Buffalo Flats, Ep. 8: Romance
In this episode, we’re talking ROMANCE! We look at how Martine Leavitt sets up the balance between physical intimacy and emotional intimacy, uses contrast in secondary romances, and manages a perfectly balanced love triangle for the main character, Rebecca, in her YA novel Buffalo Flats. We also talk about how to write a perfect romantic kiss.
Links:
A KidLit Craft post on playing with tropes in romance
The KidLit Craft Podcast is hosted by Anne-Marie Strohman and Erin Nuttall.
Support KidLit Craft
Buy T-shirts and sweatshirts (click on “small logo” or “big logo” for a range of styles)
Email us at podcast@kidlitcraft.com
Sign up for our newsletter
Transcript
[00:00:00] Erin Nuttall: But little did I know that Martine is more clever than me. Well, I did know that.
[Music intro]
[00:00:06] Anne-Marie Strohman: Welcome to episode eight of the Kid Lit Craft Podcast. This season we're taking a deep dive into the YA novel, Buffalo Flats by Martine Leavitt. Today we're focusing on romance. I'm Anne-Marie Strohman and I write for children and young adults as well as short stories for adults.
[00:00:24] Erin Nuttall: Hi, I am Erin Nuttle and I write for children and young adults, and I mostly focus on those young adults.
[00:00:32] Anne-Marie Strohman: On Kid Lit Craft, we look at mentor texts to discover the mechanics of how writers do what they do, so we can apply it to our own writing.
[00:00:39] Erin Nuttall: And as Anne-Marie mentioned, we are going to look at Martine Leavitt's Buffalo Flats. The story is about Rebecca Leavitt, who is in the Northwest Territories of Canada in the late 1800s, and what she wants more than anything is land. But since this is a Martine Leavitt book, you will be unsurprised to learn that she also has romance on the mind,
[00:01:06] Anne-Marie Strohman: As we talked about last time with B stories and subplots, romance is a big subplot. I would call it the B story. It's kind of the second most important story after her wanting the land. But there are, as we talked about many other subplots, but let's start with vocabulary.
[00:01:23] Erin Nuttall: I am going to talk about two different types of intimacy: physical intimacy, which is the process of two characters becoming closer, developing or strengthening a bond through physical behavior like holding hands, kissing sex, that kind of thing. And I think this is what we see a lot in stories. And then emotional intimacy. And that is the process of two characters becoming closer, developing or strengthening a bond through mutual understanding, trust, vulnerability, communication. For example, they could serve one another or sacrifice for each other. They share their deeper feelings, their deeper thoughts, their hidden needs with one another. And someone you have emotional intimacy with is someone that you feel safe and secure with.
[00:02:12] Anne-Marie Strohman: And just to let people know, this will be a G-rated podcast.
[00:02:16] Erin Nuttall: It will indeed.
[00:02:19] Anne-Marie Strohman: So tell me more about these two ideas. How do they intersect?
[00:02:22] Erin Nuttall: Well, like I mentioned, with physical intimacy it's what a lot of stories focus on both on screen and in books. It's visual. It's easy to understand what's happening. We all have that quick feeling. It's a shortcut, it goes right to those feelings that, that we've all experienced.
And so it's a shorthand for readers to understand that the characters are in love. But physical intimacy really is only a small component of a couple actually being in love. If physical intimacy is all you have, then you have a pretty shallow relationship. And it definitely has personal rewards and it has risks involved with it.
But emotional intimacy is a slower burn. Characters, they have to get to know each other on a deeper level, show vulnerability with each other. And I think sometimes we as writers might shy away from that 'cause it might feel like it's slowing your story down. We don't have that shorthand for emotional intimacy the way we do with physical intimacy. I think sometimes we just go straight to the easier way. But if we can write an emotionally intimate couple or a couple who becomes emotionally intimate, then we have a much deeper relationship and story.
