How do I write a romance fic, where romance develops naturally?

[SilverStarApple 849]

Hi, I'd like to write a fanfic where a romance develops naturally between friends. How do I write this? (The fic is mainly a slice of life, I'd like it to have the romance as a subplot, one that preferably won't swallow up the main plot like a giant... thing that... swallows plots.)

 

(Also, how does the fandom view the idea of one character being married to multiple mares? I used to be in the Naruto fandom, and getting ALL the girls like they're Pokemon and you want to catch 'em all was usually a sign of a bad fanfic. However, herd relationships are common IRL, and pony society is different from Earth society. Would ponies be okay with that, and would readers be okay with that?)

[Standard User 2,127]

However, herd relationships are common IRL, and pony society is different from Earth society. Would ponies be okay with that, and would readers be okay with that?

 

To answer this question: it all depends in how you build the narrative. I could tell my readers that Equestria is secretly a communist state with naysayers (hehehe...neigh-sayers) being silenced by a brutal secret police and that is why everyone in the show is so gosh-darn happy. Plausible? Not necessarily. But if I build the world right, you can make almost anything seem logical. Having pony society be slightly different in your case shouldn't be too hard of a sell.

 

 

 

I'd like to write a fanfic where a romance develops naturally between friends. How do I write this?

 

Romance is all about characters and their interactions with each other. It is one of those genres where the plot and the imagery largely reside in the characters rather than some external factor. 

 

For a story running from "hey we're friends" to "hey we're married," you should probably steel yourself for a slightly longer fic as you have more ground to cover (i.e. you can't have friends that suddenly realize they're in love and have it be super plausible. You have to build their relationship from the ground up). 

 

Really, romance comes down to believable emotions and, if called for, tugging at the heartstrings. My suggestion would be to read some of the big romance stories on FiMFiction. If you need recommendations for stories that are similar in style/genre/etc. to yours, I can do that for you. 

Edited September 21, 2015 by Kolth

[curistar 1]

I've never written any MLP stuff, but I've written in the romance genre for over 10 years now. (I feel so old typing that!)

 

For a romance to develop naturally I also suspect you mean gradually. As the characters get to know each other they will discover they have more and more things in common - they can be large things like the same hobby ("We both love to read"), small things ("I love apples, too!"), or even emotional things, noticing that one person reacts similarly in a given situation ("I would've gotten angry, too.") That's usually what sparks the initial compatibility. 

 

The more time they spend together, the more they open up to one another. It cumulates when they realize they want to help solve each other's problems, because they want to help the person they care about. And when it comes to light for one of them (or maybe both of them at the same time) that they care about that other person more than themselves, well, there you go, you've got a romance.

 

Hope this helps!

[SilverStarApple 849]

Sounds like the Support Conversations in Fire Emblem. Have you seen those? I liked them.

 

Now... what would I do if the friendship-to-relationship was between Twilight Sparkle, my best OC, Silver Star Apple, and Pinkie Pie? And I'd also like Silver Star Apple to character-develop from a paranoid, greedy, showboating, calculating, detached, isolated, secretly-very-lonely pony that keeps telling himself he's 100% fine with how Twilight's stronger than him, and knows more spells than him, is even smarter than him, and has more money than him thanks to Celestia, and is nicer than him and better-looking than him (It's like he's the Vegeta to her Goku, except he doesn't want to be Vegeta, he'd rather be the Seto Kaiba or Batman, but a nicer and happier one)... into a kind, happy, fulfilled pony with friends and fewer character flaws/the ability to live with his flaws. Any advice on character development while he's living in Ponyville would be appreciated.

 

Also, I'm not entirely sure if I should also include Rainbow Dash in the herd or not. Is that a sign that I shouldn't include her?

 

As for the good romance fic recomendations: Sure! I read a lot, but I'm on a limited amount of mobile data, so I have a list of fics to download whenever I can get to a wifi hotspot. I'll add the ones you list to my list.