Topic of the Day: What is your ocs favorite thing about their sweetheart? : The romance/relationship writing thread (all romance, all the time) (but sfw tho.)

[Leyelle]

So today's topic was the idea behind someone else's dead thread, but I thought it would be worth revisiting.

For "Damsel in the Red Dress" characters

Kattar's feelings for Alicia would best be described in the song "Lose it All" by Sam Tompkins. He loves her (almost literally) to death, and losing her would be the most painful thing that could happen to him, as, to be completely honest, he loves more than anyone or anything else in the world. Despite having quite a few friends, being a small celebrity, and having a mother who adores him, he's led a pretty lonely life, but Alicia's friendship was the first thing that broke through his hollowness, and to lose that would be a nightmare. He's not even sure what he would do if it happened.

While Alicia's feelings for Kattar would probably be described in the song "Naked" by James Arthur. She's sick and tired of waiting for Kattar to be willing to admit he loves her, so she's basically tearing to shreds the facade to force him to face the facts. She knows he loves her, she's just waiting for him to have the humility to say so.

For Hushabye Prince Characters? That one's a little trickier to really nail down, but maybe:

Jinwoo's feelings for Kimberly could be described in "Can I Be Him" by James Arthur. He wants to be her hero, to be able to love and protect her, be her male lead like something from a story. Also, the moment he met her it completely changed his life in ways he'd never experienced before, and that was rattling, but now he wants to find a way to be able to be with her.

And Kimberly's feelings for Jinwoo with "Like My Father" by Jax, or "Rewrite the Stars" from The Greatest Showman. Not so much that she's comparing her life to her dad's relationship with her mom, but that she wants a sweet, wholesome relationship like that. Possibly also "rewrite the stars" just because forming a relationship with Jinwoo is extremely difficult, but she believes, despite most people's logic on such things that it's possible and is going to try despite the fact that it looks basically impossible.

[ThunderChicken]

More Than I Can Say by Leo Sayer. Specifically the lyrics:

Oh oh yey yey!
I love you more than I can say!
I’ll love you twice as much tomorrow!
Oh love you more than I can say!

[Leyelle]

Oh, lol, i was entirely talking about the lyrics. I suppose the music could work, but for most people that would just be smooth jazz

[Leyelle]

My lead's first kisses (in both series) have yet to be shown yet, though there's a scene in "Damsel in the Red Dress" that appears to be their first kiss in one of the released chapters (won't tell you the context on that one lol) their real first kiss is entirely different from that scene.

I have yet to decide how their first kiss goes in "Hushabye Prince," but I tend to make the first kiss fairly climactic parts of my story, because to me it's a big deal for a couple to lead up to and reach that point.

[KevinReijnders]

It is written! And it pretty much serves as the big climax of the scene it's in, which itself is the climax of that particular romance subplot.

It's also a big turning point in the overall story, as it's the last big happy moment that happens before things take a darker turn

[Leyelle]

why you gotta be like that for your poor leads. let the kids have a break!

[KevinReijnders]

I gotta maximize the drama

[Leyelle]

one of those moments when you realize how being an author has turned you into a villain

[cherrystark]

Yeah, but it's not really a love triangle or rather a traditional YA style triangle. He is in love with his best friend, she's his heart. But then his wife, who he thought was dead, comes back into the picture. He and his wife still have crazy emotions between them

[Leyelle]

there's a comedy movie sort of like that, only the man had already remarried when his wife he thought was dead returns it's called "My Favorite Wife."

[ThunderChicken]

Yup! This was Daecon and Evander's first kiss, after their first attempt was interrupted by... things

[Leyelle]

A bit of a teaser, but Kattar and Alicia used to share a smart phone in high school. She was too broke to have her own, so she just had this flip phone with no phone plan on it to use to dial 911 if need be. Kattar's always had the latest and greatest everything so it became their phone to the point where the screensaver was a selfie of the two of them together. and that was ages before they even started dating.

Kimberly and Jinwoo's special thing is getting dessert together at the cafe every day.

[Leyelle]

So my couples in "Hushabye Prince" and "Damsel in the Red Dress" are opposites in this respect.

At first glance, Kattar and Alicia seem to have a lot in common. Mexican-Americans, raised by single...guardians. Children whose parents went through a divorce. Both rich. I mean they even both have brown skin and long dark hair. But going deeper, they're not very alike.

He shies away from emotions while she's a very affectionate person, who doesn't tend to hide how she's feeling. He was raised rich while she made her own fortune. He's an only child, while so much of her teenage struggle came from trying to care for her little brother. She loves art while he could really care less. He loves action movies while she could really care less.