If you look at it like it's a story structure, the risks or the stakes of physical intimacy is rejection. While the reward and the desire is physical pleasure, there can also be a reward of getting closer to your romantic partner. But without emotional intimacy, partners can't know if the driving factor is pleasure or desire for increased intimacy.
The risks or the stakes of emotional intimacy is also rejection. But the reward is being known and understood. So there is a vulnerability without the high value serotonin reward. But the reward is a deeper understanding of who you are and who the other person is.
[00:04:22] Anne-Marie Strohman: So how do these things play out in Buffalo Flats? How does Martine handle the relationship between physical and emotional intimacy?
[00:04:31] Erin Nuttall: Okay, so Martine sets up a bunch of complimentary relationships. Well, they're complimentary opposites. With Rebecca's brothers and the emotional intimacy is obvious, especially against the backdrop of little to no physical intimacy.
[00:04:49] Anne-Marie Strohman: Partly from the historical setting and partly from the religious constraints, there's limited physical interaction, so we're seeing a lot of emotional intimacy.
[00:04:58] Erin Nuttall: That is correct. So first of all with Gideon and Philemon, Gideon is large and quiet and Philemon is tiny and vivacious. And, there's a quote about their emotional intimacy that we see right after we hear they're getting married, right before they do get married he meaning Gideon, “behaved as if God had given him all his strength and muscle for no other reason than to attend to the happiness of his Philemon. She, in turn refused to wield her power over him and thought only about how she might help him see that he was the best man in the world.” So we have these two physically opposite characters. They're big and tiny and quiet and vivacious. And then, and they come together and we see their emotional intimacy.
Zach, her other brother falls in love with Florence. And we find out that they're so different in the beginning that Rebecca thinks that Zach would never be interested in Florence, but she is wrong as she sometimes is. And, and this is what we find out about Zach and Florence.
“When she was home, Rebecca watched Zach and Florence holding hands, walking across the field to their little home, as if walking were the most delightful way to occupy one's time. She could see how they gave each other little special attentions, understood much in a order to, and knew when to tease and went to console, felt each other's little pains and laughed when the other laughed, even when they hadn't heard the source of it.” We see that they too have an emotional intimacy.
And then we have Ammon and LaRue. And Ammon is her most annoying brother, and LaRue is her best friend. And she can't believe that they fell in love, but they did. And over time she grows to understand why. She says, “on the way home from church nobody could speak of anything but the canal except Ammon who talked only of LaRue. Rebecca said, ‘you know, she's the most perfect of human beings.’ ‘She is that,’ Ammon said, not even pretending to misunderstand her. ‘You know you don't deserve her.’ ‘I know it.’ ‘Tell me you mean it.’ ‘I mean it, Rebecca. I mean it forever. I'm going to marry her forever.’” Then she says, “Since LaRue started saying nice things about Ammon, Rebecca had begun to see him differently. She saw how he bore up under the teasing of his older brothers. She saw how he tried hard to rise to Father's expectations. He went as often as he could according to LaRue now, though Sister Fletcher made sure the court candle was the shortest she could find. When the candle went out, the courting was done for the evening.”
And this, I, I thought was an endearing look at how those two loved each other and saw the best in each other, and also helped others see the best in one another as well. One thing that is nice about this as well is it intersects with Rebecca's desire to become a better person because as LaRue sees the good in Ammon, then Rebecca starts to be able to see the good in Ammon as well. And then later when she finds out that LaRue is pregnant, pre-marriage, she has to also adjust her idea of what a good person looks like.
And so she says “LaRue had broken a commandment. LaRue and her brother, her own upright brother, and her own perfect best friend.Why she had thought LaRue was so good and now here she was bad. But that wasn't right. Rebecca didn't know how, but she knew that wasn't right. If she knew one thing, she knew there was something singularly and profoundly loving and good in her friend. If she knew one thing in the whole world, it was that LaRue was good. Rebecca's mind sorted. Everything she had thought was good and right suddenly seemed like phonics: a set of rules someone had made up but didn't always apply.”
