How to Uncover Your Main Character’s Deepest Desire: A Romance Writer’s Guide
If you’re struggling to figure out what your main character truly wants beneath the surface, you’re not alone. Every compelling romance novel hinges on one thing: a deep emotional desire that drives every decision, conflict, and black moment.
If there’s one book that is the penultimate Jessica Lemmon experience, it has to be The Billionaire Bachelor.
In thinking back to the start of the Billionaire Bad Boys series, I often remember the details with a lot of fuzzy warmth… and without a lot of clarity. Like when someone passes away and you only remember the good things about them, I sometimes forget what Reese Crane put me through during the writing process of this book.
At the time, I knew his surface goal. He wanted control. He wanted power. He wanted to secure his role as CEO. But those are plot-level motivations. They are not his deepest desires. If you’ve ever struggled with writing alpha heroes who mask vulnerability with power, I share more about that here.
While peeling back the layers of our tough billionaire hotelier, I could not figure out his real issue. Why wouldn’t he stay in his marriage of convenience with Merina? She’s vulnerable and strong, beautiful and smart. I was half in love with her myself by the time I was winding down to the black moment!
This is where many writers get stuck. We know the trope. We know the setup. But we haven’t yet uncovered the hidden wound beneath the armor.
To help me figure out what made Reese tick, I employed the help of a Marcel Proust questionnaire ( I’ll give you the opportunity to download for free at the bottom of this page if you find yourself in the throes with your own problematic hero!). If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a grouping of questions like “What is your greatest happiness?” and “What is your greatest fear?” I printed out these questions, gave myself some room to write, and interviewed Reese Crane.
Interviewing your character forces them to reveal the belief system driving their behavior. Often, their deepest desire is hidden behind fear, pride, or past humiliation.
Once I hacked my way through the overgrown forest of his soul, I arrived at exactly what made him tick, and what was behind that stone-cold facade. I was able to unearth the man and have him be completely honest with the woman he’d married.
What I discovered was this: His contract marriage wasn’t about business. It was about protection.
Here is a mini excerpt from that heartbreaking black moment:
“Why don’t you trust me? I’m sleeping with you for God’s sake…” Then she laughed, a humorless sound, and added, “Not that sex means anything to you.”
His expression went from angry to borderline hurt.
“Silly me to have thought things changed since the night at your father’s. Since the night in your office. Since—”
“I’m broken, Merina! Okay? Is that what you want to hear?” Reese was shouting but the hurt still brimmed in his dark blue eyes.
It took her a moment to digest those words. The truest words he’d ever said.
“Yes. I do want to hear it. I want to know.”
“You want to know,” he repeated with a grunt. “There is a reason I had to draw up a contract to force someone to marry me for show. I’m not equipped to do it for real.”
She blinked, half stunned he admitted as much and half disappointed he couldn’t see how wrong he was. Couldn’t he see what they had was so much more than a “contract”?
“That’s not true—” she started.
“It’s true,” he clipped. “After Gwyneth, I vowed never to stay at this house. She made me look like a grade A jackass. Humiliated me in front of my father, my coworkers, and anyone who suspected she’d dropped me for Hayes. It’s not an easy thing to recover from.”
“Reese—”
“Have you forgotten the purpose of that ring being on your hand?” He stalked over to her and captured her wrist. Her blood iced at his frigid tone.
“The deal was my being appointed to CEO in exchange for not tearing your family’s hotel to the studs. It never included more.”
First books in a series are always the most challenging to write. You have to build an entire world—a family of brothers and a father, in this case, as well as the backdrop of Crane Hotels. There were a million decisions to be made! And then I had chosen a modern-day marriage of convenience, which I had never attempted before. The trope was both exciting and challenging. (Funny how those two things often go together.)
Marriage of convenience stories only work when the emotional stakes are stronger than the contract. That means the hero’s deepest desire must directly collide with his greatest fear. (If you’re outlining your novel and want a bigger structural framework, this simple novel writing outline can help.)
By the end of this book I was drained, elated, and praying that I’d done Reese and Merina justice. Judging by years of reader feedback, I know now that my editor and I freaking nailed it. 😊
For writers, the takeaway is this: when you identify your character’s deepest desire, your black moment writes itself. The conflict sharpens. The dialogue cuts deeper. The resolution feels earned.
The Billionaire Bachelor had a cover hiccup, but the end result was beyond perfection. Grand Central/Forever did an absolutely beautiful job with this series all around. Then I heard the audiobook and was blown away. The narrator, Sasha Dunbrooke breathed life into all of my characters and I was thrilled when I learned she’d be narrating the entire series.
This book also earned me my first great Publishers Weekly quote!
“…Lemmon hits the right emotional buttons with this lavish, indulgence-fueled romance.”
Years later, The Billionaire Bachelor and its brethren have landed adaptations in animated game form on Chapters Interactive. The best part about the game was that it put Reese and Merina onto new readers’ radar.
This was also the book that birthed my tagline: Billionaires and Bad Boys.
It’s been a wild ride with the Crane family and I’m thrilled whenever new eyeballs finds these books. I’m incredibly proud of them, and specifically of Reese, who worked as hard as I did to tell his truth on the pages of The Billionaire Bachelor.