forum ANY Tips on How to Build Up Suspense To A Romantic Scene and Get Readers To Ship Characters...

Started August 06, 2021 by @wordlesswriter

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Literally any tips would be amazing

1. Analyze media which has characters that you ship, and think about why. And I don't mean, "Oh but Jack and Rose have a power imbalance in their relationship, and therefore if you ship it then you're a bad person and you should feel bad and your ship should get hit by an iceberg and sink."

I mean more like this: What techniques appropriate to the medium does the storyteller use, which leads you to ship it? How do you translate that into what you're writing?

And even if you read fanfiction about a ship that you already ship, you can still analyze the intuition of the fanfiction writer…What writing techniques are happening, which makes one fanfic sort of "yay this is exactly what I like" (but secretly you feel meh or mediocre about it, but it's something you know you like so you'll keep up with it but won't re-read after you're done unless you're very very bored) as opposed to "this is my very favorite fanfic about my very favorite ship"?

1. Accept that others might not catch the spark, for whatever reasons that are entirely their own business. If a test reader makes it your business, like tells you, "I can't ship this milquetoast pair unless one goes aggressively-seductively Alpha, rude and domineering, to validate my worldview and vent my own emotional issues", then that's advice you don't have to take… especially if your artistic vision really is more that "both the people in this relationship are sweet, sentimental, idealists in love who are also loyal and friendly and kind to each other".

It also works the other way around. If you're going more for snarky banter, misunderstanding, and misdirected romantic tension turns into disrespect, but the characters you're writing are fated to grow out of it and learn from each other—that sort of romance, because they're essentially good people but with immature egos, who grow to love each other…then, you don't have to take the advice of somebody who says, "Why Can't You Make Them Both Always Nice? I Cannot Ship It Otherwise!"

Accept that they're not your target audience.

Even the people who ship the ship you're writing will ship it for different personal reasons. Maybe they like one character no matter who that character might be in a romantic plot with. Maybe the plot around them makes enough sense that they find the relationship plausible and have no objection to it—they understand that that's the ship with the canon all right, that's a solid enough set-up —but they don't ship it like burning…and that's all right. You do your best to give your readers something to react to.

1. Think of events or details that can showcase their personalities, and how those personalities interact with each other in a way that would interest you and/or the reader.

I hope this helps!

Oh! I have a few

Make sure there are suggestions towards the characters being attracted to eachother before they actually get together. For example: looking into eachothers eyes for a bit before blushing and looking away, either one of the characters thinking about the other character more often than usual, flirting, all that good stuff. Don't make it too sudden, like them not being interested one second and then kissing the next. That would obviously not be the best way to search up romance.

Make them have similarities too, so that there's a basis for attraction. Don't make them polar opposites without anything in common, or else it'll be hard to make a believable romance between them.

Thanks, you guys! Both were super helpful!