, and today I’d like to share some of the tips I give students when it comes to writing a love interest. It can be tricky to make a romantic partner for your protagonist believable to a reader, but it’s essential if you’re going to avoid something tropey and boring.There is absolutely nothing wrong with writing porn, and many great writers have done so. That said, a love interest who exists purely for your hero to bang is not compelling.
A love interest who adores your main character no matter what is unrealistic and narratively dull. Even people who have been happily married for 50 years still have things about their partner they wish the other person would work on. Watching a romance naturally develop between two characters will require being honest about how your hero occasionally fucks up the life of the love interest, and that love interest expecting reasonable amounts of change to avoid future damage.
Remember that the phrase “your princess is in another castle” implies that the princess is off doing something. If all the love interest does is wait around, they might as well be a lamp.The difference between a love interest and a sidekick is that at some point, your hero cannot exist without the love interest. The level of affection has to transcend a mundane relationship and involve extraordinary effort on the characters’ parts.
Always ask what makes the love interest indispensable to your hero. There is plenty of beauty, money, and power in the world, and the hero may gain that from a variety of characters. However, the love interest has something that is essential to their very existence. It may be an understanding, a brilliance, or a loyalty that the hero has never felt. Whatever the love interest has, it should be of epic necessity to your hero. Otherwise, they are just another character.