Writing Sexual Tension: The Devil in the Details

Sexual tension starts from the very beginning of a romance novel and builds steadily to a crescendo.  This culmination of tensions (i.e. sex) can happen near the beginning of the novel, as with erotic or steamy romances, or in the middle or end for "normal" heat levels, or not at all.

I'm not talking about the "not at all" category here.  I'm talking hot and steamy.  Sex on the page, in vivid detail or, in the case of erotic romances, sometimes graphic particulars.  The point is that we get to see the details in these types of romances.  That's what makes the ultimate sex scenes hot.  But it also adds to the build up.

Hypersensitivity

From the beginning of a good romance novel, the hero and heroine are focused on each other.  They may not like each other--in fact, they may even hate each other at their first encounter--but they are never indifferent.  This awareness appears on the page in a hypersensitivity to each other.  Tiny aspects of each others' looks or behaviours that the hero and heroine will completely ignore in the minor characters will be noted in each other and even take on an exaggerated importance.

For instance, we often read about the shifting sparks or lights in the heroine's gaze or the muscles working in the hero's jaw.  We don't notice such details in real life, not unless we are in love with someone.  And then we notice every little thing about our beloved.

So too does it have to be with the hero and heroine's attentions to each other.  They are going to fall in love at some point, whether they know it or not.  More importantly, the reader will have to fall in love with them and that's where such attention to detail pays off.

Intense responses

Just as the main characters notice every detail about each other, they are unusually affected by one another.  A slight movement of an eyebrow can send one or the other of them into paroxysms of guilt or ecstasy, just as a small accident touch can cause shivers and shudders.

The intense response is key to the characters fixating on each other.  Again, they may not know what they're feeling but the reader is going to anticipate the next step: sex.  And when it happens, because these are romance novels, we need to know that the sexual encounter didn't arise out of nowhere but was based on pre-existing and inevitable signs.

Sex on the page

When we finally get the main characters into the bedroom, the tactics used above should be employed here as well.  The characters are both overly sensitive to each other and feel intensely when touched by the other.  The key is to use these techniques without self-parody.

The characters don't just magically doff their clothes.  The faint contact of skin-on-skin while undressing is treated with fine attention to detail.  This is part of the seduction.  If a sex scene was simply about genitalia then we wouldn't be writing romances, we'd be writing pornography.

Physical intimacy is also importantly about how the characters are feeling.  Each physical action that moves the sex scene forward should be accompanied by the emotional reprecussions for the characters.  Reactions can say more than words here.  The heroine may not have declared her love for the hero as of yet but her responses to him can make her feelings clear.  By using these details, you can create a whole picture of fulfilling sexual passion.

Photo courtesy of Carlos Porto at freedigitalphotos.net

Making the (Tentative) Move from Sweet to Erotic Romance

Let it never be said that I won’t try something new…once.

For the past decade, I’ve been writing (but not publishing) romance novels. I’ve written about a dozen contemporaries and a half dozen historicals. The level of heat in all of these has consistently ranged from sweet to average/ normal. I have never ventured out into the realm of hot or erotic. Until now.

Recently, I saw a call for submissions for Total-E-Bound publishing. But before that, I went onto their website and browsed through the titles there. Let me just say, wow! Hot stuff. So I was already intrigued with the area. I’ll be honest: erotic romance has never been my preferred reading choice, which is probably why I haven’t attempted writing any. But after looking through the titles, excerpts and free stories offered by several of the erotic romance publishers, I was hooked. “Total-e” enthralled, you might say.

So, two weeks ago, I set out to write a story, between 15,000 and 20,000 words long, about angels. Hot, sexy, angels. I have (had) a month and a half to complete it. What could possibly go wrong?

All I had to tell myself was “think sexy thoughts”. Instead of leaving the more graphic parts of the sex scenes up to the imagination, I would now have to spell them out. Using the kind of language my mother would never approve of. Yay!

Well, I am pleased to report that my first few pages of writing went well. I brainstormed my story in a morning and I wrote the first three pages of it that same afternoon. Only 57 pages left to go.

Unfortunately, I started the story on the last day of my vacation so the next week was hectic. But, sure enough, another weekend came upon us and I spent another Sunday writing blasphemous activities for angels (and demons). I started out aiming for five pages that day. I was not, as you can see, doing the math. I had a little over one month to complete my story and I was supposed to be writing about 14 pages a week. I was nowhere near that.

