5 Tips for Avoiding Alien Shipping Syndrome · 5:54am Feb 9th, 2016
For Valentine’s Day, let’s have some romance writing advice!
Today, I’m going to once again draw on that seminal work, Alien Shipping Syndrome is a Terrible Thing by Chuckfinley. If you haven’t read it yourself, I recommend it, but if you don’t have time or inclination there’s a brief summary below the break.
But what I want to go into here are some concrete tips: Things you can specifically do or not do to try to make sure you don’t end up with a brainworm infestation in place of a romance fic. I’ll also offer examples of these things using some of my favorite (and least favorite) ships, and my alicorn OC Soul Killer as he romances Princess Luna. So there’s something here for everyone!
Alien Shipping Syndrome is a shorthand way of describing a kind of romance story where being “in love” causes the characters to act out of character, often in an imitation of cliches and tropes from RomCom movies, sitcoms, and animes. This results in a story where it feels like the character’s brains have been taken over by alien brainworms, forcing their bodies to act out a romance the characters themselves would never take part in.
If you’re a shipper, it might be hard to recognize ASS in your favorite ships; you can fill in the characters and their reasons for having a relationship yourself, and confirmation bias can help. But reading a ship you’re indifferent to or don’t like, it just seems sooo obvious that the characters are OOC, and what you’re reading is a cliche mess.
This just makes it more dangerous for writers: if you regularly write a ship, you can end up collecting a bunch of followers who will tell you you’re doing just great! But the truth is that you’re just pumping out a low quality drug that they happen to be addicted to, and you’re not improving as a writer or writing stories that can touch people who don’t ship it. There are a few shippers on the site with very high follower counts who would be surprised at the reception of their stories among people who don’t ship their ships, but those people don’t even bother to comment, if they even read them anymore.
And non-shipping writers aren’t off the hook either. I’ve seen some excellent writers try to take a step or two into romance writing and end up with ASS. ASS is based in cliches, so for people who don’t enjoy romance stories, it can easily look like what a romance story is supposed to look like. There are a lot of really good, talented writers with stories where the writing is awesome, but the romance is, well, ASS.
Now, the way to prevent ASS seems simple: think about the ship. Think about the characters involved, whether canon or OC, and about their good points and flaws and how they interact. Think about how they see and feel about love, what they want from a relationship, and use those things to determine how they would act as they developed feelings for each other and tried to pursue them.
But there’s a lot that can get in the way of that: inexperience combined with pop culture exposure to romance cliches, following the bad example of other fics that are already brainworm contaminated, lack of interest in the ships you’re writing, investment in the ship you’re writing leading to bias about how the characters would act. Any of these can allow a writer to lose focus on the characters they’re writing, or brush off a character acting in any way that they deem “unromantic” (even if it’s exactly how the characters involved would feel about or demonstrate their romantic interest.)
So given all of this, I’ve put together a list of tips for protecting your romance story from brainworms. Even more so than other rules of writing, these are not rules. In the same way that some people can have three text conversations and eat a burrito while driving and never have an accident, it’s totally possible to write a fic ignoring all of these and not end up with ASS. And in the same way that some people are perfect drivers and still get in accidents, it’s possible to follow all of these and still end up with it.
But if you follow some or all of these suggestions, you’re less likely to end up with ASS. So it’s worth keeping them in mind.
Tell us why the characters love each other, specifically.
One thing I’ve noticed that’s a symptom of brainworms is the Generic List of Positive Traits. It goes like this:
Rainbow Dash couldn’t wait for another chance to see Applejack. After all, Applejack was awesome: she was beautiful, dependable, and a hard worker; she took care of her family, she was a great athlete and had this down-to-earth common sense.
Now… yes, those are good things about Applejack. But are they what Rainbow Dash would think of as good things about Applejack?
There’s nothing wrong with a character thinking about stuff like that, or listing it off to somepony. What’s awesome about the person they’re in love with is often someone in love’s favorite topic to think or talk about. But it needs to reflect both the character and what makes them special to the character thinking or talking about it.
Rainbow might love that Applejack is hot and athletic.
She might appreciate that Applejack is dependable, because that means no matter how busy she is she never misses their weekly workout. So say that instead.
And, my own preferences aside, it’s not just shared traits and values this works for. Maybe in your mind Rainbow appreciates Applejack’s common sense because she doesn’t have it herself. Say that too.
