Ruby Dixon is an author of all things science fiction and fantasy romance. She is a Sagittarius and a Reylo shipper, and loves farming sims (but not actual housework). She lives in the South with her husband and a couple of goofy cats, and can’t think of anything else to put in her biography. Truly, she is boring.

So you want to write monster romance. Welcome to the Dark Side! Just kidding, it’s not all that dark. This is more the side of the people that fell in love with Edward Scissorhands. Or the ones that thought Sarah should have been a little more flattered by Jareth’s attention in Labyrinth. Or those that were disappointed in Beauty and the Beast when the Beast turned into a regular Chad and didn’t stay the beast. Monster romances are for you.
Which is great! Welcome! If you’re not sure how to begin building your monstrous character, allow me to share a tips from my side.

(Note that for the purposes of this particular article, I’m going to be referring to things from a cis point of view. Not that you can’t write LGBTQIA+ monsters – you totally can! Gender is simply a construct! But for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to refer to ‘hero’ and ‘heroine’ as the traditional main characters.)

He should be monstrous on the outside, not the inside.

The first rule of romance is that your hero should be a person that your heroine will want to fall in love with. One of the big reasons that I feel that monster romance appeals to readers is because we’re looking past the packaging to see the person underneath. There are enough bad people in reality and a monster romance provides an escape before anything else. Think of this as a fantasy story – only instead of Narnia or Terrasen, your fantasy starts with the hero. In most of my books, the hero looks wildly different from the heroine. Sometimes he’s hideous. Sometimes he’s built completely different than her. Sometimes he’s a minotaur (we listen and we don’t judge). The common denominator despite their wild appearances is that the hero cares deeply for the heroine and won’t do anything to harm her. He can be an absolute beast to everyone else, but he’s the heroine’s safe space and treats her like she’s gold. You want to reassure the reader that even if he’s got venomous fangs and fearsome claws, they’re never going to be used on the heroine.

Just how monstrous do you want to go?

There’s no limit to how monstrous you want to make your hero. Again, it’s the personality that matters, and the person underneath. One of my most popular heroes, Crulden the Ruiner from Bad Guy is described as hideous and unpleasant to look at. He’s got tusks and spikes and fur and all kinds of strangeness. Readers loved how he treated the heroine and that’s what won them over. Monster readers love the strange, and you can’t go ‘too weird’ on them. In fact, they’ll probably be disappointed if you only give him a cute little tail and nothing else and call him a monster. Embrace the monstrosity.

(You will also be asked about his equipment. It’s just a thing with monster romance. Readers assume that because he’s not what we perceive as a ‘normal’ hero that he’s going to be slightly different everywhere. Get creative! I’m not telling you to give him a barbed hydra below the belt, but I am saying that there’s probably going to be some disappointment if they unwrap the package and he’s got a vanilla dick.)

Monsters don’t exist in a bubble.

Now that you’ve sketched out your idea of your monstrous hero, you need to consider the world around him. How do monsters fit into the world itself? You might be thinking that you don’t want to worldbuild an entire fantasy setting. You’ll just put your gargoyle hero into the modern world and voila! But…you can’t. Even with a ‘regular’ setting, you need to consider things. How would a gargoyle fit in? Are they ‘out’ in the world and everyone knows about them? Are they a secret? Do they work at Burger King alongside humans or are there gargoyle drive-thrus (fly-thrus?)  that cater to winged patrons? Are there different rules for gargoyles than there are for humans? Brainstorm how the world around him has been affected by the existence of his kind and how he’s perceived by the ‘normal’ humans around him to flesh out your story.

Just because he’s a monster doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a personality.

This is perhaps the most important part of building your monster hero (well, that and the non-vanilla equipment)! His personality isn’t ‘minotaur’ or ‘gargoyle’. Like any other romance hero, he needs to have his own fully-fleshed persona, his own likes and dislikes, speech mannerisms, and style. You’ve crafted his outside, but remember that the inside is just as important. Take for example, my book Bull Moon Rising. My minotaur hero (called a Taurian) Hawk is a gruff, jaded teacher who has no patience for my heroine’s wide-eyed enthusiasm. He’s the Ron Swanson to her Leslie Knope. For the standalone sequel, By the Horns, we see another minotaur hero, but this one has a wildly different personality. Raptor is an easygoing flirt, but has a life full of secrets that complicate his world. Two minotaurs, same setting, very different personalities. Readers will want to feel that your hero is a fully-fleshed out person underneath the wings and hooves (or whatever you give him).

That should get you started! The thing to remember the most is that monster romance is above all, a fun genre. Don’t concern yourself too much with the straight and narrow – let your imagination run wild. Readers love to be surprised by a hero they didn’t expect to fall in love with…but you have to be in love with him first!

Have fun!

– Ruby Dixon

By the Horns by Ruby Dixon

Gwenna just wants a steady job with the Royal Artifactual Guild—not to mention enough coin to send home to her mother. She’s an ordinary woman, definitely not a necromancer, no matter what the ghosts whispering in her ear might suggest. But when a flirty Taurian named Raptor—her one-time fling—accuses her of being the artifact thief he’s hunting, Gwenna’s dreams of a quiet life start to unravel. Now she must clear her name, hide her dangerous secret, and figure out how to handle the infuriating man who won’t stop getting under her skin.

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