2: The Formula

As humans, we need stories. They help us focus on meaningful information in a sea of chaos. Help us learn, heal us, bond us with others. This is neuroscience. Stories also often follow predicatable patterns so we can get the right information out of them. This is also neuroscience.Romance novels do this, because they're stories. They do this about relationships, emotions, and about forms of desire. The formula in romance, one of the things critics like to say is, “it’s all the same book over and over”...well, yeah. Exactly. That’s one of the key features. Good job noticing there’s a pattern!I can find the pattern every time I read one, and my body just lets go. Shoulders drop, jaw unclenches, belly loosens, the whole thing. I can settle into a predictable, general space and then read a unique, individual story and learn, heal, relax, dream.