#is that even a thing? i dunno but it's interesting

[pygmi-says-hi]

how to write romantic tension

we all love enemies to lovers but some of you get to the lovers part so fast you don't even finish typing 'enemies'. enemthey'refuckingnow to lovers. which is ok if that's what you wanna read but personally, my favorite part is the tension.

So...

Off we go!

What makes a good enemies to lovers story?

Believable tension, likeably irritating themes, and potential. Among other things, but this is what I want to talk about with the 'tension' perspective. There needs to be a good reason, obstacle, and rapport. If they're mad at each other just because, idgaf.

I want to write this but I dunno how to frame the tension?

It's kind of a tricky trope, to be honest. Enemies/rivals/foes however you wanna pitch it, takes an interesting twist on seductive emotions.

pride. a feeling of self-sufficiency, power over somebody else, or superiority. How would this play into a relationship type deal? Well:

Pride in a relationship or in regards to another person can involve a feeling of equivalence. "Do I feel unworthy of them?" "Are they out of my league?" "will the way people perceive me change if I go for it?" Social insecurity is a big aspect, and so the frustration that comes with that leads to friction because of the character's insistence on keeping their dignity. which leads me to the next point...

vulnerability. Attraction to another person is accompanied by a feeling of vulnerability and openness. This is always a hard position to be in, especially if extenuating circumstances make honesty impossible (power imbalance, politics, etc). If a character feels too vulnerable and exposed, they might shield themself with aloofness and sharp words.

desperation/yearning. They have to want each other. the only thing stopping themselves is each other. It's overcoming the above emotions to reach the point where they have no choice but to accept it. Throughout the whole deal, there should be an undercurrent of desire.

When all of those come together, it creates an emotional battle. This battle has several war tactics (hittin with the allegories today dayum)

banter. a favorite of all. wonderfully tense and combative conversation that highlights the reason for disagreement and the romantic tension. 10/10

self-sabotage. like, ohthey'resoclosetheirhandsaretouchingoooohnope. someone chickened out, heard something from someone that made them reconsider, plans changed, they felt angry and ruined the whole deal. back to square one. it's like edging your readers. (ew but you know what i mean. bring em up to bring em down)

miscommunication. "I thought you hated me." "only because I thought you did too..." love it. beautiful. or, there was miscommunication years ago that led to a deep rift when actually, it was entirely unfounded.

and many more...

Another important point:

There needs to be progress. Slow and steady wins the race, but even slow means going forward. If you throw too much tension and obstacles in the way, it gets old really fast. Give them baby steps to take. It'll keep people interested.

Internal turmoil:

Oh, that wonderful period when they know it's inevitable but they're so terrified of it happening....pick an emotional direction.

Are they scared? Hiding from their attraction? Are they angry? Frustrated that they can't have them/became attracted? Are they desperate? So in love that they act out of pure lust?

What is the character's opinion of what is going on? Pick reactions and convo that corresponds with that. Enemies to lovers doesn't always mean sass-battles and hate sex. It can also be someone cold and cut off slowly warming up. Or somebody shy and critical becoming relaxed and open-minded. there are sooooo many opportunities for good emotional depth, spice it up a little!

Things to improve on:

Working on banter/bickering. This is really funny, but the banter should have some kind of meat to it. random back-and-forths are a nice palate cleanser, but so often it just sounds petty. Incorporate plot and past disagreements with it. it'll add depth to the relationship without needing to do a prologue or exposition paragraph.

Not just making them hate fuck and then be head over heels. (I mean if you wanna write/read that, go ahead, but if you're frustrated with the transition stage, I gotchu.) It is a weird moment of going from 'fuck you' to 'fuck me' to 'ilysm'. AWKWARD STAGES ARE OKAY!!!!! It's gonna be a bit of a new thing, esp for the characters. Great opportunity for wholesomeness; if they're trying really hard to get better but don't know how?? UGHH I EATTT IT.

hopefully this provides some pointers?

xox keep writing, comment/message any questions or requests!

[year2000electronics]

I desire to see a post ABT the uhhhh book of Bill changing for everyone lmao

I desire to see your take on it

IVE THOUGHT ABOUT THIS A LOT. before TBOB released i was ruminating on what ford's version of the book looked like, and i guess you could say i was proven wrong?

ford says his is "mostly" extremely complex riddles. you could easily take that as like 99% of the book, but i think back to the missing journal pages and how ford frequently lets his shame bury his past. and i feel like theres just enough wiggle room here to imagine more stuff. other stuff.

im not sure if i agree with this totally, coming back to it, just because we see in TBOB that bill HATES to admit he was wrong or even vulnerable, but i guess i could see it as a bait, or a goad? idk i just like the idea that little parts of the book of bill of bill trying to play on him and ford's old relationship and his ego.

