Ah yes chemistry. The most forgotten aspect of modern romance stories. But fear not my fellow writers. These posts are here to aid you! Let us begin the discussion!
What is Chemistry?
So first off, what the heck am I even talking about? Well when I say chemistry I’m talking about the chemistry between people. The sparks that fly. What is it that makes these two people attracted to each other. Most books will say looks. I’m just being honest. Most books I read have the only thing in of liking a person is “wow look at how hot they are” and sure I get it. Looks is probably the first thing you’re going to notice. But it shouldn’t be the only thing noticed. And the other thing shouldn’t just be “they’re nice”. People SHOULD be nice to others by default. Don’t have people fall in love with niceness. It makes them one dimensional. Or you’ve established that their standards are extremely low.
But back on track.
When you write two people liking something about each other usually you’re looking at two things:
1. Things they have in common.
This can be anything. Maybe they both like books or music. But the trick is to not make it too broad. Maybe instead of just liking books, they both like the same authors or have the same favorite book? Maybe they like the same genre of music or share appreciation for what they believe to be a highly underrated artist? Add more complexity to those things. Lots of people like books and music. You have to show why THIS specific person caught your characters attention. And to do that, you need to make what they have in common more specific. Giving them similar/ intertwining goals helps too.
2. Things they respect about the other.
Meaning that they should consider each other equals. Putting the partner on a pedestal lowers the characters own self worth just as badly as placing themselves above the partner lowers theirs. Both are bad. Don’t do either. Both should be putting in the same amount of work and have the same amount of baggage on the table. It doesn’t mean they have to have the exacts same kind of background or personality, but they should still be one the same page. They should be able to understand why their partner thinks a certain way and consider that a good way to broaden their horizon on certain topics. If you ever have a reader ask “why would these two ever get together?” You may need to rethink your parallels.
What isn’t Chemistry?
I find with this topic one of the easier ways to easier understand what chemistry is, is to also know what it isn’t. And with that I’d Ike to bring up parallel dynamics. You know the ones I’m talking about. Rich x poor. Nice x naughty. Tall x small. You see them written on fanfics constantly. However, a lot of the time these opposite traits are the only thing connecting the characters. That’s because these are used more for aesthetic instead of looking into what makes these dynamics... dynamic. And that’s not enough. You can’t just slap two or three of these dynamics on a couple then call it a day. (Even worse if there’s only one.)They have to have complimenting traits. Things that make them better together than apart. That’s not to say they should only have complementing traits, they will definitely have conflicting ones too. But the compliments should overshadow those. Let’s use the tall x small example. The easiest way to show this is have the tall person hate being tall and the short person hate being short. But maybe through interacting with each other the partner brings to light all the great stuff about being their size. They get more comfortable with themselves because of the influence of the other person. Turning something they dislike about themselves into a positive area of personal growth. (Personal growth meaning loving yourself and striving to be a better person for the sake of your own well being and happiness.) In addition to that, it’s very important that the two people actually LIKE one another. I feel like this needs to be mentioned because a lot of the times in books, characters will either just get into heated arguments then make out or fight and have that be called “sexual tension”. The problem is that neither of those things really means the two like each other. It shows they are attracted to each other. Which isn’t the same thing. A character can think a person is attractive and still not want anything thing to do with them. The two things are not mutually exclusive.
Pace
Now most people don’t think about this, but the pace of chemistry is actually really important. If you have all the stuff happen to fast there’s nothing to let the readers sink into and makes to romance not as investing as other parts of the story. (Which is fine if your not writing a romance story) Or if you have it too long and it actually drags out other parts of the story. This is usually defend by people saying it’s a slow burn, but... let’s be real. Almost every single romance out there is a slow burn. For some reason young writers seem to think that slow burn romance is the default of writing relationships. But don’t confuse “slow burn” with “developed”. A romance isn’t well written simply because of the suspense of two characters getting together after a long time. It’s just that it usually takes a while to fully flesh out different parts of the relationship. Or you can just skip it all and have them together before the story even starts. There’s no rule saying you can’t. But the readers do need to believe the two people actually like one another. And that usually takes some time showing how they interact and get to know one another. They have to each be able to picture the other person as a potential partner before a serious relationship can develop.
Your pairing should make each other happy. Laughing together, crying and comforting in hard times, simply enjoying spending time with one another. Like how close friends do. THATS what shows the two have chemistry. Not them both coming out of an old broom closet with slighting messed up shirts. If the two want to do naughty stuff together you can have them just... talk about it with each other? Like regular people do? Because spur of the moment lust doesn’t have to have any feelings behind it. And please don’t make them fight for the sake of drama either. Granted, there will be bumps in the road sometimes, but good couples can get past most of those pretty easily by simply communicating.
(Notice how so many stories have couples almost break up over mostly avoidable misunderstandings?Just having them talk to each other usually stops this from happening.)
They should each other to be better at their low points and find happiness when their partner is at their high points. If they aren’t doing that, then they might need to see a couples counselor. Or just... you know...
break up.
Thanks for reading! That concludes the second post of this topic! I have more coming later so stay tuned! Feel free to leave your comments below. And if you want to read more (trust me I have lots) be sure to go to the lessons archive wiki below or link in my bio for more posts and how to sort through them all! Happy hunting!
Comment