So I'm.... roughly 90 pages into a novel where two of my main characters are forced to work together to fight an evil government. At what point does it get tedious for the audience for the characters to not like each other? I say this because the Male MC and The Female MC, have a rocky relationship mainly due to the male being very brutal is his tactics, calling for more action against a specific threat where as the Female is more diplomatic in her approach. She's also kind of terrified of him in a few ways due to ability to essentially transform into a giant monster... even though has no recollection of doing this when he first meets her. The There are times when they do get along (there is a scene where he takes her and her brother to a club due to the fact both of them are depressed about being near their childhood home). They are also supposed to be love interests but this doesn't really happen until like the second novel. I want the buildup to be realistic. Any thoughts.
If you want realistic, then they need to be enemies not lovers. The problem and the reason isn't working is because you have two characters with completely different values. Two people can have different beliefs, different personalities, and different approaches to some things, but when a value (such as the value of a human life) is in question, the relationship will never work in real life. So why should it work here? What you're doing is like fitting a square peg into a round hole. Not going to happen.
I think that constant conflict would be tedious for the reader, but that doesn't mean that they need to become fast friends who find each other's little foibles adorable. One possible strategy would be to allow them to find a way to tolerate each other. She finds it annoying or upsetting when he does X, so she manages separate herself from X, and still does Y, where she's needed. Since he needs Y, he cooperates in shielding her from X. And there may be similar aspects of her that he wants to avoid or be shielded from. A period of that negotiation and adjustment, and they could get along and even start to like each other, in that well-controlled situation. And then, whenever you want to torture them, you suddenly disrupt that negotiated strategy and make it impossible. I don't know if the love interest thing is going to work, though. I think that one or the other of them might need to fundamentally change.
90 real pages? Like, actual pages? That would be around 45,000 words in. If you're going to throw in a romantic element, you should do it more like 4500 words in. Like, I'm not saying they need to start grinding one another in chapter one, but the reader needs a tip that there is potential basically as soon as they meet--even if that tip comes in the traditional romcom form (which is, "I hate you!" "Yeah? Not as bad as I hate you!"). I disagree with @Kallisto on this. Opposites attract, yadda yadda, whatever... Tension is good, and men and women do things differently, and men and women often have different values. That's simply not a major issue. If she likes him, she'll live with it. If she doesn't, she'll hate his guts. No big deal.
That kind of does happen. Like eventually Creed (male MC) let's his defenses down. They discover each others backstories. That and just general interests. And Faith's(female main) views of these demons(ressurected humans, with an agenda essentially) become ultimately similar to Creed's when her brother dies right in front of her. She desperately wants to kill the person who screwed with him, to which Creed won't allow because he doesn't want her to become the same monster he is.
Also there is romantic tension but the pay off is a hug. I want their relationship to be a slow burn kinda. And according to word it's more like... 26000 words so perhaps my formatting is a bit weird.
Here's a bit of what I call "What every girl needs to know about being a woman." Attraction and love aren't the same things. They never were. Yeah opposites might attract, but they're certainly not going to have a long lasting love life if they don't value the same thing.
@Kallisto I agree though. They do find things they love about each other. I don't like lust in stories... never have. That's why I hate twilight so much... its more attraction than it is love.
Well in my duology Two of my MCs kinda hit it off around page 38 in my first novel. Though they have a strained relation due to the fact that he is a soldier, and later on she joins up. But the strain of duty doesn't allow them much time together, so much so that they have not even had sex yet, and she is a virgin. Where the connection between them really starts to click true is in the sequel on Mars. Bit of a touching if not a tad sad moment. Then later on she gets 'permission' from General Volkov to go and rescue him after he gives himself up so they could get away. And this is where she totally pulls out all the stops, willing to risk her sanity to some degree doing whatever she has to, to find him and get him back. Though the creature she is, for being petite has a wrath that does not waiver. If that ain't love, then IDK what is.
Honestly I can't imagine writing a sex scene as I have a feeling it would just amount to thrusting and then done.
Sex scenes and fight scenes are the same thing. They're both difficult to get right and boring to read nine times in ten, but if you can do one you can probably do the other. Most of us can't write fight scenes, either, mind you.
