On Writing Romance

by Leigh Michaels

  Erotica

  In One Wilde Weekend, Janelle Denison pulls out all the stops, initiating her hero and heroine into the Mile-High Club in a steamy scene in an airplane restroom.

  He skimmed his palms along the satin-soft skin of her inner thighs, letting the hem of her skirt pool around his wrists as he glided higher and higher toward his final destination. Once there, his long fingers delved between her nether lips, finding her hot and wet and ready for him. …

  With her hips tilted at just the right angle for him, he slid his rod through her drenched curls from behind, found the entrance to her body, and with a hard, deep thrust, he buried himself to the hilt. Dana's mouth opened in a silent gasp, and though he knew he ought to be just as discreet considering where they were, there was no stopping the primitive male groan that erupted from his chest. …

  As he plunged and withdrew in a building, gyrating rhythm, he swept her hair aside and nuzzled her neck with his lips, his ragged breathing warm and damp against her skin. He used one hand to caress her breasts and lightly pinch her nipples, while his other hand dipped low to where they were joined. His fingers stroked her cleft in that knowing way that never failed to make her come, and it didn't take long for her breath to catch in the back of her throat and for him to feel the clench and pull of her body around his cock that signaled an impending climax. Hers and his.

  He drove inside her one last time, high and hard, lodging himself as deeply as he could get just as the plane rumbled through an air pocket … she inhaled a quick breath then moaned softly, her entire body convulsing in a long, continuous orgasm that milked him dry.

  In erotica, love scenes are frequent and explicit, starting right at the outset and building in intensity throughout the story. Though body parts are named more freely than in other types of romance, there's a tendency to use slang (rod, cock, nether lips, cleft) rather than clinical terms such as penis and vagina.

  No matter what variety of romance, how explicit the scene, or how experienced or inexperienced the lovers, sex in romance novels is always better than average and usually of medal-winning caliber. Heroes always make sure their heroines are satisfied, even virgins are always ready for the next round, and everybody climaxes every time they make love.

  But the most important thing of all about love scenes in romance novels is that heroes and heroines don't just have sex. In fact, they cannot simply have sex — they make love.

  IN REVIEW: Studying Sexual Tension and Love Scenes

  Flip through the romance novels you've been studying, looking for sexual tension and love scenes. Do the love scenes in the books you've read include intercourse, or is the lovemaking restricted to touches and kisses?

  How do the authors use touch to build sexual tension?

  At what point in each book is the first love scene?

  If there is more than one love scene, how does the author build anticipation for later scenes?

  Choose a love scene and consider how the same level of intimacy might be presented in a different romance subgenre.

  Creating Sexual Tension and Love Scenes in Your Work

  What sort of romance novel do you envision writing? What level of physical contact and expression is appropriate for that subgenre?

  How can you build sexual tension between your main characters?

  What level of intimacy is appropriate in love scenes between your main characters, considering their past experience and current situation?

  How explicit should your love scenes be, considering the type of romance you're writing?

  What images would come to your main characters' minds as they touch, kiss, or make love?

  eleven

  Using Point of View

  Point of view is the vantage point from which you observe an event or a person or a situation. In fiction, point of view (POV) refers to the unique angle from which the story is told. The POV character is the character through whom readers get their information about story events and other characters.

  In romance novels, the POV character is nearly always one of the main characters — the hero or the heroine. Using the POV of the hero or heroine allows the readers to not only see what's going on but to understand how those events affect the characters.

  The unique way in which a character, at one precise moment in time, views the situation is called perspective. As an author, you convey that unique vision to the readers by sharing the character's thoughts, emotions, and reactions to what's happening around her.

  Every character has an opinion and a unique way of expressing it. One person will see rain and think of gloom and sadness, while another will see rain and think of cleanliness and renewal. The rain in this case is exactly the same — only the POV and the perspective have changed. But the way you, as the author, tell the readers about the rain will be different depending on which of those two people is your POV character. If the character is feeling gloomy, you may emphasize the torrents of water beating down, the darkness of the clouds, the sharp scent of ozone. If the character's feeling hopeful, you may emphasize the plants standing up as if under a refreshing shower, the contrast between the rich gray color of the sky and the brilliant green of the new-washed grass, and the scent of clean air. Both sets of elements are present in the rainstorm, but the things you choose to emphasize help the readers understand and share the character's feelings.

  WHAT THE CHARACTER SEES

  Normally in fiction the POV is that of one or more characters, not of the author. So the information the readers receive will be influenced by what the character knows, sees, observes, feels, and thinks. The information conveyed will involve not only facts (such as who is in the room) but opinions (whether the character likes or dislikes those people). The character's attitudes and her perspective will be different from yours, the author's, because the character doesn't know everything you know (what other characters are planning or thinking, or what's going to happen next).

