Romantic Drama - First Time, Tips and Feedback are welcome!

[renko9thao]

Hi there, my name is Renko. I'm the author of Sekai no Densetsu which you can find it here on Manga Creation. I'm primarily making this thread to talk about romance stories since it's a genre that I know I am not good at, but it's definitely a genre I want to explore. I feel that if I get good at it, I can get better at writing good characters better. I hope you guys look forward to it when I make it.

So, I'm planning to write about a romantic drama that involves eternal love, tragedy, and self-discovery. It's going to have at least 3 arcs that my main character will go through in his life. I call this story, Life is Boring Without You.

The characters that I have in Life is Boring Without You
- Jin Thor, the main character who is having a tough time after his ex-girlfriend cheated on him
- Abigail Edwin, the new HR manager from Jin's workplace whom he starts to sharing feelings for
- Jennifer Corlis, Jin's ex-girlfriend who cheated on him
- Jericho Skadi, Jin's coworker friend who is currently dating Jennifer
- Kendra Pattinson, Jin's friend
- Sierra Calm, Jin's meat manager
- Mei Thor, Jin's grandma


So this story that I thought of so far, is it starts with Jin in a bridge. He's grieving the fact that Jennifer cheated on him for Jericho. Filled with sadness, he decides to commit suicide; however, to his surprise, he finds himself on the shore. He sees a woman in a white dress. She asks him why he is crying, and he tells her that his girlfriend cheated on him. The woman in the white dress assures him that she'll love him in their place, and she departs into the river. It turns out, Jin was dreaming this entire time. He goes back home and works where he would soon meet his new HR manager, Abigail, whose face resembles the same woman in his dream.

That's what I have so far at the moment. Let me know what you guys think of the concept. I can go into further details on each characters' role as well. Otherwise, I would love to hear some tips and feedbacks on what I should do/focus when I'm working on this romance story.

[Suuper-san]

I think that's a decent starting point for a story. It's just the bare bones at the moment so there's plenty of potential in it.
I've never written romance so I can't give specific advice in that genre, but just in general making sure each character's motivations and actions are clear will make the story believable no matter the direction you take it.
All the best, hopefully we'll see more soon

I'll try and get round to looking at your other story as well when I can

[renko9thao]

I think that's a decent starting point for a story. It's just the bare bones at the moment so there's plenty of potential in it.
I've never written romance so I can't give specific advice in that genre, but just in general making sure each character's motivations and actions are clear will make the story believable no matter the direction you take it.
All the best, hopefully we'll see more soon

I'll try and get round to looking at your other story as well when I can

Thank you. In terms of motivation, there really isn't any at the beginning for the main character, Jin. That is, until he meets Abigail for the first time.

The first arc that I want to explore is self-healing for Jin. He overcomes his grief and slowly moves on as he interacts with Abigail, and he grows feelings for her. But as the story progresses for the first arc, I intentionally wanted where in Jin's perspective, he's the good guy as he pursuing this love of his life, that is Abigail who resembles the same woman in his dream. And, this eventually becomes an obsession for him. Jin's meat manager, Sierra, starts gossiping amongst the coworkers about Jin and Abigail's forbidden love, and it becomes a central problem between the two.

Eventually, Jin understands he is causing more problems if he continues working at the grocery shop with Abigail around. He chooses the right decision for once, and he leaves the workplace. Even when he was happy to learn news about Abigail breaking up with her boyfriend, he knew he had to leave instead of trying to pursue her love.

Ultimately, the first arc I was aiming for self-healing and self-reflection. And then the second arc explores more on the self-improvement aspect of Jin's journey.

[Coryn]

Ah, grocery store, the meat manager thing makes more sense now, lol

As you said, it's the bones, and those aren't bad. The advice I will give though (and what I see lacking in your description), is that you need to make sure that both main love interests have agency in falling in love. You talk a lot about what Jin wants and what he's going through, but not a single word about Abigail's desires or perspective on the situation.

What separates good romance from bad is just that. A woman is not a prize to be won from playing your cards right. The woman needs to have just as much character and say in how things progress. That being said, even if you're setting up Jin to be a deelpy flawed character who doesn't notice or care what Abigail wants, you still need the reader to know her feelings to we can put Jin's behavior in the proper context. And maybe you don't want Jin to be a flawed character in that way, but no matter how things play out, the love interest and the protagonist need to be on the same detail level, or else you fall into the old tropes where the other person is simply a prize give  to the protagonist for no reason that would make sense in a real life context.