YA and Romance: A Requirement?

[cathschaffstump]

Love...exciting and new. Woah. That was the 70's, there for a moment.

FYI, Happy Hour of the Damned hits the stories today in mass market paper back format. Go get it. I liked it. Still do.

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Here at the Tamago, I've talked before about how some of my best writing comes out of my subconscious, often when I'm dreaming. My recent situation is a little weird.

Let's make this clear, kids. I'm not advocating drug use for any sort of creativity. Nope. Just say no.

That said, as you know, I've been ill, and I've been sleeping weird. I've been sleeping, but the dreams have been disjointed and fragmented weirdness trips, the kind you get when you fight germs. Yesterday morning Bryon drove me to work because my arrival alive didn't look too promising. I dozed into a weird place, and what I needed to do to the troll story came dancing out.

Then I went right back to dreaming about alternative patterns for the American flag.

What happened might seem obvious to a lot of YA writers. The main character of the story was becoming dull and reactive to other characters. What he needed, said my subconscious, was a dynamic love interest. At the expense of a couple of other characters, but it's going to work. I can see it clearly.

That makes me wonder. Do I have to have a love interest to make a book a YA book? Is it a requirement? My subconscious seems to think so.

Romance plot ruminations follow, as do spoilers.

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.