Ways to Write Believable Love in the Absurdity of War

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Writing a love story is not simple. It’s not just about one character falling in love with another and then confessing. There are plenty of ways to write believable love, but it can be pretty tricky if you want to write a love that has comedy and aviation and World War One.

Writing one set during a time of war is a special challenge.

Just imagine: the world is on fire, tomorrow is no guarantee, and other people are difficult to trust. And you have to make it so that the love between your two characters feels like it could be real. Like it could be something that is possible in the real world. Like these two people could pass by in the street, and people would say that they make for a good couple.

It can’t just be a sappy side plot.

The audience wants to connect with characters and feel the truth of their emotions. They want a story that feels authentic, even when the setting is far from their own lives. Here is how Stephen Lloyd Auslender achieved it in Dick and Jane Go to War.

WAYS TO WRITE A BELIEVABLE LOVE STORY DURING WAR

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Authentic Wartime Romance

If you’re like Auslender and you want to write a wartime romance that feels authentic and believable, the relationship you want to happen should fit the world it finds itself in. It shouldn’t just have the trappings of a modern romance, but with the backdrop of a battlefield.

War is a meat grinder. People die. It changes people.

During war, there is a sense of urgency that permeates every interaction and decision.

The characters’ relationship should grow because of the war, not despite it. Maybe they meet by total accident in a chaotic place. Perhaps one is an officer and the other is a nurse. Their romance should be fast and intense because they do not know what tomorrow will bring.

In Dick and Jane, Hymie describes his first meeting with a future lover, Countess Vivian, when she accidentally strikes him and his rival with her hands, causing their noses to bleed.

This chaotic, unexpected meeting sets the stage for a relationship that is anything but traditional.

War affects everything, and love and romance aren’t and shouldn’t be any exception.

Writing Love in Chaos

Chaos is a core part of any war story. It is the noise, the disorder, the fear that fills every moment. It must be shown how love finds a way to exist in all of that. Love should not be a perfect shield against the chaos. Instead, it should be a brief, quiet shelter from the storm.

Love in chaos is about small moments. One character, a pilot, describes how his friend, Hymie, found peace in the love of his partner.

[Hymie] was under constant stress as the leader of his squadron and as well by flying in combat without a break, day after day, week after week, month after month. So, [Vivian] gave in and [they] were wed

The love that Hymie receives from Vivian is described as his escape.

[Hymie] lost himself in [Vivian], in [her] body, in [her] loving concern, in just [her] mere presence

These little acts of connection are the glue that holds the characters together. They are not about big romantic gestures. They are about survival. The chaos of war can bring people together in unexpected ways. A common purpose or a shared danger brings together two people who would never have met under ordinary circumstances. Their bond is formed through what they experience together, the challenges they face, and the support they offer each other. A relationship in such a setting is a source of strength when everything around them is falling apart.

It is a quiet promise in a loud world, a steady heartbeat amid the madness.

Believable Romantic Conflict

Even in a war story, a relationship needs conflict to be interesting. It cannot just be perfect love. In times of war, conflicts are often more severe and varied than in normal life. They can come from outside or from within the characters themselves.

External conflicts are the most obvious. The more critical conflicts are the internal ones. How does a person’s experience in war change them? A brave, confident man might come home broken and unable to connect with his lover. A once gentle woman might become hard and closed off because of what she has seen. The characters should struggle with who they were and who they have become. The most significant conflict may not be the fighting outside, but the fight to stay the same person they were when they first fell in love. Their love is tested by the horrors they witness and the decisions they are forced to make. The conflict lies in whether they can still find a way to love each other, even after the war has forever changed them.

Emotional Realism in War Fiction

Emotional realism is what makes a story stick with a reader. In war fiction, this means showing the full range of feelings. It is not just about love and courage. It is about fear, sadness, and loss. A truly realistic love story in wartime will not be all sunshine and roses. It will have moments of doubt and despair.

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Characters must feel real. They should question their choices. They should be afraid. Their emotions should feel like they are coming from a real person, not just a character in a book. A character admits to being “sickened by the changes that had happened in my personality over the past three years of warfare“.

This raw honesty is crucial for emotional realism. He describes how he “had been horrified when the occupants of an enemy airplane which I had shot out of the sky were injured“.

Another character, Vivian, experiences a hysterical episode after seeing the narrator get out of a motorcycle, a moment that brings “the horror of it all” back to her. She explains that she just needs “peace and human warmth and maybe even love from someone who is understanding and sensitive“.

In a later scene, she encounters the ghost of her dead husband, Hymie, and stands silently “with tears flowing down her cheeks” as he blows a kiss to her before flying away.

These moments show the deep psychological wounds of war and how they continue to affect people long after the conflict is over.

They show that love is powerful, but it is not magic.

Start your own journey now to write a compelling war romance like Auslender did with Dick and Jane Go to War.