I've been puzzling a lot lately over what makes some pairings easier to porn than others. There are some that easily lend themselves to dirty little PWPs, and others that just don't seem to.
It really is intriguing! I haven't thought about it much yet, but I will have to - the differences are really quite striking. The reserve is certainly a factor, I would say, but in my writing experience, there hasn't been a correlation to high levels of canon certainty about the relationship. High levels of emotional importance to the characters are a factor, though...
For me, I think it has a lot to do with the complexity of both the characters and their relationship. Both Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are complex people, and their relationship - as unquestioned and soul-deep as it is - is even more complex, with steep differences in knowledge and secrets and other such impediments littering the emotional landscape. And because the stakes are so high for both of them, they are both very careful every step of the way... so casual sex seems out of the question, and there is a lot riding on every advance in the relationship.
It makes it tricky! Even sex in an established relationship seems tricky to me, because the relationship is still so complex, so deep and so important. Writing all of that into the sex (even without dwelling on it) is quite a challenge, and requires a lot of thought on my part.
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It really is intriguing! I haven't thought about it much yet, but I will have to - the differences are really quite striking. The reserve is certainly a factor, I would say, but in my writing experience, there hasn't been a correlation to high levels of canon certainty about the relationship. High levels of emotional importance to the characters are a factor, though...
For me, I think it has a lot to do with the complexity of both the characters and their relationship. Both Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei are complex people, and their relationship - as unquestioned and soul-deep as it is - is even more complex, with steep differences in knowledge and secrets and other such impediments littering the emotional landscape. And because the stakes are so high for both of them, they are both very careful every step of the way... so casual sex seems out of the question, and there is a lot riding on every advance in the relationship.
It makes it tricky! Even sex in an established relationship seems tricky to me, because the relationship is still so complex, so deep and so important. Writing all of that into the sex (even without dwelling on it) is quite a challenge, and requires a lot of thought on my part.
I will think on it more!