Reigniting a past love
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 11:44 pm
So my current working plot involves a long prologue where the protagonist meets the prospective love interests and some of the gameplay elements, you choose your fav, see a hint that this relationship is headed in a romantic direction, and then BOOM! Time skip!
There is an implication that the relationship went on for about six-eight months before protagonist gets into a bit of trouble and has to make a sudden exit without so much as even a goodbye for dear lover. Protagonist then returns to the same location two years later, and even though they know it's going to hurt them both, they have to work with the one they left behind to achieve their goal and save the city from all kinds of doom. The pair proceed to wade through the plot together, all the while trying to figure out what to do about this still flickering flame they have for each other--if it's worth lighting it back up or if they can even help themselves from seeing it burn ablaze all over again.
My concerns are A) that readers would miss most of what built the original relationship without dumping a ton of flashbacks in there, but that feels dangerous to the story's flow if I'm not careful. And B) it would be the exact same situation with each of the planned love interests so there would be some very similar story beats with the whole "You just up and vanished on me!" issue going on, and trying to keep that from being too repetitive on subsequent playthroughs would be a big challenge.
So I'm looking for tips and suggestions or hey even just your thoughts on the idea might help me sort through some of my own thinking and overthinking?
There is an implication that the relationship went on for about six-eight months before protagonist gets into a bit of trouble and has to make a sudden exit without so much as even a goodbye for dear lover. Protagonist then returns to the same location two years later, and even though they know it's going to hurt them both, they have to work with the one they left behind to achieve their goal and save the city from all kinds of doom. The pair proceed to wade through the plot together, all the while trying to figure out what to do about this still flickering flame they have for each other--if it's worth lighting it back up or if they can even help themselves from seeing it burn ablaze all over again.
My concerns are A) that readers would miss most of what built the original relationship without dumping a ton of flashbacks in there, but that feels dangerous to the story's flow if I'm not careful. And B) it would be the exact same situation with each of the planned love interests so there would be some very similar story beats with the whole "You just up and vanished on me!" issue going on, and trying to keep that from being too repetitive on subsequent playthroughs would be a big challenge.
So I'm looking for tips and suggestions or hey even just your thoughts on the idea might help me sort through some of my own thinking and overthinking?