Time, Patience and Growth: the essence of a ‘Love Story’
In love there are no ‘buts’ or ‘if’s’ or ‘when’. It’s just there, and always. No beginning, no end. -Jaime Weise
A story of love should talk about how the two characters grow together as well as individually. While they are now entangled in each other’s lives, other characters also play a prominent part of their story to help them grow more. Their words, expressions and gestures for each other show their equation.
My idea of love might sound slow but it is also something you won’t disagree with.
The only thing I guess some movies and books are not able to give their characters is time. For them story is either character introduction in first few pages and then 100 pages of intimacy or it will be like love at first sight, fight at second (with the villain) and marriage at third. There were few movies and books which shared the same definition as me but they were very few for me to understand and be able to rewrite the end for my half written stories.
“The relationship of love, faith & tears makes the story whole.”
Well, I never stopped searching. In between I did tired writing something new again but was nowhere near to this genre of “romance & love”. Here gems like ‘Love Story’, book by Erich Segul and the ‘Before Trilogy’ movies helped me a lot. And not to forget, music was here too. Later on with time I came across a video on YouTube, it was a college romance Korean series (I am a big admirer of their content). The concept was like something which we have seen in many movies and series but what caught me was actually the pace of the whole show. How the characters were given time to understand and analyse themselves as well as the others around them too.
The time they were given was something which I had always wanted in love stories. They were not made in a rush-n-hush. Maybe the unusual story lines in the “K-Drama world” would be something hard to take in when you hear it first, but still the idea was just as same as mine. (I eventually fell for the sci-fi dramas as well and I don’t think to I need to explain the ‘how’ part).
People always gave their opinion on Korean Entertainment content by calling them ‘cliched romance’, which made me avoid it at first but I guess they need to recheck their definition of “cliche”. I mean you can’t blame them if you never came across the right one. It’s like judging Bollywood on the basis of movies like Dabangg and Happy New Year. I mean, you have to watch movies like Lagaan, Chak De India and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to make a proper, strong opinion. So, check out the other content first, then speak. Or ask me, and I will recommend you something worth watching.
Korean content was something which did full-filled my requirement but I wanted some more good books now. I wish if the books published in “Before Sunset” and “When the weather is fine” could actually exist in the real life.
Not them, but I did found another book named “Eleanor & Park”. This was a book which I had wanted to read for past one year but due to something it always got delayed with something or the other.
Recently, I got some time to read it and personally, I really liked it. The story is set in the early 1980’s where two teenagers from different backgrounds notice the existence and feeling of attraction towards each other. (Well, the guy here is half Korean i.e. as Eleanor said cuteness overloaded.) The narration they got to their story is was made it beautiful. You can really feel yourself jamming from Beatles to Smiths and fighting bad guys with X-Men and Bruce Wayne with them on their silent bus rides to school.
The story is simple, sweet and not too much complicated. But what caught me in this book is the end. Bit of a tease but I loved the way Rowell ended it. In the last pages of acknowledgement (more of an interview) she shared that people often ask her whether she gave a happy ending to the two, to which she replied saying that the two characters are just 17 and 17 year old get beginnings instead.
According to me people need to understand the difference between a ‘love story’ and ‘romance’ or maybe I could be using the wrong terms here! I would call ‘love stories’ as ‘healing stories’ more as the story is about the two characters meeting and helping each other in their journey to heal from something or someone time to time. What I mean to communicate is that a love story is where you show the whole process and feelings of the both characters right from the start. The way they were, then how they evolved and then the realisation of feelings and so on.
“In a love story, one gets the chance to live, feel and understand their journey with them.”
What we mostly read or see in the typical definition of romance is the fast forward version of what I mentioned earlier. In some, they even skip few steps. But then its all on the writer and presenter. It’s their page and frame, so they are all free to say what they want. But for me the ‘‘THIS’’ is my idea of love.
I guess, now I may be able give a proper end to my characters for their love stories. Or the new beginning they have been waiting for so long.
