Disclaimer: I am a recovering “pantser” who turned “plotter” for the sake of my own sanity. When working on interconnected series and publishing so many books in one year, I found it impossible to “fly by the seat of my pants” in writing while keeping the characters & plots fresh (or even remembering what I wrote for a previous story so I make sure I don’t do the exact same thing for the current story). This is from a plotter’s POV, so pantsers may scoff – and that’s okay! There are dozens of ways to write a book.
When you’re writing a short romance, what’s the first thing you figure out about your characters before you start?
Before even getting to the characters, the first thing I do is figure out what tropes I want to use. A mountain man rescuing a damsel-in-distress is going to naturally create different characters from a billionaire boss office romance.
Next, I determine what the main conflict/tension is in the story. It can be vague, but it should give the story direction. For the office romance example, this might be a boss/employee forbidden tension. This helps narrow down what flaws, strengths, and quirks my characters will have.
Going back to the office romance – a flaw for the hero might be that they are ruthlessly competitive. This flaw might not fit with a loner mountain man who has no one to compete with.
How do you add depth to a character when you are writing shorter romance stories?
Once I know the tropes I want to hit and the general tension of the story, I ask my characters the following questions:
- What are 1-2 domineering traits? (From our office romance example, major traits for our hero can be: Always in control & Meticulous with details)
- What motivates them? Why do they make the choices they do? (Money, power, proving to their family they are successful. This will change over the course of the story – with romance, the end goal/motivation will always be a happily ever after.)
- What flaw(s) HINDER my character from resolving the tension? (Workaholic & distrustful. This will make it difficult for the character to put their career on the line for love.)
- What *complimentary* strength(s) HELP my character resolve the tension in the end? (Flaws = Workaholic & distrustful; Complimentary strengths = Dedicated & not easily manipulated. This can ultimately help your character once they realize they should be dedicated to their one true love instead of their career. The distrust flaw might be “healed” over the course of the story as they get closer to the love interest.)
How do you build believable conflict quickly?
Part of what makes our characters dynamic is how they respond to conflict – both internal and external. Internal conflict refers to something the character is struggling with in their mind (the billionaire boss might have an internal conflict of wanting to be with his assistant but knows it’s a distraction from his ultimate goal of growing his career).
External conflict refers to the character struggling with an outside force (the billionaire’s board of directors find out about his romantic relationship with his assistant and they threaten to vote him out of his position. He now has to choose love or his career.)
These conflicts and responses might be the same as longer romance novels, but with Instalove, everything happens at a much quicker pace. “Instalove” is a plot device that signals an accelerated relationship and (usually) a story that takes place in a single time-frame. Readers of Instalove have a high tolerance to suspend their belief – as long as the characters are well-written and the expectation of an HEA is met.
A great quote from an article I came across recently stated it like this: Instalove’s defining feature is the presupposition that infatuation is enough to drive a romance, and the characters don’t need a lot of time to get to know each other before they are willing to go to extremes for the other person.
How do you make characters memorable?
Quirks! I find the more specific, the better. Does your character have a particular way they prepare their coffee every morning? Do they hum 80s songs all the time without realizing it? These little quirks fill out their personality without using up too much space on the page.
Good banter & dialog go a long way in showing who a character is and how they respond to others. Does your heroine use sarcasm to cover up her insecurities? That should come across in her dialogue. The hero might pick up on this and start asking more pointed questions to try and break through her defenses. She will resist and find creative ways to avoid his questions at first, but then finally relent, which brings an emotional growth dynamic into witty banter.
What’s your #1 tip for writing dynamic characters in a short romance?
I find that “over developing” a character before the story helps me have a good idea of who they are. So, even if all the details don’t make it into the story due to word count restrictions, it still gives the feeling of a fully developed, relatable person instead of a character strung along by plot points.
When going over my final story, I have my character sheet (the four questions from above) in front of me so I have all their traits in my mind as I read over the characters’ interactions. Does this conversation serve the overall goal of the story? Does it showcase more of who the character is? Is it in alignment with what I originally planned for this character?
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