Where they really meet in the middle is that both of them want to do everything in their power to care for the people they love. But that means something different for each of them. She wants to care for them emotionally, while he wants to care for their physical needs and safety. And trouble is caused when neither one of them are able to do either for the other.

For the "Hushabye Prince" leads

At first glance, Kimberly and Jinwoo have nothing in common.

She's a school teacher, African American, and Melanesian. Just moved to a new city. Very talkative, extroverted, and friendly. Always willing to look at and try anything anyone else is interested in.

Jinwoo has never worked a job, though he's six years older than Kimberly. He's Korean. He's never lived anywhere but this one city, and left it less than five times in his life. He's very quiet, hates loud noises, rarely tries to interact with strangers, and is unwilling to do anything outside of his routine for anyone.

But as the story goes deeper you see that they both have a lot in common. They have trouble interacting with others and are often considered strange. They respond differently to these circumstances. Jinwoo responds to it by focusing on himself and his misery, and her by trying to make everyone like her, but all in all, they have quite a bit in common.

I'm not sure it's really possible to write a story where nobody has anything at all in common, and I don't think people ever fall in love with someone whom they share no commonalities with.

[ThunderChicken]

In Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days, the main couple (myself and my husband) have little in common on the surface. I mean, neither of us drink, smoke, or do drugs, but other than that we’re polar opposites. I am a rugged redneck type who is into hunting, fishing, camping, building things, and classic cars. I listen to 1980’s heavy metal and don’t give a rat’s ass about fashion or brand names. He is more the city boy type, likes bars and partying, listens to modern pop music, and will gladly spend way too much money to have a brand name on his shoes or shirt. In “gay speak” I am butch and he is fem.

And we fit so perfectly together. This coming July will mark 25 years together for us, and will also mark our 7th wedding anniversary. We just plain get along. We never fight (and I mean that literally, in 25 years the most serious arguments we’ve had were over what to eat for supper). We love each other and we are also each other’s best friends.

[Leyelle]

For me, i think the hardest part of writing romance is avoiding redundancy. when similar emotions appear again and again, it can be tricky to find a unique way to express them every single time. It's easier from story to story, as different characters have different personalities and ways of reacting, but within one story, I have to keep in mind little subtle ways each scene is different to keep the originality.

[Leyelle]

Should your readers know clearly from early on how your OCs feel about each other?

I imagine in action series you want to keep it more subtle than you would in full on romances. But perhaps if you want to write from a first person-ish perspective, your lead's feelings are clear while their love interests feelings might not be, so you can 'feel' a bit of the leads hesitation or wariness about confessing.

That said, my female lead in "Damsel in the Red Dress" is 99% sure her crush likes her since before the story even starts. She's furious about it.

In "Hushabye Prince" it's probably pretty clear to the reader from day 1, but for the characters, not so much.

[yumeryuu]

I like the relationship between characters where you know they love each other dearly, but 20 chapters go by before they make out and then the scene just blows you away

[Leyelle]

A bit like mine, except i'm keeping it sfw, their feelings for each other are clear for a very long time, they've loved each other to death since they were teens, but the start of the relationship, first kiss, etc. don't take place until the second book. I hope when they do they'll be very touching/emotional moments for the readers.

[Leyelle]

Between whirlwind romances and friends to lovers stories I've done one of each now that I have "Hushabye Prince: and "Damsel in the Red Dress."

That being said, my friends to lovers story was technically love at first sight, at least for one half of the couple, that took 15 years of friendship to come to a head, and Jinwoo, the lead of my whirl-wind romance is a very cautious person. It's not in his nature to have a fling or hook up with a stranger, so though the process of falling in love is pretty quick, the progression still takes time. This tends to be how I write stories. Characters have to have time to get to know each other first.

[Leyelle]

alright so on writing flirting. my leads Kattar and Alicia tend to flirt with each other quite a bit once they've confessed their feelings, and they even spent time teasing and joking with each other a little bit before that.

Now characters who flirt with somebody they just met have a tendency to come off as playboys or 'bad girls' but I personally think the line has to do with how appropriate the flirting is tbh. There is a level that I think is acceptable even for characters that are strangers, and once you pass that threshold is when you break into not-so-good character/definitely crossing a line territory.

That said, with my new series "Hushabye Prince" the female lead dares to be rather flirtatious, because a portion of her personality I wanted to base off of the idea of a coquette (a kind of hummingbird and a flirtatious woman) but I think I hope i'm writing her with a proper balance lol