Comments on: Not So Wild Thing

By: Donna Wilde

Donna Wilde — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:13:46 +0000

I just had a good laugh over this blog post. My last name is Wilde. We pronounce it Willdee.
Gee,I may have been missing out(as far as being sexually free).
The only person I have ever had sex with is hubby. 30 years!!HHMMMM
I’m just a big clunky redneck girl from Texas. Makes me kinda wonder what people are thinking about me what with have that naughty sounding last name.LOL
I loved your post.
Donna Wilde

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 03:00:26 +0000

Camy, you’re right. It’s all about being true to the character. I’ll accept a guy who turns into a housecat if it makes sense on a character level. If it’s a gimmick, well, let’s just say I don’t do well with gimmicky stuff.

By: Kaitlin

Kaitlin — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:39:57 +0000

Thought this one was fascinating. I don’t have a problem w/ virgin heroines/heroes…but I do have a problem w/ them being written unrealistically.

Point in Fact…one of the last historicals I read (about 8 years ago) had a heroine who was a virgin, but she was such a dithering idiot I couldn’t imagine the hero would want her anyway. Each time they got THIS close to doing it, she’d freak out and act all skittish. Lasted the ENTIRE book!!! Got to the point where I had to put the book down. I was yelling “Do it already!!!”

I wrote the beginning of a story with both h & H as virgins. It all made sense in the end & my friends thought it was cool. Each character had their own reasons for it and it worked out really well.

As for the heroine who likes sex…I say go for it! I like strong-willed women who know what they like and aren’t afraid to ask for it. It makes for more drama in the end anyway.

By: Camy Tang

Camy Tang — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 08:23:06 +0000

I am SO loving this convo. Manroot made me shriek.

What I really hate are personalities that are completely inconsistent. It’s partly related to names–if you have a certain name, I’d think it would somehow affect your personality. Either you embrace it or you go the other direction, right?

The sex-on-wheels virgin made me roll my eyes. If she doesn’t strike me as consistent, how can I possibly take a heroine like that seriously?

Thanks for a great post, Kassia.

Camy

By: nessili

nessili — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 01:30:24 +0000

PBW–That’s a very good point, and one well-taken. No, I’m not trying to lecture. That’s just the way he turned out. I didn’t start out writing him that way. In fact, I figured he was an experienced guy. But he told the heroine otherwise, and left me to figure out how the heck he pulled that off.

By: PBW

PBW — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:51:32 +0000

Nessili wrote: What about the other side of thingsâ€¦what if the hero is a virgin? Does that sort of thing fly nowadays, or must all manly-men prove their studhood upon numerous women pre-heroine?

If you can write a virginal hero well (see Laura Kinsale) readers will accept his lack of experience.

If you’re using a hero’s lack of sexual experience as a virtue yardstick for all men, or as a podium for an abstinence lecture, you’ll likely receive a cool reception.

By: Reese Witherfork

Reese Witherfork — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:18:55 +0000

I want to read a book where the heroine’s dip-shit best friend is actually given the name “Dip-shit best friend.”

By: HittingTheBooks.com » Waiting for Tea and Crumpets* Part 1

HittingTheBooks.com » Waiting for Tea and Crumpets* Part 1 — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 21:37:00 +0000

[...] I was over at Romancing the Blog, reading today’s article Not So Wild Thing, and frankly, I got torqued. So I ranted a bit there, and since I was off-topic, decided to continue my rant here on my own blog. The main issue was cliches in romance. Fine. But this quote got my attention: “Iâ€™ve been bouncing around the idea, that in its own strange way, the romance genre is a bit shy about women who claim their sexual natures with both hands, no shame, no excuses. I will exclude erotica for the sake of this argument. Itâ€™s the little things: the heroine doesnâ€™t have good sex before the hero, the wild woman is really a virgin, the town slut really only slept with one guy. Where are the women who have had more than two partners â€“ and are willing to look the hero in the eye and admit it proudly?” [...]

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 21:27:50 +0000

I’m enjoying all of the comments — it’s an interesting discussion (much too fun for me to interrupt), but wanted to say to nessili that it’s all about execution when it comes to sex, no sex, doing this, not doing that. Cliches become eye-rollers when too many authors take the same approach. If I can predict what’s going to happen next, not good.

I think it *is* realistic for men to abstain. I think it’s realistic for women to abstain. Heck, I’ll even buy into the sex-on-wheels heroine being a virgin if there’s an unique twist on the idea. I don’t need true-to-life as much as I need true-to-character. Generally, when an author falls back on cliche, it substitutes for real character development.

Bernita — irony is wonderful stuff. I can’t get enough of it…truly, a day without irony is like a day without sunshine for me. Which may be sharing too much on a personal level

And Jill will not have a single manroot in her next book. I promise this with my dying breath.

By: nessili

nessili — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 21:11:49 +0000

Kinda feeling a bit outnumbered and outcast here. Oh well.
As for men who refrain from sex, who’s to decide unrealistic? Is it any more unrealistic than a guy who tosses every woman he meets in the hay? Or who’s able to go for hours and days without a rest? That seems to be norm for many of the heroes of romance novels.

And here I was under the illusion that romance was, well, a form of fiction. Aren’t time-travellers, vampires, spunky young widows who pretend to be housemaids in order to spy on rich lords who end up marrying them, etc. aren’t these all fairly unrealistic? If I want realism, I’ll read a biography.

Tho’ I’m fast finding out I’m in the minority in a lot of my thoughts on this subject. For example, I don’t like reading full-blown sex scenes–they make me laugh, even the well-written ones (i.e. those that avoid the use of “manroot”). Give me a hero and heroine about to snap from the sexual tension, close the door, and let my imagination fill in the rest.

Bernita–I can never tell when you’re serious or not. I have just one thought on Claire and Jamie–Ouch.