Let’s talk about third-act breakups in romance novels!
Some people love ‘em, some people hate ‘em, and BookTok is very vocal in its opinions.
Do you know why the third-act breakup occurs in romance in the first place?
That’s where we’re going to start. You may have heard me say that romance is a character-driven genre. That means that the story is primarily about the emotional development of your main characters and the external plot (the things that happen during the story) exists to facilitate that emotional development.
In romance, our protagonists usually have a flaw (misbelief, wound, etc.) that is holding them back from falling in love and finding their happily ever after in life, not just in the relationship. It’s something they learned through experience in the past and it’s often portrayed as a coping mechanism or protective behavior they use to avoid being hurt again.
Want to learn more about how flaws and character arcs work? Check out this article about the six foundational elements of romance fiction.
That flaw is intrinsic to their worldview – it’s like a deeply-seated habit and they have to recognize and intentionally work on it in order to break free. But it’s also really easy to just give up and let the flaw guide their decisions because breaking that habit – aka emotional growth – is hella hard.
And scary.
And maybe not worth it in the end? Nah, that’s the fear talking. Of course it’s worth it!
Enter the third-act breakup, stage right.
Character X has spent the whole book trying to crawl out from under the burdensome mantle of that flaw because they realize it’s holding them back from all the best things in life. They’ve identified it, they know they want to change for the better, they’ve been making good decisions.
But now we have to test them in the black moment – have they reeeeeeally changed, or when the going gets tough, will they revert back to all of those bad habits that are easy and familiar even if they don’t lead to a better life?
The separation is often presented as that test. In the climax of the story, Character X has to choose between the reliable flaw that protected them in the past or the more recent version of themself that affords them new love and opportunities.
Character X can have Character Y or they can have their old coping mechanisms, but they can’t have both.
Sometimes it takes losing Y for X to realize that the flaw is no longer necessary and it’s not serving (protecting) them.
Whether you include a third-act breakup in your novel depends on the story, the characters, your writing style and so much more. If you don’t include the breakup, you have to find another high-stakes choice for X to make to prove to readers and Y that they’ve changed and can be trusted to honor and cherish this new relationship with Y and this new version of themself.
In romantic suspense, for example, there’s often no split because the bad guys come in to threaten the characters’ lives or kidnap one of them. That overwhelming danger in the final climax is what makes X realize that they want to embrace this change in order to be worthy of Y once the bad guys are vanquished.
There are plenty of books in other romance subgenres that don’t involve a rift in the relationship, but the lack of breakup is most common in romantic suspense because of the external plot’s inherent danger. If you’d like to try a contemporary romance with no split, I recommend Pippa Grant’s Irresistible Trouble or Kandi Steiner’s Watch Your Mouth. Steiner’s is a particular favorite of mine because the reader learns what the black moment is going to be before the characters realize it’s happening, and waiting for that shoe to drop is delicious tension.
Is splitting the characters up really necessary in romance? Sure, sometimes it is if that’s the best option for their character arcs. But once you know why something is happening, you have the opportunity to come at that issue from a different angle and you may find that a breakup isn’t the right choice after all.
Remember, once you know the rules, you can break them intentionally.
What books have you loved that don’t include a third-act breakup?
Want more tips like this to help with your writing, editing or authoring business? Subscribe to my newsletter now! I send it twice a month and include a useful tip like this each time.