Dark Romance

So last night I was up until two in the morning watching Phantom of the Opera with my mom. And while I could go on and on about how much I loved Gerad Butler, how Joel Schumacher loved Titanic, or how much my mom and I both love the main theme, I'm gonna talk about dark romance in fantasy novels.

Now, for those of you living under a rock or another country, It was a tragic tale of a man that, at the end of the day, was in love with a singer and would try to get her in anyway necessary. He killed, plotted, sabotaged, and even threatened Christine herself if she were to refuse him. Of course everything turned out right in the end, for Christine not the Phantom, and we get our happily ever after.

Now in most books dealing with dark romance, especially YA, the way people go about it is to make the heroine a lamb of light. She's never smoked, never drank, never saw a man without his shirt on, and thought that blood was really strawberry pop/juice. And you know what? I'm not even sure why people even go down this road. Never in my entire life have I met someone so innocent, and if the world you're trying to paint is a dystopian land of violence and cruelty, the chances of your heroine being that way is next to nill. The only way I'd expect her to be that innocent is if she got amnesia....And I'll talk about that on a later date.

Now, if the heroine isn't some squeaky clean angel from squeaky clean angel land, then the heroine probably has a strong sense of justice. She'll help the little old lady cross the road, hate stealing, and hate those who kill...Unless it's killing the bad guys who hurt others, then it's fine.

Or it's our dark, brooding, trigger happy love interest.

For whatever reason, boring and dull love interest has to be ready to kill without a moment's thought. He probably makes sassy remarks, if he isn't the silent brooding type, and smokes and drinks like no ones business. That really doesn't sound like a dark romance, more like a romance with some kind of pirate anti-hero or something.

No, the way to write a dark romance is actually rather simple. The answer will probably shock you, make you stare at the screen with a raised eyebrow, or just click out all together. Are you ready? Well the answer is...

Making the love dangerous.

What? That simple? Something about the love interest has to be dangerous. Sure he can kill all the time, but that really doesn't make him dangerous depending on the world. In Phantom Eric/Phantom was dangerous because he was strangely obsessed with Christine and would do anything to get her. Even when she made the decision to reject him, he decided that she didn't know what was good for herself and held control over her life. The creepy part was that he was able to get from one side of the opera house to the other so quick you'd thought he used magic. All together that makes is dangerous, almost an allure to have someone care so much about you, but at the same time scary enough you stay a good foot away.

At least normal people. Obviously your heroine isn't 'normal' if she get's with the guy at the end.

Now I just want to note that dark romance always has to have boundaries. If the girl truly loves this guy, don't be the moron who allows the guy to constantly smack her around, kick her unborn child, and choke her. That isn't romance, that's abuse. But you all should be smart enough to figure out where the boundaries lay...

I hope.

Alright, I'm gonna go do some Phantom of the Opera karaoke.