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Hey guys!
Today I'm going to be talking about writing a believable love interest.
I'm gonna start this off with a few disclaimers.
First disclaimer, I will be using heterosexual examples throughout this video.
However, these tips apply to all one-on-one romances.
Whether it's between a man and a woman, a man and a man, a woman and a woman, and everything in between.
Second disclaimer, these tips do not necessarily apply to erotica.
From my understanding, there's sort of a formula involved in writing erotica, but I'm not really
well versed enough to discuss it.
Anyway, the tips I'm about to provide are more relevant to other fiction genres.
Number One (1): Make your love interest a multi-dimensional character.
It's not enough that they're hot, or nice, or lovable.
They need to serve a purpose, or have a life, aside from being the perfect boyfriend or girlfriend.
It's really easy to create the textbook sexy rich guy, or the knight in shining armor,
or the popular cheerleader, or the damsel in distress.
And sometimes these cliches do sell. I'm sure you can think of a few examples off the top of your head.
But in this day and age, most of the time readers want something more.
Most of us are attracted to people who are unapologetically themselves in some way.
People with that oomph.
That little something extra that makes them different or special in a way that's appealing to you.
Your love interest needs that.
They need to be a whole, unique individual.
Make them funny, or charming, or smart—something!
They're not a vapid shell of hotness. They're a complex human being.
Number Two (2): Make your love interest flawed.
This is where a lot of newbie writers go wrong.
The love interest is either too perfect, or they're so flawed that they're completely unlikeable
You gotta find the balance.
You can't make the person flawless.
The nerdy male hero who’s in love with the beautiful, charitable, supermodel genius.
No one's gonna buy that.
When you make the love interest seemingly perfect, the reader’s just gonna think you're
writing about your personal dream guy or dream girl.
Now you're just exposing your own delusional fantasies.
Good luck with that.
But if you really pile on the baggage, readers are gonna be totally turned off.
A lot of writers do this in hopes of making the love interest appear misunderstood and brooding.
They try to rationalize really serious character flaws as being sexy, or complicated.
Flaws are flaws.
Unless the flaws are giant boobs, or abs that are too rock hard, they're not gonna be sexy.
The whole point of giving a character flaws is to make ‘em feel authentic.
So if you try to gloss over them by saying they're attractive, or dangerous, you've just
negated their purpose.
My recommendation would be to think of flaws that could potentially be endearing to the protagonist.
Maybe your main character lives a very structured and rigid life, and the love interest is more
messy and irresponsible.
Those are legitimate flaws, but they're ones that the protagonist might find refreshing.
Number Three (3): Make your love interest believably attractive.
The key word here is believable.
It's okay if they're hot, but they shouldn't be the embodiment of physical perfection.
Aside from the fact that a mind blowingly hot love interest is kind of cliche, it sort
of makes it difficult to pass them off as likable.
In the real world, it's not so common to meet someone who's an eleven out of ten, and also kind and humble.
Not to mention attracted to your protagonist who, let me guess, isn't as hot as they are.
Because of this, writers often default to one of two strategies in order to rationalize
the love interest’s rampant sex appeal and likability.
Strategy Number One - If the character is a guy, then he's desperately searching for
a woman who likes him for who he is, and not what he looks like.
That's a really noble quest, truly.
But it's not super believable.
I've met a lot of beautiful men in my life, and I've never heard one complain that women
only wanted them for their body.
I'm sure it's happened before somewhere, but it's not common.
Strategy Number Two - If the love interest is a woman, then she's insanely beautiful,
but she has no idea.
This is a writer's attempt at trying to imply that she's humble.
Here's the thing, have you ever met a girl in real life who is beautiful but didn't know it?
They are the most painfully insecure women alive.
You didn't create a humble woman. You created a self-conscious moron.
And the reader's not gonna like her.
The easiest way to get around this issue is to make the character physically imperfect.
You don't have to make them a troll, or even list any physical flaws.
But shouldn't it be enough that they're just moderately attractive?
Why do they have to be the sexiest person alive?
Why?
If you absolutely have to make the person a ten, then fine.
But maybe try taking the focus off their apperance just a tad.
Like, if you're rubbing some dude's abs in my face every ten pages, you should probably stop.
Now just thinking about abs in my face.
Number Four (4): Don't write an insta romance.
No one likes an insta romance, no one.
Let your characters get to know one another.
Let them flirt, let them be friends, let them date.
If they're throwing the L-word around by chapter three.
I may just hurl all over your book. (Barfing noise)
A premature ‘I love you’ is worse than a premature, you know what.
It's not romantic for your characters to be attached at the hip right from the get go.
Do you know what that looks like in real life?
I believe we call people like that: stage five clingers.
Just because you wrote it, doesn't mean it's any different.
We're still gonna see your characters as creepy.
And unless that was your intention, you're probably gonna be upset about this.
Number Five (5): And probably the most important point - Develop a connection.
If you were to ask me what it means to fall in love, I would say it's when you find someone
with whom you have a deep and profound connection.
You've met the one person who understands and cherishes you, more than anyone else,
and you understand and cherish them in return.
When I first fell in love it was because I finally met someone who truly got me, and
I felt that I could be my most vulnerable self around him, without fear of judgment.
This is a feeling you need to translate into your writing.
The first thing you need to do is create a series of incidents that help your characters form a connection.
You have to give your protagonist a reason to believe that this person gets me, and has my back.
The easiest way to do this is to set up situations where both your protagonist and love interests
are forced to be raw and vulnerable around one another.
They should go through experiences that bring them close together and builds trust between them.
This is really important because developing that deep connection is what gets readers
rooting for their relationship.
So that's it for today.
I hope you found my tips useful.
Feel free to subscribe to my channel.
I post videos on Wednesdays.
And if you have any questions or if there's something you'd like me to talk about in my
next video, you can leave me a comment or tweet me @JennaMoreci!
Bye!