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Help needed with wartime romance spanning 2-3 months

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JWHarding Since: Dec, 1969
#1: Nov 30th 2010 at 10:39:11 AM

So I've got this story I'm doing on commission, I have plenty of creative control but not total. I have to hit some points. It's a war/adventure story with a requisite romantic subplot.

My protagonist is a you man who doesn't have much going on in his life, not a loser or anything, he's just a regular guy who's life isn't in any way easy or satisfying. WWII breaks out, so he enlists in the Army and becomes a very good soldier, characterized as being an understated badass and a father to his men.

The love interest is a non-combatant soldier, an intelligence officer to be exact. She's either an ice queen with heart of gold or a cloudcuckolander, I haven't quite decided yet, but she's a girl of action and has a purpose in the story aside from being "the girl".

If I could make it work, I'd like to have them fall for each other as the war winds down, over the span of 2-3 months before our hero is killed in action.

I'm not sure how to make it work without the romance taking up "screentime". I thought about having the hero and his squad rescue her when she's stranded behind enemy lines, or having them bond over the death of her brother who was one of his squad. I'm also tempted toward the idea of her loosing a husband earlier in the war, which leads to her icy demeanor.

I'm looking for some pointers on how to do it, or works that have done it that I can use to derive inspiration, in that case comics or films would be preferable.

Any help would be appreciated.

edited 1st Dec '10 5:46:02 AM by JWHarding

JWHarding Since: Dec, 1969
Five_X Maelstrom Since: Feb, 2010
Maelstrom
#3: Dec 1st 2010 at 3:53:23 PM

Soldiers, even in WWII, were sometimes granted leave of absence. You could work that into your story.

I write pretty good fanfiction, sometimes.
colbertimposter Since: Dec, 1969
#4: Dec 1st 2010 at 7:48:59 PM

Were women in the military during WWII?

What ideas you have sound good and like they'll work. I actually don't know whether women were in the military during WWII.

gl

Five_X Maelstrom Since: Feb, 2010
Maelstrom
#5: Dec 1st 2010 at 8:21:04 PM

Yeah, there wouldn't be a female intelligence officer during WWII. However, it would be very possible for her to be a nurse. Not much else, really.

I write pretty good fanfiction, sometimes.
HistoryMaker Since: Oct, 2010
#6: Dec 1st 2010 at 10:02:17 PM

http://www.army.mil/women/newera.html

This article mentions female: "clerks, typists, drivers, cooks, and unit cadre"

I think intelligence officer could work if she was ostensibly a one of the above.

When I was a kid I read a book about a Sweet Polly Oliver who was a union spy in the Civil War. I think it was supposed to be based on a true story.

Does the dude have to die?

JWHarding Since: Dec, 1969
#7: Dec 2nd 2010 at 7:48:17 AM

There were a few female spies in WWII, Virginia Hall and Nancy Wake are a couple of notable ones. She doesn't parachute into the Eagle's nest or anything, she has some past field experience and at the time of the story she's go a desk job for the Allied Command in London.

It's not the matter of how can such an affair happen, as it does in the final months of the war when the hero is off the front lines for quite some time. My problem is that these are two people who really fall for each other, enough for the to be sure about having a future together and for it to be really tragic when he doesn't make it back after all, and its supposed to occur within 2-3 months.

They know each other for a few years beforehand, but aren't lovers or even friends.

And yes, the dude has to die.

DrRockopolis Rock On from Barsoom Since: Sep, 2009
Rock On
#8: Dec 2nd 2010 at 8:12:48 PM

If you want a spook, then being someone hired by the OSS might work. But that's not officer, that's informant/sabotuer paid/supported by the OSS.

Why not a member of one of the many La Résistance movements? Or a Soviet?

Edit; By the way, is the main character in the Western Allies, Soviets, Chinese, Axis? Does it matter?

edited 2nd Dec '10 8:14:39 PM by DrRockopolis

[[tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=12919183980B30760200 Liveblog of]] John Carter Of Mars
JWHarding Since: Dec, 1969
#9: Dec 3rd 2010 at 1:16:12 AM

The cast of characters, him and her included, are predominantly British.

The tentative backstory I've got for her is that she was engaged to a man who went to fight for the Republicans in the Spanish civil war. He goes missing in action, but she later learns he was injured and taken to France. She goes to France to look for him, but can't find him and ends up stranded in France when the Nazis invade and she joins the French resistance. Several years later she has to flee and makes her way back to England to join the Special Operations Executive in a handler/trainer capacity for agents who are going to work alongside the French resistance.

The real help I require is how do characters fall both certainly and believably in love over the course of a short period of time, namely 60-90 days?

Erock Proud Canadian from Toronto Since: Jul, 2009
Proud Canadian
#10: Dec 3rd 2010 at 2:19:09 PM

Okay first of all why does she have to be what 99% of tropers want to be female character? Why not a woman who feels very held back by her gender, wanting to fight but faces teh sexism? Why not a talkative hottie who is render seechless around the main character for some reason.

Second, is there any particular reason he is a good solider?

BTW, I think 60-90 days is plenty of time to fall in love.

If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.
Five_X Maelstrom Since: Feb, 2010
Maelstrom
#11: Dec 3rd 2010 at 3:51:34 PM

He's a good solider because he's not a gas or a liquid, I guess. Perhaps he has rock hard leadership skills.

I write pretty good fanfiction, sometimes.
Erock Proud Canadian from Toronto Since: Jul, 2009
Proud Canadian
#12: Dec 3rd 2010 at 4:37:16 PM

Maybe he spent his free time at a family farm bombing dodongos and shooting womp rats?

edited 3rd Dec '10 4:37:39 PM by Erock

If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.
JWHarding Since: Dec, 1969
#13: Dec 4th 2010 at 4:41:11 AM

Erock, what do you mean?

edited 4th Dec '10 4:41:39 AM by JWHarding

RashidSipowitz Since: Dec, 1969
#14: Dec 17th 2010 at 9:38:22 AM

Relationships weren't the same during the '40s as they are today, 2-3 months is ample time. When you factor a war being going on, it doesn't take too much for a couple of characters to fall for one another.

The Casino Royale movie spans a month and pulls it off by leaving the timeframe ambiguous enough.

Episode 8 of The Pacifc portrays the relationship between a character much like the one you describe and a female Marine who thinks he's a douche, so there's that too.

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