Today we look at the first key element—characters.
What I Like About You
Who are your favorite “love interests” in books or movies? Mr. Darcy
and Miss Bennett? Romeo and Juliet? Kermit and Miss Piggy (hee hee)?
My favorite romantic comedy is You’ve Got Mail, so let’s look at those two characters, Kathleen
Kelly and Joe Fox. What about their personalities makes us want them to be
together?
First, they’re a lot alike—both are easy-going, fun-loving,
laughing, a bit sarcastic, optimistic, and positive.
I don’t think we should skim over this point. For characters
to fall in love, commonalities must exist! You wouldn’t want a dour, serious
whiner to marry Tom Hanks’s Joe Fox. Immediately, we’d know she wasn’t right
for him. Perky Meg Ryan fits much better.
So, when I first think up my characters, I give them a good
hunk of stuff in common, at least four or five major or minor details.
I Can Do Without You!
Second, as much as the lovebirds need similar interests,
they also need opposite characteristics. This is the fun part. Kathleen Kelly’s
fatal flaw (as I see it) is lack of ambition. She doesn’t want to change, but
to stay in her boring relationship and keep working at her bookstore even
though she has dreams for more.
What’s Joe Fox’s fatal flaw? Too much ambition! Isn’t that
cool? Their fatal flaws are opposite. This keeps them apart and draws them
together at the same time. Yay!
Joe’s mega-ambition causes him to force Kathleen’s store to
close. Kathleen’s passiveness causes her to follow bad advice (ironically from
Joe, although he doesn’t realize it). And these opposing flaws create a world
where they can’t possibly get together.
But the flaws also compliment each other, right? Joe needs
to learn to care about people more than business. He can learn this from
Kathleen. Kathleen needs to stand up for herself. She can learn this from Joe.
They really must get together, don’t you think? The perfect
couple.
A Dry Well
Third, they both must possess a dry well. In other words, the
hero and heroine long for something more. Their love barrel is empty. Throughout
the beginning of You’ve Got Mail, we
see both Kathleen and Joe in blah relationships, as if rambling around in
Dorothy’s black and white Kansas .
But every time Kathleen and Joe meet—vibrant Technicolor!
This emptiness creates desire in readers. It makes us hunger
for them to get together, to find each other, and thus, find happiness. (As
Christian writers, we know we can’t ultimately find happiness in anyone but
God. I have certain ways I deal with that. Perhaps another blog.) For the
ending to satisfy, a mighty longing for love must be established early on.
So, as you can see, a strong hero and heroine make up the
key component to writing romance. We still need a few other elements, though. Tune in
next week for fun with longing, suspense, and conflict in romance.
How do you create awesome romantic characters? I’d
love to hear.
God bless and happy writing,
Ocieanna
