Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Developing the characters
• Part 2 of 3: Come up with your plot
• Part 3 of 3: Shaping your story
• Tips
• Warnings

Writing a love story can be a beautiful, emotional and creative way to express yourself. However, writing a compelling love story is not all about emotions. Writing a valid love story requires strong, multidimensional characters who must overcome all kinds of obstacles in their search for love. You can use the love story format to explore various topics and themes, and to write to find your own voice.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Developing the characters

1. List the traits you want to attribute to your characters. The best characters in a love story are the characters with depth. Think about what traits you want to attribute to your characters, and consider their relevance to your story. Then make a list for each character, and write down 5-6 specific traits that you find fit for each character. Use this list as a guideline when writing the story.
   • For example, the protagonist's list may be stubborn, intelligent but not with the cleverness of a street boy, suspicious but incredibly loyal once the trust is won, dealing with a violent past, and outspoken in his opinion. Use those traits as the starting point for this character's dialogue and actions as you write the scenes.
   • Try to think of traits that are instrumental to the progression of your entire story, not just the romance in your story. For example, your protagonist may be a strong woman who is working through emotional wounds from the past, but don't limit her to a woman who meets a man who wants to break through the walls she has built around herself. Use her past with the emotional wounds to develop her into a round, complete character.
   • Consider Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Their love story has been extensively described and played out in literature and film. In some of these versions, Cleopatra is a strong queen with political ambitions that are a higher priority for her than love for her lover. The love story is captivating, and that's partly because of her character.
2. Create characters with complementary and conflicting traits. Ideally, your character's traits should provide interesting thrills. Try to avoid creating a world where two people meet who are perfectly matched, who are happy and who never grow or change. It is a trap that many people fall for and which can make a story boring.
   • For example, the characters in your story are both neurosurgeons who are very good at their job, but one of them is very tense and serious, while the other is easygoing and sees the humor in everything.
   • Marie and Pierre Curie, for example, had a common interest in science. But at the time, it was difficult for Marie to receive recognition and support for her work and she had to work extra hard.
3. Sketch all main characters. Once you've mapped out the main characters, a character sketch can help you fill in the details. You can do this in the form of a description, a schedule, drawings, or even short stories, so that you can describe how your characters have evolved.
   • A character sketch includes basic traits such as appearance, personality, information about his background and important events in his life, and some details that indicate how you want the characters to develop further in the story.
   • A character sketch is a guideline. You don't have to use all the information from your sketch in your story. You are free to make changes to the character's traits if certain things no longer fit the story.
4. Write the romance with the protagonist as the starting point. Your readers are supposed to find the main character interesting and identify with him. Write the romance from the protagonist's perspective. It's easy to describe a romance that merely serves as a fantasy for readers' desire for romance, but these types of characters rarely do justice to the main character or plot development.
   • Take everyday relationships as a starting point. What you will or will not accept from a partner is likely to be different from what you will accept from friends and neighbors. Create a partner that suits your main character, not all of your readers.
   • Create a partner that matches your protagonist, but not too much because it will come across as unbelievable. Think of relationships from life. People who are in love can still disagree, be stubborn, and wonder if the relationship is working. The lovers in your story are meant to fit together, but not perfectly.
5. Avoid clichéd characters that you present as a character. Love stories often use the same stereotypical characters over and over again. Avoid using clichéd characters like you have seen in other love stories. If you still want to use a stereotypical character, make it something special by changing one or more character traits. A few examples of stereotyped characters are:
   • The aloof hero who only shows himself when danger threatens and a hero is needed for the rescue.
   • The ex who always tries to prevent the hero from meeting his or her true love.
   • The hero who is too busy to realize that his great love has come into his life.
   • The lover who no longer believed in love and closed herself off from love until the hero came into her life.

Part 2 of 3: Come up with your plot

1. Think about whether the love story will be the main focus of the book or not. A love story can be the most important part of your story or part of a bigger story. Decide if you want the romance to be the main focus of your story, or if you want the romance to just make the main line of your plot more interesting.
   • Embedding the romance in a larger story can add a more realistic touch to your story and make it easier for readers to identify with the story. If you only focus on the romance, it can be overwhelming and grandiose and a bit more like escapism. One is no better than the other; they are simply two different starting points.
   • For example, "Love in the Time of Cholera" is carried by the love story, but also includes themes such as social problems, war, illness, old age and death. The strength of the book lies not only in the love story, but also in its magical realism, and the book is part of a widely acclaimed Latino literary tradition.
2. Choose the genre that you think fits your story. A love story does not necessarily have to be a novel. A love story plays in the daily life of your characters, so it can suit any genre. Decide if you want to write a more traditional novel or if you want to choose a different genre for your story.
   • If you want to get a feel for how love stories are written in different genres, read books and stories in the genres you are interested in.
   • A roman noir, fantasy, historical novel, and comedy are examples of genres in which you can fit a love story well. Notice how different authors apply the various conventions of a love story to these genres.
3. Decide what kind of ending you want for your story. Do you want an ending where your characters live happily ever after? Or do they gain the insight that love alone is not enough for a full life? Do you want to keep it vague and open-ended? Knowing how you want the reader to feel at the end of your story will help you shape your plot and the narration as a whole.
   • You can always change this as your story unfolds, if you find that a different ending is better suited to your plot and character development. It's a guideline, but you don't have to stick to it.
4. Think about whether you want your story to have a message. Writing a love story because you want to write about a romance can be fine, if that's your goal. However, many modern love story writers today write about the social context of their story, such as race, gender, and class. Think about whether you want your story to carry a bigger message.
   • It is not a matter of right or wrong, but it is important that you think about the message you convey with your story.
   • A love story also often touches on topics such as social inequality, characters' perception of their appearance, gender inequality, experimentation with sex, class inequality, and ethnic identity.

