Writing couples is both enchanting and exhausting. How do you make people ship your couple? How do you make them an OTP? How do you make your couple matter to the story? Or matter at all? To answer all these questions, I’ll explain three major must-have characteristics for couples:
1. Realism
Falling in love is a slow process. It’s different from person to person. People are flawed. Relationships are flawed. People make mistakes. People fear rejection. Not everyone will find their soulmate exactly when they need most. People show love in different ways. People are not flirty all the time. Realism is important. Development is essential.
When writing a couple, visualize yourself as one of the characters (or
both). Imagine their love story as if it was happening to you in real
life. See how different it goes? Maybe not as fast and a thousand times
clumsier, but also charming and interesting.
Example of strong realism: Carl and Ellie (UP), they take a lifetime to mature their love and mutual respect. Neither are perfect. The relationship goes through bad times, but their love only grows.
Example of weak realism: Caine and Jupiter (Jupiter Ascending), they fall in love in two or three days, not enough scenes are dedicated to developing the relationship. In the end, it feels strange.
2. Balance
Give your couple opposite but complementary features. This is basically the Yin-yang symbolism that a lot of stories shows. If one character is all love-and-peaceful, maybe the other is a furnace of anger. If one traveled the whole world, maybe the other never left their village. If one is a millionaire, maybe the other is homeless. If one is short with dark hair, maybe the other is tall with light hair. However, no matter how opposite they are, always keep the balance. One shouldn’t overshadow the other. They must shine together, but also as individuals.
Example of strong balance: Fix-it Felix Jr. and Sargent Calhoun (Wreck-It Ralph), they belong to different worlds, they would probably never meet. He is a sweet pie that always tries his best, a peacemaker. She is, on the other hand, an explosion, a warrior. They are both relevant in achieving victory. Also, both are the heroes of their own games.
Example of weak balance:
Sasuke and Sakura (Naruto), he is way more powerful than her, he doesn’t respect her as a ninja, he doesn’t like working with her. He tried killing her more than once and was never sorry about that. She accepts being overshadowed. She lacks character development compared to Sasuke. There is no opposite-complementary features tying them. It’s unbalanced.
3. Synergy
Make them work together. Make them accomplish common goals. Make them a power duo. Make them laugh of the same jokes. Make it easy and natural for them to be together, talking, sharing and having a good time. Make their conversations flow. Make it easy to touch, and stare, and embrace, and kiss. Make their mind and body work together.
Example of strong synergy: Cat Noir and Ladybug/Adrien and Marinette
(Miraculous Ladybug), they are the heroes of Paris. No, they are partners in saving the world. It doesn’t feel uncomfortable when they interact, fight and save each other. It feels right. It feels natural. You crave for interactions.
Example of weak synergy: Kim Tan and Eun-Sang (The Heirs), they are the type of couple that are always fighting, but sometimes indulge in a passionate kiss. However, there’s no synergy between these characters. They are never on the same page. They are never partners. The magic of their relationship never sparkles. Even their kisses are uncomfortable to watch.
Now, think of your favorite couples (even non-canon ones) and try spotting the realism, the balance and the synergy in them. If you ship it,I’m pretty sure it’s there.
Try applying these characteristics to your next writing.
Grazie mille for your very encouraging words, my friend! Our job as your mods is only half of what makes the bordello be the place it is today; the rest is due to your never-ending support and your continuous patronage! Truthfully, sometimes reading your confessions inspire us to confess as well… and we hope our own confessions and even our attempts to make edits do inspire you as well, to form this wonderful synergetic bliss of sinning. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Please hang in there! Truth be told, I’m in a rather dark place myself and I find that keeping myself busy with this blog and Tumblr helps during my downtime. People who aren’t in any fandom and/or haven’t met friends in a fandom are always quick to dismiss it as something that only “immature” people would be in. But I find that fandoms can be a safe place and they can be a respite from the harsh realities of life, whether it’s to make new friends, discover new passions that will keep you motivated, or even something silly such as sharing light character headcanons or even posting dirty secrets on a blog like this.
Molte grazie for your message and we hope you are feeling better, my friend! Please remember that we are always here to hear you out! I really do wish that Tumblr has a better discussion system (similar to LiveJournal’s commenting system or even Reddit’s), but ah, we’ll make do with what we have.
È stato un piacere! We are very happy to hear that our bordello has given you succor in its own little way. We are truly humbled when we receive messages from you about how this community has been helping you get through a difficult time in your lives. I’ve said it a few times and I’ll say it again: There’s nothing more rewarding than hearing from our patrons that this dirty (and sometimes silly) blog has been a place of comfort to you. ♥
And please, do send more Lucy Thorne confessions! We have a lot of Syndicate confessions; it’s actually the game with the most number of confessions here, with over 1400 confessions (Ubisoft should rename it Assassin’s Creed: SINdicate amirite). But the fiery Miss Lucy does need more love. 😉
Grazie for your very kind words, my dear! We always try to add a little something for this bordello and our patrons. ♥ Frankly, it took me a little while to choose the right font for Starrick’s calligraphy. Google Fonts has a lot to choose from, so it was a bit of an adventure 😀 (I should add – if any of our patrons is into web design, Google Fonts is heaven-sent. I highly encourage to use it in your web pages as much as you can!)
(And to anyone who hasn’t read @castielsangel-x‘s stunning work yet, it’s here ♥)
