What makes a good love story good? Must it have ripped bodices and damsels in distress? Must it have mysterious men brooding for their one lost love? Or is it something else entirely?

Who better to ask than the writers who bring us stories that touch our hearts and move us to tears? Students and Campuses Bulletin posed the question “What makes a love story good for you?” to find out what it is that rock our world and make our hearts beat a little bit faster.

“There are several elements I watch out for in a love story. Character is on top of the list. I want characters that are strong and complex, meaning they feel like real people. I want them unique, with quirks, with flaws, as well as charm. I also like conflict. There must be tension in the love story; it can’t be an easy situation; there’s got to be twists and turns before they are together.

Setting is also something I watch out for. I want to be taken far away someplace different from my day-to-day environment. This makes the reading of the love story feel like a mini-vacation.” – CECILIA MANGUERRA BRAINARD, author of “Growing Up Filipino,’’ “Behind the Walls’’ “When the Rainbow Goddess Wept,’’ “Cecilia’s Diary’’ and “Fundamentals of Creative Writing,’’ among others.

“The best love story I’ve heard was about a bird who was madly in love with a fish; and the bird would say to the fish, ‘How unfortunate, me in the wind and you in the wave!’ And the fish would answer, ‘What luck for both of us, this way we will always be in love because we will always be separated.’ That’s the kind of story that tugs at your heart and makes you breath hard with deep emotions.” – JUN BALDE, author of “60zens: A Guide to Senior Citizenship’’

“One of the most heartbreaking love stories I have ever read did not have any conflict, drama, or romance. ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ touched my heart so deeply, it is one of the reasons I decided to write for children. I think a good love story for children involves the elements of innocence and sincerity, and the pain that comes with having to grow up.

There is the message that love is simultaneously permanent and ephemeral, just like childhood. My book ‘Spinning’ is about the different expressions of love and understanding between a little girl and her Kuya with autism.” – IRENE SARMIENTO, author of “Spinning,’’ a children’s story about a child with autism.

“As long as it pulls the heart strings, it’s a good love story.” –KARLA DELGADO, short story writer and essayist whose works have appeared in Fast Food Fiction, The Baguio We Knew and Connecting Flights.

“When I write, I can’t shake off the fact that life is actually with not much drama, it builds up slowly, quietly — a reality quite outside the stage. True love stays on the wings, sometimes not there when needed, yet in a quiet way is hardly ever letting go. It arises in a non-dramatic way, slips in, hangs on. Love is friendship, like a room that’s there but not quite fixed.

A novel like Anne Lamott’s Blue Shoe would not be much welcomed with bells ringing but it smells of real life, and it speaks of love, perhaps love.” –ERMA CUIZON, writer and editor of the anthology “Cebu We Know.’’

“Any ‘love story’ is my love story too. I feel happy reading most ‘love stories’. A ‘love story’ inspires me to live happily because it also reflect my feeling of being in love. It’s just wonderful to live in this world loving and being loved!” –MARIVIC AC AC, educator and author of Principles of Marketing.