Part 3 of 3: Shaping your story

1. Sketch your plot, a plot scheme. Not every writer likes to work with a plot sketch, and that's okay. But writing a plot scheme can help you not deviate too much from your plot and not get lost in the love story too much. Before you begin writing the story, outline the plot and write down the significant events and moments in the plot in the order you want to incorporate them into your story.
   • A plot scheme can be minimal or more elaborate. Play a little with the degree to which you process details, so that you find out what you enjoy writing.
   • A plot scheme, like a character sketch, is a guideline, not a rule to follow. You can develop your story freely, even if it deviates from your sketches, if you feel that you are developing the story and characters in a natural way.
2. Provide some anticipation in the story. When your two lovers eventually find each other, it is so fulfilling because you have so carefully built the emotions of the characters up to that point. Work towards that moment by creating difficulties for the lovers to overcome so that their romance is the ultimate fulfillment of a long, deeply emotional journey.
   • Don't introduce your loved ones to each other too quickly, don't let them fall in love too quickly, and don't let them be happy and in love too quickly.
   • A love story is meant to evoke a range of emotions in the reader. Make sure you create obstacles that make the loved ones happy, angry, sad, in a fight, jealous, etc.
3. Separate your loved ones after bringing them together. Lovers meeting and staying together are usually not the right ingredients for a compelling story. Come up with something that will make the lovers break up again some time after they meet. Not only do you create some drama, but you also give your loved ones the space to long for each other and to think about their relationship.
   • Consider, for example, the book "Pride and Prejudice". Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy come together several times in the book and are also separated from each other several times. With each meeting their feelings for each other change and after each meeting they think about each other a little more.
4. Have a believable climax that brings your loved ones together. One pitfall that writers fall in all too often is that they create a misunderstanding that eventually leads to the scene in which the climax takes place. You often see that in television series and in films. But if you magnify a conflict situation based on a misunderstanding, you run the risk of your characters appearing irrational and too dramatic. Try to work up realistic obstacles that prevent your readers from knowing if the loved ones have a future together, and then let the lovers meet at the end anyway.
   • An example of a common and often used misunderstanding is when a loved one gets angry because he catches his ex kissing her new lover. It's too dramatic and irrational for your hero to get angry because something happens that his loved one has nothing to do with and cannot do about.
   • Instead, try to think of another obstacle, such as a partner getting a job on another continent, or a partner who really wants to have children, and the other partner doesn't at all. Although these kinds of obstacles are more often used in stories, you can still turn them into a realistic emotional dilemma that is credible to the reader.
5. Try not to use literary stylistic tools too often. A love story is often associated with lengthy prose and flowery language. Don't be afraid to write in a lyrical style. But be careful not to overuse metaphors, symbols, and other literary style tools, otherwise your story can become too far-fetched and complicated. Only use literary stylistic tools if it allows the reader to better understand the emotions and events in the story. Don't feel obligated to include them in your story because it will make your story seem more romantic. It is important to keep the content of your story credible.
   • For example, "He missed his lover as the sea misses the splashing sea foam at high tide," sounds like a romantic comparison, but it is too unclear. "There was a sharp pain in his chest as his lover seemed to disappear into the sunset," is obvious to your reader, as most people understand what it means to have pain in your chest. The reader can therefore better understand this.
   • If you are unsure about a style tool, ask yourself, "Will this help my readers better understand what's going on?"
6. Make sure you close the story properly. Whether or not your loved ones eventually come together - it is nice for the reader if the story ends nicely. Your characters are supposed to develop over the course of your story in such a way that they continue in a certain direction, together or alone, right up to the last page.
   • For example, "When Joris left her, Karin felt desperate, and she became so scared that she would never go anywhere alone or undertake anything on her own again," there is no end that will satisfy a reader.
   • Try to ensure that the ending is bittersweet. When Joris leaves Karin, Karin can feel hurt and anxious. But she also carefully looks around her again for new opportunities in her life.
7. Edit your story so that you don't write too much unnecessary text. Once you have written your story, check it again to see where you have provided unnecessary information or listed too many details that do not contribute to the progress of the story.
   • Don't use flowery language just because you want to. Get the flowery wording out unless the adjectives and adverbs help the reader understand what's going on, or if it helps them better understand the emotion and intent of an event.
   • Don't use words if you don't know the connotation of the word. For example, if you created a character who is naturally light-skinned and in good health, don't call that character "pale." Although bleach also means that a person has fair skin, the word is often used as a medical term in relation to illness and ill health. Then rather choose a word such as "white" or "ivory".

Tips

• Put yourself in one of your characters. How would you feel? How would you react?
• Read love stories from multiple authors and romantic scenes in books of all genres to get a sense of the ways in which a love story can be constructed and written.
• It is not always necessary to incorporate enemies into your love story. Sometimes certain life events or conflicts of interest can create enough drama in a story. Think carefully about whether your story needs an enemy or if the circumstances are already creating enough drama.

Warnings

• Plagiarism is not accepted among writers, and you may be violating copyrights, which is punishable by law. Never copy someone else's work unless you have requested permission and clearly state the source.