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Of wits is what makes the reader root for the couple to end up together. I personally love the back-and-forth witticisms of it. One of the juiciest parts of the enemies-to-lovers trope is It also sets your reader up to understand why your characters do what they do (and why they’re actually not that bad underneath it all). Like in real life, knowing a person’s backstory elicits empathy. Whatever the cause of your protagonists’ presentation to each other, make sure the audience knows why they do it. Maybe she’s developed a cold exterior to protect her heart from ruthless womanizers. Maybe his first love left him, or he was abandoned as a child. Both Characters Should Have an Empathetic Backstory Let the reader see why, despite being a dominant werewolf, or a ruthless billionaire businessman, or even just a seeming playboy, that he really does have a heart of gold.
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It’s a chance to showcase their compassion, humor, thoughtfulness and general likeability. The easiest way to do this is to show the leads interacting with other people. Therefore, it’s important to make both characters likeable to the reader…even if these great traits are invisible to the main characters. You don’t want your audience to feel like someone should intervene on the heroine’s behalf to save her from a terrible life if she gets together with the hero. Although you want to create tension, it’s also crucial that the reader roots for both of these people. Make Both Characters LikeableĪt the core of every romance is the reader’s desire to see the main characters fall in love by the end of the book. If you’re working on a love story, here are the key elements of the enemies-to-lovers romance trope. After all, both protagonists have to hate or dislike each other, but they also have to be appealing to the reader. This is a classic trope, but it can be tricky. Who doesn’t love the tug of war, the push and pull, of two people who get under each other’s skin? It’s even juicier when these characters want to know what it would be like to get each other under the covers.
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The enemies to lovers-or frenemies-trope is a delicious romance premise. How to Best Write Characters Who Go from Enemies to Lovers
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