  If the POV character doesn't see something happen, the readers won't see it, either. You will know what's going on behind the character's back, but the readers can only know what the POV character knows.

  If you're confused about the difference between first person and third, between omniscient and selective, you're not alone. There are many varieties of POV; here are some examples to help you sort them out. Not all of these variations are used in romance novels, but it's useful to understand their differences.

  First person includes the thoughts and perspective of one main character who's telling her own story. This POV is widely used in chick-lit and woman-in-jeopardy books. A first-person romance novel is usually told from the heroine's POV.

  As I walked up the hill, I realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the cardinal who was nearly always singing from the top of the maple tree. I thought I saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when I looked again it was gone. Still, I shuddered as I felt a silent threat pass over me like a cloud over the sun.

  Second person turns the reader into the character. This POV is seldom used in fiction, appearing in the occasional literary novel. It's almost never found in romance novels.

  As you walk up the hill, you realize that the atmosphere's just too quiet. There's no sound from the cardinal you know is almost always singing from the top of the maple tree. You think you see a shadow move high up on the slope, but when you look again it's gone. You shudder as you feel a silent threat pass over you. You feel cold, like a cloud just passed over the sun.

  Third-person selective/singular includes the thoughts and perspective of just one main character, but unlike in first person, that character is not telling her own story. The pronouns referring to the POV character are not I and me and my, but she and her. This POV is often used in romance, though it is less common now than before the 1980s to have just one character's thoughts revealed over an entire story.

  As she walked up the hill, she realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the car
dinal she so often heard singing from the top of the maple tree. She thought she saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when she looked again it was gone. Nevertheless, she shuddered as she felt a silent threat pass over her. It felt like a cloud creeping over the sun.

  Third-person selective/multiple includes the thoughts of more than one main character, but presents only one POV at a time. This is the most widely used POV in romance novels. A scene break (a blank line, or crosshatches or asterisks placed on an otherwise blank line) indicates a change from one POV to the other; in a romance, the scenes would likely be much longer and more fully developed than in this example:

  As she walked up the hill, she realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the cardinal she so often heard singing from the top of the maple tree. She thought she saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when she looked again it was gone. Nevertheless, she shuddered as she felt a silent threat pass over her. It felt like a cloud creeping over the sun.

  He saw her start up the hill, and he moved quickly behind the shelter of the huge old maple tree. If she saw him now, everything would be ruined, but if he could stay hidden until she came within range — well, then she'd have to talk to him. Wouldn't she?

  Third-person dual includes the thoughts of two or more main characters, and switches back and forth within the scene. It's also widely used in romance, though it's most effective when the switch between the points of view happens only occasionally — every few pages, at most — rather than with every paragraph, as in this example:

  As she walked up the hill, she realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet. There was no sound from the cardinal she so often heard singing from the top of the maple tree.

  He saw her start up the hill, and he moved quickly behind the shelter of the huge old maple tree. If she saw him now, everything would be ruined.

  She thought she saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when she looked again it was gone.

  If he could just stay hidden until she came within range, he thought, then she'd have to talk to him. Wouldn't she?

  She shuddered as she felt a silent threat pass over her. It felt like a cloud creeping over the sun.

  Third-person omniscient includes an all-knowing narrator who can relay the thoughts and perspective of all characters, as well as general comments about the story. It's rare that the thoughts of every character are included, but in omniscient, they can be. It's frequently used in literary fiction, but rarely in romance.

  As the girl walked up the hill, she realized that the atmosphere was just too quiet.

  The cardinal tipped his head back and drew breath to sing, but just as the first note passed his beak he heard the crack of a dead branch far below his perch high in the maple tree. Startled, he looked down, cocking his head to one side and watching with great interest while the man rattled the blades of grass as he tried to hide himself behind the tree.

  As the man saw her start up the hill, he moved quickly into the shelter of the huge old maple tree. If she saw him now, everything would be ruined.

  She thought she saw a shadow move high up on the slope, but when she looked again it was gone.

  The man thought if he could stay hidden until she came within range, she'd have to talk to him. Wouldn't she?

  The girl shuddered as she felt a silent threat pass over her. It felt like a cloud creeping over the sun.

  Third-person detached includes only actions, with no thoughts. It's used in screenplays (the viewer cannot eavesdrop on the characters' thoughts), but it's seldom used effectively in romance. Inexperienced romance authors often start out using a very detached POV, telling about events but not sharing the characters' reactions or thoughts — which keeps the readers at a distance from the story and characters.

  The girl walked up the quiet hillside.

