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The key is to write a person, not a pet dog in the form of a female companion / love interest. A person is a complex, with aspirations, motivations, interests, and a personality. And now you hav...
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#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47915 License name: CC BY-SA 4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision
The key is to write a person, not a pet dog in the form of a female companion / love interest. A person is a complex, with aspirations, motivations, interests, and a personality. And now you have this complex character, should she still be with the hero? As a writer, you need to write that. And writing a love interest is not easy, not even for good writers, male or female. JK Rowling, wrote a rather generic destiny hero (Harry Potter), and his love interests were even flatter than him! Cho Chang was only memorable for being Asian (not given much to do). Ronald Weasley's sister, whatever her name was, had 0 personality (and had nothing to do). Hermione and Ron were two major characters that ultimately fell in love, in a relationship that pretty much made no sense to the readers. Because JKR just forced them together, because that's how she envisioned it. (The problem was she just told it, without showing it). Hermione and Ron could have worked if JKR devoted some pages to making it happen.