I mean you gotta keep people on the edge of their seat in a fight, that's one thing I got down... but aside from that it's shit. Lol. Do you have to keep people in suspense when you write sex? To cum or not to cum, that is the question.
In either case, you have to give people something to care about. It has to mean something. The size of an explosion is not a plot point.
Well. I appreciate all of these responses guys. It really gives me confidence that I'm actually doing the right thing in my story, save for a few mistakes I'm making. Thank you guys very much.
Let's see what i can think of: 1. People who are completely different from each other can eventually become used to one another and can learn to rely on each other when they're forced to spend time together. It depends on the degree of tolerance though. IMO at least they must have 1 thing in common to tie them together. Be it a goal, value, etc. Using star wars as an example, Han Solo and Princess Leia have that romantic thing going on for three movies, and how does it manifest itself? As deep and significant proclamations of desire and affection? No, it manifests as constant bickering. They can't keep off each other's backs, but in the end they were able to like each other. So make them softer to each other through time. 2. Create a situation where both or one of them reveal a part of themselves that the other doesn't know about, and the other person sees it as an attractive or redeeming quality. For example, a guy who seems selfish and self centered is willing to risk his life for a girl, and the girl thinks: "Maybe he's not so bad after all" According to your story, where one has a brutal and another has a Diplomatic approach, allow one of them to make a compromise like "I'll do it your way if...." when handling a situation. Maybe the girl says this after the guy took her to the club.
Well, I guess that's mostly what sex is anyway... no matter the position, there's just a lot of thrusting, either on the guy's part or the girl's. Positions are less for aesthetics and more for functionality, maximizing pleasure, etc. It would be hard to capture that in narration. I mean, there are only so many different ways to say something feels good.... Back to the subject, as has been stated, if values are vastly different, a romance is often not going to last unless there is a distinct reason for them to stick with and rely on each other. Sircruxum mentioned Han Solo and Princess Leah, and while they did have some sort of reluctant dynamic for a romance, it apparently didn't pan out like a "normal relationship" if we go by the newer movies. If I remember correctly from The Force Awakens, Han had run off after Ben was conceived or raised, so something went wrong in the relationship. In my graphic novel, which is fantasy/science fiction, there is romantic tension between two of the central characters, but the relationship is fundamentally flawed. One of them comes from a culture where love takes backseat to survival on a daily basis, and is focused on saving her people from a congenital disease that threatens to wipe them all out. The other is on a similar mission, but a fruitless one, as his family has already been killed. He just seeks a way to bring them back from the dead. For most of the story, they are willing companions on a journey to find their respective "cures", and neither one realizes that the cures simply do not exist. It all seems like great bonding material, until you learn that he's been keeping her around for a power that she didn't even know that she had, which is the ability to manifest the souls of people close to her who have died. It's eventually revealed that he'd mistakenly killed her brother, and the brother that has been traveling with them the whole time has been one of her manifestations. It's a complicated mess, and there are other major circumstances behind the relationship, but in the end, it can't work, because their values are ultimately different and their relationship is built on secrets, lies, and half-truths. Not only that, both their respective views on what it means to love someone are fundamentally flawed. Even in real life, if two people have essentially different beliefs on the foundations of a romantic relationship, it likely won't work out. Let's say one person sees good sex and lovey dovey time as the foundation, while the other sees it as long term dedication and mutual responsibility, that's going to lead to conflicts and probably needs on both ends that aren't being fulfilled. Neither viewpoint is wrong, but that doesn't mean the mix is simply going to work. Will it blend? No. No it won't.
This. I'm firmly convinced that the "She hates me so she must really be in love with me" trope was made up by some repulsive creep who couldn't take no for an answer. Or one of those arrogant guys who think every woman is in love with him and can't fathom that someone doesn't like him. Opposites in their approaches to problem solving can work (creative/"gut" vs. data only), or "opposites" in a way where two people balance each other by bringing more of something that they lack (one person is calm and steady, the other is more aggressive and outspoken). Opposites when it comes to values? Nope. You can't work toward a mutual goal if you want or are motivated by completely different things.
