So You Want to Write Romance

Hi everyone! I'm Chrys Fey, the newest moderator of Unicorn Bell, and today is my first week as co-host. I am thrilled to be here and look forward to many more weeks. :)

Romance is a very popular genre. Don’t we all just love romance? I know I do, which is why I created a post with ten tips to help you write romantic scenes. I’m not talking about dinner dates though. Oh no, I’m talking about those steamy scenes.

1. Build suspense and intensity. Nothing draws a reader in and keeps them captivated more than romance that heats up slowly like a teapot on a stove. Start things out slow between your characters with contact that is just a brush of the lips and a touch of the hands then builds to breath-stealing kisses and full-bodied caresses.

Image Free to Use

2.  Cover all the bases of the five senses: sight, taste, smell, touch, and sound. Get creative!

3. Use similes. Similes are a tiny piece of art in your writing. You don’t want to overpower the scene with similes, but creating a couple can make all the difference to your details.

4. Know your characters and genre. Don’t change your characters attitude just because they are being intimate. If the woman is shy, keep her shy during the whole love-making process. Also, keep your genre in mind. There are certain genres that require more steam and then there are others where it isn’t necessary to go that far into detail.

5. Use setting to your advantage. Describe your characters’ surroundings. A season can also make a difference. During the winter, a love scene could involve a roaring fire.

6. Don’t ignore dialogue. Have your characters voice how much they want each other and what they are feeling.

7. Get into your characters’ thoughts and emotions to make it more romantic. What are they thinking? Tell us! Are they nervous, scared, or anxious? Reveal it!

8. Listen to the great love songs that make your heart go pitter-patter.

9. Pretend you’re the one being romanced. How would you want to be treated? What would you want to happen? What are your desires?

10. Lastly, there are two ways to go about writing a romantic scene. The first route is soft and sweet. The second is hot and steamy. If you’re writing a sweet encounter, the kisses will be long, their hands will be caressing each other tenderly, and the love-making will be slow and gentle. On the other hand, if you’re writing a steamy encounter, the kisses will be bruising and breathless, their hands will be eager, and the love-making will be fast and furious.

TIP: You can blend these two options by starting out soft and sweet and then turning the heat up to hot and steamy.

* This is an updated version of an article previously posted on my blog, Write with Fey.

Carrots and Blythe Grow Up Together

Thanks to YouTube for providing the clips this week, but more importantly...

THANK YOU 

to all who participated in our first blogfest of 2014.

There were all kinds of different love posts to enjoy. What was your favorite entry? Please tell us in the comments so we can give a shout out to those bloggers one more time. If you missed the list with all the blog participants, click HERE.

I have to end the week with Anne Shirley. She has been my kindred spirit since I was twelve years old. We are alike in so many ways that if she had lived in real life I'd know for a fact I was her reincarnated. One of the things I love about Anne and Gilbert is that they were childhood classmates who grew up to be more.

It sort of reminds me of me and my hubby who met when we were twelve. Friendship to love is always the best kind in my mind. The kind of love with real staying power.

Simply Irresistible!

For the rest of the week, I'll be providing romantic inspiration in the form of some of my favorites. Thanks to YouTube for providing the clips!

To find the linky with all the blog participants, click HERE.

Have you ever heard of the Sarah Michelle Gellar movie Simply Irresistible? I don't think it's well known, but it's a "cute" movie about food, magic and love. I couldn't find a YouTube clip of the scene I wanted to share, but here's the movie trailer for your enjoyment.

 What romantic movies float your boat? Please tell us in the comments!

You Can't Just Go Around Kissing People!

For the rest of the week, I'll be providing romantic inspiration in the form of some of my favorites. Thanks to YouTube for providing the clips!

To find the linky with all the blog participants, click HERE.

Chris Pine. Need I give any other reason for why I adore The Princess Diaries 2?


And another scene...

As You Wish

For the rest of the week, I'll be providing romantic inspiration in the form of some of my favorites. Thanks to YouTube for providing the clips!

To find the linky with all the blog participants, click HERE.

The Princess Bride is perhaps one of the most easily quoted movies in my repertoire. Even my kids know most of the movie by heart. The humor is priceless, and so is the sweetness of true love.




And you can't talk about Princess Bride without shouting, "I'm not a witch, I'm your wife!"

All the Right Words, but the Wrong Guy

For the rest of the week, I'll be providing romantic inspiration in the form of some of my favorites. Thanks to YouTube for providing the clips!

To find the linky with all the blog participants, click HERE.

My daughters and I have watched a lot of chick flicks together. A LOT! Especially when we got to TN to visit my mom and sisters. Hey, don't judge, it's the thing to do! We've watched this one a hundred times, at least.

This scene breaks my heart each time. Masimo is such a sweet kind guy. He's doing everything right, and Mary tries here to go with it. However, he's just not the right guy.

