Love Hurts?

At a local writers’ event, the topic was romance novels. I, of course, asked about stories with older characters at the core.

One writer told me she was working on one—then she said, because the heroine was her own age (56), she supposed she’d need to talk about how her back hurts.

But I wondered, would she, really? I mean, everyone has discomfort. Does every young heroine talk about cramps?

Ignoring the fact that many 56-year-olds (and older) have backs that are perfectly fine, why is it necessary to bring up aches and pains just because of someone’s age?

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