- When they write

- When they don't write

- Being asked what their book is about

- not saving before closing a word doc

Delay What They Want Tension lives in almost. Almost touching. Almost confessing. Almost choosing each other. The longer the delay, the stronger the pull.

Give Them Something to Lose Romance feels electric when it is risky. Friendship, reputation, loyalty, safety. If love costs nothing, tension disappears.

Use Charged Silence Not every moment needs dialogue. A lingering look, a pause that lasts too long, or a breath held in shared space can say more than words.

Let Them Notice Small Details The way their voice softens. The scar on their wrist. The way they remember something no one else does. Attention is intimacy.

Create Emotional Push and Pull One leans in, the other pulls away. One is ready, the other is afraid. This imbalance keeps the dynamic alive.

Add Unspoken Feelings They feel it but refuse to name it. Denial, jealousy, confusion. The tension grows because the truth is obvious to everyone except them.

Use Physical Proximity Carefully Forced closeness can spark tension, but it only works if the emotions underneath are already building.

Interrupt the Moment Just when something might happen, interrupt it. A knock at the door. A phone call. A crisis. Leave both characters and readers wanting more.

Let Conflict Complicate Desire Arguments can intensify attraction. Frustration and chemistry often sit side by side.

Make the Payoff Earned Romantic tension is satisfying because it stretches. When they finally touch, confess, or choose each other, it should feel inevitable and worth the wait.

okay so hear me out: i love romantasy. i am romantasy. but also? a lot of the tropes feel like they've been in a blender set to “medium aesthetic” and we all just nod and go “yes this is fine” while our souls leave our bodies.

so i ranked some of the top romantasy tropes by how EASILY they can be made good again, not which ones are the best, not which ones are ✨dead✨, but which ones are like, 2 rewrites away from being god-tier if you’re willing to do violence to them.

⚠️ this list is subjective. take it up with your protagonist’s tragic backstory.

🥇 1. The Cursed Prince / Beast / Exiled Royalty Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆ Listen. This one is so easy to make interesting again it’s embarrassing when it’s bad. Just add one (1) real consequence. Is he cursed? Cool. Show me how that curse is actively wrecking his life. Exiled? Give me the betrayal scene in detail. Raised by wolves? Show me him eating raw meat like a weirdo. Don’t just make him Hot and Sad. Make him feral and complicated. Bonus points if he doesn’t want to be uncursed. Bonus bonus if the heroine agrees.

🥈 2. The Marriage Trial / Forced Proximity Setup Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆ You can spin this SO MANY WAYS. Make the trial political. Make the contestants unhinged. Make it morally messed up. It stops being boring the moment you stop writing it like a CW love triangle and start writing it like a dark social game. ex: Squid Game but hot. Don’t just have them accidentally touch hands. Have them make alliances and betray each other in the hallway at 3am. Be weird with it.

🥉 3. The Warrior Girl Who Has Never Known Love Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆ The trick is: don’t make her secretly soft. Make her correct. Love should feel like a threat to her survival, not a makeover montage. She doesn’t need to be taught softness, she needs to be loved as is. Give her a love interest who isn’t trying to “fix” her but sees her sharp edges and says “yeah that’ll do.” Instant slay.

👀 4. Enemies to Lovers Difficulty: ★★★☆☆ Controversial take but: most of you are doing rivals to lovers. Or “mild professional disagreement” to lovers. True enemies to lovers is hard because it requires two people to want to ruin each other, and then have to live with that. There needs to be blood on the floor. There needs to be regret. It’s not banter if they wouldn’t kill each other in Act 1. Go full feral or go home.

🔮 5. The Chosen One and the Dark Mentor Difficulty: ★★★★☆ this one is delicious BUT. the power imbalance. the age gap. the moral greyness. the betrayal baked into the bones. it needs to be handled with scary levels of intention. when it’s done right? peak feral epic gothic. when it’s not? feels like a Wattpad fic from 2012 where the teacher falls for the new girl in detention. tread wisely.

🪦 6. The Mysterious Assassin Love Interest Difficulty: ★★★★★ okay. i’m tired. i’ve seen this man too many times. he’s got a dark past, two daggers, and no personality. he exists only to appear at the edge of a ballroom and go “you shouldn’t be here.” if you want to make him interesting again, you need to get into his actual psyche. give him weird rituals. make him bad at normal things. give him a reason he’s choosing murder over healing. or better yet, retire him for a few years. we’ve earned a break.

I’ve created Queer_Ink_Collective, a space for LGBTQ+ creators to share writing, art, and original work in a supportive, low-pressure environment.

Especially welcoming to character-driven stories, romance, emotional narratives, and creative experimentation. I want to really focus on support spaces for self expression and community sharing.

If you’ve been looking for a place to connect, share, or discover new voices, you’re warmly invited.

ONC Round 3 Qualified + Hollywood & the Heartland Updates

Somehow… some way… while drinking my water, minding my business, and posting my little chapters, I blinked and found myself in my soft life author era.

✨ All my books are ranking ✨ My queue is full ✨ My chapters are scheduled ✨ And Hollywood and the Heartland just carried me straight into ONC Round 3

I’m writing with ease. I’m posting with intention. I’m letting the story breathe and bloom at its own pace. And honestly? It feels good here.

Hollywood and the Heartland continues this week with new chapter drops — porch lights glowing, cedar air thick, Judd being Judd, Abrie being impossible, and the Berg family being… the Berg family.

If you’re reading along, thank you. If you’re screaming in the tags, I see you. If you’re here for the Judd Nelson collages… don’t worry. They’re coming.

Soft life. Soft updates. Soft chaos. Strong rankings.

We move.

♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎♡︎

•wrapping their hands around their partner’s waist

•kissing the back of their neck after putting their necklace on

•leaving lipstick stains on their collar/face/body

•holding their partner’s face as they press their foreheads together

•pushing them against a wall just to make them nervous

•feeling nervous as their partner sits on their lap

•wrapping an arm around their partner and proudly claiming them as their s/o

•laying together in a messy bed silently and enjoying each other’s presence

it’s not even the toxic parts that get me anymore

it’s the way you write need the kind that’s messy, a little obsessive, a little too much… but still feels real

the quiet moments after everything intense when it drops just enough to show what’s underneath

that’s the part that sticks

like you can tell when someone means what they’re writing, not just writing it to shock people