So we have those complimentary opposites where her brothers and her new sisters-in-law are learning to love each other emotionally. We also see Rebecca learning to be more open with her ideas about what perfect looks like.
[00:09:18] Anne-Marie Strohman: So these are great examples. I do feel like you've been holding out a little bit on us because these are all secondary characters and they're things that Rebecca observes, they're things she learns from. But Rebecca has her own romance. So give us a peek into Rebecca and her romance.
[00:09:36] Erin Nuttall: Rebecca has a crush on Levi and she is also really good friends with Coby. And I love how Martine introduces both Coby and Levi at the church dance. The introduction sets forth, the back and forth nature of Rebecca's thoughts and feelings about each one of them.
So the first one we see, Levi: Rebecca notes that he's the owner of Fine Horse Ranch and we meet him as he is nearly, so we've heard of him, and then we meet him as he's nearly getting in a fight with the Cochrane Cowboys who are not part of their religious community, but who do enjoy a good dance. And so, and then we meet Coby. He comes into this argument between Levi and the Cochrane Cowboys.
And Rebecca describes him with a low easy voice having a friendly way, and he interrupts the argument and reminds everybody that they're there to dance and be neighborly, and he convinces Levi in his friendly way to concede. So the dance progresses and Rebecca thinks that she was gonna be asked by everyone, but Levi, the very one she hoped to dance with.
And so this sets up Rebecca's preference for Levi. So we see that she has this little bit of a crush on him. So eventually Levi asked her to dance and it's a waltz, which is very scandalous. Which I'm surprised it's so scandalous, so late in the century. But I think that it took a while to make it all the way around the world and not be risque.
This is what Rebecca says about it. “She admired Levi for shocking the older ladies, and she felt brave and wicked all at once.” And I have to say, what teenager doesn't want to feel brave and wicked? “At the end of that dance of the waltz, she felt she needed to lean ever so slightly against the wall.”
[00:11:40] Anne-Marie Strohman: Whew. Hearts aflutter. Hearts aflutter.
[00:11:43] Erin Nuttall: Yes. And I do like that because frequently we do talk about body parts that way, where we would say, you know, her heart fluttered. But instead of that, because I'll tell you right now, Martine is against those body part shortcuts. So Martine instead has her lean against the wall, and you knew immediately that it was the same thing, but it was a more interesting and a different way to talk about it. Right. So then Coby asked her to dance a proper square dance. While she thinks that her family admires Coby, to Rebecca he seems just an ordinary young man, and as they danced, “Rebecca couldn't help wishing for another thrilling waltz.” So, that is set up. Levi is exciting and thrilling, and Coby is regular. But then during a break, Coby and Rebecca have a conversation.
They're eating cookies and drinking punch. Rebecca asked Coby, “‘Coby, do you believe couples who marry were destined to be together?’ ‘No, I can't say that I do.’ ‘Why not?’ She asked. ‘God has planned everything out so well. Why would he leave the most important thing to chance?’ He rubbed his chin. ‘Well, but wouldn't it be worse to think you had no say over the most important thing?’ She thought about this awhile while she finished her cookie. It was true that she loved her say.” A little bit of humor. “She was still thinking about it when another waltz began and Levi asked her to dance again.”
Okay, so here is where she should be super excited, right? Levi's asking her to dance again, but this is what Martine says. “She had other questions she would've liked to discuss with Coby, she thought as Levi led her around the dance floor.” So we're setting up the differences in these young men and Rebecca's feelings, and that is a deeper conversation that she has right there than she has had with Levi, which is mostly about the wild waltz and his horses.
And so it's the very beginning of emotional intimacy for Coby and Rebecca.
[00:14:00] Anne-Marie Strohman: Coby and Levi both seem like viable options for Rebecca, and she, she's drawn to both of them. So how does she think about these two options?