So, the less brainwormy version is:
Rainbow Dash couldn’t wait for another chance to see Applejack. After all, Applejack was awesome: she was hot and athletic, she never missed their weekly workout, and while Rainbow had to admit that AJ’s common sense sometimes hindered Rainbow's awesomeness, she appreciated that it made her less likely to end up looking dumb. That probably made Rainbow look more awesome, if she thought about it.
That is a much better reason for Rainbow Dash to find Applejack attractive.
Of course I used AppleDash as an example, but it’s the same for any ship. Luna isn’t going to fall in love with Soul Killer (my alicorn OC) because he’s devastatingly handsome or has more magic than anypony else ever. Those are clearly awesome things, which is why Soul Killer is awesome, but those aren’t things that Luna specifically is going to care about. Luna is going to love him because he totally loves the night, and only she understands how much angst he has after the sheer power of his magic killed every pony in a ten mile radius when he was born.
(Hey, I never said this was how you write a good romance story. Just one without brainworms.)
Give at least one negative emotion they feel towards each other or detail they notice.
People in love are not the best judges of their potential partner’s bad qualities, but they aren’t completely unable to conceive of them. They can still notice that another character is boring sometimes, or annoying, or looks kind of weird when they make that one face, or has a big pimple on their cheek. And they don’t love whem for those things, usually, but in spite of them.
So another good tip for avoiding brainworms is to let your character notice something imperfect about their potential mate. They can brush it aside, or joke or tease them about it, but don’t let them love it.
Applejack listened to Twilight drone on about how the spell worked. Even being bored was wonderful when it was Twilight boring her.
Applejack is likely to feel that way because of the brainworm infection she’s currently succumbing to.
But she can be bored by Twilight and still be in love. And if Applejack would be bored by this, that’s what she should do in the story.
If Applejack wasn’t suffering from brainworms, the scene might look more like this:
Applejack listened to Twilight drone on about how the spell worked. It wasn’t too awful, she could watch the cute faces Twi made, and spend the time working out how many rows of new trees she could plant come spring.
Forcing yourself to insert something like this makes you think about the characters as individuals. If you ship something it can be easy to rattle off a dozen things the characters love about each other, but finding something they don’t like means moving past confirmation bias at least a little and actually thinking about how they would interact. For example, despite him hundreds of awesome qualities, I would have to actually consider Soul Killer’s less awesome qualities, and Luna’s character, if I wanted a scene where Luna gets annoyed that Soul Killer woke up Celestia in the middle of the night with his wicked guitar riffs (because Soul Killer sometimes acts without thinking,) or where Soul Killer got annoyed because Luna walked in on his dream about showing up for school with pink bows in his mane.
Write conversations about stuff.
I’ve extolled the virtues of this before, but as a quick rundown: I have found that a couple that only talks about how awesome they each are and how much they love each other is trying to convince someone. A couple that’s really in love talks about stuff: what they did, things they’re interested in, friends, plans for things that aren’t always dates… anything else. When you’re writing a romance, the urge is to not veer off the plot and into a pointless conversation, but there is a point to it: you’re showing, rather than telling, how the couple functions.
Brainworm infected characters are unlikely to be capable of holding a normal conversation:
Rainbow looked down at Macintosh from the branch where she was perched. “You know, you’re really strong.”
“Eyup,” Mac agreed.
“That’s cool. I like being around you. I bet we’d be really good at protecting ponies together.” Rainbow blushed.
Mac blushed as he bucked the next tree. “Don’t mind havin’ you around. You look awful pretty up there.”
This is not a conversation people have when they’re going to have a good relationship. Complementing each other gets old after a while. And more to the point of brainworms, it’s not a conversation Rainbow Dash and Mac would have if they were in their right minds.
Rainbow looked down at Macintosh from the branch where she was perched. “You know, you’re really strong.”
“Eyup,” Mac agreed.
“How much can you press?” Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow.
Mac turned to buck the next tree. “Dunno.”
“We should totally find out sometime.” Her eyes lit up. “Hey, you and Bulk Biceps could have a contest!”
Mac smirked and eyed Rainbow. “Maybe...”
“Oh, come on. It’ll be awesome!” Rainbow flew out of the tree, landing next to Mac and giving him a nudge. “Who doesn’t like a chance to show off?”
