Characters

Every romance needs compelling characters that readers can root for - and “Hallmark-style” romances have specific expectations for their heroes and heroines. Your protagonists’ journeys aren’t about dramatic transformations, but about reconnecting with forgotten values and discovering new strengths.

In this lesson, we’ll explore how to craft memorable characters who can carry a holiday romance while staying true to the genre’s heartwarming spirit.

Main Character Foundations

Your protagonist needs three essential elements:

For example, instead of “a workaholic city lawyer,” create “a corporate lawyer who stress-bakes her grandmother’s recipes late at night while preparing cases.” This character’s talent for baking might unexpectedly connect her to a love interest or community need, while suggesting an emotional connection to family traditions she’s left behind.

Character Growth Arcs

For these romances, characters don’t need to completely transform—they need to reconnect with values they’ve forgotten or discover strengths they didn’t know they had. Your character’s journey might involve:

• Rediscovering a forgotten passion
• Learning to balance ambition with personal happiness
• Finding ways to blend their current life with hometown roots
• Understanding that their perceived weaknesses might be strengths

A common mistake is making your character’s starting point too negative. Your high-powered executive doesn’t need to be unhappy or mean—she might genuinely love her career but feel something’s missing. Your small-town artisan shouldn’t reject all modern ideas—he might embrace technology while cherishing traditional craftsmanship.

Crafting the Perfect Love Interest

The love interest isn’t just a prize to be won—they’re a fully realized character whose journey intertwines with the protagonist’s.

Essential Qualities: Your love interest should embody strength without aggression, confidence without arrogance, and sensitivity without weakness. They should be successful in ways that matter to the community rather than just financially.

Character Development: Like the protagonist, your love interest needs room to grow. Show them learning to trust in love again, discovering their perceived limitations are strengths, or have them understand overtime that success can look different to what they imagined.

The Connection: The attraction between your leads should focus on shared values and common goals, complementary strengths and weaknesses, and mutual respect that grows into deeper feelings.

Your Supporting Cast

Hallmark romances thrive on community interaction. Your supporting characters should each serve a specific purpose.

Mentors and Family Members

These characters offer wisdom through gentle guidance, anecdotes and past experiences, being a living representation of the plot’s central community value, or sharing stories that reveal local history.

Friends and Colleagues

These characters provide a different perspectives on the romance, practical help to move the plot forward, and connections between various story elements. Also, there’s no reason that a friend can’t also be a mentor.

Of course, every character should have a life beyond their role in your protagonist’s story. The chatty barista isn’t just there to dispense coffee and gossip—she might be taking online classes, training for a marathon, or teaching art to local kids. We don’t need to force this backstory onto our readers, but we should know every character is the hero of their own story.

The key to creating compelling Hallmark characters is balance. Characters should feel realistic enough to be relatable, but optimistic enough to be inspiring. They need flaws that create conflict, but not so many that they become unlikeable. Most importantly, they need to be people who can believably find love while bringing out the best in each other and their community.

Exercises (Choose One)

Exercise 1. Write the opening scene (1000 words) introducing your protagonist in a way that:

• Shows their current life
• Hints at their need for change
• Introduces a unique character trait
• Establishes their connection to community

Exercise 2. Lets use the December Monthly Muse as inspiration:

• Create a scene where your two protagonists meet for the first time.
• What would happen if the characters switched personalities?
• What would happen if they switched locations? I.e. your barista is now in a solicitors office. Do the dynamics between the characters change?