Note: This blog discusses sexual behaviors and situations. Mature audiences, please.
Unlike the song about summer living being easy, I live in Arizona where the temperature is hot! (Currently 108°) If you have a great air-conditioner, as I fortunately do, you pretend this is the equivalent of hibernating in the winter in colder climates.
While writing the steamy sex scenes for my Louisa’s Vineyard Series, I’m certainly reacting to the heat the scenes generate. Being fairly new to writing romance, I’m finding my way more easily than I imagined writing the steamy scenes. To facilitate, I keep a glass of icy cold water handy and an image of the characters I’m writing about in my mind.
Here are some things I suggest to help enjoy the scenes or to write some of your own:
1) Know your characters. Who are they? Young? More mature? Experienced or not? Nervous about what they’re embarking on, if it’s a new relationship? In love or not?
2) Work with those details. Keep the dialogue and descriptions flowing. Don’t be afraid to have the characters ask questions. My characters are vividly created, but only human. If they’re uncomfortable in the bedroom (or wherever you’ve placed them), do they have reasons for that? Have they had trauma early in their life, accidentally seen adults being sexual, or viewed a film with an explicit sex scene? Were they raped? These situations will influence your character’s reactions and how a reader will view the scenes.
3) Be honest—with yourself and your characters. I had no idea my sex scenes would become as explicit as they are. Sometimes, it seems as if my characters are telling me what to write! If it gets too intense for you as a writer, you can “dial it back.” You can choose to fade out or “close the door” like they did in TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s. The great thing about books is that people can use their imagination. When the popular book Gone with the Wind was written, there was a groundswell of support for choosing Clark Gable as the male lead for the film. Everyone could visualize him as the daring, handsome cad, Rhett Butler. Are you creating an honest character who would act as you’ve written?
4) What happens after the first sex scene between characters? How they act toward each other is extremely important. Does one or both of them pretend nothing happened? Are they able to talk about what happened? Are they honest with each other? Try to avoid stereotypes where the male leaves before morning, promising to call, but doesn’t.
John & Shannon
5) In the prequel I’m writing, Love at First Sight, the characters are inexperienced sexually. They are caring people who have literally fallen in love at first sight. Being a romance, the HEA–“happily ever after” is a given. What do you do to give them the hurdles to prove and earn the love and relationship? What is plausible? If you’re the writer, you run it through your filter of whether this is behavior the character would engage in. If it seems “off,” change it or adjust it.
6) Challenge the characters, both protagonists in the relationship. Does a past love show up? Does jealousy cause problems? Does a family member take a dislike to the partner? Does their unequal education, level of wealth, bad manners, or other factors doom the relationship? Any of these issues can play into whether a relationship will work, become sexual, and last.
7) Depending on how you’ve decided the relationship will proceed, make both characters work for the HEA. If one withholds information about their past, this can become a plot point that will jeopardize their HEA outcome.
8) Give the characters a chance to have fun! Let them tease each other, be playful in the bedroom, and have a secret “word” or “language” they use. If everything is grim and hurtful, you may not be writing the book you intended. If you did plan to include BDSM, let the readers know early, so they can opt out, if they wish.
9) Create the vivid world you want the characters to live in. Who are the people and what are the situations they encounter? Throw in some ordinary situations to make things realistic. For instance, maybe the character is always misplacing their keys. Make the action original and memorable.
10) Have fun with this! In one workshop I listened to, they told us that a sex scene should be a particular length. I vehemently disagree! The sex scene should allow us to learn more about the characters, their hopes, dreams, pasts. In one sex scene I wrote, the male cried. It was against character, but it showed the deep trust the characters had for each other and gave the reader a sense of the character’s vulnerability.
Meanwhile, stay cool! Be true to the characters you’ve created and they will work for you.
PS Will’s Secret, Book 2 of the Louisa’s Vineyard Series, launches this month!