Your minds are all in the gutter, aren’t they? I’m not talking about that kind of bang. Or maybe I am…
My current WIP is a Blaze-hopeful. I was happily writing along yesterday, out of order, of course, and I found the place where I wanted a certain, earth-shattering moment to go. Not the black, everything’s lost moment, moment, but that defining moment when your characters have changed and things are not going to be the same – that point of no return that makes you care enough at the black moment to make you read faster to see things work out in the end.
I’d been working so hard in this book to balance the humor, making sure that I was showing and not telling, worrying, is it too suspenseful/hot/sexy/ enough, that I’d almost forgotten that all-important, defining moment that makes a romance a romance.
Most of the time, the point of no return is the point in a romance where the H/H fall in love. Or, at least this is where some of my favorite point of no return moments are found in the romances I read over and over, or the films I watch again and again. The, I’ve just realized I’m head over heels, no turning back and no going forward without you, scene. The scene that’s essential if the black moment’s going to work.
I’ve tried to pinpoint this exact scene in a few of my favorites. In a lot of romances, it’s a gradual build-up you can trace, and you know once you get to a certain point that the H/H are in love, but you don’t always get that scene. It’s romantic without being flowers and poetry sappy, and that’s my personal favorite kind of admission.
These scenes have oomph, they have power, they set the bar for everything that comes after them. They’re the oh yeah baby scenes, even if they’re short and things are interrupted before they really have a chance to heat up. It could be a sex scene, or the promise of one. It’s something that leaves you breathless, or a revelation that you didn’t see coming (or better yet, one that you did, but the author still managed to surprise you.) I love it when they’re so unbelievably, undeniably, no-turning back romantic, I wish it could happen to me like this, way. These are the kind of scenes I’m drawn to.
I’m talking Rhett telling Scarlett in Gone With The Wind, ‘this is one night when there are only going to be two in my bed,’ before carrying her up the stairs. I’m talking Remy in The Big Easy when he swings Ann Osborne’s chair around and pulls the clip from her hair and she can barely breathe, let alone answer his questions, and you just know they’re headed for a bonding moment. It’s the scene in Lucky’s Lady when Serena’s caught invading Lucky’s private attic, which is the equivalent of being inside his mind where he doesn’t want her or when Alyssa saves Sam in Out of Control by pushing him out of the way of an explosion, and he hopes something will come of that, but she turns him down again. But still, you know it’s just a matter of time.:wink:
I hope I’m making sense – it’s all so clear in my mind. Do you have any big bangs to share?
No related posts.
How about Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning after Black Niall catches Grace snooping for the Treasure? He’s sworn to kill anyone or anything threatening the secrets he guards, but he can’t kill Grace. What follows is a very long, steamy night! The words are never said, but you know…He should have killed her. But he didn’t. I love that book.
How about in the movie Speed, when he turns the corner, gun drawn, and comes face to face with our poor Sandra Bullock with a bomb strapped to her chest. I loved the tortured ohmigod I love her look on his face!
“Got any big bangs to share?”
Well, there’s my senior picture when I single handedly put a new hole in the ozone layer from all the Aqua Net I used.” Oh wait, you mean THOSE kind of big bangs.:grin:
Hands down for me, Dragonfly in Amber when Jamie takes Claire back to the stones just before the Battle of Culloden (won’t say what he makes her do, for those of you who haven’t read this gem). When he tells her, “Name [my son] Brian,” I thought I’d die! And if that’s more of a gut-wrencher than a Big Bang, I’d go for the prequel, Outlander. Two words…wedding night.
Robin
There’s that moment in Glory in Death, where Eve finally tells Roarke that she loves him. The scene leading up to it is just wonderful.
The Sam and Alyssa story arc has quite a few great moments like the one you describe.
As for other stories, I’ll have to give it some thought.
Alyssa
It’s the moment in “An Affair to Remember” when Cary Grant is telling Deborah Kerr about the woman in a wheelchair that bought his painting. The look on his face gets me every time. It’s the knowledge that she was the one. And that’s why she has kept her distance after the Empire State Building fiasco. SIGH
I always have that hitch in my chest.
And on a more sexual note…It’s the scene in “Dirty Dancing” when Baby goes to see Johnny. OMG
Those moments make the book/movie/tv show something the spectator will never forget.
It’s the moment in “The Scarlet Pimpernel” when the lady realizes her foolish fop of a husband is the bravest man she’ll ever know. She looks at the ring, and everything clicks. Magic. Pure magic.
Grins*
Here’s a goofy one – the scene in “Some Kind of Wonderful” when Watts offers to let Keith kiss her for practice, but the kiss just goes on and on…and they can’t ever go back to being just best friends. *sigh*
OMG Lynn! I almost put that one down. And his hands clench on the sides of her jeans…and I’m just about to melt into my seat. Oh man.
Grins*
How about Linda Howard’s Shades of Twilight? Every time he made her smile, I get goosebumps. The first time was definitely a BB moment for me.
Gennita