Hey Lebede

morpho books

figure drawing for all it's worth (+ creative illustration)

framed ink

will eisner comics and sequential art

will eisner graphic storytelling and visual narrative

understanding comics (+ making comics)

folder of various animation production art

burne hogarth drawing dynamic hands

perspective for comic book artists

michael mattesi force drawing

the animator's survival kit

color and light james gurney

Like:

“My light” (Xena)

“My source” (Xena)

“Only friend” (Xena)

“Sweetheart” (Xena)

“My soulmate” (Xena)

“Little one” (Aphrodite)

“Xena’s little bitch” (Alti)

Don’t like:

“Irritating blonde” (Callisto, Ares, Joxer)

“Useless tag-along” (Janice)

“Pesky little friend” (Ares)

“Blonde harpy” (Ares)

“Blondey” (Tara)

"race is a social construct": a bit harder to swallow for some but still reasonable

me:

"I didn't know where else to go… so I came here."

"Can I stay? Just for tonight?"

"You make me feel like I'm not too much."

"I'm scared you'll stop loving me if I show you everything."

"I don't need you to fix it. Just… be here."

"You remembered. No one ever remembers."

"I didn't know love could feel like this."

"I didn't know how much I needed this until now."

"You always were my home."

"I don't know how to ask for help without feeling like a burden."

"I'm trying so hard not to cry right now."

"You're the only person who makes me feel safe."

"I didn't think anyone would notice I was hurting."

"Everyone needs someone to lean on sometimes."

"You can always lean on me. I will hold you up."

"I'm just so tired of it all. But never of you."

"We are not there yet, but I know eventually we will be."

"I wish I could be the version of me you see."

"I don't know how to be okay without pretending."

"With me, you will never have to pretend."

"I'm scared of what happens if I let you love me."

kissing is never JUST kissing. It's never just two mouths colliding. If that's all that's happening, your scene is a wet napkin. A kiss in fiction (and yeah, okay, in life too) is a loaded little explosion of everything unsaid, and that's exactly where you want to dig your greedy narrative fingers.

Ask yourself: why now? Why are these two (or more.hey, I'm not here to kinkshame) kissing right now in the story? What's the emotional temperature? Not just "they like each other," but, are they angry? Scared? Confused? Desperate? Did one of them just save the other from falling off a building and now they're like "oops, my tongue is in your mouth"? Cool. Love that. But tell me what it means.

Because the kiss is never about lips. It's about stakes. Something is changing in the dynamic. The air is shifting. The line is being crossed, whether they're aware of it or not.

And while we're here, can we stop with the lip clichés? "His lips crashed into hers." "Their mouths moved in perfect sync." Are they a dance crew? Are they syncing Bluetooth? Please. I beg of you. Give me something real. Give me shaky hands and awkward nose bumps. Give me inner monologue chaos. Give me one of them panicking because they just realized this is actually happening and what the hell do they do with their hands? Hell, give me teeth clacking if the mood fits. (You know you've had at least one kiss where that happened. Don't lie.)

The kiss is not just for the reader, NO, it's for the character. Your job isn't to write the kiss your readers are expecting. Your job is to write the kiss your character has been inching toward. The one that makes them stop breathing for a second. The one that flips some switch in their ribcage and makes them go, oh.

So don't zoom in on the mechanics. Zoom in on the impact. Zoom in on the character who was absolutely sure they weren't in love until this exact second. Zoom in on the character who's been pushing the other away and finally lets them in for half a heartbeat. Zoom in on the terrified, heart-thudding quiet after the kiss, when neither of them knows what to say because the world just kind of... shifted a little.