Mindfire
Istar
In my writing, I make a point of avoiding romance and sexual tension, mostly for pragmatic reasons. Namely: I can't write either of them very well. But if I'm being totally honest, I'm also being a bit of a troll. I despise love triangles, token romances, and the like.
My first question is, simply put, do readers "expect" romance and sexual tension? Is it something that a writer is "obligated" to include, is only for believability's sake, or can it be swept under the rug? If it can be ignored, should it? I know a lot of this will "depend on the audience", but I'm looking for a fairly general answer. (But not "it's up to you" kind of answers. General ≠ vague.) I'm interested to know who cares (or doesn't care) about these things.
My second question is a bit more specific to my work. In my WIP there is a female character who becomes a friend to the protagonist. In most books she would probably be the love interest, but I decided to eschew that in favor of a platonic friendship devoid of sexual tension. Over time (years) their friendship does deepen into love and they get married... but it happens between books. By book two they're married and relatively settled. (Well as settled as a tribal warrior family can be.) Will the reader (especially a female reader) feel "cheated" that I skipped over their romantic development? I know I personally wouldn't mind (the Star Wars prequels would have been greatly improved if the Padme/Anakin thing happened between movies instead of on the screen), but my perspective is limited.
My first question is, simply put, do readers "expect" romance and sexual tension? Is it something that a writer is "obligated" to include, is only for believability's sake, or can it be swept under the rug? If it can be ignored, should it? I know a lot of this will "depend on the audience", but I'm looking for a fairly general answer. (But not "it's up to you" kind of answers. General ≠ vague.) I'm interested to know who cares (or doesn't care) about these things.
My second question is a bit more specific to my work. In my WIP there is a female character who becomes a friend to the protagonist. In most books she would probably be the love interest, but I decided to eschew that in favor of a platonic friendship devoid of sexual tension. Over time (years) their friendship does deepen into love and they get married... but it happens between books. By book two they're married and relatively settled. (Well as settled as a tribal warrior family can be.) Will the reader (especially a female reader) feel "cheated" that I skipped over their romantic development? I know I personally wouldn't mind (the Star Wars prequels would have been greatly improved if the Padme/Anakin thing happened between movies instead of on the screen), but my perspective is limited.