Top 5 Doctor Who Kisses According to Someone

For the rest of the week, I'll be providing romantic inspiration in the form of some of my favorites. Thanks to YouTube for providing the clips!

To find the linky with all the blog participants, click HERE.

Yeah, I'd rearrange these a bit myself, but as a Doctor Who geek, I had to share. Move Amy to #5 because she always sort of bugged me (but I loved Rory!). I'd also move the kiss with Rose to #3. Why? Because I love the Doctor and River. Their story was one of the most bittersweet of the Whoverse in my opinion.

Tension, Some People Got It

For the rest of the week, I'll be providing romantic inspiration in the form of some of my favorites. Thanks to YouTube for providing the clips!

To find the linky with all the blog participants, click HERE.

Those who follow my blog have learned that although I like to complain about the writers getting silly on the TV show Bones, I still love it. I watch because it's got two gorgeous people in it with great romantic tension.

Come on, David Boreanaz? Emily Deschanel?

Love Against His Will

For the rest of the week, I'll be providing romantic inspiration in the form of some of my favorites. Thanks to YouTube for providing the clips!

To find the linky with all the blog participants, click HERE.

Sometimes love is not only awkward but down right "catty". This is one of my all time favorite scenes from the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. The emotions simmer and boil and make everything that comes later all the more wonderful.

All You Need

"I must have made some sound of distress, for there was a sudden up upheaval of bedclothes as the stranger in my bed vaulted to the floor with  the heart-stopping suddenness of a pheasant rising underfoot. He came to rest in a crouch near the door of the chamber, barely visible in the pre-dawn light.
Pausing to listen carefully at the door, he made a rapid inspection of the room, gliding soundlessly from door to window to bed. The angle of his arm told me that he held a weapon of some sort, though I could not see what it was in the darkness. Sitting down next to me, satisfied that all was secure, he slid the knife or whatever it was back into its hiding place above the headboard.
"Are you all right" he whispered. His fingers brushed my wet cheek.
"Yes. I'm sorry to wake you. I had a nightmare. What on earth-" I started to ask what it was that had made him spring so abruptly to the alert. 
A large warm hand rand down my bare arm, interrupting my question. "No wonder; you're frozen." The hand urged me under the pile of quilts and into the warm space recently vacated. "My fault," he murmured. "I've taken all the quilts. I'm afraid I'm no accustomed yet to share a bed." He wrapped the quilts comfortably around us and lay back beside me. A moment later, he reached again to touch my face.
"Is it me?"he asked quietly. "Can ye not bear me?"
I gave a short hiccuping laugh, not quite a sob. "No, it isn't you." I reached out into the dark, groping for a hand to press reassuringly. My fingers met a tangle of quilts and warm flesh, but at last I found the hand I had been seeking. We lay side by side, looking up at the low beamed ceiling.
~ ~ ~
I turned toward him. "I don't hate you."
"I don't hate you, either. And there's many good marriages have started wi' less than that. Gently, he turned me away from him and fitted himself to my back so we lay nested together. His hand cupped my breast, not in invitation or demand, but because it seemed to belong there.
"Don't be afraid," he whispered into my hair. "There's the two of us now."

~~Diana Gabaldon "Outlander"

All you need to know about love. In a simple passage.

Sweet Treats

And for a Valentines Day Special Treat....

I have a submission!

No...Not that kind of submission! Sheesh....that was yesterday. Man...

This Novel is an Historical Time Traveling Romance/Fiction. The two main characters have both traveled back into the past...but neither of them are aware of this...

Title of the Novel : Paradise Tours

  Katherine stretched her legs out, wiggling her toes. She took another
sip of the whiskey, wishing for tonic water or ice. So many things to miss,
she thought, glancing over at Jack who was watching the embers burn. The
light from the lamp accentuated the highlights in his hair, and she wondered
what it might feel like to run her fingers through it, what it might feel
like to kiss him...
     What would he do, she wondered, if she got up and went over to him?
     She took another sip from the cup and set it aside, rising and going
over to stand before him. She began to unbutton her blouse.
     "What are you doing?" he asked, almost choking.
     "What does it look like I'm doing?"
     He shook his head, rising, stopping her with his hands. "You don't have
to - "
     "But I want to," she said, cutting him off, "unless of course, you
don't."
     "Oh, I do, but..."
     "But what?"
     "Are you sure?"
     "Very."
     "Then let me," he said, unbuttoning the next, his fingers surprisingly
agile with the tiny flat buttons.
     "I take it you've done this before," Katherine said.
     "A couple of times," Jack said with a smile, slipping her blouse off,
letting his hands skim lightly over her shoulders and down the length of her
arms. "You?"
     "I was married, remember?" She smiled back.
     "Oh, really?"
     "Well, almost," Katherine amended.
     "Then this won't be the first time you've been kissed..."
     But it felt like the first kiss the way he brushed his lips against
hers, slowly, teasing, and when his tongue came to part her lips she
couldn't help but sigh, pressing closer to him, wanting to feel him against
her. Her arms twined up around his head, her fingers in his hair, those
golden strands.

