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Love Interests?



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Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:17 pm
LJM368 says...



So I've been working on a fantasy novel for the past few months or so (the first in a series), and I've got a bit of writers block for the next chapter. Because of that, I've been working on the outline for the series instead, and I only just realized that my main character doesn't have a love interest. I've tried to think of a way to introduce one, or even just a male character she could have a crush on, but because of the plot and her personality I really can't.
So here's my question: do you think it's necessary to give the main character a love interest?
Six months ago hardly anyone knew my name. Now everyone wants to be my friend. I wanted respect. Instead I have become a wishing well with legs. -Londo Mollari
  





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Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:33 pm
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Rosendorn says...



Absolutely not.

Badly done love interests are often cheap tricks for either making the protagonist save somebody, needing to be saved, some sort of reward, or an indicator of the character's humanity. Also stem from the belief nobody could possibly be happy single for any length of time, in a society where being in a relationship is considered the ideal.

Meanwhile, in the real world, there are plenty of people who are very happily single (regardless of whether or not they want a relationship), and even some people who don't have interest in romantic relationships at all.

In your case, forcing a love interest on the MC is simply because she doesn't have one, which means you'd be forcing your writing and your character to accommodate it. Forcing your character is the fastest way to make prose feel really wrong and to feed into the world saying "but if there's no romantic tension then the story isn't interesting."

Stories can be plenty interesting without romantic subplots! I personally would really like to find a story where the biggest question was something other than who'd end up with who.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  








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