Not only does the above give a better picture of what a relationship between Rainbow and Mac might actually look like, but talking about something other than the relationship forces you to once again consider their actual characters just to find a subject of conversation, and that’s going to bring out even more when you consider how they’d approach the subject. Luna and Soul Killer like to go see movies and then discuss how the villain could be redeemed.
Don’t write about characters acting in love.
There are certain behaviors that books, movies, and stories use as a shorthand sign that a character is in love. Blushing and stammering probably top the list, along with avoiding eye contact, stomach butterflies, looking shyly, and giggling. Now, some of these things are things that some characters would do if they were in love, I’m not denying that.
However, these are cliches, and it’s way too easy to use them for characters who wouldn’t act like that to signal to the reader that love is happening. And when you do that, it means that the brainworms have arrived.
“Twilight! It’s-- it’s great to see you again!” Sunset blushed, avoiding Twilight’s eyes as she felt the butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
“You too!” Twilight answered with a smile.
So try not to use them for that.
Yeah, if Sunset has developed a crush on Twilight, she’s going to have a heightened awareness of her presence that’s going to make her feel awkward. But there are other, not as cliche ways to indicate that, and thinking of them forces you to… consider her character!
“Hey, Twilight! It’s great to see you again!” Sunset put her hands in the pockets of her jacket, then decided that looked too fake and took them out again. She smiled and gave an awkward laugh. She had no idea what to do with her hands now, so she settled for crossing her arms across her chest.
“You too!” Twilight answered with a smile.
As a brief aside here, while the original essay didn’t mention it, I would argue that “tsundere” tropes are also a strain of brainworm. Sure, there are characters whose reaction to having a crush will be denial, posturing, or self-defensive attacks. But once again, even if you think that fits the character, don’t fall back on the stock tropes like blushing and stammering. Consider what the character is feeling and show it in a new way that’s right for that character.
For the record, Soul Killer felt kind of awkward when he asked Luna out. He took a lot of deep breaths and mixed up a few lines of the poetry he wrote her. He was really mad at himself afterwards because it was the best poem ever written.
Let your characters know what they’re feeling and why (even if they’re wrong.)
Emotions can be confusing things, but not that confusing. And, on top of that, people are really good at lying to themselves to avoid being confused. If you’re writing about that strange stirring of love awakening in a pony’s heart, frankly they should be able to figure it out pretty quickly, around the time they start thinking the other pony is sexy and they would like to kiss them.
Even if they’re really dense, or in denial for some other reason, they’re probably not going to be confused. They’re more likely to decide this feeling is related to that kind of funky donut in the back of the fridge they ate, or that they’re getting jealous because their friendship should clearly be stronger than some “family emergency” that called their friend away from their daily walk.
In either case, it shouldn’t take more than a paragraph or two for them to “know” what they’re feeling. And while they might need their friends or a kick in the flank to help figure out what they’re actually feeling, in the meantime they should be going about their business with their current theory in mind.
Rarity frowned. Why was she thinking about Applejack again? And why did it make her heart beat like a drum? Applejack was a good friend, but for some reason Rarity couldn’t get Applejack off her mind.
Notice that pesky phrase there: “for some reason.” “Somehow” is another one like that. If a character is willing to leave their feelings at that, the brainworms are at work. A sane character is going to assign a reason, real or not, for the emotions they’re considering. They might realize they’re in love, or they might be in denial, but they’re not going to leave it at “for some reason:”
Rarity frowned. Why was she thinking about Applejack again? Perhaps it meant that Applejack should be the inspiration for her new line! Bright, earthy colors, clean and simple lines, well-toned orange flanks… on the models, of course.
Or, of course, there’s nothing wrong with a character admitting they’re in love. Generally if they don’t, there should be a reason (love is sappy, questioning sexual orientation, too focused on work, etc.)
When Soul Killer first saw Luna, he knew right away that he was in love. Luna thought for a long time that she was hanging around him to try to keep him from using his awesome magical powers to accidentally destroy Equestria before she had to admit that she was getting fond of the whiny little shit.
Now, once again, these aren’t rules, they’re just tips. Most romance writers ignore them regularly. But if you’re worried that you might have infected your characters with brainworms -- whether you’re a new writer who’s having trouble getting readers for your romances, or you’re afraid you’re one of the experienced writers I vaguely mentioned in the opening -- try using these tips for a story. There’s a very good chance it’ll make your story stronger.
