The football quarterback and the head cheerleader are two characters that you may often run into when you're talking about a love story. Even in real life, you find that high school sweethearts will often brag about being the quarterback for the local football team back in high school and the woman was the head cheerleader for the cheerleading squad. They are the two lead figures of their own respective groups and they end up Falling In Love and living happily ever after. But your Romance novel doesn't have to be so straightforward.
Even the quarterback and the cheerleader may have trouble in a relationship.
They may fall in and out of love, deal with jealousy issues because they found love so young, or even deal with cheating because one of them wants to explore other things. If you like the traditional relationship of high school sweethearts, then go right ahead. But if this turns you off because it is so cliché, then definitely explore two characters that may not be suited for one another at first glance. There's nothing like a challenge.
Compelling matches
Throughout your novel, you may present your female lead as someone with a strong and motivated personality, and someone who gets straight A's in school. Your male lead may be someone who is from the wrong side of the tracks, gets involved with drugs, and has a horrible history of beating his girlfriends.
What could these two possibly have in common? And what can make them fall in love? Now that's your story to tell as the author. If you introduce these two characters as the people who were going to fall in love and be the romantic love story that you put forth in your novel, it's your chance to figure out how they're going to get there in a way that readers believe and support.
It's always a challenge to match people who don't always match or get along. But maybe there's something happening in the mind of your male lead that wants to do something different. Maybe he wants to change and become a good guy. And maybe your female lead wants to help him because she sees potential. Whatever it is, it's your job to make it work.
Adding humor on top
When you get an odd match with two characters that shouldn't necessarily be together, you get an interesting dynamic going. You find that they come from two different worlds, due to different things, and have two different groups of friends. You can definitely use this to your advantage by adding humor to the story so it's not so serious. It's your chance to truly make it a memorable story with a unique plot and interesting characters that won't soon be forgotten. One example? Think about the rich businessman Christian Gray from "50 Shades of Gray" and the innocent student by the name of Anastasia Steele. You could not have two more different characters get together and fall in love.
What do you think about creating two characters that could not be further apart? Do you think it would be a challenge to make a true romance work with two separate characters that come from two different worlds?
