Opinion Why is everyone so young?

[Jannah]

If you don't mind my asking how do you determine if romance is to be added then? Do you make your characters with the assumption that they will eventually have a romance if your partner wants it? Do you write your characters without romance and only add it in if your partner seems interested?

In my experience romance is a lot like age. People will always default to their comfort zone unless forced to move beyond it by the plot.

I don't require ages for instance but I do tend to default to all my characters being 20-30. The only time I stray beyond that is if the plot requires a specific age outside of that range. So even if someone was to tell me, hey you can make your character whatever age it doesn't matter. I would still default to 20-30 because that's my comfort zone.

And in my experience romance is treated the exact same way. People tend to have a specific comfort zone in terms of either always writing romance into a story or keeping romance entirely out of the story. And absent any direct preference by their partner/interference of the plot they will just automatically add romance or remove it.

Usually determined by chemistry. Like, if the characters are proven to have the right chemistry and stuff then the story can be shifted in a more romantic direction.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Usually determined by chemistry. Like, if the characters are proven to have the right chemistry and stuff then the story can be shifted in a more romantic direction.

See that always frustrates me about romance, people go on and on about chemistry. When I'm like, ya'll are going to have to give me some concrete cues to look out for or accept that it's just plain not going to happen. But that's a whole other rant.

I think what I meant was for you personally when making your character what do you aim for? Do you aim for the character to just be written without romance and if
"chemistry" pops up change course? Or do you create a character with the hope that they'll have "chemistry" but if it doesn't happen that's fine because you are still engaged in the plot.

EDIT - As that was sort of what I was going for in terms of "comfort zones". That people often default to a set type of character without realizing it and then just adjust accordingly as the plot demands. Which does account for both the age thing that is the focus of the thread as well as other things like romance/types of stories/etc.

 

[CatGirl]

Once again I'm reminded of how little I fit the standard female stereotypes. I actually usually prefer writing male characters(although I'll write either gender and nearly any age range). I don't like my stories to be purely romance(in other words, if there's to be romance it has to develop naturally and not be the main focus of the story), and I enjoy a little action here and there. A lot of female RPers also tend to like modern slice of life type stories and those personally bore me so I never seek them out. Maybe because writing for me is kind of supposed to be an escape from real life for me since my own life pretty much sucks, idk. If I must do a modern setting then usually there will be some kind of fantastical elements included in it.

I think the modern slice of life aspect stems from a want to fantasize themselves in the role of their character. Living out their lives as someone prettier, more successful etc I'm very much like you, I love the fantasy aspects and being in a fictional world apart from our own where magic and superpowers exist.

 

[CatGirl]

See that always frustrates me about romance, people go on and on about chemistry. When I'm like, ya'll are going to have to give me some concrete cues to look out for or accept that it's just plain not going to happen. But that's a whole other rant.

I think what I meant was for you personally when making your character what do you aim for? Do you aim for the character to just be written without romance and if
"chemistry" pops up change course? Or do you create a character with the hope that they'll have "chemistry" but if it doesn't happen that's fine because you are still engaged in the plot.

I've personally tried various ways, mostly by trial and error. The OCs I created were not made with romance in mind, but sort of fell into it during the course of the story and developing close friendships with others. Romantic gestures were made in story when there became evidence of chemistry, on their side or mine, and the other reciprocated. I then went on to try canon characters with famous character partners, though we started at the beginning and tried to evolve into their famous relationships. One of them ended really badly because it was too forced upon. The second ended up with a totally other character, non canon at all, but it worked cos I got along with that writer very much. The third couldn't progress (because there was no writer chemistry between myself and the partner character), though now seems to be finally par the course after the writer was replaced by someone I get along better with. For all three of those canon relationships, we discussed the prospect of romance before it started, and slowly steered the ship in that direction, with the second and third having disclaimers to have things be entirely natural and not upset if it doesn't happen in the end. We'd much rather our characters speak for us than having an iron grip on them. Ultimately it depends on how much two writers can sync.