Quick Tips For Writing Desire
The best way for writing desire in a way that makes readers feel invested is to write around it.
Instead of using just a single word, use language that hints at something simmering below the surface. That way, you build tension for your readers, making them invested in the outcome of your characters’ relationships. Here are some tips for how to write romantic desire in various ways (including some handy synonyms at the end as well).
Unconscious movements
- Covert glances
- Licking and biting lips
- Mirroring the other’s movements
- Parting or crossing of legs
- Touching one’s own skin
- Swallowing more than usual
- Blinking rapidly
- Short breaths
- Playing with one’s hair
- Fidgeting
- Leaning closer than usual
Internal feelings
- A fluttering heartbeat
- Comfort in the other’s presence
- Knots in your stomach
- The sensation of other sounds being muffled
- Nervous tingling
- Short of breath
- Hypersensitivity
- Sudden weakness
- Thumping pulse
- Emotional overwhelm
- Goosebumps
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Behaviours
- Surrounding oneself with reminders of the object of desire (like things that smell of them, or an object they hold dear)
- Creating reasons to spend more time with the other person
- Loss of inhibition
- Impatience and irritability
- Setting active goals to attain the object of desire
- Conscious and subconscious fixation
- Changing oneself to better suit the other’s wants
- Feigning other interests to promote jealousy
Showing resolved desire
- Finally feeling personally fulfilled
- A sense of calm and peace
- A shift in focus from pursuit to personal happiness
- Feelings of contentment
- A change of life priorities
- Feeling like an obstacle has been overcome
- A more relaxed manner or expression
- Personal and romantic growth
Showing unrequited desire
- Pining for lost love
- Frustration and anger
- Bottling one’s feelings
- Living in denial
- Feeling rejected
- Falling into a personally damaging pattern of pining for the wrong people
- Strained friendships
- A sense of disconnection and isolation
Some handy synonyms
- Craving
- Longing
- Yearning
- Wanting
- Hunger
- Thirst
- Covet
- Infatuation
- Obsession
- Attraction
- Passion
- Fascination
- Lust
- Pining
- Aching
- Burning
- Need
- Love
- Devotion
- Rapture
- Appetite
- Frenzy
- Frisky
- Amorous
- Wanton