Great beginning to a love scene. I love the teasing. The back and forth unsure-ness. I also like how underneath it all they're both not really who they think they are...:) Kinda adds another element to the whole thing. And I Still don't understand why this novel hasn't been picked up...*snarkity grumble*

What does everyone think? Please add your thoughts!

And enjoy this celebratory day of love!

How 50 Shades Got it Right

Please say that you watch Big Bang Theory....Because if you don't you missed this gem of a scene.

I would advise you to swallow any liquids you have in your mouth before hitting the play button...

Seriously. Fucking. Hysterical.

And I truly believe that we have 50 Shades to thank for this.

And for a few other things. I think that we've become a bit more accepting of people just in general. We've let go of our Puritan roots...just a little. Hopefully we can stop taking sex So Seriously, and learn to laugh at it...just a little bit more in my lifetime.

Taboo things are becoming less...well..taboo.

I'm not so sure Incest will ever be widely acceptable (The popularity of Game of Thrones doesn't have that much sway over popular opinion!)...But everyone should read the Wideacre Trilogy by Philippa Gregory. The main character, Beatrice, is a sociopath in the extreme. And the books are riddled with  other, more acceptable, taboo passions.

Spanking. For one. Bondage. These types of things. Snippets of Spice. Things that make a reader take notice. Things that make a love scene stand out and make you clutch your book just a little bit harder...in a good way. Make you wonder, "Who else knows about this?", "Who can I tell about this?", "Who can't I tell about this!?".

There is another amazing series out there by Jacquilin Carey called Kushiel's Avatar. So good. Great at pushing boundaries. In the simplest terms possible, it's about a woman who enjoys pain, that is trained as a spy...in a fantasy world.

" My breath caught in my throat; I heard a mewling sound, unaware it was me. It was the sound of a dumb animal in pain. Surely now, here, there could be only agony...
Would that it were so.
Even this...even this. My body betrayed me, accommodating the agony, inner flesh torn, slick with desire and blood, accommodating...him. the dreadful iron reaving me in twain, all of it. I laid my cheek on the bedclothes, scratching roughly with the rhythm of his thrusting , staring into the darkness. Let him kill me with it, I thought. let him. Pleasure mounted, inexorable, unspeakable. My fingers clenched on the bedclothes, clenched and released. A crimson veil fell over my vision."

 Jacqueline Carey, "Kushiel's Avatar"

So how about you? What are your thoughts when you run across these scenes in your romance books? Do you take notes on how to add them to your own stories? Or do you skip ahead, reaching for the brain bleach?

Men are from Mars, Women can say Boob Without Giggling

Are there any good Male Romance writers out there?

I don't know.

Can men write romance? Is it possible for men to get inside what a woman wants and really flesh it out in a book?

Judging by the lack of male Harlequin authors, I'd say no.  But then there's Nicholas Sparks. I have not, admittedly READ any of his books, but I have seen two of his movies. Lovely, Romantic stuff. Both of which had really hot sex scenes in them. (Not sure if the books did or not..."The Notebook", and "Walk to Remember".) Regardless...he may be the exception that proves the rule.

*Riffles through bookcase*

George R.R. Martin. Amazing writing. Fantastic Epic story. Crap Romance. Well...ok. No. I think the problem is that people die too fast in these books to really get invested in each other. Seriously. Death is only romantic (ala Romeo and Juliet) if it's used sparingly. Not every other chapter. Gah.

Patrick Rothfuss; Again. Amazing storyteller. Lead character spends the first book allergic to women. The second book *SPOILER* his first time is with a fairy. In a magical land. And it's perfect. And he learns all he needs to know. Of course. This interlude in the book kinda drove me a bit batty. I understand all men want to be considered the great and powerful Oz in bed, but really Patrick. An all knowing Fairy as your first? Really?

Brandon Sanderson.  Jim Butcher. I don't think they even have romance per say in their books...

Orson Scott Card....nope.

Mark Hodder. Hmmm...Let's change tact.

Of course I have a bunch of the classics. Count of Monte Cristo. Sherlock Holmes. Treasure Island. It always surprises me that the old classics don't have more sex in them, considering how depraved the Victorians really were. Though I guess...it was all about appearance!

Ken Follett! Pillars of the Earth! There's some great lovemaking in there...

