Why Do We Read Short Love Stories?
People love reading cute short love stories. It is a great escape from reality and can provide some of the coziest moments any person can attain while reading something. The plot behind these is fairly simple. A hero falls in love with the heroine and some ill-fated incident befalls either one of them or both of them. The hero struggles hard to fight for his love and ultimately the two souls end up spending their lives together happily forever after. But to understand why people; especially women, love reading romantic short stories, we need to take a deeper dive into psychology.
It’s What A Reader Hopes To Accomplish
The emotions and scenes portrayed in a short romantic novel are not usually what people might experience in their day-to-day lives. Such emotions and experiences are liberating in their own little way. A general person cannot afford the time to experience these incidents on a 9 to 5 weekday when all they can experience is tedious routines. When a person reads, they usually put themselves in the shoes of the protagonist or the damsel in distress essentially creating a temporary persona.
They experience what the subject of the story experiences. This is evident in the form of being happy when the protagonist accomplishes something or crying when the protagonist loses something or fails to win the girl he is fighting for. Such a swarm of emotions produces a sudden rise of mood influencing chemicals in the body which have a similar effect to that of eating chocolates.
We All Just Want To Feel Something
Let us take a test case. You are sitting in your room on a hot day feeling nothing but heat, now the question begs to be asked, what would you give to feel some cold wind on your face? The answer is simple, pretty much anything. Similarly, a person gets lethargic during their daily schedule of feeling nothing but work and work-related arguments. A mentally weary person looks for hope and a different feeling in the form of romantic short stories. A novel that takes commitment to read may have a greater effect on one’s psyche than a short story, simply because it allows the reader to become familiar with every aspect of the character they’re following.
A Happy Ending
As Srikar Vallabhaneni pointed out, there are fairy stories of a young maiden being swept off her feet by a gorgeous stranger who promises her love and a happily ever after, which become imprinted in our minds as a model for how life should be. In a psychological sense, romance fiction helps us to inhabit a world where everything is roses and puppies.
To increase the thrill and tension, add a little conflict, a dramatic breakup, or a tragic event that separates the couple… Will he or will they; will they or will they not… We’ve had a nice escape, which takes us to another reason this genre appeals to the typical reader: the two rediscovering one another again in a manner that fits perfectly into our imaginations as the happily ever after. A happy conclusion to tie everything together can also add to the emotional connection that a romance story can provide.