In your opinion, writing romance just an excuse to dwell on our day dreams?

[Leyelle]

I admit, while many parts of Kattar and Alicia's romance in "Damsel in the Red Dress" are extremely turbulent, little details of their romance are just cute daydreams from when I was in my earlier teens woven into the story, or the sort of relationship I would love to have, though I've never had it. Basically friends transitioning to lovers but not losing their love for just hanging out, laughing with and teasing each other.

---

“Hey, go take a shower.”

“I will when I get home.”

I can still feel him pushing my shoulder with that half-playful but dead serious air - “Yeah, not a chance. I don’t want you being nasty in my room. We’ve been outside all day in humid, 90-degree weather. You’re not about to wait until you go home to be clean.”

“What do you want me to do? I don’t have anything to change into. I’m not about to steal your mother’s clothes again.”

“Just wear something of mine.”

“Right, cuz that makes sense,” I rolled my eyes.

“It’s the miracle of drawstrings. En serio. Go wash.”

---

Honestly, you’re even worse than I am.

The color is returning to his face…

I am not.

You so are. Don’t think I didn’t notice that you washed your hair, you little tease…

Bit by bit, the warmth under the black curtain of his hair peeks through the wilted rose-gold and candy brown…

I just didn’t want you razzing me if I showed up looking dowdy.

I gave up complaining about that ages ago - around the same time I stopped being able to make you take showers. It’s like your favorite pastime is being dirty-

-Don’t phrase it like that…

-In the literal sense. You’re the one taking it some kind of way.

---

In a way, if you make use of your daydreams, that's just called being creative and having an imagination, but I do think romance writers have a bit of a reputation for having our heads in the clouds. Though at this point i'm just embracing it lol.

A big portion of the idea behind "Hushabye Prince" is kind of being a daydreamer who doesn't see reality the way most people do.

[joannekwan]

It's definitely an excuse for me!
Sure I'm in a happy committed relationship, but it's just super fun to write out things beyond that, especially if there are supernatural or fantastical elements that just don't happen in real life.

[Leyelle]

lol, fair point, I can't live in the world of a fairy tale, so glass slipper romances are only going to exist in the realm of my stories

[NickRowler]

Maybe for other people but not in my work. I think a lot of my relationships come out messy.

Even with my character Ace, one of the few characters in a healthy relationship. I know it sounds weird but I sort of felt like my little character deserved to be happy, so that’s why I gave him a boyfriend.

[Leyelle]

i think i give a lot of my character's happy endings because i feel like after their hard lives, i want things to end well for them

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Writing fictions itself is just an excuse to dwell on our daydreams, in essence. This is not exclusive to romance.

[Leyelle]

i agree, but a good portion of fiction is not ideal, in the case of romances, many people want them to have lots of very sweet moments

[SleepingPoppy]

Pretty much all of it is day dreaming for me. I like thinking about characters and playing out scenarios in my mind. Though honestly, I wish I'd written more in high school because I was daydreaming and making up stories WAY more back then- it wasn't good, but it would have been cool to have a record of all the nonesense knocking around in my brain back then.

[Leyelle]

high school because I was daydreaming and making up stories WAY more back then- it wasn't good, but it would have been cool to have a record of all the nonesense knocking around in my brain back then.

I agree lol, i'm still in high school, but if i'd recorded some of my younger daydreams they could have made interesting stories

[Leyelle]

Okay, I admit some of my childhood daydreams or things I've imagined up are actually being added to the chapters of "Damsel in the Red Dress." I think it makes sense in a way, because I write my stories to try to make people feel things, and I think I'll always feel most strongly, and be able to write most passionately, about things that have a strong emotional impact on me, even if it's just the way a sympathize with my childhood self and all her daydreams.

[Lensing]

I´m still doing this all day and I´m turning 50 next year

[Leyelle]

While "Damsel in the Red Dress" continues to be a daydream dump for all my sweet romantic ideas, each new story requires new kinds of ideals for different characters, and some of them have dreams quite different from mine. It definitely makes for an interesting challenge tho. I suppose not every one of my characters can have the same sorts of daydreams I have

[Leyelle]

Dominic from "A Dozen Morning Glories" is very much so the sort of ideal boy, so I think it's safe to say he's sort of a daydream guy come to life, but for the sake of the story, it really makes sense. The female lead is tired of cliches, if the male lead can subtly be the beau ideal, Prince Charming who makes the audience fall in love with him, that will 100% be the point

[skidiggy]

To be honest, my original write-up for Apparent Secrets was escapist fantasy from my crummy work life several years ago. (It's not every office environment, but if you know, you know. ) A huge portion of the office scenes are ripped directly from my reality, or second-hand from equally miserable former coworkers. When I re-wrote the concept in late 2023, many of those initial office scenes made it into the final piece, with some nudging here and there to have it fit the narrative better.

As for the romance portion, I'm more interested in writing things I haven't seen elsewhere than directly transcribing wishful thinking. I get a kick out of the mental gymnastics required to balance four roommates' lives, their choices and consequences. It provides much needed stimulation that I otherwise don't get outside of, like D&D or video games.

[Leyelle]

I get a kick out of the mental gymnastics required to balance four roommates' lives, their choices and consequences.

I agree. I enjoy this part of the writing process too, and since most of my characters are very very different from me, very little wishful thinking is directly transcribed into the story. I find that the sort of sweet things I imagine just don't work for every couple, but it is fun to imagine and decide the sort of sweet things that DO work for each couple, and I suppose just creating sweet romantic moments is a sort of wishful thinking of it's own

[skidiggy]

I feel that. I can only imagine how challenging it would be to force certain dynamics or interactions in our day-to-day lives. Sometimes (especially after a few rough chapters) I like to give everyone a picnic or something positive, like a little treat. They get rung through the ringer so often that I want them to get a break once in a while.

[Leyelle]

Right? I often find myself like...okay but I want them to get to have a sweet moment here. Sometimes it doesn't fit too well, but when people have at least one person in their corner then this is possible.

For Leia and Riley, though their dynamic isn't romantic, it's them racing each other on their bicycles after really awful convos with their mother.

With Kattar and Alicia, though they also have a lot of their conflict with each other, they're still besties so we get to have moments of sweetness with them teasing and having fun with each other. And with Dominic we get him with his sisters, which is loads of fun.

The sort of sweet things they get has to be catered to the characters though, and how long an interrupted break it is from sadness or stress also depends one the character and their dynamics with each other. Sometimes their worries are tied to each other, other times they aren't and that allows them to be each other's happy places. That's part of what I love so much about writing Dominic and his sisters.