Love is a complex emotion. Some researchers say that it’s a primary emotion like happiness and anger, while others believe that it is an emotional reaction to specific life events or situations.
When it comes to romantic love, many writers struggle with describing the intense feeling without sounding melodramatic or cliché. They might use terms such as awe, smitten, crushing and soul mate to try to capture the intensity of the emotion. But these words may be misleading to the reader.
Rather than telling the reader about your character’s love, it might be better to show them. The reader will be more immersed in the story and have a deeper connection to the characters if they are shown how their emotions are displayed. Showing their flaws and imperfections can also be an effective way to convey their feelings of love.
People who prefer the “acts of service” love language want to see your actions to know you care about them. They appreciate gestures that make their lives easier, such as bringing them medicine or soup when they are sick, taking out the trash or cooking dinner. They also like compliments, words of affirmation and reminders that they are special to you.
Some people have a mixture of the three love styles; this was referred to by Lee as mania, pragma and agape. Manic love is the intense feelings you get when first falling in love, pragma is making sensible relationship choices and agape is self-sacrificing love.