![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Here, for y'all's edification and amusement, are a list of "Love Scene Don'ts," courtesy of Writers Digest:
* Avoid false casualness, such as too much over-clever banter. The intense emotions your characters are feeling should override this dialogue. Personally, I like banter.
* Avoid too much physical description. Feelings are much sexier than the action. *raises eyebrows* Um, I think most people find "the action" pretty sexy too.
* Avoid coming across as uncomfortable. Sex is natural, healthy, and meant to be enjoyed. Check you neurotic inhibitions at the door. Actually, this one is good advice.
* Avoid aimlessness. Know what's supposed to happen in this scene and why. Advance planning is essential. Again, decent advice
* Avoid dragging along. Even the most sensual love scene grows tedious when it goes on too long or moves too slowly. More good advice.
* Avoid making sex a power game where the woman's forced or defeated by the man. Such scenes exhibit an outdated attitude toward both sex and women. Who says that sex can't be a power game in some situations? For that matter, who says the "defeated" partner has to be the woman? Why can't she be the aggressor?
* Avoid portraying male sexuality as force. A man who's lively and interesting with his clothes on shouldn't suddenly become cruel and brutal in bed--unless, perhaps, you're depicting a psychopath. Actually, that could be interesting. I think the world needs more psychopathic romantic leads.
* Avoid discussions of sexual diseases, condom use, and related subjects. Such references jolt the reader from the romantic reverie you're attempting to create. Because nothing says "I love you" like having unprotected sex.
* Avoid consequences that portray sex as punishable. Don't have your contemporary novel character suffer terrible fates for having relished sex. Having her get pregnant after she has all that unprotected sex is just bad form.
* Avoid character behaviors in this scene that are inconsistent with the way these characters behave in the rest of the story. Probably the best piece of advice on the list.
* Avoid a purely lustful scene. Have your characters express physical affection and tenderness toward one another. I see that one night stands are not the done thing in the romance novel world.
* Avoid the feeling that we've heard this before. Take care not to let the language you use become pretentious or hackneyed or silly. Opt instead for strong, precise, vivid phrases. One false word and the mood you're attempting to create can be destroyed. All too true. I still remember the time the hero in some book or other crushed his mouth against the heroine's "velvet lips" and I snorted Diet Coke out my nose.
* Avoid a "cut to the trees." Two characters share a passionate kiss. You "cut to the trees" in the form of a paragraph break and line space. The next paragraph begins after the encounter. Doing this means you've taken the easy way out of a challenging writing situation. You've lost the opportunity to show us significant things about how your characters behave under intense emotional circumstances. You've omitted a scene that could be pivotal to your story's outcome. I don't see any reason why an author can't choose to "fade to black" if they're uncomfortable writing a sex scene--I'd rather have a tasteful "fade to black" than badly written smut any day.
Well, I guess now we know why so many mainstream novels have such sappy sex scenes.
* Avoid false casualness, such as too much over-clever banter. The intense emotions your characters are feeling should override this dialogue. Personally, I like banter.
* Avoid too much physical description. Feelings are much sexier than the action. *raises eyebrows* Um, I think most people find "the action" pretty sexy too.
* Avoid coming across as uncomfortable. Sex is natural, healthy, and meant to be enjoyed. Check you neurotic inhibitions at the door. Actually, this one is good advice.
* Avoid aimlessness. Know what's supposed to happen in this scene and why. Advance planning is essential. Again, decent advice
* Avoid dragging along. Even the most sensual love scene grows tedious when it goes on too long or moves too slowly. More good advice.
* Avoid making sex a power game where the woman's forced or defeated by the man. Such scenes exhibit an outdated attitude toward both sex and women. Who says that sex can't be a power game in some situations? For that matter, who says the "defeated" partner has to be the woman? Why can't she be the aggressor?
* Avoid portraying male sexuality as force. A man who's lively and interesting with his clothes on shouldn't suddenly become cruel and brutal in bed--unless, perhaps, you're depicting a psychopath. Actually, that could be interesting. I think the world needs more psychopathic romantic leads.
* Avoid discussions of sexual diseases, condom use, and related subjects. Such references jolt the reader from the romantic reverie you're attempting to create. Because nothing says "I love you" like having unprotected sex.
* Avoid consequences that portray sex as punishable. Don't have your contemporary novel character suffer terrible fates for having relished sex. Having her get pregnant after she has all that unprotected sex is just bad form.
* Avoid character behaviors in this scene that are inconsistent with the way these characters behave in the rest of the story. Probably the best piece of advice on the list.
* Avoid a purely lustful scene. Have your characters express physical affection and tenderness toward one another. I see that one night stands are not the done thing in the romance novel world.
* Avoid the feeling that we've heard this before. Take care not to let the language you use become pretentious or hackneyed or silly. Opt instead for strong, precise, vivid phrases. One false word and the mood you're attempting to create can be destroyed. All too true. I still remember the time the hero in some book or other crushed his mouth against the heroine's "velvet lips" and I snorted Diet Coke out my nose.
* Avoid a "cut to the trees." Two characters share a passionate kiss. You "cut to the trees" in the form of a paragraph break and line space. The next paragraph begins after the encounter. Doing this means you've taken the easy way out of a challenging writing situation. You've lost the opportunity to show us significant things about how your characters behave under intense emotional circumstances. You've omitted a scene that could be pivotal to your story's outcome. I don't see any reason why an author can't choose to "fade to black" if they're uncomfortable writing a sex scene--I'd rather have a tasteful "fade to black" than badly written smut any day.
Well, I guess now we know why so many mainstream novels have such sappy sex scenes.
From:
no subject
I've also heard those called "boot scenes," after the many Star Trek episiodes that would start with Kirk kissing the beautiful alien princess of the day, cut to some other random scene, then cut to Kirk pulling his boots on the next morning.
Love your commentary.