How to Write a Good 7 Minutes in Heaven Quiz

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Choosing a Fandom

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If you’re going to make one of these quizzes, obviously, you’re going to have to choose a fandom (or some celebrities, or something similar). It would be in your best interest to write only about what you know. To make a quiz like this the very best it can be, you should try your hardest to keep the characters as in character as possible, and to do this, you have to know them well.

You might also want to consider the characters in the fandom you’re thinking of choosing- if there’s only two or so reasonably attractive characters, it’s probably not a good idea, since two characters is hardly a representation of an entire fandom.

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Staying In Character

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Whether you’ve made up your own characters or borrowed some from your favorite fandom, it’s important that you keep them true to themselves. If you don’t do this, your quiz will just become generic, and it’ll be like the reader isn’t even interacting with the character at all, and is instead interacting with a stand-in, actor, or impostor, which isn’t what we want.

Obviously, you’re going to have to take *some* liberties with staying in character, since the very act of playing a game such as Seven Minutes in Heaven is extremely out of character for a very large number of characters (even more, when you consider that 7MiH doesn’t exist in many of the worlds these characters come from). It’s fine to have them play the game for the sake of the quiz (or, for bonus points, find a logical, creative way around their lack of active participation), but short of that, you should try to keep them true to themselves.

For example, say you have a cold, insensitive character like Sasuke Uchiha. If they can even be convinced to play at all, they’re not going to be happy doing it. Many, many times I’ve seen Sasuke do out of character things in these quizzes, such as say things to the effect of “You’re not like the other [fan]girls” and confess his undying love for the quiz taker. That’s massive character derailment for someone who very clearly expresses NO INTEREST in anyone who has ever shown interest in him. In the case of characters like Sasuke who obviously want nothing to do with girls, kissing games, and love, it’s probably best to have them remain cold, detached, and unaffectionate during their time with the quiz taker. Forget about steamy makeout sessions after proclamations of eternal love- it’s NOT going to happen with one of these guys.

There are a few routes you could take with a guy like this:

1. No kissing, no hugging, no touching. (Conversation would probably be minimal as well, but it‘s up to you.)

2. ONE short, unaffectionate kiss (probably to get it over with/in hopes it’ll make the quiz taker leave them be)

3. Some sort of rough-ish “now will you stop bugging me?” kind of kiss.

4. If they character’s a real asshole, he might even insult the quiz taker (in reality) with a “Psh, not in a million years” type response, or something equally rude, though this might not be the best thing to do since some quiz takers can be kind of sensitive…

There are probably more options that are equally old and true to the character, but I’m not going to list all of the possibilities here.

None of the above will likely score points with rabid fangirls or people who expect out-of-character makeout scenes, but true fans who genuinely appreciate them for who they are would expect nothing less, and would likely be quite pleased with your faithfulness to the character’s true, canon personality.

These guys are the polar opposite of the asshole guys personality-wise- they’re sweet, innocent, and probably clueless or nervous around girls. However, they do have some things in common- where the cold-hearted guys might refuse to play because they just don’t give a damn, these guys might refuse at first because they’re nervous, or think it’s awkward (though they’re infinitely more likely to be convinced/coerced into playing than their jerkass counterparts).

Guys of this type have the potential for the cutest, sweetest, and most innocent (sometimes most romantic) results. Like their old-hearted opposites, there are a few routes you can take with them:

1. Extreme nervousness leading to an awkward but sweet kiss.

2. An innocent first kiss (possibly played out as the first for the quiz taker, too)

3. Pretty much any sort of clean, innocent kiss- it doesn’t have to be a little peck or anything.

4. No kiss, just conversation/hugging. (Go this route if they’d probably be way too nervous to kiss, though it’s not preferred, since it IS a kissing game)

With these guys, it would be very out of character to have a makeout session, or to have them be amazing kissers instantly- remember, these are guys who have never kissed anyone before, so they’re not going to be unbelievably amazing the first time around. However, this does NOT mean that they have to be written as bad, sloppy, or overly amateurish kissers, either- it’s ok to have them be good, just as long as it’s clean and not something you’d expect from someone with a lot of experience.

Also, don’t make them suddenly decide to have a passionate makeout session, moaning and all- this absolutely obliterates results like these, since it’s so out of character. So many times I’ve seen what was a completely adorable, sweet, innocent scene reduced to out-of-character makeout frenzies and ruined, and it’s really a waste. It’s best to just cut it off at “cute and innocent” before you accidentally go too far.

You’re probably looking at the above sections and thinking “What the hell? Where am I supposed to put the makeout scenes?! This is a kissing game, wtf?!” The answer is: right here.

The guys in this section are generally people who aren’t super-innocent and nervous, or cold and disinterested. It’s fine to put a first-kiss guy in here if he’s an outgoing, confident type, or something similar, but the majority of the guys in here will probably have more experience kissing than that.

