Tuesday, March 29, 2011

When Hate Turns to Love


I'm working on the synopsis for a new story, one that's been rattling around my head for a while. This story isn't a romantic suspense, the genre I've been sticking to for the last year. The new book will be an uber hot contemporary romance in which the hero and heroine go from hating each other in the beginning to being in love by the end.

I've read many of those hate to love stories and I got to thinking about why that trope is seen so often. I don't know how often such a scenario plays out in real life, but it actually makes sense to me that it would. Why? Hate is a strong emotion. We can hate someone for perpetrating a heinous crime or doing something equally reprehensible. But sometimes a person might feel hatred for a competitor or a person with an opposing viewpoint. Those strong feelings can be harnessed and mixed with a bit of attraction to swing to the other side of the scale.

Such is the case in my Work in Progress. But that switch doesn't just happen. The hated one must act heroically or selflessly or do something to prove they are worthy of powerful emotions, but not hatred. It's true what they say. Love and hate are very close.


Do you buy it when you see two characters make the switch from hate to love?

6 comments:

Kaylea Cross said...

Oooh, the sparks are going to be flying! I buy the transition if the circumstances are right. And I know you'll portray it in a way that sucks us all in.

Wynter said...

Thanks for your confidence!

Chudney Thomas said...

Love, hate is a tricky to pull off and when an author manages to convince me that the switch has happened I cheer.

Wynter said...

I hope you'll be cheering for my attempt at this;-)

KC Burn said...

Well, I hope it works, because I've got a hate to love story brewing, too! Honestly, though, I think it works in fiction, because it's easier to see the hate might be based in attraction or something the characters are uncomfortable feeling... which manifests as hate. In real life... if I hate someone (which is rare) there's no way that's gonna change :)

Wynter said...

Yeah - doesn't usually work in real life.

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