FantaSci: Emotional Appeal

I'm at a con this weekend.

At FantaSci, I am scheduled for a few things. There was a panel on assassins, and noir in SciFi, faking being an extrovert, and turning tropes on their head.

And then there was

“Emotional Appeal: How to write realistic relationships that bring more life into your books and make you a better author.”

And I’m MODERATING that one. Yay!

Obviously, for those of you who started reading me with the Love at First Bite books, you know that this is something in my wheelhouse.

The other panelists are:

• Alyssa Hazel

• Nic Plume

• Amy Ravenel

• Melissa Olthoff

• Amy White

No, I don’t know any of them off hand.

Right now, I have a few questions. If I have ten questions, it may be too many. (One panelist taking one minute to answer one question, one minute to ask each question.)

I'd like to ask you all what questions you would like me to ask during this. So far, the questions I have include:

~Introductions

~When building a relationship in a novel, where do you start? For example: for my love at First Bite series, I had two characters bond over fencing. One had a 180 IQ with an interest in history, the other had training as a spy and 100 years of life experience—because the latter was a vampire. I had to start with how they could meet and bond. Do you build the characters first, with an eye to how they interact? Or do you build them independently of each other to see how they play off one another?

~Can a realistic relationship arc fit neatly in a novel, or do you need a full series to have a believable relationship arc?

~The panel description didn’t narrow down the types of relationships. Do any of you put any particular emphasis on nonromantic character dynamics? For example, I have a series called Saint Tommy NYPD, where I have two cops fighting demons. One is oddly virtuous, and the other is a veteran with a prior drinking problem and mild burnout. It makes for conflicting personality styles and verbal sparring. How do you approach relationships like that? Either a working relationship or simple friendship?

~Using any genre or media, that is not your own work, what is the best example of a fictional relationship you can think of and what makes it come alive?

~Two-part question. There are certain works in media that seem opposed to having fully mature relationships. IE: they hate having main characters get married. For a decade before Spider-Man's One More Day, Peter David insisted that there were only two other authors who liked having Peter Parker and Mary Jane married. I remember back in the 90s, TV shows with a romantic subplot would have the leads get married in the final episode. First question: Why do you think that is? And second question: Do you see that trend going away, or is that only in certain shows -- like Chuck or Castle, perhaps a few others?

~How do you like the end of the story of the relationship to end? Everyone has a happily ever after? Or keep things ambiguous? Is that last part a cheat? What say you?

.

~Since the panel description is to make people better authors, I’d like to open this up to the audience, see if they have any questions.

~END OF PANEL: One more time, please remind everyone who you are, what you write, and where people can find you on the interwebs.

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So, what think ye, gentle reader? Any other questions you’d want asked at a panel like this?