“Love Stories With Bittersweet Endings Can Also Leave You With A Feel-Good Vibe” – Anuja Chauhan

"I love endings that leave people better off than they were when the story began" says popular author Anuja Chauhan, on what makes love stories tick.

“I love endings that leave people better off than they were when the story began” says popular author Anuja Chauhan, on what makes love stories tick. 

What makes great love stories? What are the secret ingredients that make some love stories stick with the readers whilst others just fade away into oblivion?

Well, love stories evoke some of the most powerful emotions from readers. Writing a love story is probably the most difficult of all genres. In the words of India’s best selling author Anuja Chauhan, the key to writing a good love story is:

 

Anuja joined us as a special guest yesterday at our weekly #WomenOnTheMove chat over at Twitter. (If you’re not yet following Women’s Web on Twitter, do now, and you can come over for the chat too, every Wednesday 6-7 pm IST.) With her latest novel Baaz, bringing us a spirited love story against the backdrop of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, we thought it was a great time to have Anuja over and get chatting about love stories.

Never miss real stories from India's women.

Register Now

Love – an emotion that cannot be explained in a deterministic equation – in zero and one. There is no right way to fall in love, that is why it is said that we ‘fall’ in love, it just happens. Great love stories weave magic with their words and makes the reader experience something that resonates with what people desire in life. They are reminders for readers that love is worth all that heartache! As Kasturi Patra puts it:

Love is a powerful emotion and love stories are like beacons of light in an otherwise imperfect and brutal world. They show that hope can be found in a hopeless situation too. Yet, why do some love stories impact us so deeply as if it they are re-telling our life’s story whereas there are others who annihilate without a trace?

Love stories are driven by the passion and emotion that two people share with each other. But there are many other things to a great love story – the characters, the conflict, the sacrifice, the relevance and the most importantly, the plot. A great love story is a perfect blend of plot and emotion. They are mutually inter-dependent. If the plot is weak, even great characters cannot secure the future of the story and if there’s no emotion that resonates with the readers, the story is lost without a trace.

But do all love stories have to have a happy ending – a happily ever after? Not really. Love stories are reflection of human interactions, emotions and relationships; and relationships are complicated. Yes, we all would like to live in an Utopian world where happily-ever-afters are a reality, but unfortunately we live in a dystopian world where things are not perfect and more often than not happily ever afters are non-existent.

Love stories don’t have to be perfect.

As Anuja puts it, “They don’t have to have happy endings. As long as the story and the characters in it has enriched you & leaves you better off than when you started, it is a good love story.”

Anuja Chauhan as always, blends romance, drama and humour effortlessly. Her new book, Baaz is a tribute to our men in uniform. 

For our readers in Bangalore, tomorrow, 26th May (Friday), we will meet Anuja Chauhan in one fun party – #AuthorTalks where ‘Baaz’ will be launched, we’ll hear a dramatised reading from the novel, and be superbly entertained. If you want to join the party, simply leave your name, email and phone number here to be added to our guest list.

Image: Twitter

Comments

About the Author

Jyotishree Mohanty

A part time backpacker, an accidental baker, a doting mother, a loving wife, a pampered daughter, an inspired blogger, an amateur photographer read more...

142 Posts | 526,519 Views

Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!

All Categories