How to write a good love interest character

[SilverDark]

so while writing my story (mc reincarnates and fights in a game to get power in real life) I decided to have a little romance going on yet i find it hard to correctly start something up.
my idea was since MC is still in college have a classmate but i find it challenging to make her interesting to read about and not be a sort of sidekick like character. any tips?

 

[Polarize4777]

Give her some spunk characteristic, honest to herself, clever with a bit of a snarky persona, and certainly will kick ass if needed. She can be caring when needed, and ferocious when the time demand for actions. You can also introduce them slowly with something basic like a common hobby or an event that happen which lead to them meeting each other and slowly go from there.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

so while writing my story (mc reincarnates and fights in a game to get power in real life) I decided to have a little romance going on yet i find it hard to correctly start something up.
my idea was since MC is still in college have a classmate but i find it challenging to make her interesting to read about and not be a sort of sidekick like character. any tips?

Just please make her reasonable. No irrational anger at what people cant help and shit. That stuff annoys to no end

 

[Amarathia]

There are a number of ways you can do this. It all starts with giving her an actual personality beyond that one girl that is the romantic interest. If you do the typical cut outs of 'demure, tries to be helpful but dumb, damsel in distress', for example, this girl will basically just be that one side character that the MC wants to fuck and useless otherwise.

It's more interesting if a slight past to her, motives to actions, and actually contributes something to the story OUTSIDE of being the MC's love interest. If you want her to not be a sidekick, she needs to somehow contribute to the plot in a way that removing her character would either A) make things a heck of a lot harder for MC, or B) the plot essentially would not progress or be the same without her.

I think polarize's idea about her being clever/kick ass at times would add some spark. If it's possible, she could also be appear in this game that the MC reincarnated into. She could save him a couple times or act as a mentor character at the start. He could meet her at college and what they talk about helps the MC gain insight into something else. yada yada many options

As for introducing her character, it could be mundane, like meeting her as the friend of a friend, or more dramatic, like she appears when the MC is in a critical situation. Heh. Just don't make it super corny like 'he saw her at the bus stop and fell in love at first sight with that rack' lolol

 

[JayDirex]

Make that chick an assassin. she'll be plenty interesting.

I'm joking, but not really. What I mean is give her ONE thing that is truly interesting and useful for the story. Is she computer girl,? a healer? Does she bake cakes that will save the day? give her ONE thing that she excels at that the MC (and the reader) will find impressive and finds useful. and I say one (or two) things because you don't want to make her OP or a boring Mary Sue (she needs motivation, and flaws).

Maaaaaan, listen. I can write a clinic on troublesome love interests.

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW THEY MEET. you need to interactions before they like each other. at least three. he bumps into her someplace, he lightly saves her in another place, then runs into her somewhere else and they go out from there.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

You could always make her a whore, and then surprise the reader when her personality shines through later
You mentioned that she's a college classmate, so what better way to pay for college?

 

[JayDirex]

You could always make her a whore, and then surprise the reader when her personality shines through later
You mentioned that she's a college classmate, so what better way to pay for college?

Heck yeah! That's thinking outside the box, make the MC CAPTAIN-SAVE-A-HOE. He can be her white knight

 

[Ral]

To me, a love interest is just another character. There is really nothing special about a love interest that makes them different from other characters.

I often see love interest written as if being a love interest makes them different from anyone else. That they have to be treated differently. Like, they would make the love interest act differently and out of character in these romantic moments. Or worse they make them have no character at all except in these romantic moments where they go all lovey-lovey. They are an entirely different character in these romantic moments or cease to exist outside them.

They are just another character, it so just happen that they are romantically interested with the main character. Write your love interest as character of their own.

Though, the bigger problem is after the romancing, when they become a couple. They kiss and they become a couple . . . now what? Seriously, I never seen a story where the couple (or after they become a couple) are just being a regular couple. The love-interest would be left out of the story, seemingly gone from existence now that their purposes as a love interest is done. Or they would breakup and repeat the romancing all over again. Or all the typical couple stuff would be left out and we would all be wondering if they are a couple at all.

Seriously, no one can write characters that are in a romantic relationship?

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Heck yeah! That's thinking outside the box, make the MC CAPTAIN-SAVE-A-HOE. He can be her white knight

Haha, Captain save-a-hoe is still too inside the box for my taste. Do you have any idea how many manuscripts I've rejected with that trope? Me neither — I lost count. That's also why I started writing my own story; I got sick of reading the same thing over and over.

 

[Macronomicon]

A goal. If the love interest doesn't have a goal they cease to have meaning beyond a target for the MC's affections.

This is more of a do-as-I-Say and not as I do kind of advice.

 

[gaylolis]

one way to make it more relatable is to turn her into the mc's right hand

 

[ForestDweller]

Seriously, no one can write characters that are in a romantic relationship?

You never read any isekai harem stuff?

A goal. If the love interest doesn't have a goal they cease to have meaning beyond a target for the MC's affections.

