Thread: A Chemistry Of Opposites' Attracting

How exactly dose a writer have two people that has exactly nothing in common between them yet feel drawn to one another, but how do you build up and keep that 'spark of attraction' intriguing yet too obvious for reader?

People can never truly have 'nothing' in common, it's just the first impression you give to the reader is that they appear to have nothing in common. At the very least they are the same species. You have to create the situation that draws them together really. One trick I use is the Mulder/Scully (X-Files) device where no matter how much the two opposites tend to find common ground with each other something always prevents them from being together even though the reader (who at this point knows them a little better) wants them to be together.

Two people with nothing in common would probably compliment each other very well. Each would have skills or talents that the other lacks so both of them need the other to accomplish their common goal.

Originally Posted by Akumaranger

How exactly dose a writer have two people that has exactly nothing in common between them yet feel drawn to one another, but how do you build up and keep that 'spark of attraction' intriguing yet too obvious for reader?

You know what they say: love what you hate. People with nothing in common have a tendency to antagonize with each other, and that brings sparks everywhere. The spark of attraction is the growing obsession that they can't simply accept the other, and suddenly they find themselves always thinking about that person when he or she's around.

This is conflict, and as soon as they are about to bring in the lefts, rights and the hooks, they find they have something very elemental in common. Suddenly, this person is not so terrible and all that hatred from before is gone before they know it. Since they where always nitpicking, they know their respective weaknesses, since they where always envious, they know their respective strengths. All of sudden, this rivalry turned into respect, and respect turned into attraction. The hatred from that comes from not understanding is replaced with love the moment all the pieces fall in place.

That's pretty much it. It's a pretty standard type of plot really, and once you get why it happens, it's easy to write about it. Man hates the unknown, and a person who's just as mighty as you (but in a completely different way) is something that brings hatred, because you can't understand her. Once the missing pieces are revealed, you find that this person is in fact very much like you are.

I went through that myself; back in high-school there was one girl I hated because she always got better marks than me. Silly, I know, but at some point that "hatred" turned into a pretty deep puddle of love. It was unfortunately one-sided, but I guess it serves as an example. In fact, I hated most of the women I fell in love with. So I'm a living example of this kind of thing

Originally Posted by C.M. Aaron

Two people with nothing in common would probably compliment each other very well. Each would have skills or talents that the other lacks so both of them need the other to accomplish their common goal.

There is a quote I recall, from what I think was no less than a decade ago, by a divorce lawyer on some radio show.

"You can marry outside your race, economic bracket, politics, whatever, but don't marry outside of your philosophy on life."