[00:14:09] Erin Nuttall: Well, What I really like that Martine does is she sets them up so that their differences are stark. So you can, the reader can see how they are different but that they both have strengths and weaknesses. It's not like you read the book and you're like, oh man, that Levi, he's such a cad. Obviously she should go with Coby. Or: Coby’s so boring. What am I, you know, why would she ever wanna go with him? Right? She sets them up with her strengths and weaknesses and, you know, I like that because then I can think, oh, which one is she gonna go for? They're both good options. Rather than recognizing right away who the jerk is.
[00:14:48] Anne-Marie Strohman: I found that they're so well balanced that I was really drawn to this, Rebecca and Coby. I was really drawn to the Rebecca and Levi. Like I could see the benefits and I remember at the end feeling like, oh, this is the right choice. But there are so many romances and love triangles like that that don't work. So like take Little Women for example, it makes logical sense for Jo to choose Professor Bhaer. But in our hearts, we all want Jo to fall for Laurie. We want that relationship. So were there things that Martine did to help us get to the right answer along with Rebecca?
[00:15:24] Erin Nuttall: Yeah, Martine frequently pits these two against one another. And you're right, it's really well balanced, but Rebecca often wants to hear Kobe's opinion or understand what he thinks about a topic. And that is a way that helps clue the reader in that they are developing an emotional intimacy that we can rely on.
Let's look at the development of emotional intimacy or not, between Levi and Rebecca and then Coby and Rebecca. So for Levi and Rebecca there's a box lunch social for the bachelor' to bid on the lunches that the young women make.
And Rebecca's gets ruined. But Levi bids $3, which is a huge amount of money for a box lunch, even though he already had bid on Radonna’s lunch. And it makes him seem really heroic in her eyes. And I will admit, when I read that Rebecca's lunch was ruined, I kind of thought Coby would come in and save the day.
But little did I know that Martine is more clever than me. Well, I did know that. And she set it up for Levi to be the hero. So during their lunch they have a conversation about something that's really vital to who Rebecca is. Rebecca loves nature. Rebecca loves the mountains. Rebecca loves the land where they live.
And so Rebecca says “‘the mountains are like miracles.’ ‘What, those old things,’ Levi said, but she was sure he looked at them with the same love she did.” And then she goes on, I know Sweet Rebecca. She goes on to talk about the miraculous nature of the land and how she'd like to keep it wild and she shares this important piece of her with him and Levi responds, “‘It would be a shame to let such land go to waste. It could be counted a miracle what a man can do with such wilderness as this.’” And so we know that Rebecca wants her own land and she wants to leave it wild, and that is Levi's response when she tells him her dream.
[00:17:30] Anne-Marie Strohman: Wrong answer, Levi. Wrong answer.
[00:17:33] Erin Nuttall: Wrong answer, but an understandable answer, right? You can see why somebody might think that. And in fact, that was the answer that Rebecca's brothers had when she talked to them about it. So Martine shows Rebecca and Levi sharing their beliefs about something that was really important and Rebecca doesn't seem to, or chooses not to, recognize that they're different at this juncture.
[00:17:54] Anne-Marie Strohman: So we've seen that Levi is not quite the emotional match for Rebecca here. There are things they are missing in common. They see the world in a really different way, But she does have more in common in this area with Coby, right?.
[00:18:08] Erin Nuttall: She does. We can look at Rebecca and Coby. And one night Coby and Levi both visit Rebecca at the same time. And Coby airs his opinion in favor of protecting their part of the Rocky Mountains from hunters by making it a park. Like Yellowstone or some of the parks that the United States had recently created.
And so the conversation goes back and forth and then we get to what Rebecca says about it. “Father and her brothers were looking from Coby to Levi, as if bewildered as to how the conversation had turned from friendly to tense. ‘I say the good Lord gave us dominion and he also gave us guns,’ Levi said. ‘One plus one equals two.’ Rebecca thought about that. She admired that Levi had called the Lord good, but she had to admit that she didn't really understand his arithmetic. She waited for Coby to speak, but he did not. ‘Coby says guns are the product of a fallen world,’ she said. ‘He says sometimes we’re cruel to Mother Nature.’ She realized at some point that she had stopped speaking for Coby and was speaking for herself.” We have right there where we see Rebecca actually recognizing that maybe she and Coby align in that department of Mother Nature in the land. But we also see other ways where they're getting closer emotionally.
