This week, I finished two things: the Korean show Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and Emily Henry’s Book Lovers. (Some spoilers for Extraordinary Attorney Woo in the next paragraph; no spoilers for Book Lovers.)
In EAW, the love interest clearly respects and adores the main character—so much so that his entire character revolves around her. I have no idea what his backstory is, nor what are his desires, fears, and motivations in life except when they pertain to her (he desires her, he fears losing her, he’s motivated to stay with her despite his family and friends’ wariness of her). The only times he’s seen interacting with other characters are still because of her, be it asking friends for advice on how to woo her or getting into fights with them because they speak poorly of her autism.
At one point, I caught myself thinking: it’s a good thing this is a show so that at least the actor’s hotness keeps me watching. If it had been a book, I might have put it down long ago because he is just so sweet that it started to get kind of… cloying.
(All that said, I’m still half in love with him.)
But Book Lovers—wow. Where do I even begin? Emily Henry is an absolute pro at writing romances where both characters are equally well-rounded and intriguing. Reading an Emily Henry book is like peeling an onion: with every page you turn, you find out a little bit more about the love interest (LI)—their unique habits, catchphrases, and quirks; how their past shapes their present, which influences how they engage with the main character (MC).They are imperfect, which is what makes them real.
I never once felt like Emily Henry had to dumb down the LI or smooth out his edges so that he wouldn’t take over the story and outshine the MC. She isn’t afraid to craft two characters that are equally compelling, so much so that they feed off each other and create a chemistry that practically leaps off the pages. Her characters help each other shine, forming a whole that’s much more than the sum of its parts. And that, to me, is what an excellently-crafted romance is.
But it’s not super fair to compare the two because EAW is fundamentally about the titular Attorney Woo, her ups and downs. So it’s okay if the love interest is two-dimensional, because at the end of the day he’s only a supporting character in her story and doesn’t need the same level of character depth that she has. On the other hand, Emily Henry’s books blur the lines between pure romance and women’s fiction, with the romance plot taking up a much bigger portion of the story than in EAW.
(For the uninitiated: women’s fiction is “an umbrella term for women centered books that focus on women’s life experience”, according to Wikipedia.)
The difference between the EAW and Book Lovers are clear even in their titles: the former focuses on one character; the latter covers a couple. In terms of writing romance, my style is somewhere between the two. I always strive to write my LI as his own character—with his unique backstory, wants and needs, likes and dislikes—irrespective of what my MC is like. He is always a character first, a love interest second. But like EAW, my books skew more towards being women’s fiction with a romance subplot, so the MC irrevocably gets much more airtime.
And I shall end this newsletter with these amazing tips for writing romance from Emily Henry herself (her Instagram is a treasure trove of writing advice!):
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