  In the top of the maple tree, the cardinal tipped his head back and drew breath to sing. A dead branch cracked on the ground below the bird's perch.

  The man stepped on the branch and rattled the blades of grass as he moved behind the tree. He watched the girl come up the hillside toward him.

  Her gaze shifted quickly and warily from one shadowy area high on the slope to another, and she shuddered.

  Author POV relays the author's insider information about the story and characters. This POV creeps into many different types of books, and it's a far less effective way of telling a story than sticking to the character's thoughts and observations.

  As Jill walked up the hillside, everything was quiet. She didn't see the bird in the top of the maple tree, and even when he started to sing, she couldn't identify the species. She'd never been as interested in birds as Jack was. He knew the song of a cardinal when he heard it, though he really wasn't listening because he was watching Jill come up the slope toward him instead.

  If Jill had known he was waiting for her, she would never have come outside. She was afraid of running into him. But she didn't realize that her fear really came from when she was little and she'd been lost on a picnic one day. Even though she didn't remember, the experience still affected her. And since Jack didn't know about the incident, he didn't have any idea how much it was going to freak her out to find him there.

  POINT OF VIEW AND ROMANCE

  Now that you have a clear handle on all the different POV options available to you, take a closer look at those most common to the romance genre and its various categories.

  Though chick-lit is often written in first person from the heroine's POV, the majority of romance novels use third person, and most modern romance novels convey the thoughts of both hero and heroine. Some authors use third-person selective/multiple, sharing the thoughts of just one character at a time and switching POV characters only when a new scene starts — which is the preferred approach in general fiction as well. Other authors use third-person dual, switching back and forth between the thoughts of hero and heroine within a scene.

  The choice of exactly which POV structure to use depends not on the category but on your preference and the best way to tell the story.

  First Person

  The first-person narrator tells the readers what she sees, hears, thinks, feels, believes, assumes, and deduces. She doesn't share every single thought that crosses her mind — that would be more characteristic of stream-of-consciousness literary fiction, and it risks turning an interesting story into a self-absorbed, drawn-out, and very boring one. In first-person fiction, everything the readers know is related to them by the narrator. What the character doesn't know, the readers can't know, either.

  Since the readers are in the mind of the heroine (only rarely is the hero a first-person narrator), they can't know what the hero is thinking or feeling. Your heroine/narrator may believe she's got him figured out, but she — and the readers — can't know for certain whether she's correct. The readers can hear what the hero says, see what he looks like, and draw conclusions from things like tone of voice, word choice, and slant of eyebrow. The readers' conclusions may not always agree with the heroine's, and there's no way to know who is right — unless the hero says so. And even then, the readers can't be sure that what the hero says is the whole truth. Because of all these unknowns, first person creates mystery and suspense for the readers.

  The success of first-person stories depends on the personality of the narrator. If the main character is funny, breezy, and sympathetic, a friendly soul who doesn't show off or display false modesty, then she's likely to win the readers' hearts. If she yaks about how wonderful she is (or how smart, ugly, overweight, beautiful, depressed, well organized, or forgiving), if she dwells on unkind thoughts, or if she acts like a victim, then she's apt to place high in the contest for which heroine readers would most like to slap silly.

  The difference between these two types of characters is very small. One reader will detest a character that other readers adore. (Bridget Jones, from Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary, is a good example of a character readers either love or hate.
)

  The best first-person narrators are nice people despite interesting flaws. They're people you'd like to know better, people who amuse you rather than lecture you. They simply tell the story and let the readers deduce motives, explanations, and justifications on their own.

  The least successful first-person narrators are constantly conscious of the readers — not only talking to them but justifying what they're doing, explaining, and assuming that their every thought will be of compelling interest.

  Though chick-lit, hen-lit, and mom-lit are considered cutting-edge books, where POV is concerned, they're almost a throwback to early romances, which shared only the heroine's feelings and thoughts, leaving the hero a mystery.

  In this example from Sophie Kinsella's chick-lit novel Confessions of a Shopaholic, notice the first-person heroine's observations of the man on the train. By dismissing his clothes as lower class, she's not only judging him but showing herself as shallow:

  The tube stops in a tunnel … Five minutes go by, then ten minutes. I can't believe my bad luck. …

  [U]ntil I've got that scarf in my hands I won't be able to relax.

  As the train finally gets going again I sink into my seat with a dramatic sigh and look at the pale, silent man on my left. He's wearing jeans and sneakers, and I notice his shirt is on inside out. … I take another look at his jeans (really nasty fake 501s) and his sneakers (very new, very white). …

  “They just don't think, do they?” I say. “I mean, some of us have got crucial things we need to be doing. I'm in a terrible hurry!”

  “I'm in a bit of a hurry myself,” says the man.