The ore of "Damsel in the Red Dress" I write, the further it goes into the complexities that make their relationship difficult, despite the fact that they already love each other.
Now in Rigamarole, everything is a mess tbh (though very intentionally written that way.) Leia is fed up and about ready to explode because of this "love" at first sight, that doesn't appear to be getting or going anywhere. It would have been better in the long run (she feels) to just not know that her feelings were (allegedly) mutual.
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For love at first sight stories, I typically lean on one of these:
- "We can't be together because of XYZ factor outside our control."
- "We're struggling to get past physical attraction and reach deeper connection for reasons."
- "Something terrible has happened to one or both of us in the past that will test our ability to grow together, love each other, and/or understand the other's point of view."
- One or more of us is an alien
XD
okay so for DITRD
technically not a factor
Fair amount of struggle to get deeper, but it's not because they are blinded by attraction and mostly just because trauma makes it incredibly difficult to be vulnerable, even in the realm of physical attraction for them both. Especially...well both of them. They've been through and are still going through hell.
well yeah. that's basically it. Pretty soon we're going to encounter just the sheer horror it is for Alicia to remember her last romantic relationship, and that's gonna have a negative impact on this one
While Dominic's draw to Essence was definitely feelings at first sight, it could definitely not be counted as love since he knew 0% about her and asked her out the first day they met. He is not even close to being prepared for what she's actually like. Basically no one would be, so we have to cut him some slack.
Most of the story is both of them trying to navigate the reality of who she is.
on an unrelated note, in Dominic's favor, he is doing way better than both mine and @skidiggy 's male lead at the "asking out the female lead thing."
He has trounced Kattar's record of taking 15 years to confess your feelings and did it in less than 10 minutes.
Beat that somebody!
Has anybody here written lopsided love at first sight story, where one side immediately likes the other but it isn't mutual? If so how did you go about writing the development into feelings on the part of the one who doesn't like the other? And the way the person with the crush deals with their feelings not being reciprocated?
Without giving too many spoilers, the romance in "A Dozen Morning Glories" could never have happened if Dominic wasn't of a nature to try to love everyone, regardless of whether it hurts him. This is both a good and bad thing, because he knows not to place his value in other people's opinions, but both romantically and platonically, he decides that if he loves someone, he's going to keep on giving his best to them, whether or not he gets anything in return. Sometimes this makes a difference, other times it doesn't.
I just wrote a master class of a book in this. The two characters, Kazuya and Gyeong-Wan have a meet-cute where they collide in the dark and accidentally knock each other down. They're immediately attracted for different reasons. However, each has their reasons for why they don't say their feelings. Gyeong-Wan has a lot of baggage, where he's not out as a gay man and is dating a girl who's his childhood best friend. His upper class family is waiting for the marriage, and there's intense pressure for their favorable match. Kazuya never thought he'd have a boyfriend, due to the bare bones prospects of their conservative society where it's not legal to get gay married and being out as gay can mean you won't get hired or a landlord won't rent to you and this discrimination is legal. He's also a drag queen, so all the more so men don't want to date him, preferring men who are masculine and that's it. Kazuya is also under the impression that Gyeong-Wan is straight for a while. The whole book is them resolving these issues. The tension is fever pitch the whole way, as they crush on each other more and more.
Dominic's one-sided love at first sight is right about here, right now:
“Hey.”
I look up slowly to see Cocoa sitting down in my desk chair, bouncing her leg anxiously.
“Are you absolutely sure you’re alright, Dominic?” she pouts nervously, putting her thumb to my cheek to smudge out one of the tear streaks. “This isn’t just one of those boy things where you pretend you don’t have feelings?”
I can’t help but scoff, heaving my shoulders as I stare down at my messy bed, “I have feelings, Cocoa. They’re just…fine.”
She frowns slightly as I smile, wiping my face off with the heels of my palms, “What is it Honey always says? I just need to sleep off the day I just had. I’ll feel better in the morning.”
“It’s been a pretty long day,” Cocoa admits with a sigh, “But…your date was...?”
“Bitter icing on the cake,” I grin, but then I try to take it back, wondering if that statement might be rude, or disrespectful to Miss Walker somehow.