: Re: Lovesick Character Distracting Readers How do you show that a character is suffering from lovesickness in a story plot, but not distract the reader from the actual main plot of the story?

I feel like this question is two fold - you're asking about how to write a pining character, and about how to make it non distracting.

There's always someone who's going to be distracted by an element of a story, maybe because they really like it, maybe because they really hate it. I usually just try to spend less 'screen time' on things that I want to mention but I don't want readers to focus on. I also try not to make it too powerful. A random side character's crush could be a funny inside joke, but a random side character's deep attraction to their very best friend, revealed only after one of the pair is dead... that's going to stick in a reader's head a bit more.

One example is from the Heroes of Olympus series. Think of the way Nico's crush on Percy is treated in House of Hades (iirc) - it's major, a big deal, and the characters focus on it for a whole chapter. In Blood Of Olympus, it's mostly just a line or two being thrown around, an inside joke for Nico and Jason.

The more emotionally charged your writing about the crush is, the more distracting it'll be for readers.

Now, about writing the actual pining. Depending on how subtle you want it to be, you could have the character think about them all the time. Maybe if they see their crush's favourite thing, or smell their perfume. Maybe it's even more subtle, just comparing every person they meet to the crush, and finding that none of them match up. Their body language would also be different - more embarrassed around the crush, probably, but that depends on the character. Some people might go the "I'm pulling your hair because I like you" route. Tropes about behaviour from Japanese media like tsunderes and yanderes might come in handy as well. It's helpful to read a lot of (good) stories about crushes to see what else you can do.

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: Re: Lovesick Character Distracting Readers How do you show that a character is suffering from lovesickness in a story plot, but not distract the reader from the actual main plot of the story?

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: Characters based on Real People I am interested in writing a story about real life events, but changing it in such a way to make it a fiction novel. Question is, do I need permission from

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