Do you have an interest in someone so much so that you want to date the person, but you don't know how to communicate this to the person? Yes, a guy gave you his phone number when you met online or in the grocery store and he insisted that you text him when you can. How do you handle this? How do you send a guy the ideal text at the right time? Most people think that the difficult part is getting the phone number. But, that is the furthest thing from the truth. The first text messages could determine your romantic prospect with this guy. There are best practices when it comes to texting someone that you would love to date. Let's dive in.

It is better to send that text message to a guy sooner rather than later. The sooner you do so, the more chance you will have of him remembering who you are and where he met you. If you wait too long, you may have just faded in his memory and then you have to explain where you both met. Trust me, he is waiting for you to text him as soon as possible or he wouldn't have given you his number. So do not procrastinate because if you snooze, you could become the loser you don't want to be.

One thing is certain, you should never wait too long to reach out to this guy. He probably gave his phone number to more than one girl. Who knows? You should never take that chance with your dating life. To send that first text, it is usually the most nerve wracking. So, how long should you take to send the first text? If you were to ask other people, they may tell you to wait any number of days before making contact. However, you should determine how long you want to wait. The experts would probably tell that the sooner, the better. A guy who hands you a phone number doesn't even have to remember that he did. He might even forget about you the next day because he saw another chick that fit the bill. Moreover, if you wait too long, then you have to explain to him where you guys met and when he had given you his phone number. This can be quite embarrassing for both of you. So, it is best to touch base rather sooner than later.

If you don't send a text in a relatively early time frame or sit and wait for them to send that first text, there are a few things that could take place. Your cute guy could simply forget you and just move on to the next best interest. He will probably assume that you are not interested in him and so that gives him the go ahead to pursue other chicks. It is recommended that you send that first text message the same day or the same night. This keeps the emotional momentum in your favor. It also solidifies you in the person's memory. You become unforgettable. In fact, in his mind, you will be the "cute girl he saw at the xxxxx." You won't be the girl that he is guessing that he talked to recently.

Now, the next challenge is what should you say inside that first message? This is just as important as the text message itself. Don't be scared about expressing yourself, but do so in general terms. Don't let your emotions get in the way. The fact that he gave you his number says volumes about the attraction he may have for you. So you don't have to go to any extremes to convince him that you have the same attraction for him. Just let him know that you are texting to get to know more about him.

There is certain phone etiquette that you should follow. One of them is not to text at weird hours of the night or early morning. He could be sleeping and you disturb his sleep. He won't be able to respond clearly, if he has had his sleep interrupted. He will wonder why you are waking him up at an odd hour of the night or morning. He won't be excited about hearing from you then. So timing is very important. You want to make it a good first impression.

It is important to find that balance between being overly casual about it and being too overbearing. It can be a difficult proposition, not to mention that guys have their own love language via texting. So, you might not know what to say for him to understand your love language. And you might have to decipher his message, which could be an uphill challenge. There are several tricks, though, that you can utilize, which makes sending a text message to a guy much easier. Let's take a look at some of them.

Don't pay attention to people that say you shouldn't be the first one to send a text message to a guy. Nothing is further from the truth. Of course, if you do it all the time, then that could be a problem. But texting the guy first reveals how confident you are and that is what you should want to portray. In fact, most men love a woman that shows she knows what she wants as long as she is not overly aggressive. You should never begin the text with "Hey, what's up?" That is the proverbial boring way to start a text conversation. If you want to get his attention, text something like "I just can't get you out of my head." Or "I blush every time, I think about you." Or "I am so flattered that you gave me your phone number." You have to step up to the plate and show him that you are not shy about this. Put some pizzazz into your text message so that you can make him notice you over other girls that may have gotten his phone number too. Flirting with him shows that you are interested and he will respond accordingly. When you are confident in your text, it will make him want you so much more.

While you may be excited about hitting him up, don't be overly eager either. This might be the red flag that you don't want the guy to have. He doesn't want to feel overwhelmed so don't write a long text. Most men hate reading long text messages. He doesn't want to know about how your day went. Remember, you have not yet sold him on the first date. If he asks you how you are doing, just say something like "I am doing amazing because I am communicating with you right now." Wait until he responds and don't bombard him with text messages that he has no time to read before responding. It will show that you are too anxious. Instead, play it cool. This is called double texting. This is a nightmare to most guys and you don't want to appear needy or desperate.

Don't play the waiting game; just to have him reeled in. If you snooze, you could lose. If he responds to you, for example, don't let him wait too long before responding. You don't want to pretend that you are unavailable. He will take that as a cue that you are not interested. Instead, respond within a few minutes after being thoughtful about what you are going to say. Don't let it go over an hour before you respond. Be calm, collected and cool about it, but don't let him be wondering what happened to you.

Don't write a book to this poor guy. And sometimes to make it more fun, put in an emoji or smiley face here or there, but don't overdo it because less says more. Guys are not as expressive as gals are. They prefer to be low keyed so be as casual as you can and use the emojis in moderation. When you are sending a text message to him, be short and to the point, but make sure it is upbeat. You could say something like, "HI, hope your day is going great so far." Or "I am thinking about you." When you include words like 'great,' a guy will give a positive reaction all the time. He will see that you are a positive person with no drama.

Pay attention to the style of his text messages and go off of this. Sending a text message is an art that you want to be good at. Just like you would put paint over a Mona Lisa painting, you wouldn't want to splatter your text messages with tons of exclamation points and unnecessary images. If you ever want to emphasize your message, one exclamation point is OK. Avoid the overdose.

You could also let him do most of the texting at first until you get to figure out his style of texting. To keep the communication going smoothly, make sure you have things that are interesting to talk about. So follow his lead. Most men don't like to talk as much as women do and so if you notice his 'one liners' then go with the flow. Send him one liner responses too. If his message is directed to things about him, then he is trying to let you get to know him. Give him the chance to do so. You cannot go wrong with that. He may be trying to break the ice. After he is done, send him that open ended question to keep the communication flowing. He will love answering you back. If texting seems too overwhelming for him or you, pick up phone and carrying on the conversation further. While texting, give him some room to ask questions too.

You should also know when to stop texting him. In other words, try to wrap the communication. You will know when. If the conversation seems to fizzling out, then it is time to end it then. Once you start seeing 'one word' responses or he takes too long to respond, you know it is time to wrap it up. Exit gracefully, but not with the boring 'see you later' or will talk to you again.' End with the prospect of scheduling future plans. Let him know why you have to end the text messages, but let him know you are excited to continue the conversation soon. If he gives you a positive response, then that means he is still interested.

If you don't hear from him in a timely manner, do not overanalyze the reason why and neither should you assume the worst. It could be due to a number of good reasons why he did not return your text message. He could have gotten busy or just simply forgot. Do not overreact. Just wait for 24 hours and send him a quick text to make sure he is OK. If he gives you one of those 'one or two' word answers, don't think that he is losing interest. Most men will respond briefly. Don't read anything into his messages. If you don't understand anything, just wait until you speak on the phone to get an explanation.

Last, but not least, don't be pretentious. Be yourself. Be real. He will detect it in your message. Don't play games either. Talk to him like you would talk to anyone else. Things will eventually fall in place, if it was meant to be. If he gave you his phone number, it means that he wants to hear from you. There is no second guessing this. So you can do it the same day or the day after as long as you do so in a reasonable time of the day.

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