Write a Love Story
Love stories can be brilliant, emotional, and creative outlets. But to truly master the art of the love story you need to know a thing or two.
Contents
Steps
Sample Love Story
Doc:Short Love Story
Writing Your Own Love Story
- Do not make it too bizarre or grotesque. Uniqueness is like salt. Just enough can perfect a dish, but too much can ruin it and make you regret even making it. Creativity on the other hand is fine. But save the fear factor for your horror stories, unless you can work the violence seamlessly into the romance.
- Focus on personality.
- Do not match personality. There can be some similarities between the two lovers, but don't overdo it. If they are too similar, the reader will began to regard them more as siblings or close friends than lovers.
- Anger, rivalry, and love? Both anger and love take a lot of passion and in the end they can spawn off each other. In the beginning stages of your story do not be afraid to let them loathe each other, just subdue the fire before it escalates.
- Combinations. We have all heard of the epitome of "unique" lovers: mean/hotheaded guy and nice, plain girl or vice versa, and smart guy and empty headed but cool girl or vice versa. Try to go beyond that. Make two lists of all the personalities you can think of, one for the girl and one for the guy. Then chose a random trait from each list and see if can make a story off that.
- Incorporate symbolism. Symbolism is a difficult art to master, but if you can represent your characters' love through a material object, the readers will enjoy it. A common example is a rose, but try to venture into some more unique objects. Think of why your characters love each other and focus in on those reasons; maybe you can come up with the ideal symbol.
- Develop the antagonists. What do an envying ex, a malicious villain, and feuding parents have in common? They are all classic examples of the romantic equivalent of an antagonist. An antagonist can provide strife, angst, and even comical relief. They are very rewarding and enjoyable to create. Who doesn't want to make the perfect villain?
- Use imagery and flawless descriptions.
- Use poignant words that capture emotion and your reader’s heart. Describe the surroundings with the uttermost detail.
Tips
- Try to imagine as if you were one of the characters. How would you feel? How would you react?
- Names have meaning too. The name of your characters can hold a lot of importance. For an exotic burning love, Ann and Joe just do not cut it. Look below for a site with lists of names.
- It is better to have your character(s) to be unique (in personalities, actions, styles...) instead of typical ones.
- Include the backstory behind their love. Include the problems with their love to make it interesting.
- When you write a love story, make sure there's never too soon of a happy ending.
- Stay subtle. Drop hints around the book of their romance like a tender gaze. You don't have to totally avoid the topic, but if your intro sentence is, "This is Alouette and her love Julian," you are doing something very wrong!
- Think of a blissful moment and base it on that.
- Make the setting majestic and crisp, like the summit of an ashen mountain.
- If you do choose to do it about vampires in love, make sure they actually act like vampires and not just hormonal teens. Let their vampire instincts be a part of their character, i.e. they should be drinking human, not animal blood.
Warnings
- Plagiarism: note if you are going to publish a romance novel, make sure you don't use plagiarism.
Things You'll Need
- A pen
- Paper
- A computer
- Romance novel (not to copy, but to set a base)
- Thesaurus if you need it
- A site for names like www.nameberry.com