And if you don’t believe me, take a look at my little parody running through this. Soul Killer angsts over his tragic backstory, loves the night, plays guitar, writes poetry, and has nightmares about wearing pink hairbows. Luna commiserates with him over his tragic backstory, talks to him about movies in a way they’re both interested in, tries to help him control his magic, and gets annoyed at his stupid behavior. Just to write these silly examples, I ended up giving Soul Killer and Luna more of a relationship that relates to each other than a lot of canon character/OC fics have, and even more than some mane six/mane six ship fics have.
That’s why you avoid brainworms.
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tl;dr sorry not sorry
Wow. Wish I could upvote this blog post. orig04.deviantart.net/3db3/f/2012/363/1/e/clapping_pony_icon___twilight_sparkle_by_taritoons-d5pkpl8.gif
Ah. Explains a lot about Spring is Dumb.
This is a great summation of things to keep in mind in general for portraying a couple in any capacity. I would go as far as saying that the 'conversations about stuff' tip is the most important; I think a story that flubs a bit elsewhere and falls against a cliché or three but still nails the characterization and rapport of the pairing can come out in the black. And the easiest way to get there is by showing that rapport and having the characters feel like themselves through it. That does a heck of a lot of heavy lifting all on its own.
I've actually been thinking about that idea of the conversations about stuff as a function of selling a ship recently, because I happened to cross thought wires between it and the Bechdel Test. While the Bechdel Test is mostly just a bit of commentary about women characters in a lot of mass media, it does illustrate a conceptual idea about the depth of those female characters, since they are reduced to serving as scaffolding for the protagonist's character when the Bechdel Test is failed.
So, if you take the idea of the Bechdel test, fold it inside out, and think of the relationship itself as a character, you start to see some of the similarities. If the couple gets through a whole story without having a conversation that isn't about their relationship, it's not really any different than a movie having female characters who never have a conversation that isn't about the protagonist. The couple is serving as scaffolding for their own relationship. And when it comes right down to it, what makes a romance story interesting isn't actually the abstract idea of a relationship, it's the characters who are in the relationship.
Definitely bookmarking this for later.
I'm tinkering on something that literally has the working title 'Stock Twilestia Story' right now. I think I'm on the right track on most of these, and was very deliberately aiming for the last two, but something I just realized after reading your post is that I don't even touch on the subject of why Twilight is so smitten with Celestia. I've been seeing those two with shipping goggles since the middle of season 1, and I guess it didn't occur to me to even think of the 'why' as an interesting question at this point.
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As a non-TwiLestia shipper, I think that's a really good question to ask. Celestia is so "perfect" in canon, and Twilight is so obsequious towards her, that I have no idea what Twilight might like about her as a pony, let alone what about Twilight might actually attract Celestia in a non-maternal way.
A TwiLestia fic that addressed that would probably be a step above to me, if I were to read it. And I'm probably not alone among people who don't normally ship it.
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Oh, yes. The sycophancy is what makes me think Twilight has a giant crush on Celestia, but it's also a thing that would be a major sticking point in the development of an actual relationship. 'Stock Twilestia Story' is basically an exercise in executing on the standard tropes of a Twilestia story, which means it's very focused on the confession and acceptance. Even so, there's already two little aesops about love in it, and it's gotten me thinking very hard about how both characters would have to change in order to forge a relationship that isn't totally dysfunctional; because make no mistake--as much as I like Twilestia and enjoy interpreting Twilight's neuroses as a crush on Celestia, the way she acts towards her Princess does not have the makings of a healthy relationship.
I think that might turn into a sequel, and I can already tell that figuring out the 'why' for both characters is crucial to that story. Not just 'why does Twilight love Celestia?' and 'why does Celestia love Twilight?', but 'why, in general, would Twilight or Celestia love anybody?'. That last one is important because the answers to the first two aren't necessarily healthy, so answering that last one would help define what a functional relationship would look like for those two, and how they'd have to change to establish one. Maybe that's the hook I should leave myself--answer the question of 'why' at the end of what I'm working on and have the reasons be deliberately shaky.
Tch. I miss being at BronyCon. All the discussion got my brain sparking like this properly. I'm basically thinking out loud at you here.
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Let me know if you get around to writing that. I did a similar thing with aged-up ScootaDash in Best Young Flyer, and I'd be really interested in a similar take on TwiLestia.