Coby sacrifices for Rebecca. So Coby comes up to Rebecca one day and he says, “I'm taking on extra work driving freight to where they're building the railroad from Lethbridge South to Great Falls. Food and other supplies. There's good money in it. Ammon will keep an eye out for my stock, but I wondered if I could ask you to feed my chickens and milk my cow. You may have the milk and butter of it, of course.’ She knew she should do it for free, but there was the matter of $480 to be earned. She could earn money selling milk and butter. ‘Deal,’ she said holding out her hand. He shook her hand and smiled and kept shaking it. He looked at his hand, still shaking hers as if he couldn't believe it was misbehaving in this way. He pulled it away and she turned and left. She watched after him wondering why he was doing all this extra work when he had his homestead to care for, but she supposed it was none of her business.”
So Coby does this, which, you know, partially possibly for him to get a little extra money, but he is really making the sacrifice for Rebecca.
So then we also see how smart Coby is in a very practical way. There is a huge blizzard and they're worried about the cattle. And so everyone is trying to figure out how to save them. And this is what happens. And this is a little bit of Coby versus Levi as well. “Rebecca said, ‘Levi is a man of solutions. You have an idea, don't you, Levi?’ ‘I wish I did,’ he said. Coby cleared his throat. ‘I might have an idea.’ She looked at him skeptically.” So then Coby tell, gives his idea of how to save the cows. And Rebecca wants to join the men and go along. And, and Levi says “it's cold for a young lady,” and Coby says, “that's no young lady. That's Rebecca. Let her come.” One might feel like Levi's being very chivalrous in that occasion, and that maybe Coby was being a little rude by calling her no young lady. But in reality he was giving her a really big compliment, which Rebecca recognizes, and he was supporting what she wanted to do.
[00:21:53] Anne-Marie Strohman: So you've walked us through a lot of different examples of this emotional intimacy that Rebecca develops with Coby and wants to have with Levi, but it doesn't really happen. So let's go back to that idea of physical and emotional intimacy 'cause we haven't really had physical, I mean, we have a, a handshake…
[00:22:14] Erin Nuttall: Yes.
[00:22:15] Anne-Marie Strohman: With Coby. And some dancing, and some heart fluttering, uh, but not a lot of physical intimacy. So how is that coming into play in Rebecca's story, or does it?
[00:22:26] Erin Nuttall: Well it is a Martine Leavitt book, so there's definitely a kiss and I know that's what you're looking for 'cause I know that's your favorite, Anne-Marie.
[00:22:34] Anne-Marie Strohman: Oh.
[Laughter]
[00:22:38] Erin Nuttall: I'm teasing her because it's not her favorite to write while I quite enjoy writing them. Okay, so they go on a hike, Coby and Rebecca and some others. They go for a hike in the mountains and, and Coby and Rebecca get separated from the others. And this is what happens.
“Coby watched the elk with what could be nothing less than joy. ‘Yes, please,’ she said. He looked at her. ‘I mean to the kiss. Yes, please.’” 'Cause earlier he had asked if he could kiss her and she didn't say anything. “Then his mouth was on hers, and right then and there, she and Coby invented kissing. He kissed her and kissed her again, and she let him and let him, whatever he wanted.The answer was yes. Her spine bloomed into flame until all that was left was light on bone. He stopped trying to get his breath. ‘Do it again,’ she said. ‘Better not,’ he said.” So I, such a romantic kiss and also cute and funny and this is toward the end of the book and because we know that Rebecca and Coby are emotionally linked and that they have this emotional relationship, it just makes the kiss that much more enjoyable.
And I will say I was a little surprised that Martine talked about a body part, because she's very much against them.
[00:24:05] Anne-Marie Strohman: The spine is at least an unusual body part, and she uses it metaphorically.
