Writing Love Scenes
Readers love getting swept away by love scenes. Romantic novels are selling like hotcakes. I don't know if that's because our personal love stories are failing, since one out of every two marriages ends in divorce, or not. I just don't know. What I do know is that when I counsel couples they seem to want to get back to that magical moment when love first burst open their hearts and swept them up in the magic and power of it all.
Now anyone in a relationship for longer than one month will agree that love has its ups and downs. So when your love life seems to hit a plateau what do you do? For many women, they head to the romantic book aisle to reunite with that feeling of oneness and to reinstate their hope until they can work with their partner to awaken their own experience.
When my agent read Kate's Way she wanted me to add a romantic love scene. I thought she wanted an erotic sex scene. Turns out she did. But I don't write that kind of literature. "It makes money," she said. So be it. But I didn't want to write trash. If I was going to write a love scene I wanted to write about the highest quality of emotions when two people connect in bed or wherever else they decided to lay naked. My agent thought for a moment then stated that I should imagine the way I want to feel in such encounters and write that out. "Use your imagination to its fullest," she said. I suffered over it because being single and thinking about romantic encounters just agitated me. So I watched movies like You Got Mail and read more Elizabeth Berg novels, which wasn't so bad because I love her writing, just to get into that romantic and holiest of mental spaces before I wrote. I watched other movies of the same ilk night after night, sometimes two in one night struggling to get into that space that would let every part of me untetter myself and my pen.
The day I felt ready to write was anxiety-filled. I let my fingers click on the keys with fierce enthusiasm as if I had just met the most fabulous lover and was about to write him a poem from every fiber of my being. When I was through with writing the scene I sent it to my agent, then paced about the kitchen waiting for the phone to ring. I was surprised at how silly I felt. An hour later, when the phone rang, I hesitated before saying hello; I was a wreck. If what I wrote wasn't going to work for the agent I didn't know what I'd do. I'm not even sure how many weeks I spent on the process, too many though, and the thought of having to re-enter that space to work on it some more shook me. "Jan?", she said. "You nailed it."
I'm not writing this to brag. I'm writing this to say that, if I can do it, anyone can. I'm writing this to all the writers out there who want to empower their stories with love and not trashy erotica. I am living proof that you can do it. There is nothing special about my writing skills. I am still learning about how to get my story from my heart to my pen and embolden the reader. But I consider Kate's Way to be a success, and not just because I actually hit the print button and sent it on its merry way to create space for publishing. I consider Kate's Way a success because it stretched my mind to write out my fantasy with dignity.
So if you are struggling with this type of writing there is no need for expensive workshops or classes. Read what other authors wrote. Study their wording and how they got images to take you away to that place that opened your heart and made you ache for love.
And for now, I'm going to believe that writing has the power to manifest...
I'd love to share a discussion about this.
Kate's Way is also an ebook from Amazon for $5.99 just in case you want to read how I pleased my agent. It can also be ordered in book form: www.createspace.com/3498926
Now anyone in a relationship for longer than one month will agree that love has its ups and downs. So when your love life seems to hit a plateau what do you do? For many women, they head to the romantic book aisle to reunite with that feeling of oneness and to reinstate their hope until they can work with their partner to awaken their own experience.
When my agent read Kate's Way she wanted me to add a romantic love scene. I thought she wanted an erotic sex scene. Turns out she did. But I don't write that kind of literature. "It makes money," she said. So be it. But I didn't want to write trash. If I was going to write a love scene I wanted to write about the highest quality of emotions when two people connect in bed or wherever else they decided to lay naked. My agent thought for a moment then stated that I should imagine the way I want to feel in such encounters and write that out. "Use your imagination to its fullest," she said. I suffered over it because being single and thinking about romantic encounters just agitated me. So I watched movies like You Got Mail and read more Elizabeth Berg novels, which wasn't so bad because I love her writing, just to get into that romantic and holiest of mental spaces before I wrote. I watched other movies of the same ilk night after night, sometimes two in one night struggling to get into that space that would let every part of me untetter myself and my pen.
The day I felt ready to write was anxiety-filled. I let my fingers click on the keys with fierce enthusiasm as if I had just met the most fabulous lover and was about to write him a poem from every fiber of my being. When I was through with writing the scene I sent it to my agent, then paced about the kitchen waiting for the phone to ring. I was surprised at how silly I felt. An hour later, when the phone rang, I hesitated before saying hello; I was a wreck. If what I wrote wasn't going to work for the agent I didn't know what I'd do. I'm not even sure how many weeks I spent on the process, too many though, and the thought of having to re-enter that space to work on it some more shook me. "Jan?", she said. "You nailed it."
I'm not writing this to brag. I'm writing this to say that, if I can do it, anyone can. I'm writing this to all the writers out there who want to empower their stories with love and not trashy erotica. I am living proof that you can do it. There is nothing special about my writing skills. I am still learning about how to get my story from my heart to my pen and embolden the reader. But I consider Kate's Way to be a success, and not just because I actually hit the print button and sent it on its merry way to create space for publishing. I consider Kate's Way a success because it stretched my mind to write out my fantasy with dignity.
So if you are struggling with this type of writing there is no need for expensive workshops or classes. Read what other authors wrote. Study their wording and how they got images to take you away to that place that opened your heart and made you ache for love.
And for now, I'm going to believe that writing has the power to manifest...
I'd love to share a discussion about this.
Kate's Way is also an ebook from Amazon for $5.99 just in case you want to read how I pleased my agent. It can also be ordered in book form: www.createspace.com/3498926
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