Blog 57: Love is in the Air

Howdy partners. As Valentine’s Day dances towards us all dressed up and carrying a bunch of very expensive red roses, I wondered if you knew how it all began. It initially goes back to the Roman times with the festival of Lupercalia (which translates to festival of the wolf). Awoooo – sorry I couldn’t resist that. Anyway, a lottery was held that paired men up with women in celebration of spring, health and fertility. I wonder if there was a Roman version of Cilla Black who got to pick out the winners. The festival included a feast, animal sacrifices, and ritual whipping to encourage fertility and ward away evil spirits. Because nothing gets you in the mood more than a bit of whipping and watching animals die. And there’s us wasting money on candlelight dinners and sexy underwear. If only we had known this earlier.

However, later, as with many early traditions, the Catholic Church stepped in and changed it to Valentine’s Day. Named as such after a martyr, a third century priest, who married soldiers to their brides in secret after Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage. After being discovered, St. Valentine was thrown into jail. But that isn’t all. Apparently, he fell in love with his jailer’s daughter and just before he was taken away to be executed, he wrote her a love letter that was signed, “from your Valentine.” Awww.

As time has gone on, this celebration has evolved into a day where we celebrate love and romance, while the shops acquire numerous cha chings from our purchasing of cards, gifts, and meals out. Spending a shed load of money is just so romantic, isn’t it? Hang on a second while I swoon.

Therefore, as we approach this expensive and romantical time, I thought we could gaze longingly at the genre of romance. As you know it’s a popular genre because it can be incorporated into pretty much all stories. You’ve got vampires falling for humans, people killing for love, adventure, fantasy, crime, historical and drama can, and usually do, incorporate love in some way.

Not long ago my eldest daughter asked why so many songs were about love (it irked her). I explained that love made the world go around. She corrected me and said it was money that made the world go round. But I stand by what I said, love is very much a part of life, and it would be quite a dull place and pointless existence without it.

I've enjoyed reading the odd love and romance scenes; however, I don’t actively seek out a book that is purely romance. I think perhaps it is because when I do, the vocabulary used can be overdone to the point it has lost its meaning. They are either over way too quickly with no description, are so cheesy that there’s nothing romantic about it, or I am reading words like the hard place on her swelling, just call it a nipple, mate! Or his length, or that sacred place between her legs. I get that the author may not want to come across as crude, but we aren’t writing poetry. It’s like a secret code you have to crack to work out what’s going on in there. Can you imagine if this same approach was adapted for other actions, such as a handshake? He gently slid his skin into hers, the digits entwined as they rocked back and forth. Do you recall the advice Roy Walker gave on Catchphrase? “Say what you see.” That’s all I’m asking for, people!

So, with this in mind, I thought I would check out some advice on how you can hit the spot when it comes to writing these steamy scenes without making your reader gag, laugh or scratch their head. The key to drawing someone into an engaging love scene is focusing more on the emotional connection and sensory detail rather than a blow-by-blow account (if you pardon the pun). It isn’t just about what's happening, but how it has led up to it, how it makes them feel and how this moment will impact the next part of the story.

Let’s break it down: -

1.      Build Tension and Meaning

It’s more than just sex; we need to get into the head of the character and work out their why. Is it a deep attraction or connection? Maybe it is all about control, revenge, or loneliness? Is this relationship a turning point, such as enemies to lovers? Work out what lies beyond the bedsheets to strike a chord with the person reading and make them wonder what this will mean for the character’s development.

While you are getting all steamy, don’t forget the intimacy. Go beyond what is said and look at body language and lingering glances to create electricity in the atmosphere before they finally touch. 

2.      Engage the Senses

Scenes become far more engaging when we can imagine it through our senses. Think about what the character is feeling physically, what they can smell, hear and taste as well as see. How are the characters reacting? Perhaps their heartbeats have sped up or they are trembling.

3.      No Cheese

There’s a time and place for cheese: on Pizza, crackers or on a jacket potato with baked beans and a side of coleslaw, but don’t go bringing it with you into the bedroom. Make sure your dialogue doesn’t smell of a mature cheddar, or worse still, blue stilton. Yuk! It should sound natural. Read it aloud to make sure it's something your character would say if they were in the room telling you about it. Avoid dramatic, poetic, or overcomplicated descriptions. Remember to use language that is in keeping with the rest of your book and steer clear of clichés as they will stand out like a sore thumb. (A little nod to last week’s blog there).

Make it more realistic with some nerves or awkwardness, it can be clumsy or rushed. Even adding a little humour into the scene can make it appear less fantastical and more relatable. 

4.      Pacing

As spoken about in previous blogs, vary sentence lengths: longer ones to build tension and shorter ones to create urgency and make it more intense. But please don’t get us all ramped up and then have the two lovers do the deed in a couple of paragraphs, leaving us disappointed, unless of course it’s important to the plot. Take your time and explore the scene properly. Also avoid an abrupt end after the climax, where they finish and you zap over to the next day. Give the characters time to process the experience and convey their feelings to each other and/or the reader. How did they feel afterwards: elated, guilty, frustrated, confused or wanting more? Maybe they have arrived at a point of no return.

5.      Show and Tell

The old ‘Show, don’t tell’ is appropriate here. Hone in on actions and reactions rather than spelling everything out in the text. Demonstrate their love on the page. However, don’t show every little thing, guide your reader along to a point and then allow them to fill in parts with their imagination. Don’t get bogged down in who did what to who.

Now, wasn’t that romantic? So, for those of you in the mood for lerrrrve this week, maybe you could put some of it aside to write or refine a love scene.

I hope you all enjoy Valentine’s Day, whether you are celebrating it with a partner or showing a friend or yourself a little love. Because no matter what my daughter says, love does make the world go around.

Catch you next week my darlings.