Getting To Know You Game

(insp.)

I adore lwaboc, I really admire how well you handled their relationship going from 100% antagonistic to the killer ust and sweet pining. Any advice on how to write slow burns? I hope you're having a great day ♡

Thank you for the kind words, dear, I hope you’re having a great day as well. 🤗

Regarding your question— *clears throat* IT’S MY TIME TO SHINE. Here are a few things I’ve picked up over the years!

First, you have to decide what kind of slow burn you want to write. The most common one that I’ve seen is the physical slow burn wherein the characters realize that they’re attracted to each other but take a while to act on it. Then there’s the emotional slow burn wherein the characters have a physical relationship but don’t realize they love each other because they’re idiots. It can also be a combination of the two! You have to determine what’s best suited to your plot and your characters’ personalities.

No matter which option you go with, it’s important to remember that slow burn is all about building the dynamic. Have your characters get to know each other, squabble over differences in opinions, and ultimately learn to trust and respect each other. This is where you can take a cue from the real world— whenever people are willing to share, I love listening to their stories about how they came to be with their partner and how they eventually had the epiphany that this person was The One. Whirlwind romances do happen in real life, but I think the more common experience is an acquaintance blossoming into a friendship blossoming into something more. It can be really fun, as a writer, to try and track the different ways that can go, and drawing upon those experiences can enhance your story and make it resonate with your readership.

Slow burn is also about never taking the easy way out, lol. Don’t let them snog or confess their feelings at the first opportunity— you want to draw out that tension, stretch it tight until something has just got to snap. Don’t be afraid to throw complications in the way of the ship— hell, go ahead and keep them separated for ages if that’s what the plot requires. It’s an agonizing process but it will make the payoff so much sweeter in the end. But don’t go overboard with this, either. Throw your characters (and your readers and yourself, lbr) a bone from time to time. For physical slow burn: Let the OTP hug or nuzzle or forehead kiss or whatever in a rare unguarded moment, let them Catch A Whiff Of Each Other’s Scent, let them shiver from unexpected touches, let them daydream about how it would feel like to jump Person B. For emotional slow burn: Let each of them gradually come to realizations about the other person, let them amass this mental catalogue of their partner’s quirks that are just So Endearing, let them confess something that’s not quite “I love you” yet but is pretty damn close in a moment of abject vulnerability (”You make me feel safe,” “I miss you,” “You’re, uh, you’re not so bad,” etc.)

Tension is a huge aspect of slow burn and you’re going to want to convey that in exquisite detail during the crucial moments. This includes the characters’ immediate environment— how sound suddenly seems to be coming from a long way off, how the person’s presence seems to eclipse everything else in the room, how the air is charged with static in the space between their bodies. As for the characters themselves— who’s blushing? Who’s biting their lip? Whose hands are balling into fists or clutching that coffee mug a bit too tight? Whose pupils are dilated, who suddenly trailed off in the middle of a sentence because they forgot what they were going to say… and then, once you’ve finished setting the stage, you can either pull the rug out from under them with a cockblock ex machina or have them go at it, depending on where you are in the story.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I hope this helps. Best of luck with your writing!

dear reader, you don’t have to answer just ’cause they asked you...

Since trc is officially becoming a television show, here’s my take on “If The Raven Cycle was a Netflix series”.

So, uh. I edited Rey and Kylo’s throne room fight to match Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song.

Game of Thrones fashion | best of season 2 (ladies)

but we’re the greatest they’ll hang us in the Louvre

the signs as historical anecdotes

Aries: The Greek philosopher Diogenes was once captured by pirates and sold into slavery. The slave merchant asked Diogenes what trade he could be sold into (like a carpenter, scribe, etc.). Diogenes said his only skill was leading men, and said that he should be sold to a man who needed a master.

Taurus: In 207 BC, Greek Stoic philosopher Chrysippus died of laughter while watching his drunk donkey eat figs.

Gemini: In the midst of an impassioned debate on the Senate floor, a page delivers a private message to young Julius Caesar. His opponent, Cato, demands the letter be read aloud. Caesar initially refused, but after much pestering, showed the rival senator the note. It was a love letter from Cato’s half sister.

Cancer: The Roman Emperor Caligula made his favorite horse Senator and gave it voting rights. The horse was named Incitatus and had a whole stable in marble complete with furniture and a staff of servants.

Leo: When Alexander the Great was in Corinth, all the great men of the city came to pay him tribute. When he didn’t see Diogenes among them, he went out to find him, and met the philosopher sun bathing next to the barrel he lived in. Alexander, conqueror of half the known world, greeted him and asked if there was anything he could do as a favor to the famous thinker. Diogenes answered, “Yes, move over a little. You’re standing in my sun.”

Virgo: Maria Fedorovna, Empress of Russia and wife of Tsar Alexander III, was known for her charitable works. In fact, she once saved a condemned man from exile in Siberia by changing a single comma in the warrant signed by her husband. Instead of reading: “Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia,” she changed the document to read: “Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.” The man was thus saved and released.

Libra:  The Greek tragedian Aeschylus was killed when an eagle dropped a turtle on his head, after mistaking it for a rock on which to crack open the shell.

Scorpio: Pope Stephen VI didn’t like his predecessor, Pope Formosus, and therefore ordered his remains to be dug up and put on trial. At the infamous “Cadaver Synod” of 897, Pope Stephen VI cross-examined the corpse, declared it guilty, and had it mutilated and thrown in the Tiber River as punishment.

Sagittarius: Hippocleides of Athens got so drunk at a betrothal dinner party he jumped on the dinner table and started dancing like a madman. His prospective father-in-law Cleisthenes of Sicyon told him “Oh son of Tysander, you have just danced away your marriage.” Hippocleides responded with “Hippocleides doesn’t care”

Capricorn: The Persian king Xerxes sentenced the sea to 300 lashes for destroying two of his army’s bridges.

Aquarius: Virginia Woolf and her writer friends successfully tricked the Royal Navy into showing them their flagship, the battleship HMS Dreadnought, by pretending to be Abyssinian princes, dressing up with fake beards, skin darkeners and turbans. (Here’s a picture, Virginia to the far left)

Pisces: In 1518, a “dancing plague” struck Strasbourg, Alsace, whereby hundreds of people danced fervently in the streets over the period of a month. There was no music nor any apparent reason behind it. Some suffered heart attacks or strokes, and many others died from sheer exhaustion.