Crushing on your Hero OR Villain: A Romance Novelist’s Secret Weapon to Writing a Great Story FAST!

My husband Bill and I recently started binge-watching old episodes of Supernatural over dinner. We’re not big on TV, but it’s nice to get lost in something non-news-related at the end of the day, and we really enjoyed watching Smallville (which aired on the same network) so we decided to give it a shot. The first few seasons were ok, in my opinion. Not really enough romance for my taste, but I was looking for something that Bill and I could enjoy together, something that he wouldn’t consider overly feminine, and this seemed to fit the bill. I could put up with the violence (much of which was pretty gruesome) because the stories were mostly well-written and there was a healthy mix of humor at play to lighten the mood. At one point, Bill asked me, which of two main characters I “liked” – Sam, portrayed by Jared Padalecki or Dean, played by Jensen Ackles. I answered him honestly, “Neither of them are really my type – I’m watching it for the storyline.” And at the time that I said it, I meant it.

Then, we started watching Season 4. After Dean returns to earth from Hell, yes, Hell, compliments of a deal he makes with the devil so-to-speak, to save Sam, we learn that Sam has been working with a demon named Ruby (Genevieve Cortese), who claims to be one of the “good guys” and Sam can now extract demons from their human vessels. As the season progresses, we learn Sam is actually sleeping with Ruby and drinking her blood and as he continues to grow stronger and become more daring, it dawns on me. Ok. I’m getting pretty darn crazy about this guy.

This is hardly the first time this has happened to me. I’ve had crushes my entire life and as a writer who writes romance novels of all things, I consider myself to be more in touch with my feelings than most. But “character crushes” are especially powerful – it takes a good actor (yes, I prefer to see a real person with my eyes) and some great writing to create just the right thought in my head to get me fired up. I used to feel it was a curse. Now, I see it for what it is – my secret weapon for writing an amazing story at the speed of a train!

My writing brain never really stops working, even when I’m reading another writer’s work or watching TV. When I read or see something that piques my interest, I start dissecting it – what I like about it, what I don’t like about it, what I would do differently, and this often spurs my own idea. This applies to both storyline and characters and when it’s a “character crush” this works even more effectively. When I can’t get something or someone out of my head, I have to write about it/them. That often results in a story I hadn’t intended to write pumping out of me before I can blink my eyes.

I’ve talked with other writers who like to cast actors as their characters when they’re writing. Doing this serves many benefits, not the least of which is you’ve got a face and a voice you can actually see and hear in your mind. If you’re crushing on a particular actor, go and check out other roles they’ve played. Doing so can offer you a new perspective for inspiration and remind you that the actor is indeed playing another author’s character, one you don’t want to copy when writing your own story but simply be inspired by. Of course, it’s always possible you may not like another character that your new favorite actor has played as much as the one you’re currently doing somersaults over. For me, many such crushes have been more character-driven than they were actor driven and I learned this the hard way. Fellow crushers, you’ve been forewarned.

Character crushes can take you to places you never expected. Many of mine came about months or even years into a particular series and oftentimes, I’m in denial about what’s going through my head until I’m thinking about the character so much my feelings are impossible to deny. This works the same way with villains as it does with heroes. One of my first major character crushes was on a villain and I was so keen on his character I based my author brand around this idea, the idea of reforming former villains to make them heroes, an idea I initially utilized so I could “get them into bed.” There’s a lot more to it than that, of course. But being a romance novelist is almost entirely subjective. It can make you imagine scenarios you never dreamed were possible.

Two days before I was about to begin JeRoWriMo 2021 (the New Jersey Romance Writers’ annual writing challenge), I found myself pushing aside my current work in progress AND an outline for a story in a future series in favor of writing a brand new story, all because I wanted to create a story for my current character crush. New story, new character, new series. My head would now be in 3 different series and I didn’t even mind the thought of how crazy that was. One week in, I currently have one of the highest word counts in our chapter. Thank you, character crush! Fellow writers, this is seriously powerful stuff!

It’s hardly ideal jumping from one story to the next, let alone into another series. But try as I might to tell myself to be logical and realistic, nothing about being a fiction writer is logical or realistic. And, fellow writers, would we really want it to be? Stories are a million times better when we can’t put them down – just ask our readers. When I’m inspired, I like to drop everything I’m doing and take advantage of that inspiration. It doesn’t come around all the time. Crushes can’t be forced and when you’re working with a hero you haven’t “seen” in 3 years, it’s a lot harder to pull these feelings purely from memory than if you’re experiencing them firsthand. Recently, I completed an outline in which I unexpectedly found myself falling for my villain and it drove my entire story. Sometimes we just get lucky. Other times, not so much.

When it comes to inspiration, I prefer to strike when the iron is hot. And I’ve found several ways to use that inspiration to my writing advantage, without copying another writer’s work, and simply making the most of the inspiration I’ve been given. First off, decide what you like (what caused you to crush on them in the first place – their behavior? their attitude? their charisma during a particular scene/scenes?) and don’t like about your character crush. How would you make them different if they were your character? Honestly, most writers I know would make a character almost entirely different when making them their own, so much so that you may find little resemblance to your original muse, minus perhaps the character’s archetype, assuming that was something you liked about them in the first place.

Consider next where you want to set your story and what you want it to be about. This is often the ticket for me – a premise that tickles my fancy one day might work beautifully with a particular character crush down the road and when I place my character into a new setting and scenario, the story and its protagonist’s internal and external motivation quickly invent themselves. Before I know it, I have an entire story or even series that is entirely my own, one for which my former character crush is now serving as an actor, as though I had cast him in the movie version of my novel.

My current character crush is already waning a bit. But nearly 9 chapters into my new work in progress, I have everything I need from him to complete a story I know my readers will love as much as I do. Crushes fuel the fire that is the magic formula of romance novels. And isn’t falling in love the greatest feeling of all?