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So You Want To/Write a Love Story: Difference between revisions
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Here's another bit of advice, proved perfectly by Patrick Rothfuss' debut novel ''[[The Name of the Wind]]'': don't make the character ''attractive'', make the character ''lovable''. A lot of beginning writers (especially in NSFW and/or [[Lemon]] fics) fall into this trap: they go into excruciating detail about Heather's [[Hair of Gold]] that flows in a molten river to just past her 16th vertebra, [[Blue Eyes]] that stretch precisely 4/5ths of the way towards her temples, perfect 34DD breasts, and so on and so forth. They are trying to create a "perfect woman," someone The Reader will inevitably find attractive. Well, they've already failed, because This Troper has always been a fan of [[Pettanko]] [[Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette|Eerie Pale Skinned Brunettes]], and while This Troper isn't exactly ''turned off'' by Heather, he's not exactly panting like a dog either. (Plus, all this detail about Heather's looks is often boring... which is the last thing you want, especially in the opening paragraphs of your story, which is where it's most likely to appear.) We have a trope on this very phenomenon, called "[[Informed Attractiveness]]," but no real sense of how to avert it. At least, before Patrick Rothfuss.
Rothfuss avoids this whole mess with his female lead by, instead of spending any amount of time on her appearance, making it clear that his [[Point of View|First Person Narrator]] is absolutely smitten. He [[
How does this relate to casting? Simple: by using this technique—by getting The Reader to empathize with your hero and/or heroine—you can then make them look like ''anything you damn well please'', and still have The Reader love them. Your male lead could be the ugliest man on Earth. His love interest could have features all out of proportion, saggy wide flap-boobs and a nose that's too large. Heck, you don't ''have'' to describe them at all! Just give glimpses, flashes, capsule images. A tall lean man with an arrogant bearing, all cropped dark hair and brooding eyes—even if that's all you give, that's enough. Because that leaves The Reader's imagination free to fill in their own personal details about your hero... And tell me this: who's going to be better at inventing The Reader's perfect man, you or The Reader?
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