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Guide: Choosing a Love Interest

Lots of us have been there: you’re merrily plotting or writing along, thinking you know who your character’s love interest is, and suddenly there’s another possibility. Maybe even a few possibilities, and now you have to choose. Here are some exercises to help you narrow it down…

1) Do a Chemistry Summary

For each potential love interest, summarize the chemistry they have with your character. What are their similarities and differences? What do they have in common? What do they like about each other? What is it about them that just… works?

2) Look at Plot-Relevant Decisions

Make a list of plot-relevant decisions your character will make throughout the story. For example, let’s say your character goes to dinner at a steakhouse and bump into someone who inadvertently offers a clue to a mystery your character is trying to solve. Deciding to go to dinner–and to that particular restaurant–is a plot-relevant decision.

Now, once you have your list of plot-relevant decisions made, look at how each potential love interest might affect that decision. For example, if Love Interest #3 happens to be vegan and that’s an important part of his character, how does that impact your character’s choice to go to a steakhouse on that fateful night? If you were planning to have them at the steakhouse because they’re on a first date with the love interest, Love Interest #3 being vegan would certainly impact that choice. And not to say it doesn’t work… steakhouses serve salads and vegetables after all… but it’s still something worth considering.

3) Consider Your Character’s Internal Journey

If you’re writing a story that is partly or fully character-driven, you know that your character’s internal conflict and character arc are an important part of your story. Since your character must go on an internal journey, changing as a result of the story’s events, it’s worth considering how each love interest might positively or negatively impact that change.

4) Do a Romantic Scene List

You may not yet know all the scenes that will be in your story, but you should have some idea of the romantic scenes that will need to happen. First meeting, first realizing their mutual interest, bonding, first time touching in a loving way, first date, first kiss… these kinds of scenes are important to developing a relationship in a story. So, list the scenes you know you’ll want to have (like: first kiss), then for each one, consider what that moment might look like with each potential love interest.

5) Do a Pros and Cons List

This may sound obvious, but if you haven’t done it yet, try doing a physical pros and cons list for each relationship, especially taking the previous exercises into account. Think about everything from the pros and cons of them actually being together (as people), to the pros and cons of them being together in terms of how it affects the story.

Try these exercises, and hopefully you can at least narrow it down. If not, or if you still find no one stands out as the better option, try drawing a name out of a hat. Truly!

Have fun with your story!

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