can you imagine if ford's version of the book of bill claimed to be the "only TRUE version, the others are just fakes"? because youre just that special, stanford. only you can see past all of my empty threats. only you can see the true bill. (saying this as another lie, of course)

i think a similar logic probably also applies to the other pines', because each of them take a moment to give a more broad, jokey overview of what their book looks like ("a guide to everyone whos ever had a crush on you", "a guide to winning the lottery every time" etc.) but i believe its definitely just a simplification to prove that TBOB is different for everyone and you could guess whats in there yourself in fanon!

i guess what id be most interested to see is stanley's. bill is literally FUMING at stanley so hard. im not sure he could get it together to ACTUALLY try to trick him.

judging by the energy of bill's thisisnotawebsite posts about stan and the wheel of shame image (looking at this image literally hurts so bad btw.) i feel like he would be going for the throat a LOT. trying to wear stan down by heckling him and attacking his weak points (and also definitely projecting onto him) and once hes worn down, perhaps the end of the book would have bill offering for him to do "the first worthwhile thing in his life"

I DUNNO THOUGH! endless ways to speculate. truly endless

[saiintofdiirt]

hey. hey saiint. do you remember your post abt watchers from like, a day ago. how they could take an 'empty' clone and use it as a vessel or whatever. so. two things abt that.

a) the idea of watchers in kww collab Fascinates me deeply and now theres an au in the back of my head where wato becomes a watcher. its fascinating. dont mind me i think about watchers too much okay

b) do you. have you considered voidfies.

this ominous fucker that wato got the mask from. completely void, has the texturing of wifies skin and the omz mask, shows up in a couple of the kww collab videos? have you thought abt them? bcs. idk i think this could be relevant to the idea of watchers or well distant gods or whatever. bcs look !! empty ominous weird guy who is prolly A Wifies is right here !!!!!

JUST THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE A FUN IDEA !!! idk pls ignore this if i said anth wrong lmao

welcome welcome lime !!! all kinds of fun ideas r always welcome in my inbox never worry !!! I luv yapping 💜💙 The post in question for those who don't know: watchers using clonefies as a puppet/vessel!

Oh Voidfies my deeply belothed. Love hate relationship with that wretched thing. What is it. What does it do. Why is it in my house. Wato got the mask from it, but it also seemingly took the mask back as well, and then seemingly did this several times ? As in how was Wato functioning seemingly normally when not in the Evilfies server, normally enough that Ken asks them for the IP and doesn't sense anything wrong with her? Idk if that makes sense. gyaru peace sign this will haunt me forever and that's why all I write is post canon.

There's two ways I'm imagining Voidfies in this au now that we're talking abt it: one is that it is straight up just a puppet/vessel that's even further stripped down, and depending on your take on the Omz mask, the mask is either what helps the watchers control it, or the Omz mask is parasitic in some way and isn't of watcher origins.

Another take on it that I'm really enjoying is the idea that 1, the clones are at least partially made of void magic, and 2 the Omz mask may have started as a watcher tool but something broke/severed it's connection and now it's basically a rogue entity. So what if, in the absence of a proper vessel, the Omz mask. . . picks the other clones for parts, so to speak, and created Voidfies out of the void imbued within them, which I mentioned here just really briefly in the end. It'd be a body that wouldn't fight back or have much sentience, the mask could do whatever. Without it's main source of power, I wonder what the mask does to keep itself alive. . . ?

so many fun thoughts here to think of........... i hope this was interesting ! Dunno if this is where you thought it'd go djfhgkdjhfg

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

How's my Honour Mode Tadpoled Isobel Strikes Back playthrough doing? Here's a handful of my five million screenshots because I just love her face.

She's enjoying the doom and gloom of Act 2 in what is possibly the single worst homecoming ever!

As I mentioned in my tags on the last post, playing a light domain cleric for the "*obliterates your undead army* HI DAD" vibe is super fun and working out really well so far.

Entirely appropriate reactions to the state of her family abound.

And then going "cheers, I'll drink to that, bro!" and regretting everything!

Love that as a cleric you can just drink the weird brew but ask your god for an assist real quick and roll with advantage to avoid the effects.

Also love this tiny bit of environmental storytelling. Oof.

Downtime-wise, she's making friends! Sorry your romantic relationship with an immortal didn't work out, Gale.

I thought they were gonna be weird dysfunctional anti-Ketheric buddies, but Minthara is just roasting her every chance she gets.

And, finally, in the crackship department...

Took Lae'zel's invitation seriously and somehow beat her up in fairly straightforward melee using the Blood of Lathander, no spells, no "cheating". Was genuinely not expecting that to work out, but hey, it's Isobel "I'd like to get a few licks in myself" Thorm.

Time to get all soft and open and vulnerable. Soon(TM).

Shadowheart was also genuinely sweet in her bowing out dialogue, after all the "kiss me like you hate me" Sharran/Selûnite banter up to now (which btw is really fun, I do recommend playing through it).

