The Pre-date Banter Commandments

Before beginning pre-date banter, it's important to reinforce some important rules.

Banter begins after the date is set.
When you start pre-date banter, you're (briefly) accepting a pen-pal relationship. If you do this before a date is arranged, women will become comfortable with the pen-pal relationship, and often won't want it to end.

But breaking a pre-arranged date is something most women will not do.

Display confidence, act like the person that you say you are.
This isn't an opportunity to "show off". It's an opportunity to demonstrate that you're the person that you claim to be. Be yourself, don't sell yourself. She's already buying.

Create more questions than you answer.
Give vague (but not avoidant) answers to questions, and throw in some new topics about yourself. Use this as an opportunity to hook her interest further.

Humor is OK, but don't overuse it.
If she feels like the whole thing is a joke, she'll be resentful. Or she'll think that you're not taking it seriously at all. And too much humor also makes you look like you're showing off... which is what you don't want to do.

You control the tempo.
Don't feel pressured to reply quickly in banter. Live your life, be a busy person. Reply when it's convenient.

At the end, she should feel mildly frustrated, but intrigued.
Frustration = she wants something, but it's just out of reach. Too far out of reach, and it's the sour grapes syndrome. But if it's just slightly out of reach, she'll try harder. And that's called "attraction".

Those are the principles... tomorrow, I'll talk more about the method.