: I want to make two of my characters fall in love My story is about two gang leaders. The female is the leader of the largest gang in the country. The guy is the leader of the 2nd-largest.

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The best advice I ever heard on how to write characters falling in love, is to make each the characters two people who fit each other's deepest needs.

So, I'm assuming that you already know who your character is. What are his strengths? What makes him stand out as a character? What are his weaknesses; his fears, his needs?

Now shape a woman who will supply his needs, and whose needs she can supply.

For example, let's say your character grew up in a broken home. His father walked out on him when he was quite young, promising to come back but never did. His mother disappeared into a bottle. He was mostly raised by an aunt who later died. He learned the lesson that people lie to you and leave you and you can't trust them.

Now you create a woman who is loyal to a fault. Demonstrate this with a situation where she is fiercely loyal to someone who doesn't deserve her loyalty. Because we know his background, we can see why he would fall for her.

Now ask yourself; what is her need? Maybe she has a bunch of shiftless relatives who use her and constantly borrow from her and see her only as a source of income. And they take her for granted. She needs a man who doesn't need anything from her financially, and one who will not take her for granted. She also needs someone to rescue her from her situation.

Once you set up these elements, the romance can take place organically. Because they are such a good fit for each other, it will feel completely natural when they fall in love.

People from dysfunctional backgrounds often make choices which perpetuate their situations. It would make sense that in the past she has fallen in love with men like her relatives. Men who need to be rescued, who are needy. Each time, those men have failed her because she eventually came to realize that they didn't love her, only what she could do for them. Your hero can be different. All he has to do is prove in some way that he is not like the other men, and that he will put her welfare over his own (which is a thing the other men never did)

Experiment with different character traits and combinations until you find one that fits. And then have fun watching the characters write the story themselves :)

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The first thing I'd like to point out is your question: how do I make the girl fall in love? In my opinion, the question should be more along the lines of "how do I make these two characters work together at all?" It's almost always best to see the characters as friends before you see them as companions.

The best advice I can give to you now is to write a scene with these two characters in a "demo" setting, if you will -- focusing less on their past experiences and seeing how the moment at hand affects both of them because that's how relationships work in real life. Understand how the perspective would help, as well -- even if you're going for an omniscient voice; there's always a lot more to your date than they may seem at first glance and your scene with the two of them should reflect this. Complex characters always seem simple at first, but gradually unfold to reveal the layers underneath -- and thus, their relationship should unfold the same way.

Finally, ask yourself: what are her weaknesses -- the ones she still has, but thought she's patched up by now? Moreover, what about herself has she completely overlooked in the times she's spent with her past lovers?

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