head, just smack it back. Or focus on your main plot, with all of the friendship you mentioned in the story, and see if that organically blosssoms into romance. You never know, the characters may not be there yet, and you don’t have to worry about a romance subplot until book 2 ;)
 
Top