How far do I need to go to show "fit" between two "dating" characters?
In my work, my goal is to show that the hero is a better fit for the heroine, than the two men she married (or agreed to marry) before him.
The first husband uses his influence to get the woman a "vice-presidency" in a startup with less authority and remuneration than the other VPs.
The second prospective husband is a wealthy man won't help her in her career but offers the woman the luxuries of life as a consolation prize.
The third man is the CEO of his own company who pumps enough money into the woman's company (a supplier) to change that company's internal balance of power in her favor, as well as giving her an idea of how to take it over.
The woman is primarily motivated by her career, and largely judges her men by who helps her in this regard.
Given that all four people come from a similar social class, is this sufficient grounds for "fit," or do I need to get into other issues such as shared tastes or cultural similarities, etc.?
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Showing that one person is a better fit psychologically is very difficult, especially since we don't seem to know what constitutes fit or why one relationship works in real life and another does not. (I think the truth is that when people "fit" it is more because they grow together, grow around each other, than that they started out as two perfectly complementary jigsaw pieces.)
But stories are fundamentally moral, rather that psychological, and the almost universal formula for this in stories is the discovery or revelation of virtue. In its most basic form it comes down to what James Scott Bell calls the "pat the dog" moment. It is about one or the other demonstrating their moral value through an act of kindness.
There seem to be two main formulas for this:
Virtuous woman is blind to the moral faults of her intended and/or the moral virtues of her alternate suitor. Events reveal the vices of the intended and/or the virtues of the alternate suitor. Woman switches her affections to alternate.
Morally compromised woman pursues love for all the wrong reasons. Morally virtuous suitor pursues her (why?) and is rejected for not being good career material. Events force woman to face up to her moral inadequacies. She is reformed and sees spurned suitor in a new light. Must then persuade him that she has changed.
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