Hi all,
This week I'm going to talk about love interests. Do main characters need one all the time?
My answer? No.
I write a mix of characters. Some of my main characters do have love interests, some don't. I personally don't think that characters need to have a love interest to make a good book. If I think a character needs a love interest, I'll give them one. If I don't, they don't get one.
So far, the main characters to get love interests in my books are:
Hazel (Elemental Dragons)
Cheyenne (Years)
Shannon (Celestial Plague)
Jenna (Celestial Plague)
Tahira (Curse of Anubis)
Hailey (Street Rats)
Reema (Game of Air and Lightning)
I gave them all love interests because that's what I felt worked best for the characters. But in some cases, like Shannon, the love interest didn't work out. I personally don't think a book needs romance to be a good book. A lot of the books I've written recently haven't contained a love interest, and it hasn't effected the story one bit.
If you feel like your character needs a love interest, then give them one. But don't feel pressured to add a love interest, especially if it doesn't work. The following main characters on my work don't have love interests:
Audra (Mute)
Raya (Celestial Plague)
Ashleigh (Celestial Plague)
Laelaps (Empty Skies)
Ataraxia (Empty Skies)
Aliyah (Cloud's Core)
Imara (The Severed Pantheon)
I think a good mix of both is nice, as it allows the characters to decide as the book goes on. You might start writing a love interest and it doesn't work out. Or, you could start a book and a love interest pops up halfway through!
Books don't need a love interest to be entertaining. They're just another aspect of the story. It's your book, so you decide what happens. Don't feel pressured to add things in that you don't want to write. At the end of the day, if you don't like writing a certain book, it will be obvious to those who read it.
That's it for this week! Hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week.