This is more of a do-as-I-Say and not as I do kind of advice.

Yep. That's what I try to do with all my love interests.

 

[BenJepheneT]

Well, if both parties fulfill each other emotionally then that's a good enough love interest for me.

 

[XianPiete]

so while writing my story (mc reincarnates and fights in a game to get power in real life) I decided to have a little romance going on yet i find it hard to correctly start something up.
my idea was since MC is still in college have a classmate but i find it challenging to make her interesting to read about and not be a sort of sidekick like character. any tips?

When you write a romantic couple, you have to give them both personality, dreams, aspirations, ego, and a reason they would fall for the other. The mistake I see most often on web novels is that one of the people is described only as "Handsome" or "Beautiful" then given a really cliche trope like Tsundere, the Iceman, or comically stupid as their personality and you are just supposed to forget that they haven't given each other any reason to become a couple aside from one of them wants to collect the other because they are wanted by other males or other females due to their looks.

 

[weakwithwords]

You never read any isekai harem stuff?

Are there actually any isekai harem stories that do not exemplify and reinforce Ral's post? (Not just the last parting paragraph.)


By the way, thanks to those who contributed substantially. Rather enlightening. I sprinkled ordinary Likes to the relevant ones.

 

[ForestDweller]

[/QUOTE]

Are there actually any isekai harem stories that do not exemplify and reinforce Ral's post? (Not just the last parting paragraph.)


By the way, thanks to those who contributed substantially. Rather enlightening. I sprinkled ordinary Likes to the relevant ones.

A lot of them seem to have the MC actively being in a relationship with his harem, to the point of making love and taking them as wives.

 

[Amarathia]

A lot of them seem to have the MC actively being in a relationship with his harem, to the point of making love and taking them as wives.
[/QUOTE]

I think the point they were trying to make was that the many harem stories depict relationships in a fetish-y, trope-y sense. Yes there are many harems where the MC sleeps with a bunch of women and has wives, he is sexually involved with them, but that MC never actually experiences a relationship with these harem members that has any depth beyond that, or that said harem characters A/B/C fade into the background after they have had their 2 chapters of screen time and SMUT.

Furthermore, they mentioned the trope where characters that are portrayed romantically for some reason change their personalities when 'in love'. It's not just a matter of acting a bit differently, but that the ice-cold, ruthless female general is suddenly a helpless and horny tsundere as soon as the harem MC enters the room or perhaps touches her shoulder. She is unable to do anything except wallow in her own pleasure.

These are the kinds of stories that pursue a more wish-fulfillment, fap material kind of fantasy, and not a story where the romantic interest(s) have a role beyond a sidekick, if they are even graced with that much.

There are probably some harem isekai that do have a wonderfully fleshed out harem, where each character could stand on their own/is interesting, but I doubt it is the norm.

 

[Ral]

You never read any isekai harem stuff?

A lot of them seem to have the MC actively being in a relationship with his harem, to the point of making love and taking them as wives.

Yes I read those isekai harem stuff and they fail in this.

Marriage is just the legal finalization. That the law acknowledges them as a couple and provides the legal benefits. And sex . . . That is it? Intercourse is the best indicator that they are in a relationship? There is more to being a couple than that.

No. These harem members are really more like whores or courtesans than a significant other. The older members have it worse; they tend to be left out of the story as the story would focus on the newest love interest/future harem member.

So no. Isekai harems fail at this, hard.

 

[ForestDweller]

A lot of them seem to have the MC actively being in a relationship with his harem, to the point of making love and taking them as wives.

I think the point they were trying to make was that the many harem stories depict relationships in a fetish-y, trope-y sense. Yes there are many harems where the MC sleeps with a bunch of women and has wives, he is sexually involved with them, but that MC never actually experiences a relationship with these harem members that has any depth beyond that, or that said harem characters A/B/C fade into the background after they have had their 2 chapters of screen time and SMUT.

Furthermore, they mentioned the trope where characters that are portrayed romantically for some reason change their personalities when 'in love'. It's not just a matter of acting a bit differently, but that the ice-cold, ruthless female general is suddenly a helpless and horny tsundere as soon as the harem MC enters the room or perhaps touches her shoulder. She is unable to do anything except wallow in her own pleasure.

These are the kinds of stories that pursue a more wish-fulfillment, fap material kind of fantasy, and not a story where the romantic interest(s) have a role beyond a sidekick, if they are even graced with that much.

There are probably some harem isekai that do have a wonderfully fleshed out harem, where each character could stand on their own/is interesting, but I doubt it is the norm.
[/QUOTE]

Ah, I see. I certainly hope that wouldn't be the case for my own story.

I mean, I ended up not adding the typical slave girl waifu character into the harem because I can't figure out a purpose for her other than just fawning over him after he saves her.

 

[Amarathia]

Well, it's already something that you took the time to make a forum for and think about. A good start.

And even if it was a typical harem, many of those stories are popular ¯\_(ツ)_/¯