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.
I figured I’d share it with you guys. I sort of found it while digging around on the internet a looooong time ago, but I still use it. It’s from a little smut writing guide I put together for the benefit of myself and a couple of my other friends on livejournal an eternity and a half ago when I still used livejournal.
This is a drug reference guide. It’s medically accurate, research and general knowledge based. None of it is from personal experience and I absolutely don’t encourage any drug use. This is simply made for a reference for your writing so that if you’re playing a certain character, taking a certain drug you’ll have a better understanding of how they might act, what they’ll experience internally and the after-effects and medical effects the drug has on their body and mind.
I am in no way telling you how to play your character, this is just a few helpful pointers that might help you get to know your druggie a little better.
Below is a list of guides that have been written on how to write smut. Credit goes to their original writers. This list will be updated each time I find a new smut guide. [Each link below is titled as the topic it covers]
Writing sex scenes. If you read those three words and you’re interested I don’t have to say much more huh?
A disclaimer if you will that this is just covers the two physical genders we see the most, with a bit about managing with non/neutral genders, xeno sex, jellies, hermaphrodites, and gender shifters, and stuff. If anyone has a problem with any gender doing anything, then they can skip that part. If you have any issues with any of the terminology I use, you can go elsewhere. I’m not here to be PC or make you feel better about what you’re reading or take care of your issues, I’m just here to drop information for people who might need it and I’m not nice about it. Trigger Warnings I guess for general sexuality, but I keep the really nasty harder triggers out of it. Oh and it’s REALLY LONG AND DETAILED (It’s 13,400 words or so if you’re asking.)
So: suck it up, put on your big girl panties, and deal with topics you might find uncomfortable or badly phrased as maturely as possible. Get ready to giggle like 13-year-olds at the word nipple. We’re going into the five-alarm-flame-bait-NSFW-headache known as sex! (No seriously, this is NSFW. 18+ only material.)
So it’s that time – you and your partner are getting hot and heavy but where to from here? Maybe you’ve never written smut before, or maybe you’re just feeling awkward about it this time. Maybe you’re a narwhal and don’t know how to romance a woman – in which case I’ll ask how you manage to work a computer in the deep blue sea… Either way, hopefully this will help.
In this first section, I’m going to go over the bare bones of writing smut. The build up, the undressing, the foreplay, the main event – but all in the most simplistic of ways. This is going to have… crude language, references to naughty bits and the word nipple…
This guide is going to be very simple, because I’m not going to go into dynamics – they’re different for everyone. I’m just going to teach you terms and give you different perspectives, so you can pick and choose your character better. This might also help a little if you’re actually interested in the lifestyle. I can’t go over rules, because all Dom/me’s are different and they’re going to have their OWN rules. I’m also not going to go over ALL kinks, you can find a great list here. Also keep in mind this is all written from MY point of view as a Dominant.
Basic Terms. ( BDSM, SSC, RACK )
Different types of Dom’s (Daddy Doms, Masters, Gorean, Saddists)
Different types of submissives (Pets, slaves, kittens, babygirls)
Limits – soft limits, hard limits, and why they need to be respected.
