Bleed Barnard Blue

I'm a tour guide for a women's college. What this means is that there's a part of my tour that I discuss why it's beneficial to be in an all female environment. Here are a few snippets from what I have fondly dubbed my sales-pitch.

"The fact that Barnard is a women's college wasn't a pro or a con when I applied but it's something that I have come to appreciate so much."

"There is such an atmosphere of assumed success here at Barnard and a lot of that has to do with the fact that the faculty knows that we're passionate, determined, women who are going to go out in the world and know that we're going to kick butt." (Yes I say butt on my tours.)

"I have always been a feminist but Barnard has helped me to articulate what being a feminist means to me."

All this seems incredibly tangential considering that this blog is about my writing. However the new story I'm writing, Troubleshooter, is partially centered around a relationship. I was fighting against the romantic aspect, because I know that women and men can be strictly platonic. Once I started using the song Meet Virginia to shape Amelia I knew that there would have to be a romantic aspect to this story.

The problem is creating a genuine relationship without being cliche in any way. As any of my friends can tell you I'm a huge fan of romantic comedies and I know every overused plot line in the book. Since they're overused I don't want to fall into basic rom-com traps. Amelia is an incredibly strong women. However, I don't want her love interest, Theodore Oliver Finley (my favorite name ever by the way) to take her hand, gaze into her eyes and say, "you shouldn't always be taking care of everyone, you need someone to take care of you." (I'm cringing as I type.) Finley becomes her partner as Amelia starts to investigate why her home is being continually attacked. He becomes a confidant and that's why they start to fall for each other. I want those aspects of their relationship to shine through.

The reason I started this post talking about feminism is because I feel that relationships are continually distorted in pop culture. There are so many TV shows focused exclusively on which man a women is dating. I want to create a touching, sweet relationship between Amelia and Finley without globbing them together. (Yes globbing is a word.) Each character should have their own identity as well as forming an identity as a couple. 

Anyway, this post doesn't have a solid answer but I did want to include about three lines of dialogue that I love and which I think start to unpack Amelia and Finley's relationship. (There are no she said or he said but Amelia speaks first.)

"You don't annoy me."
"I don't?"
"You infuriate, aggravate, and mystify me but you don't annoy me."