Jul 16 2009
How to Make Your Love Interest a Real Character
“Love interest” is a degrading term. It brings to mind the shiny-eyed chick, with nothing better to do than swoon over the hero and get kidnapped. But they don’t have to be like that! It only takes five steps to save the mandatory trophy girlfriend.
1. Make her her own character. Ask yourself what she’s like. Was your answer “she loves the hero very much”, or worse, something about her looks? Hard as it is to believe, she probably has a life beyond loving the hero. Find out what she’s like apart from him. Don’t think of her as a love interest. Think of her as a girl, who loves the hero. Develop her the same way you developed the heroes. Why does she act how she does? What makes her stand out?
2. Know why they fall in love. This is vital if they haven’t met in the beginning. Now, pick a movie with a romantic subplot. Any movie. Watch the scene where they meet. Chances are, there’s no meaningful interaction. They talk about nothing important…but he keeps eyeing her like he’s never seen a girl before. It doesn’t work that way.
I’ll admit it’s doable in movies, but it stands out like a sore thumb in written form. Look at it realistically. Ask yourself this: what originally drew them to each other? Was it a personality trait that attracted her to the hero? Why does he love her?
3. Know what makes the relationship tick. You may know why they got together. Why’d they stay together? What is the relationship like? Are they lovesick and in over their heads, or are they deeply romantic? Or maybe they just feel happy when the other room.
Do you really feel like they complete each other? Think about it. Look at them from an emotional standpoint and ask yourself who or what they need. If you don’t think they fulfill each other’s needs, think of how you can change them to fix that.
4. Make her add something. What does she contribute to the hero’s quest? If you could have the sidekick perform her actions, that’s bad. If you could easily replace her with a loaf of bread, that’s worse. If MJ just waits for Spider-Man while robbers loot her house, she may as well be out of town. But if she fights them off with the things in her bedroom, she makes an impact on the story by buying Spidey time.
5. Be sure you have room for romance! Too much is likely to grate on male readers, but a hot trophy girlfriend annoys everybody. Romance can make for a genuinely warm development arc. It can also be a meaningless distraction from the plot. If the romance adds nothing, but you want to keep the character, just make her a friend. If the character is that vital, she’s probably more important than the romance.
Thanks, I really needed this article.
There’s only one character in my series that I’ve added just for the sake of having a love interest, but she does get development. This article will be useful, thanks!
Thanx that was a great article and it help alot. but I have one question (sigh…I know, i always do sorry) i have a girl whos a superhero and is just basically motherly to the whole team shes in but one of her friends/team mate is rugged in aperrance (everyone screams when he enters a room) but is funny and mostly annoying but has a disire to help in anyway he can. She helpes him with school scince he cant go in a human one. Are they just too compatable?
Is the “love interest is a supervillain” angle plausible, or has it been too many times to use effectively?
I don’t want to step on Banana Slug’s toes here (she wrote this article), but personally I feel the supervillain-as-love-interest is workable. I suspect it’d be hard to write a story where the love interest (or the love interest’s alternate identity) is the main antagonist, though. So you’d probably want some other character as the obstacle between the two getting together–perhaps an overzealous/obnoxious superhero or another supervillain or a police leader?
PS: Great article, Banana Slug.
First off, I would like to say I’m finding all these articles EXTREMELY helpful. Thank you.
And also, I am impressed you know that special feature of the Bannana Slugs, which is why I think you featured it here.
You don’t want to know. I know you’re probably an adult, gotten sex ed, etc, but I’m telling you: you don’t want to know.
Also, I couldn’t describe it without being excessively vulgar, which I’m sure would not be appreciated.
I am searching for a unique twist on the love triangle cliche. As of now: the hero and his buddy encounter the love interest at the same time. (Her unique skills make her necessary to the plot) At first the hero denies any feelings of attraction but as soon as the buddy character forms a relationship with her the hero realizes he had deeper feelings and becomes jealous of them, straining the relationship and throwing the quest into jeopardy. Is that cliche?
It’s not cliche, but it’s not really a twist on the love triangle trope. Which of them gets the girl in the end?