If that's the question, then the relationship is incredibly shallow. If two people love each other, their sexual union will carry lots of meaning beyond 'to cum or not to cum.' How they treat each other in bed can be very revealing of the dynamic between them. It's the time when they make themselves most vulnerable to each other, and see each other as nobody else does. They also may surprise each other, or upset each other, or make mistakes. Don't be afraid to delve into that scenario, as a writer. Unlike a selfie hand job, this is an act that requires two people. That's always worth exploring.
Even though their personalities and positions in the story might bring them into conflict, there has to be something that makes them more than just aware of each other. They will tend to watch each other rather than anybody else when they are together, even in a crowded room or whatever. Mention of each other's name will bring a quickening of attention. They may try to avoid each other, but it will not be because they can't stand each other. It will be because they make each other uncomfortable. They can talk themselves into thinking they 'hate' each other, and maybe the encounters between them go overboard in making everybody else think they hate each other. But hatred doesn't feel quite the same. If you can get that 'awareness' dynamic working, then I think you'll have no trouble evolving the relationship into a love match.
Sex scenes are much more about a) senses : the feel of her skin like under his tongue, the smell of his sweat, the sound of her heart beat, his breath rasping in an out unevenly and so forth , and b) feelings and emotions than it is a clinical examination of who puts what where when This still holds true for bad sex although there the senses are to do with fumbling, dry skin rubbing together, a lack of hardness and /or self control, pain from sensitive areas roughly handled, and the feelings are more likely anger, frustration and disapointment
I've written a relationship a bit like this, where the character start out as opposites. What I tried doing was: --They had a common enemy or crisis that was a more pressing concern--they had an immediate reason to stay together, to survive and deal with their common enemy. --Neither character was objectively "right" in their approach, and both of them came to adopt some traits of the other to win their own struggles. --They came to understand why the other character did certain things they found infuriating and even if they didn't agree with the reasons, they at least understood what drove them. --Though they didn't like each other, they did grudgingly respect each other right from the start. --There were some things each realised about the other that people who were more friendly to them didn't see. He noticed the despair and frustration that came with trying to be pacifistic in a violent world, she noticed how he was uncomfortable with the brutal ways of his family. I tried to make it a gradual process, with several stages. Forced together by a common enemy. Grudging mutual respect. They're starting to rely on the other to watch their backs in a crisis. They learn more about each other from a third party. One of them takes an unnecessary risk to save the other. Their bickering has become "Why did you put yourself at risk like that? What am I meant to do if you get yourself killed?!" One of them has a crisis of confidence over their dark secret being revealed, and pulls away because they've started to care what the other thinks. And so on. A good guideline I use is that it shouldn't be about the sex the people are having, but more the people having sex. A well-done sex scene doesn't have to be titillating or go into excessive physical detail, if the focus is on the characters and how being this close is affecting them. Indeed, one of my favourite sex scenes had no description at all--it was purely the dialogue between the characters. Of course, you don't need to detail the sex scene if you don't think it'll add to the story or if you're not sure you could do a good job of it. It's fine to cut to the next morning, and tell of the emotional impact the sex had on them from how they're relating to each other afterwards (More comfortable with each other? Embarrassed? Eager for more? Regretful?)
The sex isn't usually important, it's what's going on in their mind during the act. The famous scene in It with Bev and the six boys had very little description of the physical act. Most of it was inside of her mind, reshaping her views on sex and love, undoing some of the damage that her father had done to her. It also served a specific purpose of reunifying the group for the blood-oath and recapturing the attention of the turtle. Is the guy a virgin or something? While I don't think any physical description is needed, how the characters have sex should reveal something about who they are. "Thrusting and then done," sounds like someone who's terribly inexperienced with sex. This would make the act mean significantly more to that character.
This. I wrote my first-ever sex scene in my current WIP, and not a thrust was mentioned. It's about the characters and what's going on in their thoughts, as well as some sensory stuff. What are the major aspects of the characters? My male MC is perceived by everyone around him, including the girl he's in love with, who is much younger than him, to be effortlessly smooth and nonchalant. We see that with her, he actually constantly worries about being perfect. My female MC, when she's nervous, is a complete klutz who does embarrassingly funny things. That's the stuff that's revealed in a sex scene, in addition to what @newjerseyrunner and @Azuresun said.
