Daydreams and Creativity

November Book Photo Challenge

Day 7 - Leaves

Arya.

This honestly started as a sketch, but now it’s part of a bigger Dust cover I’m working on for my Inheritnace Collection.

Really surprised I finished a drawing actually. It’s been rough lately.

Shelfconfidence BPC | July | Day 16: Most unique premise

Derk was sick of falling backward into his trench, but he never had time to invent a different way of being killed.

Look what’s here ☝🏼

Hi, love!  Thanks for your question and your patience<3  I’m currently writing somethingsimilar to this, so I hope my experience can help you here!

Enemies-to-lovers is a popular trope, but it’s often treatedcarelessly by writers – especially TV/movie writers who rush through thetransition to fit a single movie or episode arc.  There’s nothing worseyou can do in this situation than to rush your arc.  Falling in love isalready a time-consuming plotline – but transitioning from enemies, who arealready shutting each other out, to lovers?  The quicker it happens, theless believable it becomes.

I have a lot of notes on how to write enemies to lovers, sobear with me as I list them out.

Writing Enemies to Lovers: The Basic Ingredients

1. Give them some similar traits.

No matter what, two people can’t fall in love if they don’trelate on some level.  The first step to creating possible love interestsis to find where they’ll connect.  Are they a hero and a villain? Evil and good?  Night and day?  I bet they both love animals. Maybe they’re both way into politics.  Maybe they share a commonenemy.  Maybe they’re both neat freaks or a bit sassy or super gay or lovethe same music.  It can be a few important things or a bunch of superficialthings – just make sure they have something that can tie themtogether.

2. Put them on the same side of something.

When two people are mortal foes, it can be hard for them tosee each other in any other light.  Bringing in a common enemy (ananti-hero, a natural disaster, a person in power), or a common interest (amutual friend, a school play, a moral cause), can land foes on a teamtogether.  This forces them to become aware of each other’s strengths, andto consider (and worry about) each other’s weaknesses.  This is perfectfodder for an eyebrows-raised, “Hey, they don’t suck at this particularthing,” moment.

3. Get them alone.

With other people watching (especiallyfriends/coworkers/allies), little groundwork can be made for your twohate-lovers.  If you get your characters alone together, you’re given abounty of opportunities to bond them, including but not limited to: actualconversations, accidental (or faux-accidental) physical contact, the sneakymoment of checking each other out, etc. etc. etc.  People are differentwhen you get them away from their friends – less extreme, less rowdy, lessunreachable.  If you have to trap your characters in an elevator theold-fashioned way, damn it, you’re the only one who can do it.

4. Let them fight their feelings.

If these two are truly enemies, there isn’t going to be amoment of, “Oh, I like them.  Huh.  Neato.”  Oh, no. There will be internal backlash – they will beat their emotions back with abroom, and deny them to anyone who asks.  There will be extra hatefulglares, more middle fingers, and basically anything they can do to remindthemselves that they don’t like this person.  If you show thisinternal conflict, it both (a) makes the feelings seem real, organic, and (b)creates a more realistic transition from hate to love.

5. Love can sound like hate.

There’s a reason people say indifference is the trueopposite of love.  When your two enemies start to feel things foreach other, this will probably spark a lot of ranting, arguing, anddoor-slamming.  It creates a fixation – you sit there and you stew andyou tell your friends, “Remember when they did thatstupid thing?  Yeah.  Screw them.”  Your friends roll theireyes.  When will you stop talking about this person?  Just kiss themalready.

6. Sexual tension is a powerful tool.

If your characters experience sexual attraction, this is agreat way to accelerate their relationship against their will.  It’s theage-old, “My mind says no but my body says yes,” dilemma.  Yourcharacters can’t stand each other, or the image they have of each other, butthey’re attracted like magnets and can’t shake it.  This can make for somepretty hot – or pretty hilarious – scenes.

7. Give them a moment of horrified realization.

Eventually, the feelings will grow strong enough that one orboth of them will have to sit there, probably on the bathroom floor a littlebit drunk with one sock on, and realize: “I love that f*cker.”  It’llbe a scary moment for them.  It’s not that they haven’t known it – theyjust have yet to accept that it’s something to deal with, until now.  Thiscan be prompted by a dangerous situation, a shared activity, or a failed attemptat another romance – so when they really sit and think about it, theyknow.  Then it becomes a question of either “how do I get rid of this?”or “how do I pursue this?”.

8. Try their hand at flirting.

Whether one or both characters have come to accept theirfeelings, someone’s gotta start flirting.  A glancing touch across thearm; a small comment that could kind of be construed as amicable; a lingeringglance; that first peek at their enemy’s smile.  Something cute and quickand immediately followed by an existential crisis will do in a pinch. Without this water-testing, readers won’t have any image of what thisrelationship will look like – and if it can succeed.