One possible twist for a love triangle is that the love interest is both an initiator and a recipient. For example, maybe the sidekick falls in love with the love interest and the love interest falls in love with the main hero, but the hero is a Sherlock Holmes-type too cold to care. I think there’d be enough there to keep readers guessing. (Will she be able to change Sherlock enough that he falls for her? If she gives up, will Sherlock realize on his own what he was missing and try to win her back? Will she somehow choose Watson instead? Over the course of the book, does it become increasingly clear that she’d be much happier with Watson?)
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I think the standard love triangle has a conflict between two initiators fighting over the same recipient.
@ Salazaris
If you’re looking for twists on the love-triangle formula, the Triang Relations trope is your friend. There are no less than 13 different types you could use.
Whoaaaa! Now that is a helpful trope. I almost failed geometry, though. xP
@ Myna
Glad I could be of service.
@ Myna: The hero
@ Contra: That IS awesome, thanks! I’m still taking geometry…
@B. Mac: I like that idea a lot. I think I am going to review the mechanics of this love thing…
by the way I absolutely LOVE this website! So many great insights! Thanks!
@ Salazaris
I’m glad it helped you out.
All right, so I’m writing a superhero story (obviously), and there’s a love triangle going on. I really want some feedback on it. Here we go.
One of them, let’s call him Richard for now, is a nice guy who just happens to be really self-conscious and acts sweet because he wants others to accept him.
On the shorter side you have some dude who will take on the pseudonym Blake. He’s quiet but really gentle, and he spends all his time trying to protect Richard and stuff. However, due to some crazy stuff that happened back as a kid, he really wants to be loved and when Richard rejects him, he just LOSES IT and gets all stalker-like, you hear me?
The other dude will now be known as Fred. He’s mean, sarcastic, and bitter, though he turns out to be really nice and once stops Richard from committing suicide. Unfortunately, Richard says he isn’t interested in him. He soon becomes Richard’s best friend. Fred got along just fine with Blake, you know, but when he finds about his love for Richard, he tries to stop him because seriously man this is not how you handle your emotions.
Near the ending, though, he becomes very, VERY protective over Richard, to the point where no one else can touch him lest they suffer a punch to the face. Then he seriously injures him and he just BREAKS DOWN. See, Fred was going through some really traumatic stuff right now and that pretty much shoved his heart into a wood chipper.
Oh, and he also realizes how Blake actually treated Richard better than he ever could. As a matter of fact, after Blake regains his sanity, he tries to snap Fred out of his catatonic state and says stuff like, “BUT RICHARD LOVES YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Fred listens for, like, three seconds. Then he goes back to being really whiny and brutally murders Blake.
Richard is traumatized and the two grow distant. So in the end, it’s not much of a love triangle. HA.
So … how’s that?
Woah.
Right, be careful. Be very careful. If this is going to be a an angst-fest then make sure the characters are still vaguely likable/the readers have an emotional attachment to the characters other wise it’ll turn a bit wangsty.
Think about when Fred and Richard grow distant, is it going to be a smooth transition to sudden not friendsness or will it be a bumpy road of upset and binge drinking? Possibly including Richard craving Fred’s friendship again and possible PTS issues from Blake’s murder.
Also, does Richard actually love either of them or was Blake just lying with the whole “BUT RICHARD LOVES YOU!!!!!!!!!!” stuff?
Yayzikens, who’s your target audience? I could probably see some sort of audience for the angsty love triangle and I can see an audience for a superhero story, but I don’t how know how much overlap there is between the two. In particular, romance* usually appeals overwhelmingly to women rather than men, and superheroes usually skew more to men than women.
*At least, romance more involved than James Bond-style flings–e.g. the Richard-Blake-Fred love triangle is definitely pretty involved.
Also, I’ll definitely second Sonearage’s suggestions on making the characters vaguely likable to keep readers emotionally involved. Right now, it feels like the characters are dripping with enough crazy that I think it would take a lot of work to execute the triangle without putting off a lot of potential readers. (Which is not to say it’s impossible–pretty much everybody in the Batman universe besides Oracle and Alfred is some type of crazy, but I think that most of them are gripping and/or likable).
