HOW TO WRITE HATE-TO-LOVE ROMANCE (that feels realistic)

what's up my friend Abbi here and welcome back to writers life Wednesday if you're new around here what's up we are talking about romance this month because it's February and most people associate February with Valentine's Day even though I know a Valentine's Day is just an excuse to eat chocolate but I'm not going to complain about that today we're talking about my personal favorite type of romance hate to love if you're unfamiliar with the term hate to love romance essentially means when they when the characters that are gonna be the couple and the story start the story as not a couple they're completely disinterested in each other they even resent each other and they end the story in love and realizing that they are in fact perfect for each other as you can imagine a lot of character development has to take place in order for this major change of heart to feel believable to the reader so is it tricky to write yeah but is it worth it yeah looking back on the stories that I've already written and the stories that I've been plotting in my head for years now I realized that this is my favorite romance trope because I use it so much I also love to read stories with hate to love romance and evidently a lot of other people do too what are some well-known stories with hate to love romance without destroying my aesthetic Pride and Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables there are of course lots more but today we are going to use these two best-selling books as examples although it rarely happens in real life hates love romance is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to write it makes your story more dynamic because a huge change of heart has to take place with your characters and if it's if it's written well it can make your book so addictive readers will not be able to put it down so with my experience of writing and fangirling over hate to love romance today I'm going to show you how to craft a realistic feeling and brilliant story arc that will take your characters from enemies to more than friends okay so first thing you've got to do establish the reason behind the hate before we begin we have to dig into the first impressions of these characters whether they've loved each other for a long time now or only just met and did not hit it off nobody hates without a reason in fact hate in this scenario can be better described as a negative judgment one character makes about another character based on their perspective sounds a little philosophical but that's basically what it boils down to so what negative judgments have your characters made about each other let's take for example Trident prejudice when Elizabeth first meets Darcy she's immediately put off by his pride in arrogance not to mention his miserable expression on the opposite end of the spectrum Darcy judges the laughing and light-hearted Lizzy as barely tolerable and is repelled by her family's lack of propriety let's just say it's not a smooth start to one of the greatest love stories of all time bad first impressions are usually the root of all of this like when we don't know a person we're trying to decide whether or not we should trust them and if they show any sign of being unlikable our brain is quick to judge so if you don't have a first impression moment in your backstory with you and your characters first meet I highly recommend you craft one even if it's backstory write the scene feel the tension and the conflicts happening in these characters know the root of their problem with each other and you'll be able to write their problem so much better next thing you got to figure out who hates who relationships are always more dynamic than simply we hate each other as you probably noticed in the last question there's a lot more tension and conflicts happening below the surface but what if the bad feeling is not mutual what if person a hates person B but person B actually likes person a mmm the plot thickens although this is still technically hate to love romance it throws a monkey wrench into an otherwise simple relationship this is actually one of my favorite types of romance because there's so much potential for a whole bunch of different types of plot twists let's take an of Green Gables a poor example when Anne first meets Gilbert she smashes a slide over his head not a good first impression because he sensitively teased her also not a good first impression but what Anne doesn't realize is that Gilbert actually likes her despite their competitive relationship he admires her spirit imagination and determination to constantly better him this not only creates more conflict for the characters but it makes the reader more intrigued to see what kind of change of heart is gonna happen next what if they both changed their minds about each other then my friend we have a mess on our hands shout out to one of my favorite books of all time oh and another thing don't forget the halfway point friendship nothing will make your hate to love romance seem unbelievable then your characters going from hating each other to loving each other just like that a change of heart is never sudden okay it happens over time think of your story like the alphabet between a and Z you have 24 other letters you have all these other moments in your story and that's that middle ground that makes the change of heart believable this is usually the place of friendship or we don't really know what we are but we're getting along and it's weird remember that although it's clear to the reader what's going on your characters don't understand a thing they won't be able to pinpoint the moment that their heart started to change even if the reader can at the end of Pride and Prejudice when Elizabeth asks Darcy when he started to fall in love with her he replies I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun see even mr. Darcy doesn't know what's going on and when things start to get more than friendly let your characters resist love chances are your characters have been hating each other for a long time they've gotten used to it they've gotten stuck in their ways and anything unfamiliar any unfamiliar feeling is going to scare them which means when they first feel love for this person that they've been hating for so long they're not gonna be like huh I guess I was wrong and I actually really love that person now they're more likely gonna be like am I feeling an emotion you know get it off this is what makes hate to love romance so enjoyable even comical sometimes our biology rebels against change of any kind which includes a change of heart from enemies to more than friends when our hard-won beliefs are challenged by new feelings and ideas we a feel exposed B feel afraid and C tried desperately to hold on to our old beliefs of course your characters to stay on the warpath are gonna be futile but you have to let them fight if they cave to the first flicker of affection they feel for their nemesis let's just say your readers are gonna be closing the book and leaving it on the Shelf forever let's go back to our example of Anne of Green Gables it takes a lot of time and introspection for Anne to finally come around and realize that she does indeed have feelings for Gilbert she has to swallow her pride and come to grips of the fact that she was wrong all this time not an easy revelation for any of us now every story is different so your characters internal conflict will be unique to them but how they overcome their obstacles and win their aha moment that's what the story is truly about all right my friend go forth and write your brilliant hate to love romance you know you can do this don't overthink it but do remember these tips and if you need more help with creating a relatable and addictive characters check out this video I made where I give away my template for the ultimate character profile comment below and tell me are you obsessed with hate to love romance like I am or what is your favorite romance trope I'm guessing it's probably not insta love also comment below and tell me about some other stories movies TV shows books whatever that include hate to love romance that you personally love smash that like button if you like this video and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos every Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community until next week my friend rock on [Music]

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 42,731

Rating: 4.9926829 out of 5

Keywords: romance, love, writing, writing tips, writing advice, ya, fiction, love story, hate to love, enemies to lovers, authortube, abbie emmons, abbiee

Id: PIra_3eDrg0

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 20 2019