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How can you write a natural, steady love story?
Hi. I've got the story down but I can't seem to write a natural relationship with them.
The female is usually quite happy and friendly but easily annoyed and saddened when you bring up her love life. The male is quite sarcastic, teasing and very much the bad boy on the outside. But on the inside he is actually quite sweet. He also likes to call her kitten/kitty cat etc.
Please bear in mind that the female has had her heart broken to someone she really did love quite recently and believes she isn't ready for a relationship quite yet.
So anyway, that is a little bit into the back story. But I am trying (and failing) to get these guys to fall in love but it all sounds too rushed, clichéd or unnatural. Can anyone give me pointers or situations to put them in so it's a bit more believable?
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Want to answer more questions in the Relationships category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Love Life?
What has she got that he wants?
What has he got that she wants?
Usually, the answer to q1 is just that she is pretty hot.
And the answer to q2 is … as long as a grocery list. There are two things that a male lead generally has:
1 - cool clothes. Most romance stories always describe what clothes the hero and heroine are wearing before anything romantic happens. But you have described this guy as a "bad boy", so you probably already have a "look" in mind.
2 - a circle of women, who the heroine can get access to by hitching her wagon to the hero.
This can happen in a couple of ways. A hero can be the leader or boss of a group of men. By getting involved with him, the heroine becomes boss of the wives of those men.
But for the loner/bad-boy type, this won't work. So he needs female relatives that are useful for the heroine to know. For instance: if she is a fashion model, his sister should run an agency.
Having gotten motive out of the way, we need a means for the heroine to insert herself in his life. The usual - almost ubiquitous - way that this gets done is that he should have a woman in his past. An ex who treated him mean (and made him develop this bad-boy exterior) is an obvious one. Another route is a mother or a sister who died of cancer - widowers are a trope. For your story, his "guardians" are an obvious hook. In his past, is there an orphan girl who he failed to save? "We was only eight, I could do nothing, but I swore on my mother's grave, who I never knew, that …" kinda thing.
The subject matter of women's writing is women. This bad boy needs a woman in his past, and women in his present. Romance writing is about the heroine and those people. The hero is just a suit of clothes and maybe a motorbike. Haven't you noticed that Mr Darcy is a cypher?
(ps: visit tvtropes.org )
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