Whether you’re writing a highly emotional love scene between two people who are in love, or one-night stand sex between two people who have just met, emotion needs to be a part of it. Even in erotic romance, some kind of emotion is vital. If you don’t include emotion and characterization then your scenes may be porn-like or mechanical and robotic.
Some scenes will have loads of emotion and some scenes will have a little emotion. But even with the one-night stand variety of sex, you still need some feelings and thoughts blended with the sex.
Why is this so important? You need to establish an emotional connection between your READER and your POV CHARACTER. Without this connection, the reader won’t care. And you must make the reader care or they toss your book aside.
You can add touches of emotion anywhere within a scene, whether it's extremely erotic or not. When I say emotion, I don't mean mushy-gushy type emotion. Basically, it's just little things that keep the reader in touch mentally with the POV character. If you only have physical, external reactions from your POV character, you're missing an opportunity to strengthen the reader connection and you're not staying in deep POV. So with any reaction you have for your character, examine it. Ask yourself, is this reaction from deep inside the character. Or is it something an external observer would notice?
For example, if your heroine has insecurities about her body when she's naked in front of the hero, show that from deep within her psyche. It's another opportunity to make the reader empathize with your heroine, care about her, and make her even more likable. The hero could pick up on her insecurity and say or do something to make her feel better. This would be a touch of emotion that makes him more likable. It shouldn't be cliché at all. And an alpha hero can stay alpha and still do nice things. You will hopefully make a character empathetic when first introducing them, but you also need to keep that empathy going throughout the story, building on it, making it stronger so the reader completely identifies with the heroine. And falls head over heels with the hero. And that links back to who the character is inside, their thoughts and emotions.
I'll be teaching my online workshop Writing Hot Delicious Love Scenes in September for Yosemite Romance Writers. The above is an excerpt from it. You can learn more about this workshop at my website: http://www.nicolenorth.com/ then click on my workshops page.
I have a new contest starting! This goes until the end of August. I'll choose winners Sept. 1.
Tell-a-Secret Contest
Help me spread the word about my first book and you could win!!
Prizes (one prize per winner):
*an autographed copy of Secrets Volume 27 Untamed Pleasures (2 winners)
*a print copy of Terry Spear's paranormal romance Heart of the Wolf (2 winners)
*a pair of handmade sterling silver, semi-precious stone earrings (2 winners)
*2 new romance novels (you choose your favorites from a list I'll provide) (3 winners)
(I may be adding more prizes, especially if I get a lot of entries.)
This contest is easy to enter. All you have to do is place my Secrets Volume 27 Untamed Pleasures book cover, Devil in a Kilt blurb, link to video, buy links for Amazon and B&N, my bio. (The blog can be anywhere: Blogger, Wordpress, personal website, Myspace or other social network, etc.)
Once you post the info about my book, contact me via email nicole @ nicolenorth . com (without the spaces) or post your info in a comment here and send me the link of where you've posted the info. I'll respond to each entry I receive. So if you don't hear from me, please contact me again to be sure you're entered. I will draw winners at random from all names submitted on September 1. There will be several prizes, so you have a better chance of winning! Thanks!!!
To enter the contest, here is what to post on your blog:
Secrets Volume 27 Untamed Pleasures, an anthology of four erotic romance novellas out now from Red Sage. Nicole North's story in this anthology is Devil in a Kilt. A trip to the Highland Games turns into a trip to the past when modern day psychology professor Shauna MacRae touches Gavin MacTavish's four-hundred-year-old claymore. What she finds is a Devil In a Kilt she's had erotic fantasies about for months. Can Shauna break the curse imprisoning this shape shifting laird and his clan before an evil witch sends Shauna back to her time?
Link to book trailer video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1oOOvTomv4
Available at:
B&N http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Secrets-Volume-27/Leigh-Court/e/9781603100076/?itm=1
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-27-Pleasures-Leigh-Court/dp/1603100075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241557838&sr=8-1
Bio: Nicole North writes sensual and erotic romance novels and novellas. She is the author of paranormal erotic romance novellas Devil in a Kilt, Red Sage Secrets Volume 27 Untamed Pleasures, July 2009; Beast in a Kilt, Red Sage Secrets Volume 29; and (contemporary) Kilted Lover. She lives with her husband in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, but wishes she lived in the Scottish Highlands at least half the year. Though she holds a degree in psychology, writing romance is her first love. Visit her at http://www.nicolenorth.com/
2 comments:
Excellent reminders, Nicole. I almost always have to go back and add emotion in sex scenes. I wonder what that says about me?
Carly
I also like to add humor to sex scenes because rarely does everything go as planned during a sex scene!
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