Writing Romance in Fantasy

One of the things I like about fantasy is really how many genres you can fit in it. Horror, Sci-Fi (imagine alien fantasy races that crash landed on space ships... again, I need to stop playing Warcraft)

But you know what I love? Romance in Fantasy. Why? Because apparently, Love has been such a crucial part of fantasy and fairy tales that there's so many themes and avenues to explore, but at the same time, the world is interesting enough that you can simply put the romance aside because the overarching story is interesting enough as it is. 

When I first came up with these characters when I was about 14, I was a bit prudish, and had this adverse feeling towards romance in general, but I still wanted my characters to be married. As a result, I ended up writing them more like friends, roommates, or even occasionally a mentor/student relationship than lovers. Turns out, that was a really good move on my part because whenever I put out polls on my Instagram (which I highly reccomend you check out if you aren't already because that's where I put most of the art for Dragonrider's Dance), turns out you want to see more romance stories where the couples actually like eachother or have a deep friendship rather than just pure romantic lust. 

I'm annoyed by "will they/won't they" subplots, especially if it drags for too long, or even if the couple does end up together, they break up every other week. Even when characters do end up together it's like the writers don't know what to do with them, so they immediately give them problems that they're just unwilling to work through (Yeah, Young Justice! I'm STILL mad at you about that!)

So, maybe this is a little spoilery, but screw it: there's none of that shit here. These guys have problems and obstacles? They'll manage it like adults. They're not particulary infatuated with eachother that week? Tough, they already made a promise.

There's enough drama in the Fantasy world where they have blood-haired dragonslayers, psychopathic in-laws, evil fairies, and possible Cthuluesque nature corruption, that honestly? I'm looking forward to the relationship being the ONLY stable thing in this story. 

Writing fantasy stories with dragons is fun.