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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/25928
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I've recently been researching and discussing **characters and character roles** , mostly off the back of feedback on a romance story that described the "love interest" (if that is the correct literary term?) of my protagonist as "flat, uninteresting, where no one would care if they lived or died, death would be better because they wouldn't be so boring".

Whilst I understand that "character roles" in fiction are quite prescriptive and that following the rules verbatim yields a technically accurate and flat story, I also understand that you have to know the rules before you can break them.

So after a heated debate on love interests in novels, I would like to know if there any literary guidance for creating a "love interest"? Is it different for _male, female, bi-sexual, British, American, young, old_ etc?

Within the guidance, are there any stereotypes other than "tall, dark and handsome"? For example, it's widely accepted in the western market that the male love interest is strong, dark and mysterious, including a long list of examples such as Edward Cullen, Tony Stark, Mr Darcy, any Hugh Jackman character and that 50 shades of grey mush that I actually can't stand but can't deny the reception.

Nowadays, this is borderline cliché, there must be more love interests out there over and about "tall, dark and handsome" right? If so what?

Original score: 5