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[romanceandshenanigans]

[romanceandshenanigans]

Writing ROMANTIC TENSION!

When you're writing romance, you need to have TENSION. Your characters need to pull your readers into the story with not just their dialogues, but also their chemistry. What is tension, you ask? It's quite simple. When two people are attracted to each other, or like each other, or are in love with each other, it causes a certain shift in the air. When these two people come together, they seem to outshine everyone else in the room and make it just about themselves (in a good way ofc). This shift in the air which hooks you into the scene is called tension. The chemistry that your main characters carry, will infact carry the whole story --- if you're writing romance, i.e.

How do you write this romantic tension? Well, as someone who's been writing romance for 4 years now, here's a few things I do to show the chemistry between my characters.

Show, don't tell: This is probably the most common advice you'll ever receive. And spoiler alert: IT IS TRUE. Any scene that includes an emotion will require you to show it, visualise it for the crowd instead of just writing it down. Romance, love, is a sensitive emotion. The readers need to SEE it happening, instead of just reading about it. Eye contact, long stares, switching their gaze from the eyes to the lips & back to the eyes, coming close for a few seconds, banter-turned-flirting are some ways you can show the chemistry.

Intimacy is key: Proximity. Closeness. Coming together. Put your characters in situations where they have to work together. Show their differences/similarities in handling tasks and make them argue or slightly quarrel if there's any differences and show them rejoicing if there's an agreement. Intimacy lies in more than just the body, bring out a quality in your characters, preferably a good one, in your characters when they're together. Make that quality their strong suit that drives them closer.

Words are sexy: Dialogues can create tension better than anything else (in my opinion). Notice how every time your ships/pairings are bantering, one of them ends up saying something sexual or romantic in a frisky way and we end up blushing like crazy? Yep, that's the goal. We absolutely love it when the guy says "oh yeah?" or ends up calling the girl a cute nickname while bantering. Dialogues can reach out to readers in a more personal way because they are the direct interactions between your characters. Make your OTP interact and have fun (pun intended!)

Add restraint: Sometimes, when the characters are almost about to kiss and someone interrupts them, we feel like throwing the book away. But at the same time, we want more because we want to see our characters kiss, or confess, or even get down dirty ;). You have put your characters in each other's close proximities, given them a driving force and added a razzle-dazzle with the dialogues and flirting! Yet, something is missing and the romance feels too....predictable? Put a constraint. This is especially important for slowburns. Personally, I love me a slowburn - it creates higher tension, emphasises on a foundation between characters and makes the kiss/confession/sex even more hot (again, my opinion). I suggest, a hint of a barrier won't do any harm. When you've reached the level of tension where it's normal for your characters to kiss or make-out, your readers are more focused than ever. Adding a restraint will make them crave the romance more and hence, stay hooked into the story. HOWEVER, DON'T STALL THE PROJECT. Just because your characters got interrupted in chapter 7 doesn't mean they can't kiss till chapter 15 or something. If they don't kiss in this chapter, they kiss after maybe 2-3 more chapters. You want to delay the romance only by a tad bit, so that your readers are still interested.

That's all I have for today! I hope these help you guys! - ashlee.

[romanceandshenanigans]

the random notes not showing up properly is so scary. if we can’t trust the activity feed who can we trust at all. how many mutuals have i ignored. how many silent cries have been lost to the abyss

[romanceandshenanigans]

Send Me a 🔥+ a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It

topics can be about a character, relationship, show, season, episode, movie, books…whatever you want! 

[romanceandshenanigans]

You need to draw and make art or else all the images will stay in your head and you'll get sick

[romanceandshenanigans]

TODAY IS PUNCTUATION DAY

If there's enough interest or if Other wins the majority I'll do a punctuation mark bracket!

[romanceandshenanigans]

Yeeey! You're one of my favorite mutuals and I hope this hug finds you well! I love your updates on your wip, it's such a joy to know you're moving on with the plot and I'm always looking forward to the next snippet. Thanks! ;)

Send this to all the people who you think deserve a hug. Let the hugging begin! ♥

(I was supposed to send hugs, but I put a personal message in it, don't copy the first part XD)

Thank you! Reading this genuinely made my day. I'm sending virtual hugs your way as well.

[romanceandshenanigans]

❤️‍🔥( can't find my fire emoji) what do you think about fanfiction

I adore it! God knows I've written enough of it over the years. It's great training ground for young writers and honestly just a fun hobby. A genuine net good for the world as far as I'm concerned.

Send Me a 🔥+ a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It

[romanceandshenanigans]

ME LISTENING TO MUSIC AND IMAGINING MY SILLY LITTLE GUYS IN THE SADDEST SITUATIONS POSSIBLE

[romanceandshenanigans]

something i wish i had realized earlier: you can write poems on the same subject more than once. you can write, paint, draw the same thing over and over if you want to. you can spend your whole life making art about oranges. i think i always felt this pressure to get it right the first time like i couldn’t go back and use that inspiration again. but you can. you can go back and revisit it. you can pick up the conversation again and again if you have more to say.

[romanceandshenanigans]

Reblog if you will answer LITERALLY ANY anon questions.

BRING IT ON

challenge accepted 

[romanceandshenanigans]

Send Me a 🔥+ a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It

topics can be about a character, relationship, show, season, episode, movie, books…whatever you want! 

[romanceandshenanigans]

This is a friendly reminder to never, ever publish your book with a publishing company that charges you to publish with them. That is a vanity press, which makes money by preying on authors. They charge you for editing, formatting, cover art, and more. With most of these companies, you will never seen a cent of any royalties made from sale of your book. A legitimate publishing company only makes money when you make money, they will never charge you to publish with them. If a company approaches you and says "Hey, we'll publish your book, just pay us X amount of money," tell them to go fuck themself and block them.

[romanceandshenanigans]

The Doubling of Self: An Interview with Richard Siken by Peter Mishler

[romanceandshenanigans]

🔥+ whump

Fine in small doses. Some whump thrown into a story is a great catalyst for character development or the emphasis the threat of the villain, but personally I'm not a fan of all whump all the time.

I've got a limit of how much torture I can stand to read a character withstand before I need to put down the book an walk away. There's a reason why I've never been able to complete a Stephen King novel. I feel for the characters too much and I cannot for the life of me finish Patty's chapter in IT because I know what she's going to find in that bathroom.

This ultimately comes back to why I have a problem with horror. If it's well written, I feel for the characters and I hate feeling these things or I'm not empathizing with the character, in which case it's bad writing and I don't want to read a bad book.

Again, if anybody has a recommendation for something whumpy I can handle, please let me know!

Send Me a 🔥+ a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It

[romanceandshenanigans]

Juliana: It's genuinely hard to tell. Pretty is too delicate a word, and when pretty is the order of the day for young ladies it's difficult to justify her attractiveness. Still, there are plenty who prefer their women with sharp features and sharper eyes.

Finn: Certainly attractive, but in a way that takes a second to articulate. Individually his nose and eyes and hair are nothing significant, but all cobbled together with an easy smile and genuine disposition, nobody can walk away without finding something to admire.

Is your OC perceived as physically attractive to others? Is it at first glance or is it something that takes more time to reach fruition?