Young Writers Society

If you aren't a fan of the romantic subplot, look away now.

Ah, the spark between two people. They meet and bing! Everything suddenly begins to make more sense.

Reading well-written chemistry between two characters, well, there's little better in this world.

But reading poorly written chemistry? Is there anything worse?

Do you ever read a book and characters get together, and you find yourself looking at the coupling sideways, thinking "really? They like each other?" 'Cause I do. All the time. I used to think maybe I was just a cynic who didn't believe in love, but that's wildly untrue. I clearly just read a lot of bad romantic subplots.

So. What makes for good chemistry, and more importantly, what makes for bad chemistry? What's the best and worst you've ever read?

I'll start with saying that Blue and Gansey from The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater is one of the best slow-burn relationships I think I've ever read. The whole transition of Blue's feelings from prejudiced hatred to unease to wow, I think I'm in love, is so believable and honest to me. Slow-burns are my absolute favourite.

A couple that never rang true to me, for instance, was Jace and Clary from the Shadowhunters series. Even before the whole incest storyline. She liked him because he was generic bad-boy hero and he liked her because she was generic girl-next-door heroine? Puh-lease.

Who isn't a fan of romantic subplots? I mean c'mon now.

I think that a lot of well-written chemistry between characters is heavily reliant on dialogue. Fast-paced conversation definitely spices up a relationship. Contrarily, poorly-written chemistry (at least that that I've seen) lacks much verbal interaction between the characters. One or both of the characters are dull or too intent on getting the 'correct' reaction from the other person that they rarely say anything remotely interesting/provoking.

Which brings me to personality! If the character's well-developed by the writer, then they tend to have a bigger impact on the environment around them. This doesn't mean that a character has to be starkly heroic or have an extensive case of douchebaggery. For example, your charrie can be so Joe Normal that they fear ending up alone, while the love interest is a firecracker who fears causing collateral damage.

And bam. They work.

I find that good chemistry in literature is most often apparent in unlikely pairings. Maybe because-though it's harder for the characters to find something in common-the thing they do have in common is all the more powerful. In a lot of situations, opposites do indeed attract.

Overall, I think characterization and dialogue are the most important. Any two people put in a similar situation might have some inclination to fall in love, but it only really works if they act like themselves (which, ofc, requires them to actually have an identity).

Enspoilered bc spoilers :

I feel like authentic feeling chemistry between characters is one of those things that is heavily reliant on good character development. For both the protagonist and the love interest (which should go without saying, but I feel like the character development of love interests can suffer in comparison to that of other characters waaay too often). I feel like if the author is too focused on making the love interest desirable, ratjer than fleshed out, the chemistry suffers.

Absolutely agree with Blue and Gansey.

Another fave of mine is Deryn and Alek from Leviathan (SPOILER ALERT), both in how their relationship progresses from distrust to allies to friendship to love, with Deryn realising her feelings for Alek early on and having to deal with his cluelessness and have to keep her secret, and meanwhile Alek not realising how he feels until the last possible minute. But also the fact that the best parts of the books are when they're together.

Least favourite? I was highly irritated by the romance in Reboot by Amy Tintera. It's not insta love, but it is light switch romance - the protagonist goes from ugh to love in a nanosecond and then it gets all gross and gushy.

My thoughts aren't 100% articulate today, so apologies for any rambling.