#27: Give The Main Character a Love Interest

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In real life love is a powerful and beautiful thing. Two people with similar hobbies and personalities falling head over heels in love with one another is a magical process, especially one to be a witness to. There is no wonder that so many novels, even in the fantasy genre, focus on romance as a primary or secondary plot point. As humans, we crave companionship. Although romance novels are personally not my cup of tea, I do enjoy Shakespeare's iconic play Taming of the Shrew as well as The Vampire Diaries book series. I even ship quite a few characters together, with my main ships being Nemma (Noah and Emma from The Ridonculous Race) and Lapidot (Peridot and Lapis Lazuli from Steven Universe). I may not like the romance genre too much, but I love the idea of romance in general.

However, always giving the main character a love interest is not the best idea. Not all main characters are the same. A villain protagonist for example most likely lacks empathy and adding a love interest would feel completely unfitting. An antihero main character could additionally fly into the same problem, especially if they stray more towards the villainous side of the spectrum. The biggest reason to avoid adding a love interest though is that it simply has become to predictable due to the idea becoming an overused cliché.

Sometimes, having a main character that is single is okay. You could use that fact as internal conflict for the protagonist, who might feel like the only one in the group who has not fallen in love yet. With villains and antihero main characters, it will just strengthen their story arcs. Adding a love interest to the main character once in a while is okay. Doing it all of the time though just makes your work too predictable.

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