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Then there’s also the issue of gayness, which would likely present major marketing challenges of its own. My impression is that the market for a romance between gay guys would be overwhelmingly limited to gay guys, whereas a romance involving a lady would have more opportunity to tap into the (vastly larger) pool of lady readers. Making the romantic triangle heterosexual or even bisexual might make it easier to find readers.
Should I be worried if I’m writing a superhero novel with a female protag AND no love interest? I’m afraid of isolating all demographics. I also think I might just be paranoid and that if my lead is interesting and writing good, then it’ll be picked up.
What do you guys think?
“Should I be worried if I’m writing a superhero novel with a female protagonist AND no love interest?” Assuming the character is interesting and does interesting things, it probably won’t matter much.
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If you’re going after male readers, I think it might help if the main character is not stereotypically feminine (e.g. Catniss Everdeen is a survivor first and a woman second-if-that). It sounds like your character has goals besides romance and shopping/glamour, which will probably help.
Hello. First off, thank you so much for posting this article. It’s been quite beneficial. Having said that, I am having trouble with my story’s love interest. This is not surprising. Developing and creating characters has always been a hard process. It took me quite a bit to figure out my main character, Derek’s, motivations and basic personality.
Having said that, allow me to elaborate on the character. Originally, I wanted the character to be similar to a hippie, but I decided against it. The basis being that I’m not confident in making her able to contribute significant to the plot or trying to avoid making her into a damsel in distress.
That said, the current character, I have is as follows. Her name is Teri Meadows. In the story, she’s from Florida, specifically, Tampa and has moved to Seattle, Washington, where the story takes place.
Her most notable trait is her drive for adventure. Given her goal in life is to become a professional skateboarder, she has a passion for skating. She sees it as the ultimate thrill, a way to which she can assert her individualism all the while enjoying herself.
Being that she’s a female, she has to deal with plenty of people who either are in disbelief or just plain do not support it. Coupled with her parents (rather, her father who isn’t too supportive), she’s got quite the temper, easily loosing it when people question her.
However, having said that, Teri’s experiences have also made her more confident, as she’s not the type to be pushed around so easily; rather she’ll hold her ground.
She’s also prone to a bit of stubbornness, particularly, when others don’t agree with certain actions she performs.
Having said that, in the story, Teri is originally VERY distrustful of Derek. The reason being that he’s just a typical jock who’s ignorant and only is going after her for the sake of it.
But of course, Derek’s not like that. He supports her decision, because if there’s one thing he values it’s someone who’s content with themselves. It’s this bit, along with her confidence within her own skills he comes to admire.
In contrast, Teri comes to admire Derek’s easygoing nature and exuberant attitude towards life. Though, this could be anything but said about his incredible absent-mindedness.
On Derek’s case, he’s also thrown back by her hot temper and stubborn attitude. Nevertheless, they feel both complete one another emotionally. All in all, that’s what I have so far. Feedback of any kind is welcome, as I really do want to flesh out this character.
P.S: I have one interesting question to add. I have a scene in the story where Teri is kidnapped. Having said that, how do I go about the process so as I don’t make her into a damsel in distress. One of the ideas is that she tries to fight off the individual with her skateboarding skills all the while trying to be resourceful.
Just found this post. I have no love interests that aren’t superheroes in their own right (hence there isn’t much romance as I won’t create a character just to be a love intrest) I have a guy love intrest problem: he has super strength and he’s kind of a bully (emotionally, not physically) to his very timid and kind of spineless (but only when he’s around) girlfriend.
The guy’s a jerk, plain and simple. But he’s a ‘good’ jerk. He won’t become evil. He will never be evil. So I’m not sure how to get across, yes, he’s a jerk, but not evil. Any suggestions?
