Taking Relationships Further

It’s weird once you think about it … many romance novels and other stories never get past the courting stage with their main characters. As soon as they are ‘together,’ the story ends - and if there’s a sequel, then the characters will have broken up for a reason or are breaking up at the beginning, so they can get back together at the end. What’s the problem with writing a long-term relationship?

Admittedly, I do not write romance stories, but I do have a few relationships which are past or will soon be past their initial courting. Jane Browne has Cedric Thornton, Jane Doe has Cynthia Wilmington, John Stanton has Manju Overton, Alex Dorsey has Lin Mei Liu, and in my latest finished book, Gabrielle Munson has her third cousin Abigail Munson. None of the couples is still in the courting stage by now.

For Jane Browne, giving her a steady boyfriend was partly due to me not wanting to invent new characters for every other novel. I’d given her two boyfriends in the first novel, Secret Keeper (none of whom she still was with at the end, one of whom she’d killed personally). I’d given her a friend with benefits for the next two novels, Key Pieces and Crime Pays Sometimes (Marcus, who went back to the US between novel number three and novel number four). When the fourth novel, A Plague of Rogues, came up, I decided I would let her go steady for a bit, even though I wasn’t sure she’d stay with her new boyfriend. She has stayed with him so far and he even got damselled in Grave Diggers, the newest Knight Agency novel.

Cedric needed to be a certain kind of guy: someone who would get noticed by Jane, someone who would come to accept that she was the one going out into danger, and someone who would love to take care of her when she came back injured. Cedric’s ‘hero complex’ meant he needed to come to terms with Jane’s job, but would be supportive of her afterwards. It also brought him into the whole story, risking his job to be a secret agent once in his life.

I just love to have downtime for Jane with Cedric in the stories. They have fun in and out of bed, they talk shop, they go to a role-playing evening once a week (Cedric brought Jane into that one), and they sometimes take a little holiday together. Cedric is Jane’s link to normality and the one who will take care of her injuries after an intense situation. They’re still in love, they definitely are still in lust, and they will stay that way for a while.

The same way, it’s perfectly fine for Jane Doe to have found her love at the tender age of eighteen and been with the same woman for seven years when Criminal Ventures reaches the ever-changing ‘here and now.’

I have to admit that I like having my main characters in a steady relationship. Since my stories aren’t romance stories, but adventure, pulp, or something similar (it’s more a question of style than of content - but then, write what you know, right?), I don’t need a new romance in every book.

What are good reasons not to have a long-term relationship in your books?

Well, if you’re in a romance novel, obviously. What would one of those be, if the couple started out together and still were together in the end?

If you are in a very dangerous job, it might also be bad to have a long-term relationship. Yet, Jane Browne is a Knight Agent and Cedric has been in danger because of this once (in A Plague of Rogues). He’s also been in danger once because she’s a member of high society with a low tolerance for classist idiots (in Grave Diggers). Some other lovers of my main characters would be dangerous by themselves, like Manju and Lin who both know how to fight.

Apart from that, I can’t really see a reason not to have a character in a steady relationship. It’s always a nice reason to save the world, there’s someone your character can come home to, and you don’t have to think up someone new, either.

One series which did long-term relationship very well, much to my surprise after the first three books, was the Miss Frost series which I’ve already reviewed on this blog. In the first three books, the series builds up a rather classic love triangle between Jayne Frost, ‘good boy’ Cooper, and ‘bad boy’ Greyson. The question seems to be whom she’ll find more interesting in the long run: her old flame Cooper (in every sense of the word, since he’s a summer elf and thus fiery) or the new guy Greyson (who has the added bonus of being a broody vampire). Book number four then simply cancels the love triangle and gives her a new love interest: doughnut baker and necromancer Sinclair who is supportive, understanding, also has a cat, and is even ready to put up with all the stuff a future consort to the Winter Queen has to learn. Sure, the necromancy and his love for black clothes give him some ‘bad boy’ vibes, but his actions are completely above board. Sin is just a nice guy and deserves to be the one she marries in the seventh novel.

In the fourth book, Sinclair and Jayne have her actual courting, before and after he accompanies her to the Halloween ball (important in Nocturne Falls). In the fifth, Sinclair assists Jayne with the yeti problem, doing what is necessary to help her, be it supply transport, bake sweets, or just be there for her to lean on. In the sixth, Sinclair keeps strong in the face of adversity when people at the North Pole are less than happy with a necromancer as the husband of their future queen. Finally in the seventh novel, he takes over his share of the wedding preparations and still finds time to help Jayne solve an old murder case. He’s there, he’s her support, and he never tries to steal her thunder. All of that makes him a great relationship for her.

Personally, I like making sure my characters have a significant other, if they need one, and keeping it at that. I’m not a fan of twenty books of ‘will they, won’t they’ when everyone can tell after book number two that they definitely will at some point. There are many ways to make life for a main character difficult, it doesn’t always have to be through relationships - unless we’re talking romance novels, perhaps.