Since I’m one of the erotic romance writers here, I thought why not make my next column all about the hot stuff? If nothing else, it’s a really fun topic!
I like passion in my romance for many different reasons, but the biggest reason is that if I don’t see that these two people are seriously into each other, I won’t believe the happily ever after for a minute. “I give them a month,” I think as I close the book on Mr. and Ms. we’re-such-good-friends who are destined to break up the instant one of them meets somebody who turns them on.
Chemistry is an integral part of love. No, it’s not all there is, but it’s a big part of it. It’s a very powerful force.
But what makes a relationship passionate? Is it the bedroom gymnastics as they work their way through the entire Kama Sutra? Sorry, I think “slipped disc” and the comic possibilities seem endless. That’s not it.
Is it the increasingly exotic settings? Well, no, because if all I can think about is where they are, what’s happening has ceased to be the focus.
Passion is all about what’s going on between the two central characters. What they’re thinking and feeling. What’s at risk for them. Their resistance to change and the irresistible attraction that pushes them into a crisis.
I don’t just want to feel the heat. I want to feel the love. Every interaction between the hero and heroine can express those things. It’s the way they look at each other, the way they touch or don’t touch, and when it comes to the love scene they express everything they feel, including those tangled conflicting emotions, without pulling any punches or holding anything back. It’s sheer unadulterated honesty.
And it’s that honesty that’s the key to feeling the heat in an erotic romance. These two people are naked emotionally and left with no defenses and no place to hide. What they really want and what they really need comes out, not what’s polite or proper or socially acceptable. And in that place of total honesty they can find true acceptance and the basis for true and lasting love.
If showing me that involves swinging from the chandeliers, a weekend at a tropical island nudist resort, or Doing It in an alcove during a party, bring it on. But none of those things are the key to what’s hot and what’s not for me. The characters and what they really feel and need, that’s the key. Show me who they are and what they’d risk anything to have, and I’ll feel the heat.
No related posts.
Oh, absolutely. Some of the best love scenes are the ones where the h/h are the most vulnerable. Love those.
Yes, also for me it’s always about the characters. In any genre. In any movie, in fact!
Great post, Charlene! I admit, this concept holds true for me in any romance I read, from erotic to sweet. Above everything else, above the setting, above the dialogue…what makes a story work for me is being able to feel the emotion.
Nekked emotion, Charli…that’s where it’s at, especially with erotic romance. You’re not only lifting the barriers to sex when you write an erotic romance, you’re taking away all the characters’ emotional hiding places. You hit the nail right on the head.
I never set out purposefully to write erotic romance, but so much of the emotion and the changes and realizations were going on during those scenes that it just sort of happened!
Very odd!
You’re right. One of the sexiest scenes is when a character is stripped of all facades and must expose him/herself to the other person. All the wants and needs are at the surface. The rawness of emotion and exposure heighten the scene. And when the person accepts the character without reservation…magic happens. Although swinging from a chandelier doesn’t hurt.
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