How To Put Romance in a Non-Obvious Manner?

[Manyana]

How can I include romance in my story? I want it to be subtle and no words such as "my heart thumps" "I blushed" "I think I love him"
I want it to be subtle. Like his actions is different only to her, and vice versa. How? And what words or phrases can I use?

[AlydaB]

Depends on the kind of romance you want to write, as well as the nature of the relationship and the personalities and behaviors of the characters in question. There are so many different ways to approach writing a romantic subplot, but, knowing nothing about your story and characters, here are my two cents.

Love is shown not only through words or physical reactions like a racing heart or blushing. Actually, those could be also attributed to infatuation or physical attraction rather than love (granted, romantic love can start with infatuation, and accompanies physical attraction, but if you want to be subtle you probably won't emphasize these a ton at the beginning of the relationship). If we define love as "genuinely caring for the other person's wellbeing and placing it above one's own", you could show your couple's budding romance through their actions and behavior towards each other accordingly.

If you love someone, you'll go out of your way to help them. You're invested in them, their personal life, their interests, their problems. Their struggles become your struggles, because love at its best is a kind of close partnership, where you share yourself completely with the other person and vice versa.

So you could develop the romance by having your characters act this way together. If it's a subtle development, they'd probably be friends to begin with and grow closer over time. They make themselves available to the other, and go out of their way to help each other with their problems. They support, encourage, and comfort each other, feel at home with each other, and open up about secrets and personal things that they wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with anyone else.

A lot of this is characteristic of a good friendship, but when they start to become "more than friends", they might become more physically affectionate and possessive, wanting to spend time alone together, and feeling uncomfortable if other people get too close to their partner. People with hidden feelings might find excuses to spend time with or touch the person they like, for example, hugging them for a little longer than normal, holding their hand when they don't have to, brushing against them when they walk together.

Lots of ways to hint at unacknowledged feelings without saying "my heart thumps". :]

[Maxedrox]

Well, you just need to see how shippers react to some characters that don't have a romantic relationship, the good chemistry between characters is enough to make people think that they may become a couple, especially if they share a lot in common. You can even make them do lovely gestures that can be friendly but people who see the pattern will notice if those gestures are different from other people. For example, they are the only ones who go together to one special place or the only ones who gave each other significative presents, things like that.

Just don't make the change to sudden romance out of nowhere when you want to do the reveal, you need to give a hint first, then tease it, and then turn it into a real thing.

It takes time and well, the big question is how long people is willing to wait.

[DiegoPalacios]

I want it to be subtle. Like his actions is different only to her, and vice versa. How? And what words or phrases can I use?

two words:

you can express through non-verbal cues and actions their attraction and chemistry

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Maybe things like this from one of my stories. The scene is night, two people on a garden bench. They're initially discussion their hostess but the girl has been falling in love with the guy. Unfortunately, unknown to her, their hostess urged him to not become involved. The girl speaks first in this clip.

She can be very convincing, as you know, and she needs you. Not just that, she likes you.”
“Hmmm.”
“I like you, too.”
Aware that she was looking at him just then, he smiled. “And I like you.”
She went back to staring at the moon for a while, then said, “A lot.”
“I…” He felt her fingers lightly touch the back of his hand.
“Uh…I… think I have to answer the call of nature.” He stood quickly, almost stumbling, and began walking to the garden entrance.
“You’ll come back?”
“Ahh, no. I don’t know… don’t wait for me.”
“Oh… okay.” When he was gone, she said to the moon, “I’d wait for you.”

[system]

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