![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarker posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
writercisesOriginal Posting March 2, 2018
Writer's Digest, November 1990, had an article on pages 26-29 by David Groff with the title "How to Write Believable Love Scenes." How to heat up the romance with love scenes that advance your story… Sounds pretty good!
David starts with a note that "Love is what most novels are about.… Nearly every piece of fiction contains a love story or a motivating romantic charge." Love is a topic throughout our lives. Now, how do you write about it… There's the question.
So what are the challenges in writing a love scene? Well, David suggests:
– you need to write the scene and place it so that it is central to the story and advances the plot.
– You should shape the scene to maintain the novel's conflict and tension.
– You need to write a scene that is fair to the characters, consistent with their personalities, and increases the reader's understanding of them.
– Finally, you need to find a language of relation that is fresh, original, rich, evocative, suits your novel, neither pornographic nor prudish, not clinical or clichéd…
1. Do you need a love scene? Well, how integral is a physical relationship to the story? Don't just write a love scene for sex. Don't do it just for a thrill or break. There needs to be a good reason, something that propels the story and reveals characters.
For a sex scene or love scene to work well in a novel, it should be a natural culmination of building tension and emotions. The simplest test of whether a love scene is necessary or not? Try deleting it. Do the characters really need to come together? Does this scene do that?
2. The shape of your love scene. Well, any scene in the novel needs arising action, complication, climax, and denouement. You need conflict, tension, all the normal bits and pieces. Don't be too casual about it, don't overdo the physical description, and make sure the scene accomplishes what it needs to. You may want to outline this. Think about the point of view, tone, pacing. This is an action scene!
3. Who is in your scene? Your characters need to be consistent. This scene should display who they are, and why they are in love.
4. The language! Fresh, appropriate language is one of the big challenges. Watch out for clichés, make your phrases strong and precise and vivid. Be aware that cutting from the kiss to the cigarettes isn't really satisfactory. Sure, pulling the curtains is easy, but… Think about what you are saying about your characters. This is an opportunity to be very rich and detailed, use it! Don't use clichéd phrases. Use metaphor carefully, and with a light hand. Try to surprise your reader with metaphors. Let the readers imagination do most of the work. Oh, you might want to stick with realism. "The final test of love scenes in fiction is whether they correspond with life and tell us what we didn't know we knew. Comparing fiction with real life will help keep any writer both honest and original."
There you go. Decide whether or not you need a love scene, lay it out as a scene, think about the characters, and then worry about the language you use.
Practice? Well, take a story you like, or one you are working on, and see if there's a love scene there. Then apply David's precepts. See if you can make the love scene ring!
Write!
Writer's Digest, November 1990, had an article on pages 26-29 by David Groff with the title "How to Write Believable Love Scenes." How to heat up the romance with love scenes that advance your story… Sounds pretty good!
David starts with a note that "Love is what most novels are about.… Nearly every piece of fiction contains a love story or a motivating romantic charge." Love is a topic throughout our lives. Now, how do you write about it… There's the question.
So what are the challenges in writing a love scene? Well, David suggests:
– you need to write the scene and place it so that it is central to the story and advances the plot.
– You should shape the scene to maintain the novel's conflict and tension.
– You need to write a scene that is fair to the characters, consistent with their personalities, and increases the reader's understanding of them.
– Finally, you need to find a language of relation that is fresh, original, rich, evocative, suits your novel, neither pornographic nor prudish, not clinical or clichéd…
1. Do you need a love scene? Well, how integral is a physical relationship to the story? Don't just write a love scene for sex. Don't do it just for a thrill or break. There needs to be a good reason, something that propels the story and reveals characters.
For a sex scene or love scene to work well in a novel, it should be a natural culmination of building tension and emotions. The simplest test of whether a love scene is necessary or not? Try deleting it. Do the characters really need to come together? Does this scene do that?
2. The shape of your love scene. Well, any scene in the novel needs arising action, complication, climax, and denouement. You need conflict, tension, all the normal bits and pieces. Don't be too casual about it, don't overdo the physical description, and make sure the scene accomplishes what it needs to. You may want to outline this. Think about the point of view, tone, pacing. This is an action scene!
3. Who is in your scene? Your characters need to be consistent. This scene should display who they are, and why they are in love.
4. The language! Fresh, appropriate language is one of the big challenges. Watch out for clichés, make your phrases strong and precise and vivid. Be aware that cutting from the kiss to the cigarettes isn't really satisfactory. Sure, pulling the curtains is easy, but… Think about what you are saying about your characters. This is an opportunity to be very rich and detailed, use it! Don't use clichéd phrases. Use metaphor carefully, and with a light hand. Try to surprise your reader with metaphors. Let the readers imagination do most of the work. Oh, you might want to stick with realism. "The final test of love scenes in fiction is whether they correspond with life and tell us what we didn't know we knew. Comparing fiction with real life will help keep any writer both honest and original."
There you go. Decide whether or not you need a love scene, lay it out as a scene, think about the characters, and then worry about the language you use.
Practice? Well, take a story you like, or one you are working on, and see if there's a love scene there. Then apply David's precepts. See if you can make the love scene ring!
Write!