Yuffie's Writing How-To's

How to Write ROMANCE SCENES

Romance is one of the most widely-used subplots in literature to the point where it's very nearly become an expectation. A lot of people (mostly teens and adults) only pick up a book in hopes of a juicy romance. It puts pressure on us authors to make the most epic romance in the history of romance, but it's so difficult since nearly everyone writes one, and being original when there are literally millions of romance books and romance subplots is extremely difficult if not impossible. And that is definitely intimidating.

So many people demand and expect a romantic subplot in the story they're reading. So how can you write those epic romance scenes to leave your readers swooning and feeling warm fuzzies in their hearts? How much do you describe? How graphic are you allowed to get? At what point are you giving too much information?

The thing is, there isn't a specific point where it becomes too much or too less. How detailed you want to get in sex scenes or how conservative you want to be fully depends on you. What is the story you want to read? That's the story you write. We can see literature from both ends of the spectrum: Fifty Shades was fully graphic and described everything in detail (I think. I've never read it, but this is what I hear). Harry Potter had very innocent romances where the farthest anything got was a loving kiss. The Catcher in the Rye had no romance (though there was a run-in with a prostitute. But poor Holden got nervous, and really all he wanted was a friend to talk to).

It's apparent that books with graphic, non-graphic, and no romance at all can make it big and be great stories (though I'm probably not going to include Fifty Shades in this count. You may disagree, and that's fine).

What I've noticed is that people in their mid-teens like to read more graphic things with full descriptions of sex scenes and hot and steamy make-out sessions. I even wrote a few of these when I was a teenager, though I'm quite embarrassed now and have since either scrapped or rewritten those scenes. Now that I'm older, those hormones died down, and I prefer more subtle hints of romance, and those full-blown, graphic scenes disgust me. I would never write something like that, but that is fully a personal choice and a personal preference.

If you enjoy steamy romances, by all means, write them! What matters is you write the story you want to read. There will always be haters and fans. Harry Potter's got both. You could never make every person love or hate a book, so don't even worry about it. If you like conservative, innocent romances, write them! If you despise all romance with a fiery passion, you don't need to include one in the story! It's fine. You'll always have readers who'll love the story. It just seems like romance is a requirement looking at most of the books here on Wattpad, but you have to remember the demographic of the users here. Most are teenagers, and that's when people are generally hormone-crazy.

If you're on the fence either way and not sure whether your story should include more graphic descriptions or just end the scene before anything happens, look at the audience you're writing for. If you're writing for a younger-teen audience, please don't describe penises and boobs in graphic detail, preferably not at all. Really graphic stuff (erotica) is only for adult readers. Middle-older teens should be able to handle low-level descriptions.

But remember that's just a guideline. My books are geared toward an age-group of mid-teen to mid-twenties, so you'd think I'd be more hot and heavy with the descriptions, but I like keeping everyone's tongues in their respective mouths. If the characters do have sex within the course of the story, I always black-out/fade-out the scene before they start having sex. When they kiss, I tend to describe the emotions they feel more than the physcal sensations. I want my readers to swoon and get their heartstrings pulled instead of having a party in their panties. I think the most effective way to do that is to hint at things happening, becuase that gives readers creative liberty to decide in their minds what actually happened. But that's just me as a writer, and whatever you choose to write is just as valid. Romance is an opinion in writing, so take a stand on how important the graphic aspects are to you and to the story you want to tell.