Hello! Happy Sunday! Just dropping by with a writing question. How do you approach writing relationships? What are your favorite dynamics to write (in general or between specific characters)?

Happy uhhhh... well it is not "Sunday" but it was a Sunny Day-- Happy Sunny Day!

Thanks for the ask, Zac!

I've got two modes when it comes to writing relationships. If I know the plot before I know the characters, and the plot needs a romance (or several...) I think of what kinds of chemistry I want the romance to have: sexual tension, banter, sweet fluff, overly sappy (everyone else within a 10 mile radius is gagging), co-dependent disasters, partners in crime, hates everyone but each other etc. etc. and then I write characters who will behave that way around each other.

If I know the characters before the plot... I just try shipping different combinations of characters together and seeing if I like anything. Despite valiant attempts by me, a straight alloromantic woman, to make my female characters date the hot princes I created specifically so I could project onto their girlfriends, somehow my characters keep ending up either lesbian or aromantic (not all, but like if I had a nickel for every time my hot-prince fantasy was foiled by a fictional lesbian of my own creation...). A few times, even when characters turn out to be straight, they end up dating the person I specifically decided they would not date (generally for "that would be fucked up" reasons...)

In terms of favourite dynamics to write... for straight couples I seem to write a lot of "Cinderella" stories, where one character (not always the girl) is poor and in an abusive situation and the other is royalty or some equivalent. They meet on "neutral" ground, like both are students at the same university or where the royal is hiding their identity. They become friends (with benefits) and it is a nice reprieve for the poor character from their life. Eventually some hurt/comfort ensues, the poor character escapes their abuser, the institution of monarchy is questioned, and they live happily ever after. For queer characters I write a lot of slow burn friends to lovers and established relationships. All my relationships tend to be rife with banter and sexual tension, though my straights tend to get tension from rivals-to-lovers, forbidden love, or the "him? really? That asshole? WHY?" dynamic. My queer relationships tend to get their tension from yearning/pining and the dynamic where one character gets really flustered in the other's presence and the other knows it and is an insufferable flirt about it. IDK why my straight relationships are so different from everything else... it's probably has something to do with projecting a highly unlikely fantasy versus the kind of relationships that are more likely to arise organically.

Art can be such a snitch.