“So I’m not sure how to get across, yes, he’s a jerk, but not evil. Any suggestions?” Some possibilities:
1) He’s jerkish in a mostly charming way. For example, Tony Stark is occasionally brusque, but (at least in the movies) rarely-if-ever malicious. It was not very friendly for him to cattle-prod the mild-mannered Bruce Banner, but in his defense, the team really did need to know if Bruce could keep his cool (even if annoyed by billionaire genius philanthropists).
1.1) He has a good reason to push people’s buttons. Drill sergeants/instructors scare because they care–it helps prepare soldiers to function well in stressful and dangerous situations. Likewise, a doctor might behave more brusquely than normal in verbally slapping down an intern which is doing something dangerously wrong. Superheroes frequently handle life-or-death situations, and it’d be believable if he were occasionally rude and/or jerkish when lives were on the line. (I’d recommend being careful about taking this character so deep into Guy Gardner/jerk territory that we are praying that Batman comes to punch out his lights, though).
2) Maybe he is more jerkish in a noncharming way (e.g. maybe in the heat of the moment he occasionally says things to her which are stupid in some way but not malicious), but he’s not notably assholish and he works on improving the character flaw in question over the course of the story.
3) He occasionally makes social blunders and/or creates social awkwardness but there is some extenuating circumstance (e.g. he’s just awkward rather than malicious). For example, if a Westerner asks you how much you make, he’s probably being an asshole; if a Korean asks the same question, he probably regards it as just a basic getting-to-know-you question along the lines of “What is your job like?” Some possibilities here: the character is foreign and/or could not be reasonably expected to have a good idea of local social norms, the character is not human, the character has a social disorder or really socially awkward but is otherwise mostly likable, etc.
So just wanted to say that I find these articles SUPER helpful! I just a have a quick question about doing love interests in which they are both heroes.
“I have a quick question about love interests in which they are both heroes.” Sure, what’s your question? (Are there any issues you’re having with the characters and/or the romance?)
Yeah I’m not really sure if the romance can work in my story, mostly because they both have different ideals and ways about them.
Basically, my protagonist Colt is a bounty hunter/mercenary and he wants to change USA back to a democracy and he wants to do that by exposing the horrors of the ISA (Imperial States of America).
My ” love interst” is an investigative reporter named Rachel Reed who is also the hero Phantom. Her identity isn’t known like Colts who is actually popular in New York for his power of Technokinesis. Also unlike Colt, she wants to save the Empire from the growing number of PMs (Private Military) and also the crime that plagues New York that has remained since it’s sacking.
I was wondering how these two can have a successful relationship when they both are practically on opposite factions. Colt, who has blind fury for the Imperials and Rachel who wants to make the ISA a better place and actually enjoys living in it. However, they do love each other though they don’t admit it outright and they somewhat complete each other by Rachel helping him deal with his past and Colt who tries to there fur Rachel as she faces terrible things. I’m just not sure how to go about this romance.
I think havering the two have to entirely different interests is helpful in landing the story more interesting you could have them battle eachother for their beliefs and then have them relize that both sides are right in their own way and have them start their own politicos side and have that one win the war or disagreement or whatever it is
“I was wondering how these two can have a successful relationship when they both are practically on opposite factions.” Definitely doable. See Romeo and Juliet (or any of its retellings), Batman & Catwoman (or Talia al-Ghul), Sherlock and criminal Irene Adler, the romance between Alice and Charlie in Flowers for Algernon (separated by issues of intelligence and intimacy), maybe Han and Leia in Star Wars (separated by an initial difference in motives), Dancing With Wolves, maybe Gone with the Wind (Scarlett the proper Southerner and Rhett Butler “that damned Scallawag,” for example), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner or any other classic about an interracial or interclass romance, etc. I think the most intuitive approach would be either to have them develop some sort of attachment before they know how major the factional issues are, or have one do something for the other which is so impressive (e.g. life-saving at considerable risk) that they fall in love even though they know that the factional issues will present an obstacle.
“I was wondering how these two can have a successful relationship…” I can see several ways this could be resolved (assuming that the goal is to have them end happily).
1) You could have the two characters attempt to create a third way apart from their two factions (e.g. like Romeo & Juliet, but successful).
