I don’t know if you’re familiar with the theory of Five Love Languages, but even if the world has gone to hell, I think they’re valid ways of showing the female main character that her love interests are interested in her.
Examples of where I’m going with this:
1. Touch – does he wash blood and dirt from her skin like she’s precious? Pull her into his arms after every close call? Sleep next to her, just barely touching?
2. Gifts – does he find her favorite snack in abandoned stores? Save a book, a necklace, some tiny bit of her old life? Craft something for her?
3. Quality Time – does he sit with her on watch just to talk? Walk beside her instead of ahead? Share quiet moments together?
4. Acts of Service – does he check the perimeter every night? Does he fix the generator while you sleep?
5. Words of Affirmation – does he talk her through her panic after her first kill? Remind her she’s strong when she feels broken? Call her his heart, his home?
When I took the quiz, my love language came out to be primarily Touch, followed by a tie between Quality Time and Acts of Service. I got LITERALLY zero points in Gifts and Words of Affirmation.
Every character has the language that speaks best to them, but most times it seems like this is instinctual to the writing rather than a deliberate choice, so I’m working on including that. The author’s language is X so obviously the characters they write are the same.
If you were in a zombie apocalypse, how would your love language be expressed? What small acts would feel like love in a dying world?
Comment and let me know! I love seeing how others imagine survival, love, and found family in the apocalypse.
Image credit: Deposit Photos