But…on that lazy Sunday, I managed to write a whopping nine pages. Better yet, the words flowed well and the story fleshed itself out. And, I am pleased to report, it was HOT!

Now, of course, I am facing another 48 pages. I’m not worried. If the first 12 pages were any indication, I am loving writing erotic romances. Bring it on!

Photo courtesy of luigi diamanti at freedigitalphotos.net

Sex and Chocolate

Food and sex are often paired together.  Not surprisingly, since they both fulfill a primal urge.  But in romance novels, we don't often read about what the heroine is eating for breakfast or whether the hero is trying to start eating more healthily.

I've often heard some good advice about writing, which is that every major scene should satisfy every sense.  Touch, smell, sight, sound and taste.  Yet we so seldom get around to taste.  The salty tang of sweaty flesh.  Dark rich chocolate dribbled over...  No, sorry, I meant food.

In my own romance manuscripts, dramatic moments can take place in restaurants or parties where I try to describe a dish to demonstrate both the atmosphere of the restaurant -- seared ahi tuna conjures up linen napkins versus barbecue chicken wings, which screams brightly coloured paper ones -- and sets the tone for the characters.  A meat-and-potatoes man may be a wholesome cowboy while a rare steak and asparagus with hollandaise sauce gentleman might be a top notch businessman.

For my heroines, the decisions are a little trickier.  No heroine wants to diet on the page, so that means no salads as main courses or skipping out on dessert.  Mmm...dessert.

Nothing can ratchet up the tension growing between the main characters more than a sinfully decadent final course.  Chocolate.  Cherries.  Whipped cream.  They all evoke sensuality.  And they're all precursors for a night of passionate lovemaking.

So try bringing that fifth sense into your writing.  Salty, sweet, bitter or sour, our sense of taste should also be exercised while we read a toothsome romance novel, even if it's only to make us drool.  And beware the hero or heroine who declines dessert.  We won't be having them over for dinner again.

Photo courtesy of savit keawtavee at freedigitalphotos.net

Writing Sexual Tension: Slowing Your Roll

A black tie awards ceremony.  An attractive man sees a beautiful woman across the room, one of the awards recipients.  He likes the look of her.  She spots him checking her out.  Their eyes connect and...he yawns.  Hard day at the office.  Boy, is he tired!  Maybe he should check out early and go home.  Lie in bed, watch some television, or maybe go over those figures for that early morning meeting one more time.  He's sure he saw some discrepancy...

Meanwhile, the woman is thinking about that cute little leather jacket she saw in the store window that afternoon.  Can she afford it?  Maybe if the cheque that goes with the award is big enough, she'll swing by and pick it up...

<Screech>

Not very interesting, is it?  Why?  Well, apart from the bad writing (which is my fault), the scenario is missing one of the biggest aspects of romantic fiction: sexual tension.  If a man and woman aren't feeling that frisson of awareness when they first glance at each other, that alert energy when they first speak, that hot shiver when their lips first meet, then neither are we as the readers.  And let's face it, that's what we all want to feel.

So how do you create sexual tension in a romance novel?

First of all, we slow things down (and not in the needle screeching over a vinyl record sense we saw above).  We savour.  We hear about that first look in detail.  Their eyes meet.  What do they feel?  What do they think?  What do they see in each other?

Tension builds as we see our characters anticipate the next step.  They don't just race across the room and start making out, they see each other, maybe they ask some of the other guests about that man or woman across the room, in the designer suit or tailored black dress.  Perhaps they rub each other the wrong way.  She thinks he's barbaric and sarcastic.  He thinks she's snobby and full of herself.  But fate keeps throwing them together.  They advance, they retreat.

Sexual tension is all about anticipation.  They notice each others' lips.  They start thinking about what it would be to kiss.  Maybe one of them has a naughty dream that seems all too real.  When they finally do kiss, time slows down to a near stop.  We read about the texture of their mouths, the rate at which their breathing speeds up, the rigidity of his arms around her back, a sigh, the slip of a tongue.  Bliss.  And it's all the more blissful for the delay.

Sex scenes can be the hardest ones to write.  When we get to that moment, we may be tempted to speed right through it.  Do the opposite.  Slow it down.  Spin it out.  Describe the details that evoke every sense: sight, smell, touch, sound, taste.  Red lips, fragrant perfume, soft tongues, softer sighs, the lingering flavour of the chocolate dessert they've just eaten at that awards ceremony.  Wait, what awards ceremony?

Photo courtesy of Carlos Porto at freedigitalphotos.net