Bachelor in Paradise

ABC’s Bachelor in Paradise is a popular attempt to entertain us. The audience is split between all-ins and the I’m-not-liking-certain-aspects.

The premise is simple: put a bunch of bachelors and bachelorettes together in a tropical resort. Ask them to pair up or risk being sent home.

Who doesn’t want a vacation with someone beautiful or handsome? This is how it starts for many who come on the show.

The controversy starts with the various strategies or lack thereof of the contestants.

The approaches are:

1. Just have fun.

2. Find what you hope is your life mate, stick to him or her, and hope for the best. Every year at least one couple gets married.

3. Keep your eyes open if someone more suitable shows up and dump the person you are with. (New people come every week.)

4. Be friendly and hope someone sees merit in you. This passive approach doesn’t usually work.

5. Bitch and moan about what others are doing on the show. Being negative usually doesn’t work.

6. Figuratively stab someone in the back. Being an asshole is a ticket to being shamed on social media and becoming undesirable. It is also unethical.

As always, watching or panning depends on the preferences of the audience.

L=ƒ(ep²)

L=ƒ(ep²)

There is the love of couples, families and love of all humans, often called agàpe. Of course, there is the love of pets, animals, the earth, the universe (but not spiders). Are these loves the same? Is love a perfect state in which the giver is in 100%? Are we evolving into more loving men and women through education and the love of others for us?

Writing romances, one needs to grapple with this subject, to create more believable characters. In the defects (lack of love or fatal flaws), lies the inner and sometimes outer struggles.

If love is indivisible, how can one love be greater than another? If you are physically close to someone, you may more often demonstrate your love. Does this mean you love aunt Mable, who lives in Sweden, any less? Consider the case where two lovers are separated through no fault of their own. Must drive them crazy.

Enough questions. As writers of any type of fiction, we need answers or at least I need them.

I’ll supply my answer, but I am sure there will be differences of opinion.

Placed in us by the universe or Creator is a pure drive to love. It cannot be divided. It is perfect. But, it is missing something. Energy. As a former physicist may I present a formula for love.

L=ƒ(ep²)

Love is the function of energy times proximity squared (of one person to another). Proximity is squared because the closer you are to the situation the more able you are to react.

Examples: of sacrifice:

Picture a white racist in Alabama diving into a raging river to save a little black girl. (May never happen except in your story).

A Victorian gentleman lays down his coat on a puddle for a beautiful stranger.

Examples of opportunity:

A guy is close to the object of his desire either on a computer or in real life. He overcomes his fear of rejection (due to their closeness) and strikes up a conversation.

A gal is at a rock concert and accidently on purpose runs into the Star performer (and the rest is history).

BTW: I just learned how to make the symbols above.

Using ƒ can be done by simultaneously holding down the ALT key and typing in 0131 on the num lock right side keyboard.

The square symbol, ² is achieved by holding down the ALT key and typing 253 on num locked keyboard.

Agápe: Paint the middle a and press ALT and 0225 as above.

More: ALT 0151 = emdash —

ALT 0150 = endash –

I’d love your examples of love or opinions on the formula..

Vicarious Tasks

Lately, Hallmark Movies is putting out location-vacation romances. Vicariously, I enjoyed a safari in South Africa and the beauty of Figi. The movies' writers made sure to highlight the local sights. Through the use of dialogue, emotion and great filming, Hallmark delivers you to this world we all wish we could visit.

In Love on Safari the jeep stops very close to a pack of South African painted dogs. These amazing creatures—who aren’t dogs and aren’t painted—immediately steal the show. Their rendition of barking “he he he, he he he” produces an unforgettable cacophony.

Amazed, the heroine says, “What are they?” The hero goes on to describe their place in the world.

In A Summer to Remember I was overwhelmed with a—let’s pack our bags—when I watched the actors snorkel.

This brings me to writing techniques. Any writer would be remiss if they didn’t feature some physical highlights of their locations. Why? A reader wants to be there in your world and feel what the characters are feeling. Suppose you lived in a future world where tectonic plates brought Africa one mile from the coast of the Americas. Having a swim or a walk on this beach is an opportunity not to be missed.

I’ve sat in critique groups and listened to people say what does this scene do to advance the plot? If you take out these scenes and it will leave your book barren.

In the painted dogs and the snorkeling scenes the heroines are reconsidering what they want from life.

Readers arrive at your story with their bags packed. Don’t disappoint them.