Yuffie's Writing How-To's

How to write ROMANCE SCENES (pt. 2)

(~Reposted~ Fingers crossed this doesn't get flagged as mature content this time. I bleeped out the iffy words.)

All right peeps! Several people requested a how-to on kissing scenes so here's my best attempt at giving advice (which you probably shouldn't take anyway given the fact romance makes me squeamish and uncomfortable, I hate reading it in most cases, and if I do include them in my stories, they're the most PG, fade-to-black stuff you could possibly find.) So take everything here with a grain of salt because I am NOT a romance writer. I did a bit of research and compiled points when writing an actual make-out scene for my novel Time Distortion. (this one is more PG-13 since they're... in the shower. You've been warned ahead of time). But it's the only kiss scene I've written recently, so it's the only one I can give as an example. (Also, no promises this scene will actually end up in the book.)

You really don't know what you're getting yourself into by reading this chapter. I don't even know why I'm writing it...
*breathes* well here we go.

So writing an original kiss/romance scene is REALLY hard. Just because most stories do contain romance and almost everything from here to the moon has been done. Cliches galore have been established with romance scenes. Staring itno the person's eyes and whatnot.

So here's my advice: LOOK AT YOUR CHARACTERS. How can you write their kiss in a way NO OTHER CHARACTER EVER could replicate it? That's how you make your romance/kiss/sex scene memorable and unique.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR TIME DISTORTION. (They're in italics, so you can skip those and just read the normal text for my how-to tips.) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. The following contains nudity, so read on at your own discretion.

IN TD, Zara is a time traveler whose time machine is a chip implanted in her shoulder. Unfortunately, it's broken, so it sends her back in time randomly. Her romantic counterpart and the protagonist of the story, Hisashi,  has a little piece of tech called an anchor, which she gave him so her time machine hones in on him. That way she always appears in front of him. He wears the anchor as a necklace.

And fun times start when she appears while he's in the shower:

Hisashi stood in the shower, just letting the jet of hot water release the tension from his shoulders. He leaned back with his eyes closed so the rush of water could drown out his thoughts.

"C-croaks!"

He jumped and stared at Zara, who was standing a foot in front of him, getting soaked. Her bangs stuck to her forehead in clumps. The lingering glow of the vortex danced on her dark skin like electricity.

So right there is the uniqueness or "selling point" of the scene. (i'm tooting my own horn, aren't I? well, told you this would be a useless chapter, so keep reading or click away). There is likely no other romance scene in history where the female lead materializes in the shower with the male lead and scares the shit out of each other.

Now, you got your characters together, you gotta SET THE MOOD! Ask yourself what kind of mood you're going for? Romantic? Sweet? Awkward? Sad? Sexy? What kind of emotional reaction do you want your readers to have during this scene?

I'm going to go for sexy. I likely didn't pull that off, but whatever. It's the thought that counts (haha not really).

Her jaw dropped, and she took a few steps back. She was in a thin, white shirt, so now it clung to her. Holy shit, she wasn't wearing a bra.

Her eyes flitted down and got even bigger.

For a sexy mood, you might consider focusing on the body, the physical. Describe parts as graphically as you want (recall one of the how to write romance scene chapters where I said how graphic you make the romance scene depends entirely on what floats your boat and the target audience you're writing for).