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How To Make Readers Care About Your Romance

By on February 20, 2019
How To Make Readers Care About Your Romance - Writer's Life.org

Including a romance in your story - whatever the genre, can be a great way of drawing your readers in and getting them to root for your protagonists. However, a romance that isn’t written in the right way, or leaves your readers feeling cold can do more harm to your story than good. So how can you create a romance between two characters that your readers will care about?

Try these helpful tips:

Create exciting characters

Arguably, the most critical part of any novel is its characters, and without dynamic, exciting characters your story won’t get very far. The same is true if you are going to create a romance. If your characters are written in a way that makes your readers want to know more about them they'll be more invested. Characters should be developed so readers feel emotionally connected to them and in a way that makes them care about their welfare and hopes and dreams. Doing this means readers will naturally rally behind these characters when romance blossoms and want everything to work out for them, despite the obstacles that may keep them apart.

Be realistic

To create a romance that your readers enjoy you need to make sure that it feels believable. That’s not to say that two unlikely characters can’t fall for one another. However, it needs to feel like it happens in a way that they end up making sense as a couple. Having chemistry, moments of tension and physical attraction should all be included in the build-up before romance blossoms so readers feel as though they haven’t been cheated or are left confused as to why those particular two characters would get together in the first place.

Create tension

There is nothing more powerful than dramatic tension in your novel to get your readers gripped and eager to know what happens next. Some typical techniques to create tension are injecting arguments and disagreements, miscommunications or a relationship moving too fast, forbidden love or anything that works against the couple and makes it harder for them to be together. Using tension to build uncertainty about whether your two characters can make it will help readers root for them even more.

bethany cadman

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadman.co.uk

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