In my novel I have my main character who is quite young, twelve, who is attracted to a girl his age. I want to make it obvious to the reader that he likes her. It's first person and so everything I write has to be put into his language. I obviously can't say "I liked her because of..." Because he is twelve, most people their age won't admit they like someone. So I am wondering how you guys would approach this. It's a huge part of the novel so I want some extra opinions. Thanks in advance, Kingzilla
Why not show he likes through his actions and his body language around her? I don't know about being 12 and not admitting they 'like' someone thing. I still remember my crush when I was 12 and he admitted it to me outright. It depends on the person's personality, not really...the age. Anyway, on to body language. Maybe he'd blush around her, stutter or his skin would start feeling prickly. You know, the basic reactions of having a crush. (Butterflies in stomach and all that fluff lol) I think that's how to make it obvious he likes her without him outright stating it. I hope this helped.
I remember when I was 12 and whenever my crush was around, energy would shoot up my spine and suddenly I wouldn't be the shyest kid in the world. I purposely acted goofy and tried acting cool around her and my eyes were fixed to my peripheral vision where she would be at. What I also did, which was incredibly stupid, embarrassing, and foolish, was I teased her a lot to the point she hated me (good thing I learned early). And I was attentive to her every word. Those were the days.
Remember the agony of that first crush, how you felt like you'd explode, but your brain turned to mush and your tongue to wood whenever you had a moment's chance to say something to her. Remember the frustration of there always being other people around when you wanted to speak to her alone. Remember how you felt you could fly when she smiled in your direction, even for a moment.
Gets jealous whenever any guy tries to talk to her. Stares at her face absent mindedly for long periods of time. Hears a love song in his head every time she walks by. Heart beats really fast. That's just a few. TBH at twelve, myself and everyone I knew were already talking about sex and looking at dirty movies. What year is this kid born in?
Yes, I won't do this either, not because he is twelve and can't think/say/admit like that, but because it is the most boring way of writing that a boy likes a girl. Usually a 12 year boy in love is totally smitten by the girl and may do things which you never expect a boy would do, like playing whatever games that she plays as a girl. He might also notice her clothes, her hair etc No, he isn't turning gay, but he wants to be near her, and he is observing her closely, all indications of his love for her. He won't even mind being used as a slave by other boys/girls whom he thinks will bring her closer to him.
He might try to impress her through his personal grooming. When I was twelve, I didn't care what my clothes looked like or whether my hair was greasy, but when I got my first crush, you damn well bet I started taking a lot better care of myself. I dressed better, of course, and made sure my clothes were clean and neat. I made sure my hair was freshly washed and trimmed. I even tried borrowing a bit of my dad's aftershave lotion, though I used way too much of it and embarrassed myself.
I remember creating a painting for a girl I liked, and walking 5 miles with it to drop it off at her place. (I didn't have a driver's license, and there is no public transportation in the country).
If the story is written in first-person perspective then you really have free reign on how you want to display or not display his affections. As many of the posts above suggested, you can do this through body language (smiling, blushing), through dialogue (getting tongue-tied) or through his thoughts. Whether or not your MC will admit his thoughts out loud, you can sure as hell bet he's thinking them... also twelve is around the age that puberty kicks in. He could have some... embarrassing moments. It's all about how you want to write it. He doesn't have to tell the world about his crush but if you write it well, the audience won't need to even be told about it. We'll already know.
Describe her appearance in more detail than other characters - that hints that he's paying more attention to how she looks.