But now... it's time for the really serious business, and the big finale of this Sins of the Father arc.

[canisalbus]

Hey, I’m new to Tumblr, but I’ve seen your characters around the internet and I love them so much!! Everyone has so much love for Machete and Vasco and your art is so cool to see! Do you have any tips for an aspiring artist and creative writer?

Hi! Welcome to tumblr! I'm glad to hear you like my dogs :]

I'm not really a writer, and I also completely lose my confidence when I'm trying to explain my art processes. So this is probably an obvious, unhelpful platitude at best, but one thing I've realized is that you should allow yourself to be self-indulgent. If you're the primary target audience of your own work, it generates passion and keeps you inspired and motivated. I like to believe that people who see your creations are more likely to respond to them positively if they can sense that you're putting your heart and soul to them.

[lesbianralzarek]

trying to not complain about the discrepancy between how much content fictional women and poc have vs the white dudes in every fucking fandom im in, because no one owes me fanart/fic and i can make shit myself, but holy fuck can any of you name a woman?

[scarycranegame]

it's so strange how i see like. 60 "proship is the default stance! proship is normal!" posts in a row (all of which i agree with btw, dont get it twisted), but then i see people making stuff like. proship-themed ocs and moodboards and stuff like that. like. not even themed around a specific ship that could be considered "problematic", literally just Being Proship™ in of itself.

like. i cant be the only one who thinks its a bit strange to make these whole-ass monuments to having a normal, healthy perception of fiction. its like making moodboards of doin your laundry or something

disclaimer: this post is NOT intended to discourage anyone from doing anything they enjoy, so long as it's harmless. this post is only intended to share an observation that i find interesting.

[deathnguts]

What would you guys say if I, hypothetically, confessed that my introduction to Bartylus as a ship was actually my own oc that was their son and literally not a day goes by where I’m not thinking about him to the point where I genuinely forgot he’s not a canon character and therefore Bartylus is also not canon because they did not canonically have him and like ten minutes ago I was drawing him and genuinely wondering why no one talks about him and now I’m very disappointed in myself for forgetting only I know he exists so of course no one talks about him

[beatx-mavie-archangelx]

hi the arcana fandom i was wondering did we give up or did they manage to block us all?

[blackhazefanblog]

Have a rare Rood x Iel fanart, by yours truly!

Based on the friendzone meme!

[childoftherock]

did a drawpile with a pal and accidentally went too hard on it

[spaciebabie]

when ppl share their art wips with me >>>>>>>>>>>

[highfunctioningfleshrule63]

hey, your video compilation of 4chan post about shield is a great ressource for fandom psychology. Interesting to see another user who lurk the wrestling board and use tumblr. Did you ever work on compilation of the tumblr fandom during the peak of the shield era ? I did not research it yet. xoxo

glad someone liked that video, only in times when im super fixated on something will i end up searching through the 4chan archives for more content...unfortunately 4chan vernacular tends to get a laugh out of me (if it isnt absolute lowtier content, had to scrape through a lot of that). the shield stuff i tried to get from when it was at its peak and you'll see posts on there from 2013+, but i also got modern stuff now bc the boardspeak actually changed with it.

ironically it is way easier to deepdive and compile stuff from 4chan bc it has a much better archival system than tumblr; ive also looked for lots of old stuff on deviantart due to the crossover but i found that it has a pretty shitty way of archiving/sorting older posts (just like on here. ive been on tumblr since 13 so i know what sorts of areas to look for, but its still very hard to find it directly on here. i havent spent as much time as i did getting those posts for that video so i can try harder.)

fandom psychology is interesting to me too so im happy you saw my video with that angle. ive collected lots of old shield fangirl content off of sites like weheartit and pinterest (ironically those are often better at keeping images up for longer periods of time) too but i didnt know if i should make a comp, maybe i will. i also looked through random forums and places like lolcow dot farms (which only really granted one of the screenshots...not too much discussion over there for good or bad. i was hoping to find discussion abt shieldfangirls or wrestling rpf but surprisingly they didnt think to make a "point and laugh" thread abt those topics). i find it interesting how much shieldrelated psychosis was on both sides of the spectrum (tumblr vs 4chan)....i could talk more on it but im a little brainless and sleep deprived rn

heres some extras i had that didnt make the cut (plus just some of my favorites):

and these were from a thread talking abt the modern stereotypical tumblr wrestling fan (specifically talking abt aedubs young bucks fans/the elite fans)

(*fangirl in this is a term im using loosely of course)

[disengaged]

i wanna live on my own again …. i’m so ready to put my books on a shelf and my clothes in a closet

[front-facing-pokemon]

[navxry]

These leaves are heart shaped and for my mutuals to see

Yes, that means you.

I love you (/p) 🫶