LOVE
What I mean is: LOVE scenes. Those beasts.
Yeah, I chose to write love stories -- not "romance" per se, and definitely not erotica, but still, they are love stories and it's kind of difficult to avoid love scenes.
Sure, I can simply "fade to black" and let your imagination take over. I do that. There's no point of describing every detail. I'm not writing a sex manual. I'm not even writing erotica. Still, I think it's important to convey the emotions and not just cut away. So much about sex -- well, making love -- is about sharing and the intimacy shared by the characters. And so much about love stories is the love, connection and intimacy between these characters. To just "cut away and fade the black" seems like such a copout.
Then again, it's really difficult to do a love scene justice. Seriously, how many times can I say "they kissed" and how many different ways can I describe the kisses? It gets old. And unless the readers are voyeurs, I doubt they would want to witness all that lovey-doveyness.
Love scenes are difficult to write for a reason. You either go into the erotica territory and go all out with the details, or you cut away. But if you decide to delve into it to convey the emotions, then how do you go about it, to make it just right -- not too explicit, not too coy. How do you make your readers feel the heat and intimacy without making them squirm (or squirt!)?
I'm still learning. I've written one love scene before (it's in my novel The Pacific Between), but the scene was not about love and intimacy, but more about role-playing, aggression, and self-awareness. That scene was less erotic and loving and more of a crude "mind-game."
The scenes I'm writing now are much more intimate and emotional and passionate, and it's been rather difficult for me, to know where the line is and how to do it just right. Of course, my own advice to myself would be to just write it, then fix it later. Still, I'm having some kind of resistance and my inner editor is screaming at me as I write.
It's going to be very interesting.
Yeah, I chose to write love stories -- not "romance" per se, and definitely not erotica, but still, they are love stories and it's kind of difficult to avoid love scenes.
Sure, I can simply "fade to black" and let your imagination take over. I do that. There's no point of describing every detail. I'm not writing a sex manual. I'm not even writing erotica. Still, I think it's important to convey the emotions and not just cut away. So much about sex -- well, making love -- is about sharing and the intimacy shared by the characters. And so much about love stories is the love, connection and intimacy between these characters. To just "cut away and fade the black" seems like such a copout.
Then again, it's really difficult to do a love scene justice. Seriously, how many times can I say "they kissed" and how many different ways can I describe the kisses? It gets old. And unless the readers are voyeurs, I doubt they would want to witness all that lovey-doveyness.
Love scenes are difficult to write for a reason. You either go into the erotica territory and go all out with the details, or you cut away. But if you decide to delve into it to convey the emotions, then how do you go about it, to make it just right -- not too explicit, not too coy. How do you make your readers feel the heat and intimacy without making them squirm (or squirt!)?
I'm still learning. I've written one love scene before (it's in my novel The Pacific Between), but the scene was not about love and intimacy, but more about role-playing, aggression, and self-awareness. That scene was less erotic and loving and more of a crude "mind-game."
The scenes I'm writing now are much more intimate and emotional and passionate, and it's been rather difficult for me, to know where the line is and how to do it just right. Of course, my own advice to myself would be to just write it, then fix it later. Still, I'm having some kind of resistance and my inner editor is screaming at me as I write.
It's going to be very interesting.
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