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My hesitancy to create a “love interest” in the story I’m planning out may stem from my lack of knowledge in the romance department, but I wanted to get y’all’s opinion on this subject before I make any decisions.
Here’s where I stumble: Is the love interest type character overused? Can you have decent plotlines, subplots, and character arcs without one? Too often I see good books or movies ruined by authors/directors who don’t know how to accurately portray love without making a stereotype of it. I don’t want to fall into that same trap, and I certainly don’t want to cook up a half-baked excuse for a love interest as a result.
One of my favorite movies is Star Wars VI, otherwise known as The Force Awakens. In this movie, love doesn’t play a huge role–at least, not in the generic sense. What I appreciated about Star Wars VI was its emphasis on love between families. Even after everything Kylo Ren had done, Han Solo was still willing to risk his life to bring his son back to the side of light. I appreciated the way the movie characterized Rey as an independent woman; she decided things for herself, and while she wasn’t alone on her journey through the galaxy, achieved her destiny on her own.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, even if you agree with nothing I just said. Every little thought helps!
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
You can definitely have good stories without a love interest. Now, I should probably mention that, from what I’ve heard, publishers tend to prefer stories with love interests for marketability purposes. As an author, if you get to that point where you’re negotiating with publishers, you may have to fight to keep love interests out of the story. That being said, it’s definitely possible. Leepike Ridge is one of the first books that springs to mind for me as a book that did well without having a love interest.
I don’t have any love interests in the book I’m working on right now either, so I certainly hope it’s possible to be successful without including a love interest. 😉
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. Guiding authors at Story Embers.
Thanks for the input!
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@that_writer_girl_99 this is a good question, and @Aratrea has a good answer. I’d just like to add that first, it is possible to write a good romance without experience if you’re looking on it as essentially a really, really deep friendship. Obviously romance is more than that, but it will be easier to let the character’s slip into romance if you’ve developed their relationship to the point where they’re such great friends there’s no one else in the world they feel as comfortable with. (Not to say there can’t be conflict. There’s always conflict. But the friendships that really mean something don’t change deep down at the heart where they matter most.)
Secondly, if you do have romance, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a huge plot-thread/point. It can simmer quietly in the background for most of the story and still be really powerful.So I definitely don’t think you MUST have a love interest for it to be a compelling story, but I don’t think that it will hurt anything either, handled well.
@that_writer_girl_99 Love the question.
We’ve actually got a resource coming out that you’ll hear about tomorrow that covers this topic (among many other things).
Personally, I’ve never been a romance reader and I never planned to write it either. My position on writing it, however, is shifting. In my current WIP, I included a love interest merely for plot reasons, but it’s actually turned out to be really fun just for its own sake.
As far as experience goes, I think writers are pretty good at putting themselves in other people’s shoes, so I wouldn’t worry about it. Your one concern should be that you might fall into cliches. Ugh. Romance cliches. They’re like…leathery butter. It’s just not right. I think the key here is to focus on subtext. Romance works better the less you as the author are willing to admit it exists.
Now, as for whether a book can survive without a love interest. I wouldn’t be surprised if the market thinks they want it, but what they really want is a good book. If your book won’t be good with a love interest, don’t use one. Seek truth, not trends.
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I have said this before and I will say it 1 million times more::
if your story isn’t interesting without the romantic subplot then you’re doing it wrong
the obvious exception to this being if you’re writing purely in the romance genre. I feel like, yeah, that is a trap too many authors fall into. The y want you to think”there has to be romance to make it interesting”, but it’s just ain’t so. So you should never feel obliged to put in a love interest.
If you do put one in, don’t let it override the rest of the plot and other character relationships. Romance, contrary to popular belief, is not the most important thing in the world.
@that_writer_girl_99 Btw, I love The Force Awakens too. 😉
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Seek truth, not trends.
@Daeus with or without your permission I am putting that on my wall.@kate-flournoy 😛 Actually, my wall could use it too.
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@that_writer_girl_99 This question is always present in the back of my head, and usually I’ll just say ‘no’ to myself because 1st, I don’t want to. 2nd: I think they are overdone. I plan (and am) writing in the young adult fiction area, and none immediately come to mind that don’t have a love interest. Particularly ones that are cliche (like @daeus said) and are too mushy or too weird for my taste. If I’m going to do one, I have to make absolutely sure that it is necessary to everything. I recently had a story idea where a romance could be necessary, and I’d allow myself that.
Romances aren’t necessarily necessary, but on a case to case basis, it can be done. The romances that I do enjoy are the Princess Bride, The Black Arrow by RLS and Ella Enchanted by Levine.
A few examples that I can think of that don’t have romances are Big Hero 6, Moana, Storks, and the Hobbit (unless I am dreadfully mistaken. 😛 ) All of these have great Character Arcs and development throughout them, and yet there is no romance. There may be love among family, or friendship, but no romance.
On other cases, romance is necessary, like in Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. Without Serena, Louis would have no reason to do anything in the story. In the Princess Bride, there would be no princess bride without the ‘true love’ between Wesley and Buttercup.☀ ☀ ☀ ENFP ☀ ☀ ☀
@kate-flournoy @daeus Indeed. It is cork board worthy. 😀
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@daeus @kate-flournoy yes that’s going up on my wall too.
@daeus @kate-flournoy @adry-grace @dragon-snapper
Thank you all for your responses!
@daeus You hit the nail on the head–several times over, actually. My hesitancy to write romance into my WIP comes from the fear that I’ll fall into the stereotypical cliches–“and they lived happily ever after” and so on–that I roll my eyes at when reading. I guess writing in a romantic subplot could be fun, though. I’ll try my hand at it and see if I like it.Also, “Seek truth, not trends.” Wow. I’m honored that such an inspiring quote would be mic-dropped on a forum I started. *claps* I’m not sure you even realize what that quote means to me. That is why I write, why I do what I do–to go against the cliches and provide something for families to read together. Fantastic quote.
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
@that_writer_girl_99 Oh, goodness, I certainly hope romances aren’t necessary to a story line, because my book has absolutely zero romance. (And I plan on keeping it that way. No girl is good enough for you, Emolas…) What really annoys me in fiction is when there’s a romance for no other reason than a girl and a guy are main characters. Rogue One forever earned my respect when they didn’t go that route with Cassian and Jyn (my apologies if you haven’t seen that movie yet), even though they very easily could have. It would not have furthered either character or plot, and so they left it out.
Basically, I think if an author is having the “should I, shouldn’t I” question, they ought to ask themselves if the romance is important to characters or plot. If it isn’t, they’re probably better off leaving it out.
(Of course, I am willing to recognize exceptions to this. For instance, Eowyn and Faramir. Though technically, that was kind of important for her development, so I guess it still applies. 😛 )
INTJ ➸Your friendly neighborhood mastermind. ➸https://thesarcasticelf.wordpress.com/
Was that a LOTR character reference? I haven’t read the books, so I don’t know…
Thanks for the input. I think I’ve already decided on not including any romance in my WIP (for now) because it doesn’t fit in with the plot.
Writer. Dreamer. Sometimes blogger. MBTI mess. Lover of Jesus and books.
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