You’re free to take any approach you want, so long as you keep the characters acting like themselves. What this means is that normally clean guys won’t be doing over-the-top makeout scenes, and such.

Also, NO LEMONS IN THE CLOSET, EVER. It’s a “sharing a kiss in a closet” game, not “losing you virginity to a randomly selected guy in a closet” game. You should also avoid undressing people in the closet, along with any sexual or really suggestive acts. How would you feel if someone did that in your closet?

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Formatting

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I’ve seen many different approaches to the actual “quiz” part of these creations. Some quiz makers choose to make it painfully obvious who you’re going to get (some even go so far as to have you choose the character you want by name), some put colors/gemstones/animals/symbols/you get it that correspond to each character, others will try to make it as random as possible by deliberately putting the characters with choices that people wouldn’t expect to lead to their results, while still others will make a short personality quiz that essentially “matchmakes’ you into a result.

All of these are valid results, though the random ones are most faithful to the game, though some people may appreciate getting a good match with a short quiz, or being able to pick their character outright (which can kind of suck the fun out of it).

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Setting a Time Limit

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While the game is called “SEVEN Minutes in Heaven”, I’ve seen very many people change the amount of time the participants are allowed during their turns. Sometimes this is a good thing (more time allows for more conversation and a bit of relationship development between the quiz taker and character), sometimes, it gets ridiculous.

If you want to keep the results short, go with the traditional seven minutes. If you want to allow for a little development, go with 10-15. Once you get to things like 20 minutes, you start pushing it, and when it gets to 30 or more, it starts to get ridiculous.

Think about it from the perspective of the people waiting for their turn- would you really want to wait half an hour, or one whole hour for you turn, while two people who may or may not actually want to kiss are stuck in your closet? Probably not.

Also, you can feel free to set different time limits for each pair (perhaps you could have them spin a spinner to choose a time?). This can be used as a sort of “quality control”- you can use the lower time limits for characters you’re less comfortable writing about, or can’t really imagine writing into a kissing scene, but still want to put in an honest effort, and the higher time limits for the characters you’re more comfortable with. That way, the quality stays uniformly good, instead of having some drawn out, awkward, bad results.

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The Results

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The results are, by far, the absolute most important part of this type of quiz- most of this guide has been designed to help you create the results properly. This section is about the formatting of the results.

1. NEVER just put “you got ____!” and a picture from photo bucket. That’s just a waste of time, requires no effort, and will most likely turn out bad (1-2 stars, if any) ratings.

2. Try to avoid things like “You got ____! He pulls you into the closet and you kiss for the whole seven minutes! (sometimes with some dialogue in the middle). People generally take these quizzes for the details so put in as many as you can.

3. Use correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. If you can’t spell it, use spell check. NEVER EVER type your results like “U got Saskay! U kissed 4 teh wholee 7 minutess!”. It diminished you results, and just shows that you don’t care. This “style” of result will likely get low ratings as well.

*Pictures aren’t necessary, but they’re nice. However, you should bear in mind that “sexy” or topless pictures can be really awkward for some people, for one reason or another (ex. Nervousness, parent walking through the room and seeing it), and aren’t always appropriate for the character (ex. Innocent, first-kiss type guy). In the end, it’s up to your discretion.

Also, you should avoid using links from Photobucket, as they tend to go dead very, very quickly, and end up making the results look bad when there’s this large brick that says “This image has been removed or deleted, blah, blah, blah” in the way. Avoid using huge images as well, since they can take a long time to load and sometimes don’t display properly.

*CHOICES ARE GOOD. Many quiz takers love it when they’re given a choice as to how they behave in their result, such as whether they kiss the character they got or not.

For example, I once took a great quiz like this, where the author has two results in each result: “If you like them” and “if you don’t like them”, with the reader behaving differently in each choice.

This is especially wonderful if you’ve gotten a character you happen to like, but most quiz makers force you to beat up (like poor Rock Lee, who, despite my not being a fangirl of his, I feel bad for due to his always being pummeled by quiz takers/quiz makers), or vice-versa.

*Avoid making the reader into an OC! The vast majority of readers (myself included) absolutely despise being made into an OC (ex. “Your name is Aki! You’re 16 and blah, blah blah” then the result). It’s not immersive at all when they keep calling “you” some random name and alluding to a past, etc. that isn’t yours. Most people prefer a blank for their name (a la “_____-chan” or just plain “_______”) instead.

*It’s ok to have some characters end up dating after sharing a kiss in-game, but it’s just plain strange (and a stretch to hell and back) to have them get married suddenly and have three kids. Again, it’s a kissing game, not a “deciding your future with the spin of a bottle/selection of a paper/shove into the closet” game.

Hopefully, you’ll all find this guide helpful/useful. Please let me know if you think it’s missing anything, or if you just want to leave some feedback. Thanks.