9. Craft the perfect kiss/hug/confession.

When the time is right, create an undeniable display ofattraction to transition into a new phase of their relationship:the “welp-we-both-like-each-other” phase, which comes right beforethe “we-decided-to-(stay-platonic/start-romancin’)” phase.  The BigKiss/Confession is the most iconic climactic love scene, in which the twocharacters take a chance and become vulnerable with each other – and kiss, orsay, “I love you,” or do anything that can’t be construed in any otherway.  Want to extend the drama?  Interrupt them, or have it beone-sided, or let it turn into a fight until they decide, “Forget it, thiswas stupid.”  Readers will swoon.

10. Finish up with an awkward adjustment period.

If and when your characters do enter a relationship, makesure it’s a little tentative at the beginning, to keep it realistic.  Yourcharacters have made a huge shift in their dynamic – there will be somelingering arguments and love-hate, and maybe a bit of discomfort going publicwith their romance.  Then come the usual growing pains of a new relationshipgetting serious – figuring out how to navigate each other’s flaws, learning tobe open with their feelings, dealing with unresolved fights from before theirrelationship.  It won’t be perfect right away.  That’s the beauty of it.

I hope this helps you, love!  I adore love-haterelationships, and I hope you enjoy crafting your own enemies-to-lovers as muchas we’ll all love reading them :)  Good luck!

– Mod Joanna ♥️

“Bitch I’ve been fighting for this shit for 200 fucking years, you think you know more than me?”

“I’ve been with my wife for 173 years and we’re ruining marriage?”

King of Night and Rose … hmm. 🤷‍♀️

Ron bringing Hermione tea. – Patreon commission for dameintoyland! 

“I would like a Ron and Hermione piece (probably not a surprise). I’d like something showing them during a kind of slice of life moment when they are grown up with some intimacy. An scene I was thinking of recently is Hermione working late in their study and Ron bringing her tea and food. I can see Ron affectionately kiss the top of her head before leaving to let her work more. I’d prefer a black Hermione, but whatever inspires you works for me.” I’ve been quite ill with bronchitis since xmas (thus the lack of art) but finally, for the first time since CHRISTMAS was able to sleep lying down and my body is so happy. Finally able to draw now! Expect more art this week!

Please reblog if you like this! :) 

Me:

Beast: Really? Let me see…. Huh, actually it look like some guy called Gaston is going to have him committed.

Belle: What now? *Grabs mirror*

Beast: you know that guy? he seems like a douche.

Belle: Beast…. Honey…. you wanna get out of the house for a few hours?

Beast: Against my better judgement, I’m gonna say yes.

*Later*

Belle: FLEE MORTALS, I AM ARTEMIS, GODDESS OF THE WILD HUNT, AND I HAVE COME FOR YOU.

Beast: HEY NOT THAT I’M NOT HAVING FUN BUT WHY ARE YOU NAKED?

Belle: ARTEMIS, GODDESS OF THE WILD HUNT DOES NOT REQUIRE CLOTHES.

Beast: I HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS SIDE OF YOU BEFORE AND I’M NOT GONNA LIE I KIND OF DIG IT.

Belle: YEAH I’M HAVING FUN TOO. HEY ITS LEFOU, GASTON’S LITTLE CHEERLEADER. GET HIM!

Beast: YES MA’AM!

- when the person kidnapped by the villain is all ‘no one’s going to come for me’ and 

- someone does, but it’s the person they’d least expect

- EVERYONE COMES because wow, maybe I am depressed because I didn’t think I knew this many people, much less that they liked me

- no one comes and the villain gets pissed on their captive’s behalf and treats them better than their former associates did

- they rescue themselves and everyone’s so impressed but the person yells because I AM CAPABLE AND YOU SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST NOTICED I’D BEEN KIDNAPPED

- they get rescued by a deus ex machina, preferably their dad/mom/grandma/old associate who is exponentially cooler than the heroes 

There’s a pelican so huge you can’t possibly dive down far enough to evade its beak

If you get bitten by a deep-sea shark when it comes up to the surface to die, you’ll transform into one and have to live in the abyss

Hagfish can fill up a dead mermaid, make it look alive and use it to trick you

A mysterious mermaid wanders at night waiting to startle you with the horrible crustacean in her mouth. If you flinch, she steals your tongue and leaves the creature in its place.

You might think you’ve made a nice new friend who just doesn’t talk much until she grabs you with her metal hook hands and drags you away on an invisible line to get eaten by land people

If you eat too many jellyfish, one might turn out to be a vengeful jellyfish ghost that will only choke you to death from the inside*