Romantic Tears

It's late, and I'm exhausted, but I thought it would be good to note that tears can be romantic. You can stand, or sit, still and stoic, your eyes facing front, and the tears can simply slide down your face. They just spill over and trickle down like water does when there's not enough force to make it spray. There doesn't have to be gasping of air, or heaving shoulders. Just a simple swallow. However, there's still a giant lump in your throat that makes it hard to talk. And your nose will run, despite your best efforts to quell that aspect of crying. That's what makes crying unromantic. There's nothing so unromantic as a sniff.

I used to think that people crying silently, with a straight face and tears just wetting their cheeks and leaving lines, was all foolishness and unrealistic. I applauded The Inn of Seven Delights and Meet Me in St. Louis for their realistic depictions of crying. With a red nose, gasping breaths, and that moment where you can't breathe without sobbing. The red nose is actually right on, but the gasping and sobbing does not have to be a part of crying. You can cry romantically. You can sit in the passenger seat of a car and stare into the darkness ahead, watching the yellow reflectors whiz beneath your car through the fog, and cry without making a sound.

It is possible to cry silently and romantically. I just thought I would point that out. It may be helpful if I am ever trying to write a romantic book and need a lovely, tearful scene and don't want hysterics. I won't feel completely unrealistic.

(Writing update: Absolutely nothing. Not a word. I'm still stuck around 59K, and watching basketball tournaments and the Super Bowl all day today did nothing to help. I'm very wary of taking my laptop on the road, and then, during the Super Bowl, I found Anne of Green Gables much more engrossing than either writing by hand or the game itself. However, I did put down my book for the commercials.)