Immediate Lover-Coding in Enemies-to-Lovers Stories
When the Enemy is Too Hot to be a threat.
Immediate Lover-Coding in Enemies To Lovers
Hello, and welcome to my first substack! It’s so nice to be here. Thank you, thank you. No, no, please sit! 💝
Today, I have Thoughts™ about the practice of establishing the Enemy in enemies-to-lovers stories as the Future Lover from the very first instant we meet them on page.
If you're not sure what "romance coding" is, it's the act of writing a character in such a way as to signal to the reader that they have the potential to become a romantic interest of the protagonist, or that they are a romantic interest behind the scenes, before we really see any concrete proof of said romance.
I think I might be coining the term “lover-coding”, which is very similar, only it’s a little more specific because of the particular context I’m talking about today.
Lover-coding is writing a character in such a way as to signal to the reader that this character is going to be the romantic interest of the protagonist, before we get anywhere near anything even hinting at romantic feelings or possibilities in-narrative.
Romance-coding and lover-coding can be effective tools, and often are. They’re a kind of promise the writer makes to readers: Here is the story you're going to get. Here is the relationship you’re going to see unfold. Writer or reader, you're promising or being promised a particular foundational part of the story. And in enemies-to-lovers stories, isn’t that just so hook-y? How could these enemies possibly become lovers?
These two types of coding can be done in many ways, and one of the ways I see it done most is by establishing a character’s existence in the text (AKA the very first time they appear) through their body parts, such as muscles, sharp jawline—all things either conventionally attractive or obviously attractive to the protagonist, and that the protagonist didn’t notice in other characters. They might notice and describe the Future Lover’s voice in more detail than other characters, too, as another example.
Now, attraction can and does involve noticing, but there are some ways in which this may not serve the story in the most beneficial way. Insert my customary “all opinions are my own, and they’re subjective” and “there are no writing rules, only writing suggestions and tools” here. I’m not advocating for no lover- coding in enemies-to-lovers, because that’s prescriptive and helps nobody. I think there are plenty of contexts and premises and stories that would both allow for and benefit from it.
There are 4 main reasons why I might find immediate lover-coding the Enemy in enemies-to-lovers premises to be ineffective:
If the Enemy is lover-coded from the beginning, then I might not take the "threat" of the Enemy seriously going forward.
Don’t get me wrong—this is sometimes done intentionally, and to great effect. It can be shocking to see someone so pretty and attractive turn out to be the opposite of what the protagonist would ever look for in a lover. I just rarely like it! As readers, we’re likely to be at least somewhat aligned with the protagonist’s view or interpretation of events and people, so if we’re immediately told to look at the Enemy through a potentially romantic (or future partnership) lens, their missteps and enemy-like behaviour can feel less serious and threatening, which…
Can weaken the tension in plots where we’re told the Enemy poses a real physical danger to the protagonist.
You tell me they’re an Enemy, then undercut that with “but don’t worry, they’ll be lovers!”, and it runs the risk of making any threats seem shallow, empty, and pointless, because we already know the Enemy isn’t going to jeopardise the future relationship by killing or harming the protagonist. Their relationship has been promised to us already.
Sometimes it’s about the journey and not the destination. I get that, and I agree with it. However…
In some cases, it can feel like the lover-coding leads to forgetting to actually endear the Enemy to us, or redeem them and resolve any issues that arose from their enemy-ship in the first place.
If the Enemy is doing real, hard-core enemy things™, there needs to be a real arc, repentance, redemption, and or resolution to that before I can buy into and invest in the romance. And even if there aren’t any hard-core enemy things™, we still need to see some real reasons why the Lovers would, well, begin Lovering. Attraction alone doesn’t cut it for me, nor does it serve as a reason to forgive or not acknowledge wrong-doings, boundary-crossing, and other disrespectful actions.
Lover-coding can feel melodramatic, or misaligned in tone.
I’m not going to quote examples, but I’m curious to know if anyone else will find what I found in their own books—ones you’ve written or read. I encourage you to go back and see if your favourite enemies-to-lovers books do this: describe the Enemy in such specific detail and have the protagonist react to it in a way that’s almost (or is) over-the-top. I’m talking muscles, jawline, the curve of his pecks, all of which make the protagonist’s breath hitch and their heart grow three sizes in their chest, just like in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (2000). I’m talking mouth goes dry, all language gone except small word, no talk only gawk, wow so hot. Awooga.
Oftentimes these descriptions take me out of the book because the scene is suddenly playing like a slow-motion anime pan-up, with romantic background music and literal sparkles in the Enemy’s eyes. Also, the protagonist is suffering a nosebleed from witnessing their sheer appeal.
If everything else in the narration is dark and gritty, and suddenly we’re gawking over a super hot person, the shift in narrative tone and voice can feel jarring and melodramatic, because it really emphasises the Lover-to-be.
That being said, I’ll reiterate what I wrote earlier: lover-coding can be an effective tool, this Thought is just a small exploration on things that don’t work for me as a reader and writer.
Tell me: do you employ romance or lover-coding in your works? Do you mind seeing it in the books you read? I’m curious to hear your Thoughts™ too!