Natalie Hart's Blog: Natalie's Blog - Posts Tagged "romance"

I often get panicked when I’ve opened up to someone. When I publish my stories I wonder if I’m good enough to do this and if people will enjoy what I’ve written; I often wonder if I’m embarrassing myself. When I tell someone my worries I wonder if they’re going to hurt me, even if it’s unintentional hurt. We are often vulnerable and I’ve been thinking about this in light of love. It’s made me realise that I have yet to write about a hero being convinced of his love for the heroine, or of a heroine showing the hero she’s worthy of him.

I think all my heroes so far have been sure they at the very least cared for the heroine. They may not love her yet, but they want to spend their time getting to know if they do. In my stories the barrier to love has often been the heroine worrying if they’re right for each other.

I don’t want to put my heroines down, there’s very good reason to be cautious about opening up to someone. And that’s exactly what love is. It’s about knowing that your partner is someone you can bare your soul to; someone who adds resilience to your life. The world can often be a scary place, and there are people who have malicious intentions. Letting yourself love someone can be a frightening thought. It opens up you up to danger if you let yourself love the wrong person.

Opening up to the right person gives you strength, a shared strength from being more sure of your vulnerabilities and gaining strength from the care and support of person you opened up to.

Sometimes we don’t even realise we’re exploring someone’s thoughts, or ideals, or morals to see if we can care for them. As we go through life we examine, and sometimes judge others. We try to put our perspective in line with their views to see if we’re compatible. Truly loving someone is taking the ultimate risk in saying, “You are for me, and I am for you.”

Commitment can be intimidating, whether that commitment is to a night of passion, or inviting someone into your home, or starting a life with someone.

First impressions are often important. Many of my characters have known from the second they saw their future lover that there was something between them. They didn’t know if that something would be unrequited, if that something would be outright rejected, or if that something was a thought gone askew. My heroines had to take risks to find out, they’ve had to open up their vulnerabilities to know if this person is right for them.

My heroines always know there’s something there. The romance is the couple learning exactly what that something is.