One thing I find challenging in fanfiction is getting characters together in a convincing way, whether 'getting them together' means making them kiss, getting them to have sex, or getting them into a full-fledged romantic relationship.
I mainly write short one-shots, so there's not much scope for a slow-burn relationship build. In the Visitorverse for Assassin's Creed, by far the longest thing I've ever written, chemistry happened to build over time between Aveline and Shay and, later, between Aveline, Shay and Haytham, so getting them together felt like a natural progression. In most of my fics, though, I need to find some sort of catalyst to throw characters together.
I thought it might be interesting to go through my fanfiction and see the recurring patterns in how I get characters to interact in a sexual/romantic way. Well, it might be interesting for me, at any rate.
For the purposes of this exercise, I'm just looking at my main AO3 account, which houses the fanfiction I've written since 2013. I'm specifically considering fanfiction in which characters kiss, have sex or otherwise have an unambiguously romantic/sexual interaction, rather than just things with shippy vibes. If something fits into multiple categories, I've prioritised the most specific category. I've omitted fics about established relationships, and a couple of fics that include so many ships they'd be a nightmare to categorise.
For readability, I've just included the number of applicable fics under each category, rather than titles/links. If a particular category sounds like your thing, though, feel free to ask me for the list of fics that fall into it!
( Patterns in how I get characters together in fanfiction. )
I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing this kind of fic-by-fic analysis yourself; it's probably more effort than it's worth! But I'd be interested to hear if you've noticed any patterns in how you tend to get characters together in fiction. Do you have any favourite techniques you rely on?
I mainly write short one-shots, so there's not much scope for a slow-burn relationship build. In the Visitorverse for Assassin's Creed, by far the longest thing I've ever written, chemistry happened to build over time between Aveline and Shay and, later, between Aveline, Shay and Haytham, so getting them together felt like a natural progression. In most of my fics, though, I need to find some sort of catalyst to throw characters together.
I thought it might be interesting to go through my fanfiction and see the recurring patterns in how I get characters to interact in a sexual/romantic way. Well, it might be interesting for me, at any rate.
For the purposes of this exercise, I'm just looking at my main AO3 account, which houses the fanfiction I've written since 2013. I'm specifically considering fanfiction in which characters kiss, have sex or otherwise have an unambiguously romantic/sexual interaction, rather than just things with shippy vibes. If something fits into multiple categories, I've prioritised the most specific category. I've omitted fics about established relationships, and a couple of fics that include so many ships they'd be a nightmare to categorise.
For readability, I've just included the number of applicable fics under each category, rather than titles/links. If a particular category sounds like your thing, though, feel free to ask me for the list of fics that fall into it!
( Patterns in how I get characters together in fanfiction. )
I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing this kind of fic-by-fic analysis yourself; it's probably more effort than it's worth! But I'd be interested to hear if you've noticed any patterns in how you tend to get characters together in fiction. Do you have any favourite techniques you rely on?
