Featured Story: A Soft Place to Land - Episodes 1 & 2
In This Episode
Tasha opens up about two of her biggest writing challenges: hating the drafting process and never starting stories in the right place. But with A Soft Place to Land, she's asking different questions—not whether the beginning is "right," but whether it's doing the specific work that dual POV friends-to-lovers romance requires.
What We're Exploring
The Unique Challenge of Friends-to-Lovers
Writing intimacy that already exists vs. intimacy that's just beginning
Revealing what's been there all along rather than building attraction from scratch
Making every interaction carry the weight of unspoken feelings
The Real Job of First Chapters in Erotic Romance
Why opening episodes need to establish emotional and psychological foundation
How to make sexual content feel inevitable rather than gratuitous
The difference between sex that's hot and sex that means something
Writing Unspoken Feelings: Theo's Perspective (Episode 1)
Using profession as a lens for self-deception (Theo the lawyer building the wrong case)
Layering micro-intimacies that function as evidence of love
How specificity creates weight: "Ethiopian roast I'd mentioned once, maybe twice" vs. "got his favorite coffee"
Showing a character who notices everything while refusing to understand what he's noticing
When One Person Knows: Jade's Perspective (Episode 2)
Managing the asymmetry of awareness in dual POV
Three ways awareness manifests:
Body betrays before mind admits - Physical sensation showing desire she won't name verbally
Caretaking as dominance - Control-as-care without language for it yet
The terror of domestic compatibility - Fearing need more than desire
The Hand on the Neck: When Touch Becomes Claiming
Why this moment matters more than a kiss would have
Intimate without being sexual, vulnerable without being obvious
Small transgressions in slow burns: boundaries crossed so subtly both characters can pretend it didn't happen
Building Toward Power Exchange Through Friendship
How their existing dynamic contains seeds of eventual D/s relationship
Theo's need for space to be vulnerable = foundation for holding space as a Dominant
Jade's need to not be smaller = foundation for surrender as radical trust
Why their friendship isn't something they'll leave behind—it's what everything else will be built on
Key Craft Principles
Specificity creates weight - Sustained attention is its own form of desire
Show what your character fears most - The story should move inevitably toward it
The most erotic moments in slow burn aren't obvious - They're the small transgressions
Asymmetrical awareness creates dramatic irony - Readers know more than either character does
What's Coming
Watching for moments where the foundation either strengthens or cracks under pressure. Where caretaking starts to feel like too much. Where gratitude starts to look like something else. Where ten-year-old boundaries blur in ways neither can ignore.
Read Along
New episodes of A Soft Place to Landpost every Friday at 3pm EST on Substack.
Connect
Got questions about writing kink with emotional depth? Want to discuss friends-to-lovers craft? Drop a comment or reach out—Tasha wants to hear from you.
Filthy Fiction With Feelings: Where we build stories that tell the truth about desire, intimacy, and what it means to be seen completely and loved anyway.
