Unpopular Fannish Opinions: The Established Relationship Story

[wickedwords]

Here is my main problem with established relationship stories: most of them don't have enough relationship stress. It is as if the author fears any tension between the characters, and so they make it clear right on page one that the couple is together and will be together forever and ever amen. Mean and nasty external forces might come to bear on the favored couple, but it never shakes their faith in each other and their commitment to one another. They may sigh and fret and bemoan their lover's fate, but ultimately, they know their commitment will win out. Frequently, these stories are labeled as angst, but to me, there is little angst in them; I already know how it's going to turn out. Nothing moves or changes emotionally for any of the characters involved. They can--and do--frequently go through hell, but that refining fire does not change or reveal anything about the characters at all; they end up in exactly the same place as where they started, in their close, committed relationship, both of them unchanged.

It's a story I want to read only when I have major PMS or when other traumatic life events swirl around me. While I get that we all need comfort fiction occasionally, does there have to be so much of it?

Seriously, why read the story when nothing really happens to the character, where there are no repercussions and no impacts? Why invest my time and emotional energy when the characters can survive being burned, frozen, separated from their families and friends for years, prostitution, drug addiction, ritual torture, etc. and come out without any emotional scars? When the characters and their relationships are made of Teflon? I 've read a lot of these stories lately, many of them highly recommended, and I just--well, I guess--I get annoyed. Really annoyed. I get downright peeved in fact.

The lack of consequences in an established relationship story frequently leaves me vexed.

Comments

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Has there really been such an upsurge of Established Relationship fic lately? I always think of first-time stories as the 900 pound gorilla of fandom; I'm usually pleased to read EstRel stories just because they're, you know, something different from that. But I guess if they're becoming ubiquitous, then they lose that novelty value...and you're right, they tend to be less with the inherent conflict and drama, so that puts them at a disadvantage on two counts.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Maybe not. It's possible that it's just that I have read a lot of them lately--when work is crazy, I set stories that sound good aside, and then go back and pick from my to-read list when I have time. It's possible that I have just managed to hit a lot of established relationship stories that lack tension in the past few months.

EstRel can be hot, and it can have tension--tension that grows out of the characters and the situation--but the author has to be willing to let that happen and not sabotage it on page 1. I'm looking for the story to have some emotional stakes.

[jssangel.livejournal.com]

dude! sing it! I used to think that I had a first-time kink - but I have recently had a come-to-jesus moment, and realized that what I have is a not-boring-story kink.

It's not like established relationships can't have some hotness (look at all the married fangirls. Saturday night works out sometimes for all of us, right?) - it's that relationships without tension and stories without stakes are BORING - even if they are tying each other up or rubbing ice cubes all over or whatnot.

Mmmm. ice cubes.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

and realized that what I have is a not-boring-story kink.

AND THIS IS WHY I LOVE YOU.

& :-D

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes! What you said. that whole ::waves hands:: not boring thing.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Here is my main problem with established relationship stories: most of them don't have enough relationship stress. It is as if the author fears any tension between the characters, and so they make it clear right on page one that the couple is together and will be together forever and ever amen.

That rings true and is one reason I'm not a fan of Established Relationship Stories.

I think they are fine for emotional and/or kinky porn because frankly, a lot of shenanigans aren't possible without an unquestioned bedrock of trust and intimacy, but as for plot stories or adventures--yeah. And by that I mean, no.

(Admittedly, I generally like pairings with in-built stress and fracture lines: Slayer/vampire, handler/double agent, spy/assassin, older male spy/younger female spy who's the daughter of the ex-wife with another man, US military leader/geek scientist, and so on. & ;-)

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

True. For a PWP, the stress and tension is about the sex, and to get there, the relationship has to be a given as there's no way to build it in a short amount of time. I'm willing to go with it too, if that kink story is about revealing something about the characters during the sex; like jssangel said, there has to be some emotional stakes.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

if that kink story is about revealing something about the characters during the sex

Exactly--I'm thinking resonant8, thegrrrl2002, mmmchelle, and runpunkrun.

like jssangel said, there has to be some emotional stakes.

Mmh, yummy emotional stakes.

[zelempa.livejournal.com]

I think a main problem is that you need to end up with a happy ending (I mean, if you're going for a happy ending, which most people are). It's easy with first-time stories - start not together, end up together, bam, happy ending + character change. A real problem in the relationship is probably not going to be so neatly resolvable, especially not in a way that shows character growth.

I don't mind a relative lack of conflict in the relationship if the relationship is not the important thing in the story--it's there in the background, and that's nice, but there's other stuff going on--but I (and probably many others) don't feel I can write that kind of story because as a writer I am more interested in relationships than plots.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

See, for me, I'm all about the characters, so that adventure plot is kinda secondary, so if the relationship is just background noise, why put it in there? If the author wants to tell a gen story, but stop occasionally for really hot sex, then I think they need to write several different stories: the gen adventure, and the hot sex set in the same universe. If they can tie the two together, so that the hot sex is integral to the story in some way, then yes, by god, that is one story and the whole thing needs to be told that way.

Basically, I don't want to read a story that lacks some kind of emotional tension; for what I read, I need character-based emotional stakes. It's part of why I avoided reading gen for the longest time, as it's so much easier for me to find a story lacking emotional tension in the gen pile than it is in the slash. First time stories may be thick on the ground, but as you say, there is a given emotional tension in that plot. The EstRel author has to work harder to get around that for me.