I currently working on a mystery/thriller-ish kind of novel. I want to introduce a love interest, my character was involved in an accident and has isolated himself from the people who care about him since so i want to add a love interest so my character can develop through the story as he begins to open up more about the trauma he has experienced. I wasn't sure how to introduce the love interest though so I was thinking about them meeting in a bar because my MC drinks quite a lot. I s that a bit too cliched? Any other suggestions? Thanks Wolfmaster.
It sounds like he's avoiding others, or at least people that he would have to make a significant connection with, so maybe have them meet in a context that seems to preclude romance. As they share this and that, the chemistry becomes more palpable as he begins to think she accepts him and that his losses don't repulse her. Any personal growth from that could be parallel to advances in his investigation.
I see no reason why this would be a problem. You say yourself that the character drinks a lot. People who drink go to bars. Women go to bars. Women and men who drink meet in bars. Seems perfectly logical that this would happen. Sounds like he wouldn't be at a nightclub, but there are plenty of different kinds of bars. As for cliché, meh, I'm not a fan of that word. Real life has clichés and tropes. If you want your story to be true to life, sometimes you have to include them. There's nothing wrong with that. Just write it well.
A mystery novel, eh? How about having him go undercover to gather intel, only to find himself in love with the person he was sent to spy on. A possible plot twist would be his love interest knowing about this and using his trust to reveal his own secrets, adding an element of irony to the plot.
I think location is one part, but you got to think of a situation as well. If you MC is withdrawn, drinking ad avoiding others, being open to new people in a social location seems out of character. You could add some form of tense situation in which he ends up play a part, creating common ground / interaction with the love interest in someway that he did not plan
Thanks for the input guys. I definitely am going try and work at making her more important to the central plot.
