Enemies to lovers has always been one of the most compelling tropes in any romance-focused story. There have been countless numbers of movies, books, games, and TV shows that have taken the idea of two people who hate each other but end up loving each other and ran with it. When you’re writing a romance story, you tend to find that enemies to lovers is much more engaging than other romance tropes because of how creative you need to be in order to ensure that your two enemies actually end up falling in love. Seeing as this is one of my more favorite tropes, here’s how you can write a good, compelling, exciting, and interesting enemies to lovers story!
What is Enemies to Lovers?
First, let’s talk about what enemies to lovers even is! The idea of enemies to lovers refers to when two characters start out a story as rivals. These two characters hate each other for one reason or another. If we were to place this trope in, say, a fantasy story, we may find that the main character is a princess and the enemy is an assassin. Maybe the main character is a knight and the enemy is a rival knight. Something of that sort.
Eventually, the two characters will need to somehow actually fall in love. By the end of the story, they need to be together. But, how exactly could that happen if they hate each other? Well, you need to craft your story around making these two characters, over time, become madly in love.
What do you Need First?
When it comes to writing a good enemies to lovers story, you need a few specific elements to help you out:
Well-written, Complex Characters
Since this is a romance trope, if your characters aren’t interesting, you’ve pretty much ruined the entire story for your readers. You need to ensure that your characters are well-written and complex. Unfortunately, one of the biggest mistakes romance writers sometimes fall victim to is making one of the characters shallow. And by this, I mean this character simply exists for the sake of the other character.
For instance, this character basically has no personality of their own. They just follow the main character and oogle at the main character and practically worship the main character. This isn’t a person–this is a caricature. There’s no compelling reason behind why a reader would actually like to read about this character.
A believable, deep character has a background, motivations, interests, fears, traumas, etc… The characters need to actually feel and read as though they were real people. They cannot be perfect either–another issue romance tends to fall into. The male love interest sometimes is written in a way that is just simply unrealistic, too perfect, or annoying. Be careful of this. You’re writing romance, but you need to keep it real in a way.
A Good Setting
When you’re writing an enemies to lovers story, you want to make sure that your setting is actually really good too. On top of interesting characters, your setting will play a big role in the formulation of your story. If you’re writing a romance story set in a fantasy world, you need to work on your setting so that the enemies to lovers is believable.
Why are the characters enemies? This probably plays a part in your setting too.
You can really get that down with world-building, which is something I focus a lot on in my blog posts. If you need help with your world-building, go check out my ultimate starter’s guide to world-building and then feel free to read around for the specific things you need!
The Enemy Backdrop
By this, I mean the “why” question. Why are your characters enemies? You need to make sure that this reason actually makes sense. So, if the characters are high school students, chances are… it’s not going to be something like bounty hunters or assassins or princesses and magical fairies or something like that.
Just consider your setting, your genre, and the tone of your story and go from there.
How to Write Your Enemies to Lovers Story!
1. Give the Readers the “Why”
When you want to show your readers that your characters are enemies, you should never just outright tell the readers why the characters are enemies. You will hear this said a lot in creative writing, but show, don’t tell. What this means is that you want the reader to come to the conclusion that these characters are enemies without you specifically and directly just telling them that they are enemies.
Show, don’t tell!
So, for instance, convey through character interactions, dialogue, and world-building why the two characters hate each other. Don’t tell me that “Joe hates Stacy.” No, show me why Joe would hate Stacy. Maybe they’re academic rivals. Maybe they play the same sport. Maybe they’re in a match competition. Whatever it is, actually show me these two characters hating each other without telling me that they do.
2. Build Tension
When you write romance, one thing you need to consider is the idea of romantic tension. Start planting a few of the seeds of why the characters might start noticing each other. For instance, maybe your princess notices that the dark prince from this other kingdom has really nice hair. Maybe your assassin keeps noticing how the lady-knight he’s sent to kill actually has a killer smile.
You have to start subtle though. Start like how a normal human would think. There’s not going to be anything crazy at this point, as your two characters are still technically supposed to be enemies.
You also have to push them to interact in some instances, or at least have them cross paths in some way. Obviously though, their encounters will not be very friendly or very nice, so you’ll need to take this into consideration.
3. Force Proximity
The turning point in a romance story for the writer to really begin delving into the romance part of the story is when the two characters are forced to be around each other. This can be for any reason, so long as it aligns with the rest of your story. For example, the princess’ carriage is sabotaged and the assassin happens to be nearby and saves her. This is something that would bring the two characters face-to-face and together for potentially a while.
Whatever the reason may be, it needs to be something that has longevity, as the two characters must now spend more time with each other in order to eventually fall in love.
4. Build the Romance
As the characters interact, they need to start trusting each other. Eventually, they must become loyal to each other or even potentially reliant on one another.
The way to build their romance is to showcase how they start to value each other and the safety of the other person. For the most part, this is done through things like putting them in potentially dangerous situations or having one character help mitigate a conflict with the other. Something of this nature can help to build more of the romance bridges that you’re looking to build.
5. Provide Obstacles to the Romance
One of the best ways to build more of the romance up is to curate obstacles for the characters to face. These obstacles will test their dedication to the relationship or the budding relationship. Typically, enemies to lovers presents in a slow-burn, so you don’t need to get the characters together early on–realistically speaking, you shouldn’t because they were technically enemies at the beginning.
The obstacles should serve the story and align with the plot while either bringing them together or pulling them apart for a period of time. What I would recommend against is the age-old “miscommunication” trope in romance stories. This conflict is typically very shallow and also very annoying to readers. Try to avoid it and think outside the box. Present a conflict that would entice readers to keep reading.
6. Declaration of Love
At this point, your characters have gone through everything together. By the end, they’re just so madly in love with the other person that it only makes sense that they get together.
Your readers are now excited because the romance has worked out, you’ve built a great story, and the characters are truly in love with one another.
Enjoy writing this scene. You’ve earned it. Make it as sweet or as dramatic or as awesome as you need it to be. This is the end-goal of the story, after all.
Conclusions
So, that’s how you write a good enemies to lovers story! This trope tends to be a very popular one because it typically involves two opposites coming together under bizarre or even impossible circumstances. But this sort of romance tends to feel much more rewarding for the reader to invest emotion into. That’s why so many people love it.
If you need help with other writing-related things, then check out my other guides for help! Also, check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga. Books 1 and 2 are currently available over on Amazon!