For this week I wanted to discuss YA love interests and what makes them good or bad. If you're thinking about writing a YA that does include romance, you should read this :).
I think we all know that we had a phase where we thought Edward Cullen was the perfect guy, like ever. Why did we think that though? It’s fair to say that Edward didn’t really have a personality, and most of his life and thoughts and actions were just based off of Bella’s life and thoughts and actions. So why is it that we, at one point, were so infatuated with him? (You know you were, don’t lie ;D).
The answer is easy: mystery. Edward was dark, edgy, mysterious and he didn’t like Bella right off the back. (Or he did, he just didn’t show it.) We don’t want a love interest we can read like an open book, because why would we read the rest if we already know everything? We don’t want a love interest that openly admits he/she will kiss the ground the MC walks on. We want it to start off on the hate level and build it’s way up. Love trianges create amazing tension, as well. It's realistic, too because in real life you don't know what you're going to do with yourself if you like two people :)
Also, forbidden love is an amazing way to create tension in romance situations. You know that whole “if it’s so wrong, why does it feel so right?” thing? Well, yeah. It does feel right…to us readers. We keep reading that stuff because we want to see if they will follow their hearts of their heads (and we hope all the while for their hearts!)
We do not want the MC to like the love interest for no reason (except his face). It’s exhausting to read about someone tripping over their own feet because they are so in love. Why are they in love? They don’t know the person! It’s fine to use the whole mystery thing as something to lure in the MC because humans are curious creatures, but to have your main character love another person because of their physical features is not okay. In real life, that wouldn’t happen. Physical traits attract people momentarily, while personality is the key to keeping someone for the long run. This is one reason why in real life, Bella and Edward would not have worked out. He would have ate her. But they are both drawn to each other by curiosity. Bella likes being in constant danger, because she’s been a boring wreck her whole life and Edward likes that he can’t read Bella’s mind. Other than that, they have nothing except Edward’s ability to never fall out of love that would keep them together.
Patch (Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick) is one example of someone that, realistically, you probably wouldn’t love all too much. He admittedly stalked her, all the while wanting to kill her. If I was Nora, I would have said “Bye bye” and cried my eyes out. (No, I wouldn’t cry, but I would hyperventilate or something. I don’t know). We all like Patch because he’s mysterious and hot but it’s safe to say that in real life, he would have lost me when I found out he really was stalking me. My point is, when you are writing romance in your novels, please do make the characters like each other for a reason other than physical beauty and a mysterious vibe. I want them to feel something when they are together, feel something when they are a part. Just make sure your MC has a life other than the love interest and vice versa. (We all know the no-life-without-my-lover thing from Twilight. Seriously, was it even healthy that she stopped speaking to ALL her friends once she was with Edward? No. It wasn’t. So don’t do that -___-).
Xoxo, Until next time :).
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