[00:24:10] Erin Nuttall: Well, exactly, because this is… Have you ever heard of that? No. You have not. So if you can write something in a way that you've never heard before then I think it's okay. I think she'll give you a pass on the body parts.
[00:24:27] Anne-Marie Strohman: I love in that scene too, how the personalities carry through in the kiss. Like yes, it's heightened emotion. There's heightened physical reactions, and yet it's still Rebecca and it's still Coby. And I think you mentioned the humor in it. That comes from their characters and they're engaging together. It's really them. It's not just generic kiss land.
[00:24:49] Erin Nuttall: Right? And that makes it so much more enjoyable for the reader, and it shows that emotional intimacy building to make the physical intimacy that much deeper and better for the reader and for the characters and for all of us.
[00:25:06] Anne-Marie Strohman: So Erin, what are you taking away from today?
[00:25:08] Erin Nuttall: I am taking away that it deepens the book to have the emotional intimacy. It deepens the character. So if you are looking to make your characters more interesting, more real, then look toward emotional intimacy. And I would say you can extend this past romance into friendship into parents and children, into siblings, into any relationship that you want to show more of who the characters are and how they move in their relationships.
[00:25:46] Anne-Marie Strohman: Yeah, I'm really, this is making me think a lot about a novel that I have kind of on the back burner that Martine helped me frame and start at the beginning and she's like, it's a romance. And I'm like, no, it's not. It's a friendship story. And I realized at some point that it is both a romance and a friendship story depending on which character's point of view you're in.
But the emotional intimacy piece I haven't really thought about in those terms. There's definitely like one character has a yearning for the romance with the physical intimacy part and the other character doesn't. And so like how do those things come into play? How does emotional intimacy? Like it's, I mean, that's kind of the central question of the book, and I haven't thought about it in those terms. So it's really, really helpful.
[00:26:34] Erin Nuttall: Well, and I will give you another thing that I think is good to think about when we're trying to make these emotionally intimate moments for our characters is that some of the deeper ones, some of them are really important ones are the ones that tell us more about our character's desire lines and how that is seen or how that is interacted with by the other characters. Because like we mentioned, Levi seems like a great guy and he has a lot of strengths.
And Coby is a great guy, but he also, he has strengths and weaknesses as, as we all do. And so had Levi been more aligned with Rebecca's desire line than maybe he would've been the guy for her. And that is hopefully helpful to you as you're looking at your manuscript and you're thinking, well, how do my characters desire lines interact? And can I show that through emotionally intimate conversations or conversations that kind of miss the mark?
[00:27:41] Anne-Marie Strohman: All right, Erin. Lot to think about. So give us your one beautiful sentence for today.
[00:27:47] Erin Nuttall: This is right after Rebecca finds out about Ammon and LaRue. “Rebecca danced round the maple with her ribbon and she thought of her LaRue and all that goodness and badness was just such a ribbon thing under and over, round and round, under over until it seemed all the good and bad in the world couldn't be told one from the other.”
[00:28:15] Anne-Marie Strohman: What a beautiful image for a really complex feeling.
[00:28:19] Erin Nuttall: I know. I'm so tempted to extend this episode and talk about why that sentence is so beautiful that I, I will refrain.
[00:28:29] Anne-Marie Strohman: We are gonna have a whole episode on metaphors and language, so you will get to talk about that. Don't worry. So that's it for today. If you're enjoying this podcast, you can find more content like this at kidlitcraft.com and you can find us on social media @KidLitCraft.
[Music outro]
[00:28:47] Anne-Marie Strohman: You can support this podcast on Patreon.
And we also have amazing t-shirts, very soft t-shirts that have our fantastic logo that was designed by Sandra Bosscher. You can find those t-shirts on Cotton Bureau and we'll have a link in the show notes.
[00:29:03] Erin Nuttall: Please download episodes; like, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen; and let your writer friends know about the podcast. Reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you, and we can't wait to nerd out with you.
[00:29:16] Anne-Marie Strohman: Thanks for joining us. See you next time.
