  Romance/Love
This week: Holiday Touches and Character Quirks Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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With the holiday season in full swing, we look a little at some character quirks and how small holiday features can help showcase personality in a romance/love story. |
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Ah the holiday season... It's a topic that comes to mind on a regular basis here, and I even did a prompt about the flavors that are around this time of year in a contest. It got no entries but that's a different topic for another day. Today, we are going to talk about holiday treats, flavors and other aspects but more specific, how they can show aspects of character in our romance stories.
One fun aspect of this time of year is the foods and flavors that are more prominent. Starting with fall when pumpkin spice takes over many of the food scene, from there we get things like gingerbread, sugar cookie, peppermint and many more. Starbucks isn't the only place either, though I must admit I often get holiday lattes this time of year. Mmmm gingerbread or chestnut praline lattes...
There is even a joke about some females in the fitness realm that relates to holiday flavors, mostly pumpkin pie but yeah, it's a "basic" female thing, to want those flavors. (Validity to claims on basic-nature or any feeling insulted over the nature will vary from person to person but it is a joke out there.) And it got me thinking because the types of things people enjoy around holiday season can show some aspect of character without taking a whole set of paragraphs or getting too much into the tell voice.
One aspect is the flavors. Maybe the character is into gingerbread and has a tradition of either building a gingerbread house or making ninja gingerbread cookies. Or are they a fan of peppermint everything.
What traditions does your character insist on maintaining when it comes to holidays? Some of them can be food based but there are so many options out there, depending on the character and the world of the story. Does bringing in a tree or live plant help to show the life that continues during the darkest time of the year? Maybe a family member is annoying and wants to ride the carriage through the country just because it was what they used to do as a child. Or they can order pizza on the eve of a holiday because they are trying to make life and relationships work while surviving in the big city away from family and home. So many options out there and they can vary depending on the main, point of view character.
They can even not like the holidays. I have two main character in different romance novels that are not fans of Christmas at all but for very different reasons. Thomas refuses to decorate his house or be around too much of the merry celebrations because it reminds him of his family, who rejected him, and causes problems with his post traumatic stress issues. His boyfriend, however, learns that about him the hard way by trying to decorate and bake cookies as a surprise (drama and character all based around the holiday season). On the other hand, Trenton isn't a fan more because he sees the greed and commercialism taking over and hates that aspect. His love interest dresses up like an elf all December for the spirit of the holidays. Makes for interesting situations and I hope, characters that people want to read about by having these kinds of aspects.
Holidays can be fun and help create/show the main character to the reader. A good holiday story makes for a great bit of tension and resolution. Show us your character and the holidays and how you can make that element romantic, and it might show up next time I do a newsletter. 
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What holiday scent or quark does your main POV character have in the story that shows their character?
Last time I discussed a little about personal space and characters who either like to be touched or would rather not get too close. Only one response was sent in over the topic.
Comment by Monty 
The way I feel sometimes and at other times not so much, None the less a good N/L
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Romance/Love: December 16, 2015 Issue [#7372]
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