When she writes loves scenes,
Janet Evanovich sits alone in her dedicated writing room, drinks a glass of
champagne and nibbles from a bowl of M&Ms. Her Stephanie Plum series of
murder mysteries are rapid fire and have a dose of sex but she finds them difficult to write. How do you write love
scenes or do not write them because you are hesitant?
There are many rules about
writing love scenes and surprisingly most of them apply to Christian romance
novels as well as “bodice rippers” and those general romance stories by Richard
Paul Evans, Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, and Nikki Arana. (Forget the hard-core
stuff. I do not know any authors and do not want to comment on it.)
1. Know your audience and
yourself.
Write
what you are comfortable saying.
Write
the scenes your readers expect based on the plot.
Use
words that appeal to you and fit the plot.
2. Make sure the scene adds
to the story line.
Gratuitous
sex just to sell a book or to nab a publisher is tawdry
and
demeaning to you and the reader. Write
love scenes not sex scenes.
3. We all know the rules of
building tension in a plot.
Sexual
tension needs to be built up from the beginning of the story. You must show how
the characters’ relationship gets to the point where they make love.
Write
the characters to have an attraction at their first meeting.
Keep
them thinking about each other in a slightly sexual way.
“He
noticed her lips right away.” “She loved men with red hair and he had long,
curly red hair…. and a red beard!”
There
have to be consequences of having sex further into the
story.
4. Balance your scenes between emotions and physical acts.
Write
so the actions are not too distracting.
Rarely
do characters have sex just for sex’ sake.
Understand
that most of your audience knows how its done.
Make
it part of the tension of plot as well as tension in the scene.
Sometimes
sex is not necessary for the story.
Decide
if the scene will be fast and hot or slow and romantic.
5. Use the five senses to
enhance the setting.
Are
they in her childhood bedroom that is soft and pink and
smells
of her shampoo? Are they in the woods and
the
gentle breeze through the pine trees sounds like waves and
the air smells like fresh
rain? Are they in a hotel room or car?
Use
descriptive nouns to set the scene. It can’t all be about
body
parts or actions, or it is boring and readers skip it.
6. Do not make the scenes long.
7. Make sure that the
readers know that eventually these characters will make love. An out-of-the-air
scene is not helpful.
8. Write love scenes from
one person’s point of view. The other character can think about it later in
order to give the reader the other half of the couple’s feelings about what
happened.
9. Do not let the sex scenes
overpower the main plot. It should add to the plot but not be THE element of
the story.
10. Avoid clichés and
foolish names for body parts.
11. Write the scenes as they are scheduled into the story. Do not save them for the last and insert them where you
thought they would fit.
12. Have some fun. Think
happy thoughts while you write even if you write in the closet by candlelight.