I mean I really did want to read this. I'll try again later. It was just difficult.
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Son, it's a site where you read stuff. And it's a Bookplayer blog. You should expect those to go into overtime, especially when examples of what she's talking about are involved.
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I don't think there's many Twilestia stories that actually really address the why. To be fair, most shipfics in general don't. Which is why stuff like Spring is Dumb and Twilight's List are so special - at least in part, anyway.
The thing is, though, it depends on the kind of story on how much depth you're going into about such things. The most important thing, however, is that you, the writer, must be able to articulate what it is that brings these two ponies together. Even if you aren't explicitly stating it in the story, understanding it personally helps you to write them interacting believably; by showing them being themselves together, and showing how it is that they mesh, instead of just using standard romantic shorthand, it makes your stories a lot stronger.
Honestly, I feel like articulating these things in writing, or just coming up with them in your head, is a useful exercise in understanding a ship.
Thinking about this makes me want to revise my ancient project which was basically all about doing exactly that. It might be a valuable resource for folks.
Though I'd have to figure out PinkieShy.
Another wonderful blog post.
These make very worthwhile reads, Bookplayer. I'm glad you're still writing them.
Luna X Soul Killer, OTP.
See here's an interesting thing.
One thing I love doing is playing Alien Shipping Syndrome straight to a degree - some people are a bit like that in a relationship. Namely, teenagers.
Playing with these cliches is a fantastic way to give the audience a way to feel that the relationship is one-sided or superficial in some way, less than wholly healthy or genuine.
But then it's just a question of are you writing good romance bad, or bad romance good.
"No, you're my shmoopy-doopy sweetie-weetie pony pie!"
Also, I'm not going to lie -- I would actually read a story about Luna and Soul Killer.
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Hmm! If I were to do a Twilestia story, I'd derail things by Celestia forcing Twilight to face the fact that a) the elder Princess is not perfect, and b) Twilight is, quite likely, more in love with the idea of Celestia than with the pony herself. She's closer to a worshiper than she is to a lover, and that's not good for either of them.
So the bulk of the story would be about Twilight readjusting to seeing Celestia as a person rather than a concept, and how that means she has to ditch all of her romantic fantasies... but also how she finds something real and more valuable instead.
Or something.
You used the word "ship" so many times at the start of the blog it started to lose its meaning for me. Thankfully you stopped the excessive use before it actually did stop being a word to me.
Gah, I want to punch Soul Stealer in the face and he's not even in a full story, that's some powerful characterization there. Well played bookplayer, well played.
And to clarify I want to punch him in the face for being a whiny little twat and walking cleche storm.
I am not looking forward to the deluge of bad "romance" fics we're about to get this weekend and the following days, probably going to be so much ASS.
And now I have Lady Gaga in my head... .
On the topic of tsunderes, one can go check out Aragon's latest blog post. :D
So I find myself really invested in this Luna x Soul Killer OTP. Epic romance fic when :V
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I agree, that's where it would have to go, but I think that would be even harder than ScootaDash. For one thing, I was able to give ScootaDash a little distance by implying that through Scoots teenage years Dash wasn't around as much, so even if Scoots still had a crush it wasn't like she really knew Dash. And for another, Dash is very clearly not a perfect pony, and any illusions Scoots had to the contrary could be pretty easily shown to be wrong.
Making Twilight actually see Celestia as fallible would be much more difficult. She'd actually have to see Celestia fail in some meaningful way, which we've never even seen in canon[1], then deal with the anger/hurt/confusion/disappointment of realizing that what she thought about her was a deception (or self-deception.)
The other thing you'd need to deal with is Celestia's feelings. I mean, this is someone she's known since she was a little kid, the whole time. With ScootaDash I was able to use that distance to have Scoots kind of reappear in Dash's life as a hot adult pony to get away from the "so... exactly how young was she when you started wanting to sleep with her?" question. But with TwiLestia... that's, um, kind of an important question for Celestia to honestly ask herself.
It's probably doable, but it's a tough sell.
[1] She made a mistake with Chrysalis, but her failure there was just a matter of poor strategy. We've never seen Celestia not make an honorable and good decision. So really, the readers need to be convinced just as much as Twilight does, unlike with Scoots and Dash where the readers totally understand that Dash can be an idiot.
