"LESBIAN LIVES!" - Chyler Leigh

I think it’s actually quite sweet. In the beginning, they were just one night stands to each other, so Carina was more attracted to Maya physically. Then, as she got to know Maya better, she realized that Maya was actually a charming and soft person underneath all her hard layers. With time, Carina fell more in love with her everyday. And now, after being married to Maya, and after going through the good days and the extremely bad days, Carina still was hopelessly in love with Maya. She was also so afraid of getting hurt again but she still can’t help feeling all sort of tingling things towards Maya so she (they both) tried really hard to express her love and affection towards Maya in a very calculated and cautious way.

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Carina on when she just met Maya- “I’m gonna sleep with this woman.”

Dating Carina to Maya- “(finding a different excuse everyday to visit the station) so did I when you and I first started dating.”

Married Carina to Maya- “like I have a crush on her or something”

Check out this wildmoore kiss right here (gif by @bat-ryan). Looks hot, right? Look at that lighting, the lingering camera, their clear faces. It's a great kiss, part of a great scene.

But I think we can only see how truly amazing it is when we put it in context. Most [f/f or wlw or sapphic or whatever we call them] kisses on TV are absolute shit—either hair in the face or terrible lighting or bad editing or strange camera angles or sometimes, for funsies, all of that at once!

Take this trip down memory lane, for example:

Root x Shaw: Hair. Hair. Hair in every shot, from every angle. This had to feed us for literal months and kind of turned out to be the best we got AND WE CANNOT SEE ROOT'S FACE AT ALL.

Root x Shaw: I mean what even is this? Soft and loving and wonderful but there are like 45 things between Root's face and the camera

Alex x Maggie: Hair. Alex, I love you more than life itself but move your fucking hair.

Alex x Kelly: Terrible lighting. I don't even like this ship but damn why the fuck aren't they lighting Azie?? I mean other than the racism.

Sara x Ava: HAIR HAIR HAIR HAIR

I don't even know who these people are but literally what the fuck is this

Dani x Jamie: HAIR and weird side-boob-prioritizing camera angle. The hair wouldn't be a problem if they TURNED SLIGHTLY so we could see their cute little faces.

Imagine Me and You: They're literally both pulling the hair away but the camera angle still hates us. It's like the cinematographer thought they were filming a shampoo commercial or something.

Che x Miranda: LIGHT. THEIR. FACES.

So not only have Batwoman, Wildmoore, and Camrus given us a longer, hotter, funnier, Blacker, and overall better sex scene than anyone else, they made sure to (a) move Sophie's hair out of the way in a v sexy manner, (b) frame them perfectly, (c) have Ryan turn towards the camera, (d) LIGHT THEM THE WAY BLACK WOMEN SHOULD BE LIT, (e) use their fucking lips. We can see their full faces, hot as shit.

They're not trying to hide that this is a kiss, not trying to appease homophobes. They are not prioritizing straight, homophobic, racist viewers over those who want to see this kiss. They filmed this for people who are into this ship, or could be into it, or think it's fucking hot.

They actually filmed this kiss, and this entire scene, like it's something desirable and worth watching. Like Black queer love is worth lighting, filming, showing, and revering.

Kara: Just say "I'm sorry for your loss", then move on.

[One minute later]

Every writer inevitably gets to that scene that just doesn't want to work. It doesn't flow, no matter how hard you try. Well, here are some things to try to get out of that rut:

1. Change the weather

I know this doesn't sound like it'll make much of a difference, but trust me when I say it does.

Every single time I've tried this, it worked and the scene flowed magically.

2. Change the POV

If your book has multiple POV characters, it might be a good idea to switch the scene to another character's perspective.

9/10 times, this will make the scene flow better.

3. Start the scene earlier/later

Oftentimes, a scene just doesn't work because you're not starting in the right place.

Perhaps you're starting too late and giving too little context. Perhaps some description or character introspection is needed before you dive in.

Alternatively, you may be taking too long to get to the actual point of the scene. Would it help to dive straight into the action without much ado?

4. Write only the dialogue

If your scene involves dialogue, it can help immensely to write only the spoken words the first time round.

It's even better if you highlight different characters' speech in different colors.

Then, later on, you can go back and fill in the dialogue tags, description etc.

5. Fuck it and use a placeholder

If nothing works, it's time to move on.

Rather than perpetually getting stuck on that one scene, use a placeholder. Something like: [they escape somehow] or [big emotional talk].

And then continue with the draft.

This'll help you keep momentum and, maybe, make the scene easier to write later on once you have a better grasp on the plot and characters.

Trust me, I do this all the time.

It can take some practice to get past your Type A brain screaming at you, but it's worth it.

So, those are some things to try when a scene is being difficult. I hope that these tips help :)

These aren’t chips:

These are chips: