rionaleonhart | The Orgies Are Fine; It's The Jazz I Can't Stand.

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The Orgies Are Fine; It's The Jazz I Can't Stand.

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!

'Hey, want to kiss/have sex?': eight fics

This is a pretty broad category, so I'm not surprised it's the largest! However, it ties with a much more specific category:

Somehow inheriting relationships from a different version of yourself: eight fics

I hadn't realised I'd written this so often! But, thinking about it, it's not a huge surprise. I'm fascinated by alternate universes or timelines and how feelings might leak across from them, or the complicated experience of interacting with someone who's not quite the person you know.

Kissing/sex for mindgames or other ulterior purposes: seven fics

Oh, this one is fun. I don't imagine anyone's surprised that all my non-gen Death Note fanfiction falls into this category.

A physical fight turns into kissing/sex: six fics

A classic. If one character pins another to the floor during a fight in a fic I've written, you can be pretty sure that they're about to make out.

Natural progression from flirting/actually being mutually attracted to each other, what a concept: six fics

Coming to view someone differently in mutual isolation, either physical or psychological ('nobody else knows what we've been through'): five fics

A favourite of mine! I'm a little surprised this category isn't larger.

Kissing/sex in the face of approaching death or apocalypse: four fics

This is a great setup for extremely unhappy intimacy between characters who might not be intimate otherwise, which is something I always enjoy.

Misreading what someone wants, or enduring unwanted intimacy for someone else's sake: three fics

Kissing someone who isn't expecting it: three fics

I need your help to feel something physical, whether out of desperation or curiosity: three fics

Let's just bang for stress relief: two fics

I thought I'd have written this more often! Huh.

Playing some kind of intimacy chicken: two fics

Walking in on a sexual situation and getting invited in: two fics

Established couple invites someone else in without getting walked in on: two fics

Multiple existing relationships happen to link up into an orgy: two fics

Feelings changing for someone after picking up the possibility that they're attracted to you: two fics

Just kind of happens, let's gloss over the details: two fics

Love confession/'hey, want to be in an actual relationship?': two fics

It seems weird that I pretty much never write love confessions! But I'll be honest: I'm not a big fan of writing about clear, healthy romantic communication. It's just not something that tends to interest me in fiction!

And then there are the categories I've only written one fic each for, ranging from 'a common trope I only happen to have written once' to 'yeah, that's pretty specific':

Sleeping with other people to avoid feelings for a specific person: Closing the Circle (If We Were Villains, Oliver/everyone).

Kissing someone while half-asleep: Wasteland (Final Fantasy VIII, Squall/Zell).

Kissing practice: Education (Final Fantasy XV, Prompto/Gladio).

Hatekissing, but not during a physical fight: Material Evidence (Do Revenge, Drea/Eleanor).

Banging in a shared dream: Close Your Eyes (Danganronpa V3, Shuichi/everyone).

I need to kiss you so we'll both dream about hell tonight: See Where You Belong (The Book of Mormon, Price/McKinley).

Sleeping with someone in a workplace ritual at the instruction of your boss: The Fourth Temper (Severance, Mark/Helly).

Under the influence (of being a werewolf): Burning (The Quarry, Travis/Laura).

Just kind of feels like I should kiss you as I pull this sword out of your chest: Eternity's Edge (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Utena/Anthy).

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?

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This is really interesting! Thank you for sharing it.

the complicated experience of interacting with someone who's not quite the person you know.

Oh, excellent point. Cutting through established patterns of interaction is always tricky and using an alternate universe or the like to provide a different perspective... I like this idea a lot.

I'm glad this could be interesting! And I love the idea of alternate universes helping to cut through established patterns of interaction; that's a great way of putting it.

"Natural progression from flirting/actually being mutually attracted to each other, what a concept" - ahaha!

"Sleeping with someone in a workplace ritual at the instruction of your boss" - I'm not even in this fandom but now I want to write this idea elsewhere.

I really puzzled over what to name that category! 'Wait, sometimes characters just kiss because they're attracted to each other? What do you even call that?'

Workplace sex rituals do have a lot of fun, weird potential!

I do not think I've done "workplace sex ritual" fic, even though I've watched that show, and I think it's got wonderful potential

Huh, this is interesting. I have actually gotten the specific feedback that my get-togethers ring true, and I never write longfics so slow burns aren't my strategy. Off the top of my head, I feel like what I'm usually doing is taking whatever subtext or potential I saw between the characters in canon and highlighting it, putting them in a situation where it's brought out into the open. Maybe I should go through my AO3 and see if I can spot any patterns.

I feel like what I'm usually doing is taking whatever subtext or potential I saw between the characters in canon and highlighting it, putting them in a situation where it's brought out into the open.

I love this way of putting it! I'm definitely trying to do something similar in a fair amount of my fanfiction, but I hadn't thought of it in those terms.

Oh, interesting! And yeah, when characters are normal about their feelings and directly communicate with each other in words, that's much less interesting to write about.

I've gotten really fond of out-of-order relatioinship development. Like they sleep together thinking it's a casual thing, and then they have the awkwardness of mutual "Oh no, I don't want to be the one person who caught feelings and made this weird!"

I've gotten really fond of out-of-order relatioinship development. Like they sleep together thinking it's a casual thing, and then they have the awkwardness of mutual "Oh no, I don't want to be the one person who caught feelings and made this weird!"

I love this! I really enjoy it when characters have sex without having an established romantic relationship, and 'sex progressing to romance' is a fun take on that.

This was so fun to read! So many ways to get characters together.

Very impressed by how high up "Somehow inheriting relationships from a different version of yourself" is.

I was thinking 'huh, I've written more of this surprisingly specific category than I thought,' and then I rearranged the categories by frequency and was amused to find it in joint first place. I hadn't realised it was something I'm so into!

I'm glad you enjoyed this!

It's a good category! So many different directions to take it in. xD Now I wish I had more characters with alternate versions of themselves to try that with.

I scanned and ran the numbers very quickly, and my list (I apparently don't tend to write get-togethers a lot!)

- Two people who have pined forever finally make a move, after encountering each other in a sexy situation (multiple times).
- Person proposes sex to someone they love to give that person an outlet for their aggression and/or their pining for their ex (twice)
- Dream sex (at least twice), both involving incest. xD
- Trapped together for eternity, might as well get together
- Infidelity sex to get revenge on your current partner

From the drafts, which I will never finish probably, but am very invested in:
- Two people have totally necessary heat sex after a long friendship, and it's a total coincidence that they're weird and possessive and weird about it! They might, perhaps, be pining! (...twice)

Hmm, I think I might like pining. xD

These are all pretty great! 'Trapped together for eternity, might as well get together', in particular, sounds like exactly my thing.

Oh but now I'm curious!

I don't know how to categorise "your ghost brother watching you jerk off because you can't make contact with each other physically in a way that will let you channel his powers to avert the apocalypse".

Dumbshits hang out a lot being dumb and eventually hold hands possibly falls under "confession/dating" given that they decide on "let's make this weird".

Relationship already existed and one party very definitely didn't ask the other before stabbing him in the leg and having sex with the hole.

Uhhh... very insane person just keeps inflicting himself onto an only slightly less insane person until the latter becomes obsessed with him, sex is involved, sometimes it's even theoretically consensual?

Magical artifact of "everyone is hot" I guess

Inherits a sub from her dead boss, required to continue her boss's work for operational reasons

Fight turns into sex - probably the most common, mainly because of the bandom fics

They have an actual conversation about it! Eventually!

It just kind of happens. While one of them is a giant bug.

Magic creature forces a replay of a past sexual assault with new player.

Literally just tries to fuck someone better

Flings himself at his uncle while bleeding in a very dramatic "take me now" fashion

Drunk

Manipulation and a lot of meaningful silences x 4 (same series of fics)

He just wakes up and the sentient alien mould is... I mean it's possibly the quivalent of sex? Farming spores in his stomach.

Pays for it

Blows a stranger to avoid having gay feelings about the man he is literally stalking

Mind control, subconsciously x 2

Blows a guy to get out of trouble

Another actual conversation! Eventually! After an argument x 2

IDK They Just Are Already Dating Somehow

Encounters other guy's fetish and blackmails him into sex to keep quiet about it

Agrees to "fancy a shag then" without listening and then just goes through with it because he's a big slag.

Hmm. Mostly what I have learnt is that I wrote far fewer stories about sex than I realised and far more about people being A Massive Mess in other ways

I love so many of those ...

These are ALL INCREDIBLE. I was going to list favourites and then realised I had too many favourites, but I have to give special mention to 'Relationship already existed and one party very definitely didn't ask the other before stabbing him in the leg and having sex with the hole' for making me snort aloud.

I love 'sometimes it's even theoretically consensual', too. And 'While one of them is a giant bug' is a magnificent plot twist.

'Blows a stranger to avoid having gay feelings about the man he is literally stalking' is a contender for my favourite overall.

I should probably have mentioned the fandoms... the "very definitely didn't ask" was Legend, the Tom Hardy movie about the Krays where Taron Egerton plays Ronnie Kray's daft boyfriend; the theoretical consent one was Moriarty/Moran for BBC Sherlock; the giant bug was a Yuletide gift fic Black Books crackfic, and the gay feelings avoidance blowjob was for the 2011 version of Tinker Tailor.

oh, this is fun! a lot of your comments here really resonate with me, especially feeling "I'm not a big fan of writing about clear, healthy romantic communication." i really can't work up the interest/motivation to write much about this either lol. i do tend towards longfic/slow burn, but i also write A LOT of enemies-to-lovers, so with shorter fic i end up going with contrived scenarios like sex pollen/fuck or die/forced intimacy (also a huge fan of 'nobody else knows what we've been through' fics!).

also: i am so big on the "Somehow inheriting relationships from a different version of yourself" category as a reader, but i've only written it the once, now that i think about it, which is pretty surprising.

but i also write A LOT of enemies-to-lovers, so with shorter fic i end up going with contrived scenarios like sex pollen/fuck or die/forced intimacy

Honestly, all of these sound incredible for enemies-to-lovers! (Or... remaining enemies while also being lovers?) Excellent taste.

This is absolutely fascinating, and I'm definitely going to do an analysis of my own. I write a lot more established relationship fics than getting-togethers, and usually tag them, so it should be easy enough to find that subset to look at. I did something similar about love declarations or recognizing love once, because I wanted to substantiate my gut feeling that despite having written hundreds of stories involving romance, I only had characters say the words "I love you" like...twice, and once was part of a rage-filled humiliation attempt.

"Coming to view someone differently in mutual isolation, either physical or psychological ('nobody else knows what we've been through')"

Man, this is also one of my favourite tropes ever. I'm writing something along those lines right now, but I'm not sure I ever have before. Also, I legit laughed out loud at "Just kind of feels like I should kiss you as I pull this sword out of your chest."

I laughed at that too.

I wanted to substantiate my gut feeling that despite having written hundreds of stories involving romance, I only had characters say the words "I love you" like...twice, and once was part of a rage-filled humiliation attempt.

I should dig into this as well! I definitely have the instinct that I tend to avoid the phrase 'I love you' in writing.

Good luck with your analysis! I'd be interested to see it.

[I definitely have the instinct that I tend to avoid the phrase 'I love you' in writing.]

Having characters actually directly say what they're thinking or feeling is almost never the interesting path, though! Unless they're making a deliberate effort not to say what they're thinking or feeling.

I can't remember where I ran into it, but there was this internet snippet going around about one of the best writing exercises someone had run into being "Write two characters having a heated conversation, except that under no circumstances can either one come out and say exactly what they mean." Keeps things lively.

[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 was about to recommend what I do, which is just to throw characters together in increasingly intense ways until either your readers start shipping them without your input or they start clearly having some kind of Thing going on that even you can see even if you didn't intend it or have any idea how to categorize it...

[I mainly write short one-shots, so there's not much scope for a slow-burn relationship build.]

...and then I read this. Er. Sorry; I have no advice for you. I once got hung up on a fic for almost three years in part because I couldn't figure out how to rehash a romantic scene from canon between a canon couple in a believably led-up or romantic way.

[I hadn't realised I'd written this so often! But, thinking about it, it's not a huge surprise. I'm fascinated by […] the complicated experience of interacting with someone who's not quite the person you know.]

I have found myself in a weird spot where I have to admit to myself that I'm a fan of amnesia fic, which I would never have claimed to be before realizing that I've written like the same basic amnesiac plot at least three times to a combined total of over half a million words. I feel your pain.

[And then there are the categories I've only written one fic each for, ranging from 'a common trope I only happen to have written once' to 'yeah, that's pretty specific']

Now I want to see the oddly specific tropes applied to canons they're utterly unrelated to. "Sleeping with someone in a workplace ritual at the instruction of your boss" in Scrubs? Community? The Mentalist? (I was going to suggest Taskmaster, but, er, you've almost written that already, haven't you?) "I need to kiss you so we'll both dream about hell tonight" in FFXIII? Utena? The Last of Us? "Just kind of feels like I should kiss you as I pull this sword out of your chest" in, okay, so I haven't watched or read it, but I feel like I'm contractually obligated to suggest this one for Death Note.

"Sleeping with someone in a workplace ritual at the instruction of your boss" in Scrubs?

Which boss is giving the instructions here?

Dealer's choice?

[edit] Wait, I'm probably the dealer in this situation, aren't I.

Um. Ficcer's choice?

Edited 2024-09-19 23:20 (UTC)

or they start clearly having some kind of Thing going on that even you can see even if you didn't intend it or have any idea how to categorize it...

To be honest, sometimes I somehow manage this even with my inability to write anything long.

I have found myself in a weird spot where I have to admit to myself that I'm a fan of amnesia fic, which I would never have claimed to be before realizing that I've written like the same basic amnesiac plot at least three times to a combined total of over half a million words. I feel your pain.

I have also had the experience of looking back over my writing and going '...huh, I write a lot about weird things happening to people's memories.' It's a compelling theme!

"Just kind of feels like I should kiss you as I pull this sword out of your chest" in, okay, so I haven't watched or read it, but I feel like I'm contractually obligated to suggest this one for Death Note.

Oh, wow, yes, this would be incredible for Death Note. Your other suggestions are also great, but this in particular struck me!

Also, I have now seen the trailer for Mickey 17, and while I have no idea whether or not it will be your kind of movie, I suspect that it may be your kind of ficcing conceit.

oh this is a really interesting way of analyzing patterns that pop up regularly in ur writing :o!

Somehow inheriting relationships from a different version of yourself: eight fics

I hadn't realized I'd written this so often! But, thinking about it, it's not a huge surprise. I'm fascinated by alternate universes or timelines and how feelings might leak across from them, or the complicated experience of interacting with someone who's not quite the person you know

oh this one i especially adore, for me i'm not sure if it's because it feels like a sort of layered puzzle or cake where you just uncover more stuff there and also just this sort of horror/sadness that can come from it

i think for my writing if i've noticed any patterns, it's probably something that borders on codependency maybe...? or being stuck in small spaces and people being annoyed at each other (<-this is admittedly me just taking out south usa heat on charas lol)

oh this one i especially adore, for me i'm not sure if it's because it feels like a sort of layered puzzle or cake where you just uncover more stuff there and also just this sort of horror/sadness that can come from it

It has excellent potential for a lot of weird, complicated, painful feelings!

it's probably something that borders on codependency maybe...? or being stuck in small spaces and people being annoyed at each other

Both of these sound great to me! In... in fiction; I'm not signing up to experience this myself.

Now I feel that my fics are way more dull that I thought previously! I especially like "intimacy chicken" ... Now I'm imagining a chicken trying to talk a couple through their intimacy issues ...

Now I'm just imagining rubber duck debugging, but with a chicken, and with relationship issues.

Now I'm imagining a chicken trying to talk a couple through their intimacy issues ...

I'm now trying to think of fictional chickens who could potentially fulfil this role. The ones coming to mind are Foghorn Leghorn (who, from my vague recollections, would probably be a terrible intimacy counsellor) and Chicken Boo (who'd probably be surprisingly good, considering that he's incapable of speech).

My pattern is basically just write about the same two characters and their relationship endlessly. LOL
(Getting together in various different ways sometimes yes but the same two characters).
I have written a handful of other pairings including some that seem very randomly thrown together and there's absolutely no canonical basis for (I am responsible for bringing the Sebastian Moran/Kitty Winter pairing into existence apparently, and to be honest I don't even know why, it just felt like they'd fit somehow) but I think being asexual (and aromantic) and autistic, I just don't get the whole attraction thing really, and my interests are very narrow. Other pairings/relationships overall don't interest me or not enough to read or write fic about them anyway and even when they do interest me enough to write about them, these tend not to be in depth things. There is really only the one romantic/sexual relationship that I've written about in proper depth and with that I've always approached it from the perspective where one of the participants in it is technically gay but he's also asexual and aromantic. It's clearly not the same way as a lot of people approach the relationship but I don't really know how to write it (or anything else really) in any other way.

[but I think being asexual (and aromantic)[…], I just don't get the whole attraction thing really]

•awkwardly sneaks hand out for a solidarity fistbump?• 🤜🏽

I'm impressed by your dedication to Moriarty/Moran! My attention span is dire and I rocket between fandoms non-stop, so I'm a little in awe of anyone who manages to put down roots and write consistently for years (or, in your case, over a decade!) for a particular fandom or pairing.

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing!

I'm glad you enjoyed this! I'm pleasantly surprised by how much interest it's drawn.

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Aww, thank you; I'm delighted you enjoyed the kissing practice fic!

it really just reinforces that I enjoy a. ambiguous relationships and b. trauma

Both excellent things in fiction! I love a lot of the concepts in your list, but 'we both had relationships with this other guy who is now dead so I guess we’re going to kiss/have sex now' might be my favourite. Although 'I walked in on you masturbating and wanted to help' is also a very strong contender!

'we are contractually required to lie in all these beds' - my genuine first thought here was 'are these characters... furniture testers?' before I realised that probably wasn't what you meant.

I either write a 200k slow burn or "fuck it they're fucking don't worry about why", lol.

Incredible dichotomy. And both entirely respectable approaches!

Here via Delphi! This is such a great post and although it's unfortunately been awhile since I've written anything it's been helpful in making me think of some future ideas. I've mostly written a lot of gen fic and pre-relationship sort of fic, but I was curious about patterns in my own writing and took a peek. Interestingly enough, I feel like there weren't a lot of similarities other than I do tend to write a lot of established relationships or mutual pining! It sort of makes me want to try some of these as a challenge to myself to write some new fic, so I very much appreciate the discussion!

I'm delighted that you enjoyed this! (And hello; it's good to meet you!) Trying to pick out patterns was an interesting exercise.

It's also interesting to hear that you don't fall into patterns in the same way in your own writing! I definitely have favourite themes I tend to return to in writing over and over again (e.g. isolation, hallucinations, memory issues, characters falling in love with four or five other people simultaneously), so it's probably no surprise that there are patterns in how I get characters together as well. Do you have themes that recur in your genfic, or are you generally a writer who tends not to revisit the same ideas?

If you do try some of these concepts out, I hope you have a great time!

As you can tell, am catching up on DW...

Somehow inheriting relationships from a different version of yourself: eight fics

I hadn't realised I'd written this so often! But, thinking about it, it's not a huge surprise. I'm fascinated by alternate universes or timelines and how feelings might leak across from them, or the complicated experience of interacting with someone who's not quite the person you know.

This is definitely a theme I associate with you, so I'm not surprised at all! Esp given how prolific you are.

Kissing/sex for mindgames or other ulterior purposes: seven fics

Oh, this one is fun. I don't imagine anyone's surprised that all my non-gen Death Note fanfiction falls into this category.

Nope! And it's so good :D

Misreading what someone wants, or enduring unwanted intimacy for someone else's sake: three fics

:nasty grin:

I'm delighted to have the 'relationships from different versions of yourself' theme associated with me! It's got such weird, interesting potential. I also love that you're drawn to the weirder, darker items on this list.

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The Orgies Are Fine; It's The Jazz I Can't Stand.

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charting patterns in the stars

Re: charting patterns in the stars

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