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I can name a failing from that episode, Celestia not believing Twilight's assertion that something was wrong. Not to mention her failings with Luna and Sunset Shimmer.
3743197 Once again, in all of those situations she's acting in good faith, and not out of a character flaw we see. We could headcanon one in, but it's a headcanon.
But all my favorite ships have ASS in them!
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This is the same troll who took over one of my story threads to brag about downvoting my story without even opening it and proceeded to call me a "transfag" and a "retard", with zero provocation. I wouldn't expect much from them.
3743197 Actually, the closest thing to an actual failing we see in her is at both Galas: she's willing to deceive ponies and make trouble for her own selfish enjoyment. We've just never seen it that way because she's been lucky and no one got hurt or killed.
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That's a cop out at best. One mare's good faith is another's ignorance of evidence.
I'll agree that Celestia is deceptive and manipulative, but she's very guilty of ignoring other's perspectives and feelings.
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Every day we get closer to doing just that and living the dream, friendo.
i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee222/merc_the_jerk/where%20do%20you%20think%20we%20are_zpsugqfoeqd.jpg
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I don't see that anywhere in canon. She heard Twilight's evidence, Shining Armor (who she had just as much reason to trust) offered counter evidence, and she felt his story was more likely.
She might be guilty of ignoring Twilight's feelings, but from her perspective Cadance, who considers Celestia family and was just falsely accused of being evil by her future sister-in-law the day before her wedding, would be much more in need of and deserving of comfort.
Okay, finally time for a useful comment.
I think the first of the five is the most important, and it's the one that is more glaringly obvious to me when it happens. I only read five or six stories this Writeoff, and two of them had that problem: why are they in love? The Sunlestia story was the worst offender. Sunset's crush made some sense, because it wasn't really love (either the original or the second time around), but Celestia's interest in Sunset made no sense. I noticed the author slip up and use "I" once for Sunset, so it became obvious that the author was enamored with Sunbutt but hadn't thought about why she might be interested in somepony else (other than unmet needs; the story had "she's old and hard to love because of that" tacked on at the end as a half-hearted attempt).
I'm curious, if you read that story, what your take is on it.
Also, I think some of these can be okay if the story focuses specifically on the topic rather than using it without awareness (or even lampshading it). For example, I love writing Dash as being a lesbian in denial, and she can be as daft as your fifth example when I write her. But in that case, she isn't sane, and that's an important part of the story.
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Except Celestia said she should've trusted Twilight's judgement. Cadance and Twilight were close, too, to the point that Twilight readily welcomes Cadance to her family and Shining Armor sold her on the marriage because of the formal ties to Twilight. Celestia's rejection is believable, but that doesn't make it right.
And, back to the bigger argument is the historical precedence of Luna's descent into Nightmare Moon. Saying Celestia was proactive in preventing that is disingenuous.
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So is saying she wasn't. We literally know nothing about it, except that in hindsight whatever Celestia did or didn't do didn't work.
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I still feel there is enough evidence in canon that shows Celestia is flawed, fallible, and that Twilight is not immune to those facts.
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I think there are hints here and there, but I don't see any hint that Twilight really understands it. To believe that, I'd need to see her in a situation where she actually thinks that Celestia is wrong and stands up to her.
Clearly the greatest acronym ever. :D
Disliking some attribute about the person a character is in love with is incredibly important. A lot of strife in relationships occurs because negative traits, which one partner thought they would iron out of the other, have persisted in the face of all assault. Just as much strife comes from traits that one partner never even knew the other had until well into the relationship. In both cases each partner is surprised, often angry, and prone to bitterness.
Of course, that's all post falling in love and committing. Which, if you ask me, is the most interesting phase of a relationship.
I can't possibly express on words how much I loved this blog post, but I'm going to try anyway because that's what comments are for. I loved Chuck's Alien Shipping Syndrome blog; I took that shit to heart because it put into words something I'd been annoyed about for what felt like forever -- so referring to that as "a seminal work" was a great start, because I'm a fangirl like that -- but Christ Almighty, didn't the rest of the blog deliver.
Romance, as a genre, is surprisingly hard to write -- at least if one judges by the results. I've personally written in lenght about this issue (I'm not gonna link it here because promoting myself sounds absolutely unsavory, and adds nothing to the discussion) but in a way more caustic way, so seeing it under a more technical light is really damn satisfying. It's astounding just how many bad, or downright offensive romances are out there.