2) You could have one character move much more towards the other character’s faction or way of thinking (e.g. Han moves much more towards Leia than vice versa).
3) You could have the characters work together to accomplish some major goal, while acknowledging that there is still very much on the side that will continue to divide them (e.g. it’s very unlikely that Catwoman will ever give up a life of crime, but she does occasionally work together with Batman against major threats to the city).
4) The political conflict between them is externally resolved (e.g. if the Capulets and Montagues largely settle their differences), alleviating most of the factional issues separating the two lovers.
Another question…how do you think readers would respond if the MC didn’t get the girl? Her solid rejection would come in about three-fourths of the way and would lead to a brash decision. Also, I think having her choose the man he is already jealous of over him would help me work in a more believable confrontation between the two. (Side note: the jealously has made him the ambitious and erratic man he is.)
Ack. ^
I think it’s okay if the MC isn’t successful at everything he sets out to do (for example, a failed romance). It may dampen the mood–if you feel that is an issue, you can minimize that by suggesting the characters’ future is otherwise bright. For example, if a quintessential dork sought to woo his love interest by making himself a better man (e.g. becoming more confident, mentally active, physically fit, successful on the job, and the like), but she ultimately spurns him, while this will certainly be a hard letdown for him, you could end it on a positive note (e.g. a more enthusiastic lady offering him her phone number or asking if he would like to share a coffee).
In this case, the rejection comes with probably 17,500 – 20,000 words left, so you could also work in some extra character development after he’s been spurned. It’s possible that he could have some sort of epiphany that his jealousy caused him to lose what he wanted the most, and perhaps he consciously gives that up. Or perhaps he storms off elsewhere. There are a lot of ways to show someone reacting to a tough break.
Very good article. There’s a woman in my story that goes by the name of Skye Jennings aka Clover, she serves as my hero’s partner/lover. But the thing is this: My hero already has a wife, but he’s having an affair with her and the other woman happens to be Clover. So my question is this, Would Clover & the wife still be considered love interests or Clover be considered the only love interest?
@B. Mac,
Thanks, I was a little worried about that.
“So my question is this, Would Clover & the wife still be considered love interests or Clover be considered the only love interest?” I would consider them both love interests.
Hello there! Great article, as usual.
In my novel, my main male MC and main female MC start off as rivals/enemies. I plan on making them grow to appreciate each other over the course of the story, hinting at romance every so often. (I suppose you could count the girl as the love interest, though she has her own plotline and motives.)
I plan to have them kiss right after they both nearly die, which will either be at about the halfway point or the 2/3 point of the book.
Both shall later admit that they felt nothing for the other and had no idea why they kissed, therefore destroying any possible future romantic interactions between them. (Let’s say that it was an abrupt, poorly-considered occurance, like a ‘Glad To Be Alive’ kiss of some sort.)
Are there any other options besides just saying “They don’t love each other. Get over it. The end.”? Like, what sort of ending could I pull off without making it seem too clichéd?
Thanks in advance!
Hmm. Blackscar, I would definitely recommend making SOMETHING come of the short-lived romance (e.g. some character development or some major plot development or some major result of them breaking up or whatever). It may also help if there were a more dramatic reason for the relationship ending. Right now, the explanation along the lines of “they don’t love each other, get over it” suggests to me that the romance is largely inconsequential, and I think it could be challenging to get editors on board for a romance which takes space and is foreshadowed but doesn’t appear to have an impact on the plot. If I could paraphrase Chekhov, it’s best not to show your readers a death ray unless you have at least some zapping in store, and I anticipate that readers who have seen the hints at romance may be disappointed by what comes their way. (Alternately, readers that hate romance may get the wrong idea about what you have in store and preemptively flee).
If it’s just a minor episode, I’d recommend cutting the foreshadowing and perhaps playing down the romance (e.g. they kiss once and it only gets brought up in conversation after that as a laughable misjudgment).
@B. McKenzie
Ah, good point. I’ll see to it that it plays a role in character development. I already have an idea.
Thank you very much!