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Hi Ms Black, I was just hoping you could impart on me some of your brilliant writing advice. How do you believe one should go about making a supposed insta-love less insta-lovey? My main character falls in love, but by the end of the novel, you realize that it's not "meant to be" and it's just a school girl crush that takes a book to play itself out. (This is not a contemporary, by the way. It's a dark and twisty high fantasy.) Thank you so much, and happy writing!

At the first World Fantasy I ever went to, Gene Wolfe was the Guest of Honor and I remember him wisely saying that if you wanted to make a point, you had to come really close to making the opposite point.

So, if you’re tired of seeing insta-love and you want to write a book that argues against it, you have to hew pretty close to the structure you don’t like, giving us small hints that there’s something off about the relationship, until the moment you show us that that love was only a crush. I would also advise that you want a counterpoint relationship — whether it’s between the protagonist and another character or a separate relationship entirely, showing how you think enduring love progresses, so that you can compare and contrast them.

Hope that helps!