They were both breathing hard now. Jack held her head in his hands. She stroked his arms, his back, and then his hips, chest. At last she broke the kiss, breathless.
She looked at him. He was flushed and panting, and his face shone with desire. After a moment he bent forward and kissed the delicate skin of her throat. She heard herself moan with pleasure. He moved his head lower, and brushed his lips over the swell of her breast. Her nipples were swollen under the coarse fabric of the linen nightshirt, and they felt unbearably tender. His lips closed over one nipple. She felt the heat of his breath on her skin. "Gently," She whispered fearfully. He kissed her nipple through the linen, and although he was as gentle as could be, she felt a sensation of pleasure as sharp as if he had bitten her, and she gasped. 
Then he went down on his knees in front of her.

~Ken Follett "Pillars of the Earth"

So it appears I am wrong! How about that! First time for everything! HA!
What other men are out there that can write great love scenes?

Boob.
*snicker*

Why 50 Shades got it Wrong

To be fair...I'm sure 50 Shades has it's place. And I don't have anything against explicit sexual literature. (And I use the term lightly). But it was so poorly written. So very very poorly written. I don't want to laugh and say "Um. Yah. That is not what a woman would think/say/do EVER." when I'm reading a sex scene. Fantasy is one thing, but it has to be based in some semblance of reality in order for me to get lost in it. Do you see?

That said...Diana Gabaldon has written some of the most absorbing...Historical Romance (?) books on the market. Personally I would argue the are simply Historical Fiction. I mean every good love story has sex, yah? Romeo and Juliet has sex...Elizabeth and Darcy have sex...we just don't get to read about it. In Diana G's books she writes it in. Very well. And tastefully. And it makes you lust after the lead character Jamie as though he were a living, breathing, entity. She writes seduction. Not just sex. He acts like a stubborn, bullheaded scotsman. She acts like a self-righteous know it all. But some how...these are two of the best suited lovers in a long time. And when they get together...you feel what they feel.

"He was surprised. 'You don't need to wait? I canna do it again right away after....'
'Well, women are different.'
'Aye. I noticed.' He muttered.
He circled my wrist with hes thumb and index finger. 'Its just...you're so small; I'm afraid I'm going to hurt you.'
'You are not going to hurt me,' I said impatiently. 'And if you did, I wouldn't mind.' Seeing puzzled incomprehension on his face, I decided to show him what I meant. 
'What are you doing?' he asked, shocked.
'Just what it looks like. Hold still.' After a few moments, I began to use my teeth, pressing progressively harder until he drew in his breath with a sharp hiss. I stopped.
'Did I hurt you?' I asked.
'Yes. A little.' He sounded half-strangled.
'Do you want me to stop?"
'No!'
I went on, being deliberately rough, until he suddenly convulsed, with a groan that sounded as though I had torn his heart out by the roots. He lay back, quivering and breathing heavily. He muttered something in Gaelic, eyes closed.
'What did you say?'
'I said,' he answered, opening his eyes, 'I thought my heart was going to burst.'
I grinned, pleased with myself. 'Oh, Murtagh and company didn't tell you about that, either?'
'Aye, they did. That was one of the things I didn't believe.'

~Diana Gabaldon "Outlander"

Diana does this a lot. The use of dialogue. The byplay between characters to get at what she's trying to convey. It's very clever. And not a single Inner Goddess sighed anywhere...

So. What do you think? Taking into account that there's a place for every type of scene...Does this type of dialogue heavy byplay leave you cold? Or is this what you're aiming for in the bedroom of your books? So to speak...

Days of Wine and Roses

Love is in the air! Doo do bee do be do be doo!

Crap...is that Barry Manilow? Now that's gonna bug me...

Anyway....!

Romance! Love! Seduction! Sex!

I'm looking for submissions along these lines.

What gets you going?

Does your Inner Goddess Soar to the stars at the thought of 50 Shades? (Don't even get me started...) Gasp! Oh my! Penis!

Do you need things spelled out for you in very specific details, ala Ann Rice's Beauty's Series. (3 million times better then 50 Shades...)

Do you prefer to have your heroine ALWAYS be involved in some sort of threesome with two BEAUTIFUL men. Both of whom are somehow not *quite* right for her until the end when one is shown to be *JUST* right and the other WAY wrong. And the sex scenes are just kinda skirted around and hinted at in very frustrating annoying ways. Because this is very realistic. You know. How adults handle things. Harlequin novels seem to think so...

Seduction is another way that I think is quickly being lost. Think Pride and Prejudice. The whole book is the seduction. The whole story is how Darcy gets Elizabeth, and how Elizabeth gets Darcy. And not once do we see the word penis!

So Send me your Romantical Submissions! We shall critique them together!

Anything is fine. We're all adults here! Though I do think that sending me a submission where you can see how many times you can use the word penis would qualify for a trip to the Red Room of Pain.

Now Cock on the other hand....that's TOTALLY different. That's rather British and therefore Classy.

Try to keep them under 500 words!

May the force of Love be with you all!

Oh! Ps....send them to: unicornbellsubmissions@gmail.com