Moving to the blog -- the "why the characters are in love" is something that has been bothering me for ages -- the only thing worse than them listing a bunch of generic reasons (which, as you said, really makes them feel like they're not in love at all) is when they just say that "they don't know", or just say something that doesn't make sense. My favorite is, without any doubt, "because s/he is kind". For some reason, just saying that X character is "nice" and then have that as the justification for the romance seems to be to be the pinnacle of ASS. It's literally the writer shrugging and saying "eh, whatever." That, at best. At worst, it's just a sign that the writer doesn't really understand how the whole love thing works -- or that there's a belief that acting like a normal, educated human being is enough a reason to get laid. Yikes.
Also, although it shames me to recognize it, I'd never really thought about how making the characters talk about stuff is a great way to build the relationship. I don't personally write romance and I'm fond on the seinfeldian conversation thingy, so thank God for avoiding that mistake, but I really never stopped to ponder about this. It certainly makes a lot of sense in hindsight; a lot of the romantic stories I've enjoyed in the past sure have conversations about everything and nothing thrown in there. They don't even need to advance the plot, for sure.
As Chuck said, though, having two characters talk only about how they're in love tends to be just a case of (major or minor, it depends) immaturity on the writer's side. It's based on the lack of experience, so they think that people in love talk only about being in love. It's just trying to drive the point home, I guess? It sure feels grating, or that they are indeed trying to prove a point, so yeah. Writing that down, just in case.
So yeah, long story short -- great post. Soul Killer and Luna ended up being a better couple than many ships out there, so the thing is proven to hell and back, that's for sure.
P.S.: Also, the "Tsundere" bit -- yeah, I won't cross-promote, but as 3742980 says, my latest blog post is just 3,000 words ranting about why that's a harmful archetype. I hate that goddamn cliché so much, holy shit.
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I totally agree inexperience is a major cause. I've loved the original Alien Shipping Syndrome essay since I read it, and I link it all over the place. But it's one of those things where it does an awesome job of identifying the problem, but since inexperience is the cause I think it can be hard for people who are writing ASS stories to have any clue what to do to not do that. And while Chuck points out that actually thinking about the relationship is the answer... I've been involved with shipping for long enough to know that shipping goggles are among the most powerful forms of magic in our world.
So I wanted to give a list of "Do This. Write this. Don't write that." that would force even people with shipping goggles strong enough to argue seriously that FlutterDash is canon, or whose total experience with romance so far is their crush on their best friend's sister, to actually think about it as a relationship between characters.
I don't know how many of them will read this, I hope people will link it when they find those people, but I thought it would be a useful addendum to Chuck's piece.
And as soon as Present Perfect mentioned it I went and read your blog on Tsundere, then I had to read the two prequels. Not quite the way I'd phrase everything, but I totally agreed with your first one and your Tsundere blog. The one on the Twilight Love Interest I was a little iffier on, just because I can see the roots of those characters in Byronic heroes over the past two hundred years or so, and I think there's more going on there then teenagers liking unhealthy relationships. But that's really just a quibble, I totally got your points.
Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed this! Once again, feel free to link it if you find places or authors who would find it useful.
Yet another blogpost that I need to bookmark.
If fimfiction was a library, your blogposts would be constitute a hefty chunk of the reference section.
So much romance to write, so little time!
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I'm afraid that was just a garden variety typo. No hidden Freudian meanings involved.
The biggest reason I wrote this fic was because I'm pretty sure there's exactly 0 Sunlestia fics on the entire site. It's clearly a niche that doesn't know it needs to be filled. That being said, I've never written romance with Celestia before, nor written much of Celestia at all, really, so I didn't put as much thought into the story as it needed. I think in part, because my original concept for the idea would've been a considerably longer, chaptered fic that delved into the romance with a lot more detail. But I didn't wanna put in that much effort, so I used the idea for a writeoff instead.
Oh well. That being said, your feedback (And that of others) was rather valuable in identifying the problems with the fic, and (I hope) in fixing them for the story's eventual publication. This blog post was also directly going through my mind as I rewrote the ending last night.
I want a Soul-Killer fic now.
Or any fic with a 'rediculous' OC that is actually interesting rather than just plain stupid.
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I liked the story overall, it just needed to make more sense.