3 Reasons You Need a Love Interest in Your Story

(I wanted to quickly point out why I chose a lock for the picture. That's called a "love lock". Two people get their names carved into love locks and lock it to fence then throw the key into the water below. It's kind of a cool practice. Anyways, I just wanted to say why I had a lock as the picture.)

'Tis that wonderful time of the year where people give roses and chocolate and say "I love you". I don't mind this time of year in particular... But it isn't my favorite, like it might someone else's favorite. I've never been a romantic.

I used to hate romance. Like, people kissed or held hands and I would grimace. So I never put it in my stories. Ever. I didn't like it. When I did the One Year Adventure Novel course, one of the sections in the workbook to fill out was about the "love interest". I promptly went to my mom and asked her if she would give me a lower grade if I didn't add the love interest part. I didn't want to fill out the section. I didn't want it in my story. You couldn't have made me at that point in time. She told me no, I didn't have to have a love interest.

After having written many short stories and a few full length novels, I now realize the importance of the romance and love in a story. 

All around us are people falling in love. People wishing that they were loved. There are those who want nothing more than a loving embrace, or a kiss on the cheek before bed. There are many people who want a particular someone to just notice them and say hi. There are kids who think they are in love. Crushes, engagements, dates, weddings... All around us is a world structured with love. And I didn't get this as a thirteen year old freshman. I honestly couldn't see myself writing a love interest. For goodness' sake, I was writing a pirate story! I had an ally, I had the villain and I had every tragedy planned out, but love? Pffft, who needs that in a story full of treasure and swords. 

Actually, it's very important. I still have a hard time writing in a love interest, but I see the importance. It helps stories move forward. It adds conflict, desire and climax. A love interest is different than an ally. Nonetheless, the ally and love interest could happen to be the same person. But the ally didn't start off as the love interest. It usually doesn't work like that. 

Conflict

Ever been in love? Yeah, me either. But, I am pretty sure everyone knows the concept of love. You have siblings and parents. You can watch your parents and gather little things here and there about how romance works. It's not all about the box of chocolate and the cute cellphone texts. But in every relationship there seems to be a little conflict. No couple is perfect. This conflict adds a certain amount of tension. Perhaps one of the reasons the hero was pushed over the proverbial edge and to the proverbial martyrdom was because he and his girlfriend had a fight. 

"Stop this stupid quest or I leave will you." -Said every significant other to the hero. It's a cliche that you can't exactly avoid. Every relationship is strained when something else threatens the time and energy of someone your hero wants to spend time with. Stress from the relationship will probably cause your hero not to think clearly, making him slip up big just in time to see the proverbial lightening strike him down. The villain's side is winning, and your hero is in a fog, stressed out because his love isn't talking to him. Sappy, but true. Kind of every adventure novel out there. 

Desire

A desire to keep the love interest safe. A desire to win the quest for the love interest. The love in the your story will be one of the hero's biggest drives. These drives can advance the story. It could make or break the hero's plans. I think getting desires right in a novel is one of the hardest things. There so much a person could want and so many legit reasons for wanting it. But not all those desires last. People have the tendency to want something "badly", but then as soon as something better comes along, they drop the one thing and move onto the next. The love interest could possibly be the same way, but no normally. When a person really loves another, it's hard to just move on.

So then the question is: What motivate your hero? If his heart is the thing that leads him on, then a love interest could be a very dangerous desire. All he will want to do is please his girlfriend or wife.

Climax

I have the biggest problem with adding a bunch of action into my stories, one after another for the whole 100,000 words. When I go through and do another draft, I space it out and make it more of an incline than a straight up wall. Climax is what builds a story. It's like the story's structure. It's as important as the plot. It's also important to get it right. What we don't want is "copy and paste" throughout the entire story. So why not throw in a little love interest? *cough* Yeah, so maybe I only use love interests for climax and conflict. 

But in all seriousness. So many bad things could happen when you add someone else into the story other than an ally. So much could go wrong. Just the presence of a significant other could cause the hero to not think straight, resulting in him not stopping the villain from hitting the red button, which in turn blows up all of New York City. Oops. I had something similar happen in one of my novels. Two kids not paying attention to time. Two lovers just have a good time. And they miss something vital. They practically put into play the climactic moment. 

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Romance and love interests are definitely not one of my strong points, but they are important to storytelling. 

What about you? Do you like romance and love interests in your stories? Comment and share!

Photo: Vintage Rose Photography