British novelist William Rayfet Hunter wrote his debut novel, Sunstruck, out now, while working as a doctor in an emergency room. “What I loved about working in medicine was the stories you’d hear and seeing life in a raw way,” they say. “I’d then synthesise some of that into my work.” Hunter writes as a way to understand both his own experiences and the world around him – they’re not afraid to explore race, status and identity within a love story. So, partnering with a real couple, Sam and Tony, for the No Ordinary Love anthology was well within their wheelhouse. No Ordinary Love is the second part of an anthology of modern romantic prose, challenging love story tropes and clichéd narratives by celebrating the differing perspectives and unexpected plot twists of real love. It features the stories of five real couples who met on Hinge, written by five fresh literary voices: Hunter Harris, Tomasz Jedrowski, Jen Winston, Upasna Barath and William Rayfet Hunter.

You can read Sam and Tony’s story now at no-ordinary-love.co. Ahead of the release, we spoke with Hunter about long-distance relationships, intention as the key ingredient to long-lasting love, starting with ‘hi’ and other lessons from working with a real Hinge couple throughout this process.

What’s a love story you wish you wrote and why?

William Rayfet Hunter: The one that springs to mind as one of the most gorgeous and weird love stories is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I love the movie and think the poetry of the premise – loving someone so much, but it being so bad for you that you try to forget it, only to endlessly and repeatedly fall back into it – is something relatable, at least to me. 

This isn’t your first time writing about love. Did starting with a real couple change your approach?

William Rayfet Hunter: Yeah, it really did. The nice thing about starting with a real couple is that you get to actually hear rather than imagine the beats of the story and the feelings that went along with it. Normally, when I write, and especially when I write about love, it’s all in this fantasy place where you're like, what would happen here? What would be interesting, exciting, fun or make good writing? With this, the facts were already there, and my job was to draw the story out of it. 

The story starts with Sam and Tony locking eyes across the room. Then, they reconnected on Hinge four years later. What makes an IRL-turned-digital connection a compelling starting point for a story?

William Rayfet Hunter: The most compelling part of this story is the gap between real life and the digital connection. You have this moment that has so much weight: you lock eyes with someone across the bar, but never see them again. And the most joyful part of this story is that, through Hinge, they get to have that moment again, but this time they get to properly connect, learn more about each other, and ultimately fall in love. It’s what you wish for when you see someone across the bar and think, ‘Maybe I’ll catch them online.’ Both Sam and Tony did have a moment where they both thought, ‘That seemed important, but I guess it wasn’t.’ Then they got the opportunity to connect, and the connection was real. It’s a lesson in trusting that instinct and trying to follow it. 

The story showcases two people’s perspectives on the same dating process. How did you get into the heads of both Sam and Tony?

William Rayfet Hunter: Sam and Tony are quite different. I think it's their similarities that made them connect, but it's their differences that make them work – and make them interesting, in my opinion. In talking to them, they both had really distinct voices and ways of describing the same thing. They would tell me the same story, but I could already see the different perspectives that I could write from it. When you’re one side of a couple falling in love, you don’t know what’s going on with the other person. All you have is what they say or how they’re acting, but you don’t have the internal stuff. It’s really nice to have both parts and see how the puzzle fits together.

Did your own perspective change at all on Sam and Tony’s relationship story or timeline throughout the process? 

William Rayfet Hunter: What changed for me was the idea of when this started. It works for the story to show the moment four years ago, then the first date, but from talking to them, they’re really just at the start. As I was writing it, I got the sense that they are so excited to be building this thing together. There is the story from before, but actually, the most important part of it is the now. They’ve got so much to come.

I have a habit of being a pessimist. I get totally in my own head, especially about relationships, and I catastrophise or go way too far into fantasy. Hearing Sam and Tony talk about their relationship and seeing their blend of optimism and realism was a lesson for me

I love that Tony’s opening line was just ‘Hi’. What’s your go-to opening line?

William Rayfet Hunter: I’m probably similar to Tony. I think there was a time in my early twenties when I tried a few chat-up lines or was trying to respond funnily, but it didn’t really get me anywhere. I think ‘hello’ is good. It’s classic.

The story unfolds over a long distance. How do you think Sam and Tony’s story adds to conversations around both online dating and long-distance dating today?

William Rayfet Hunter: There’s some interesting stuff in there because, especially with online dating, it’s all, in a way, long distance before you actually meet. You are in your house, alone, separated from them. You don’t know if there’s that connection in person. I guess Sam and Tony have taken the more extreme version of that: having to build the connection by only seeing each other monthly or less. But what really shone through in this story for me was their commitment to it. They found a compatibility, and they were really intentional about carving out the time to make that work. The key ingredient to building any relationship is being intentional.

Your upcoming book, Sunstruck, explores the parts of ourselves we risk losing when we fall in love. What do you think Sam and Tony stand to lose and gain? 

William Rayfet Hunter: What the book explores is when you’re in a relationship that feels like you can’t be your full self, and what you might try to hide in order to gain that safe feeling. I think the big contrast I found in Sam and Tony’s story and why it was so nice to write is that both of them, separately and together, were saying that they really feel that they absolutely can be themselves. A love like that allows you to be more yourself than you might be before when you’re on your own. That’s something they really stand to gain. Then I think something they’ll lose if this goes the mile and they end up in the same city is all of their air miles. What are they going to do?

What’s your favourite thing about writing about love? And your least favourite?

William Rayfet Hunter: I think I have the same answer to both. My favourite thing about writing in general is that I write to try to understand my own experiences in the world around me. When I write about love, it’s beautiful because I get to revisit old memories that were good and work on exploring the bits that were bad. It helps me process. The flip side is that you have to get back into it. You have to take your heart and mind back to a place that might not have been enjoyable or might have been painful.

Did you learn anything new about your approach to relationships while writing Sam & Tony’s story? 

William Rayfet Hunter: It did. I have a habit of being a pessimist. I get totally in my own head, especially about relationships, and I catastrophise or go way too far into fantasy. Hearing Sam and Tony talk about their relationship and seeing their blend of optimism and realism was a lesson for me. They’re like, ‘Yeah, this is amazing and this person is fantastic, but there are all these hurdles to overcome.’ Finding what works and what doesn’t in a practical sense helps balance the emotions and fantasy of falling in love.