Part 11, time for ship talk!

We knew this was coming. The inevitable ship talk.

Remember when "ship" just meant a boat? I do. *sighs*

It's very hard to not write any romance in books, whether it's the main plot, or a subplot. Well, that's how it feels for me at least. To those who can keep romance out, kudos to you. You have more will power than I.

*Figure out what ship it is first. Is it canon, like Destiel or Samifer or Sabriel? (Okay, so these technically aren't canon, but you get my point.) Is it involving an OC?

*Write its origin. How does it happen? How do the characters meet? How do they interact? How do they get to that one defining moment that makes them their ship? Are they compatible? Do they argue a lot? Do they compliment each other (meaning one's strength is the other's weakness, things like that)?

*Make it believable. How they interact and how they talk with each other is crucial. Make your readers (especially yourself) believe in the ship. The more you believe it, the better you can convey it. The better you can convince your readers too.

For example, you can believe a ship like Destiel, but not a ship like, say, Abaddon and another character. She doesn't seem like the cuddling, relationship type. (I'm sure there's a fanfic to prove me wrong there.) It all depends on how it's written.  

*If you do a love triangle, do it tastefully. I'm not a huge fan of love triangles, because they can get pretty messy. The most common for Supernatural? An OC and the Winchester brothers. That's just asking for trouble right there. 

If you can do it tastefully, then try for it. If you can't, it's best to wheedle the triangle down to a normal ship pairing.

*Don't make the ship be a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am. Don't let it be love at first sight, they're instantly in love, they sleep together, marry, and have babies before the book's over.

 *shudders* I hate any story that does this, fanfic or not. It doesn't feel realistic to me. Relationships need to grow, they need to have obstacles, they need to take time. Now I'm not trying to say love at first sight isn't a real thing, it totally is. But with what stories I've read, they've given me a bad light on the whole concept. And that greatly upsets me.

*Everybody loves a good, memorable ship name. This can kind of go back to naming your OC. Destiel is memorable, Sabriel is memorable. The right mashup of names can lead to that. I can list a few of mine that I've written in the fandom (sorry, no canon pairings to be found below):

Sakota. (Book: You Found Me. The first SPN ship I've ever done. Is the owner of a 2015 Watty award.)

Dax. (Book: Reckless. Everybody digs this ship.)

Cassette. (Book: Rogue. I had to give Cas a love interest too. Only fair to give all of Team Free Will one.)

(I especially love Cassette because it's a beautiful ship name.)

My personal favorite(s)? Okay, I'm a little biased to my own works, but I was a hard sucker for Sakota (a SamxOC) and Dax (DeanxOC) when I wrote those. I think Sakota is my best, since it was my first ever Supernatural ship I'd written. I'm also in the process of writing Cassette (CasxOC) over the course of a trilogy, and I've fallen in love with that ship too.

I ship ships too easily.

I can see how people ship Destiel. 

I kind of ship it, but I don't parade it or force it down people's throats.

And this is just me speaking: just because your readers are die hard shippers of whatever ship you have in your book, at the end of the day, you're dictating the story, not them. (Unless you're one of those authors whose story is dictated by readers' ideas if you ask for that sort of thing.) It doesn't hurt to put a little realism in your ship, especially if it sails into the sunset or sinks like the ill-fated Titanic. 

Basically the main question you gotta ask yourself is: Would it be forever, or go down in flames?

Yeah, Taylor Swift song reference, I know. 

*plays Hillywood Supernatural Shake It Off Parody* (If you have never seen this, you're so missing out. But it has season 10 spoilers, beware.)

If you're annoyed with me by this point, just throw me in the Cage. I'm not too worried, Lucifer loves me there, it's Michael I've got an issue with.

So, please, angels, ship responsibly.

Also, don't get into ship wars. They're brutal. We're a family.

 *cries because of how much she misses Bobby*

Thinker: Favorite ship?

 (Can be either canon or a ship from whatever fanfic you've read.)