tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post5409484330679656815..comments2024-03-28T09:11:30.629-04:00Comments on alien romances: Plot, character, or something else?Rowena Cherryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11839386556697211986noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-34595807554436407732008-01-14T08:48:00.000-05:002008-01-14T08:48:00.000-05:00I don't see conflict (and, therefore, plot) in any...I don't see conflict (and, therefore, plot) in any of that. Only complications. Love grows over the course of a couple dealing with complications. And that's good. Still, it's not conflict (and, therefore, plot.) <BR/><BR/>I agree with Margaret that a romantic hero can have a broken jaw. In fact, it can be incredibly romantic because it would require the heroine to love him selflessly. Selfless lovers are fabulous lovers. Now, there could be conflict (and, therefore, plot.) Either the heroine is too shallow and selfish to love such a man, or she grows and becomes a selfless lover and stands with her man through hell and highwater. That's an Intimate Adventure, I think.<BR/><BR/>But, then, I'm just a novice and a dullard. I'd be curious to know what Jacqueline says.Kimber Lihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03982239712083114488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26974492.post-21739718231653398952008-01-13T14:31:00.000-05:002008-01-13T14:31:00.000-05:00Sure you can have a romantic hero with a broken ja...Sure you can have a romantic hero with a broken jaw. Think of it as a challenge. :) If you want kissing to be involved, however, better have the jaw completely healed before the end of the story.<BR/><BR/>In 1988 my husband hit the windshield of a car with his face and shattered his jaw. (No other injuries except a few bruises. Weird and amazing.) The jaw was wired for two months. Several years later, he had it re-broken and re-set to correct problems caused by the first, hasty surgery. A man with a wired jaw can do anything he could otherwise except eat solid food and enjoy kissing. (You would be astonished at what a variety of different foods can be reduced to puree, though.) Talking isn't a big problem. One apparently gets used to the limitation of not being able to open one's mouth. He was even talking on the phone in connection with his job a couple of weeks after the wiring was done. Two problems he mentioned, one significant and one relatively trivial -- trouble breathing immediately after the surgery, and the later realization that he'd never noticed how much he used his tongue in normal circumstances.<BR/><BR/>The shape of his jaw did change a little, but he looks fine. If anything, his teeth are probably better aligned than they were before the ordeal.<BR/><BR/>In an alien or futuristic culture, you can always "cheat" by having a fast-healing technology available that doesn't exist here and now. In present-day medicine, your unfortunate broken-jaw patient will have to wear braces for many months after the wires come off.<BR/><BR/>This topic reminds me of a discussion on one of my lists: Will most romance editors and publishers accept a handicapped hero or heroine? Consensus is that most will, depending on how it's handled. The question of what handicaps, if any, would disqualify a character from hero status hasn't been delved into. (In THE BONE MAN and its sequels, the quadriplegic hero has an intense love relationship with the heroine, who assists him in his cases. But those are detective novels, with the romance as a secondary plot.)Margaret Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08293021955480708191noreply@blogger.com