Who loves a good love scene?
I do too, but lately while reading, I find myself flipping pages and skipping over them. Why?
And why are there books on my shelves that will fall open to the love scenes?
I pass over some love scenes and devour others because of the characters. It’s that simple. The author made me love the characters. While reading the stories I became invested in their lives and their dreams. I would refer to them by name instead of the heroine and hero when telling others about the story. I wanted the woman to find the man of her dreams because, damn, she deserved a good man. And I want the man to realize she was the piece of his heart he’d been searching for all his life. I wanted the perfect-for-each-other couple to come together as one. (excuse the pun)
The thing about love scenes, when the author has written remarkably real characters
and has me totally invested, I don’t need the total physical description of mating for me to enjoy the story. A scene leading up to a hungry first kiss with the door closing shortly afterwards will leave just as satisfied as a reader. In fact, leaving the details of the physical connection to my own imagination is sometimes much better. I hate slot A into slot B writing.So what is your option— What makes a good love scene for you? And do you prefer the door to remain open?
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Autumn,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I agree with you thoroughly. I write stories that don't have really graphic love scenes, but they have plenty of heat. I find that reading a love story that goes on for pages and pages and describes all the physical aspects are just, well, boring.
Sorry, I don't get titilated by that kind of thing. But my heart will go pity-pat if the author makes me care, and if there is still conflict being worked out during a love scene. Conflict drives a story, and there is no better place than in a love scene for the hero and heroine to be working through the inner conflict that usually makes a romance story a keeper.
Yeaph! I can have that ain't working for me feeling. I think it's because of how the characters are developed up to that scene. No matter how wild it is. Have their feeling been building? Do we know this is going to happen and are we glad when it does? The description can be vivid or blurred. It's how the characters feel that draw me in. I like to know the hero is just as affected by the event as the heroine.
ReplyDeleteAutumn,
ReplyDeleteYou've nailed the reason I read and write romance. Not the slot A into slot B love scenes, but the invested emotions of both parties. If two characters jump each others bones before they even have a chance to "grow" into the beginning of a relationship, I'm not going to invest my time reading that story. There are far too many wonderful books out there with emotion to spare!
In my younger days, I loved those graphic love scenes, and I'm sure many still do as the erotic market is exploding. Maybe it's because I'm older and my hormones are no longer existent or something, but now the graphic stuff is just boring as you said. Agree completely. Give me a bunch of tangled emotions and then close the door. Open it in the morning to a whole bunch of consequences and I'm quite a happy reader!
ReplyDeleteI love "electric moments". Those times when the tension between characters is building and building and wow, when it hits, that first kiss, when it hits ohboy ohboy!
ReplyDeleteA look. A smile or smirk. Eyes meeting, sparks flying, adrenaline spurting and libido boiling. I don't need to read what happens next...just as long as that first kiss is mind-blowing!
I have to admit I do like a good love scene, but I'd have to agree, it has to be emotional, an extent of their growing love for each other, not just sex for the sake of sex. Sex for the sake of sex often has be skipping over them as well. Can even pull me out of a book altogether if it's done poorly. But when it's good, and tugging at your emotions, it can WOW.
ReplyDeleteFingers weaving together gets me every time, sweetly, or cuffed behind her head like handcuffs. Depends on the scene.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree! It's all about what's at stake for the characters, not WHAT they're doing.
ReplyDelete~D~
I love heat, Hope, and as Irene said, the first look between a man and a woman, if written well, can sell me. I love Kelly's body language example. Joyce seems to agree too.
ReplyDeleteRita and Diane brought up another point. Is it our age and we don't do wild? I think with age we realize to have a true satisfying sexual experience there has to be an emotional connection. As far as wild comment, I'll let that alone. Each partnership has their own quirks.
Joanne is definitely on my wave length. And Darynda summed it up nicely.
OH! I could do wild if someone offered. I like a few wild scenes but as you said there still had to be that emotional connection
ReplyDeleteRita, you make me laugh. Too funny. I'm sure you could.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Autumn! The relationship between the characters, whether they're "real" to me or not...that's what yanks me into a book and won't let me go. Now, I'll admit, I enjoy reading a sizzling love scene. But the emotional chemistry between the characters MUST be well set before that first dance between the sheets or it leaves me disappointed in the time I've invested in the book.
ReplyDeleteMany times I have found myself doing the same thing. Interesting food for thought. Thanks Autumn!
ReplyDeleteGlad you stopped by and chimed in Maeve. If you read one of those disappointing books, let me know, so I don't waste my time.
ReplyDeleteHey, Mary (((HUGS)) I'm glad the post made you think today.
I also totally agree with you Autumn. :)
ReplyDeleteI'd rather write LOVE scenes than SEX scenes. And there is a difference.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sue Fineman. I write hot love scenes. At least I hope they're hot because at one of my publishers that's what sells books, and I'm in this to make money, build a readership, and all that goes along with it.
ReplyDeleteThe easiest book I ever wrote was a mystery/suspense with the love scenes happening behind a closed door. While it's my favorite book, it has certainly under-performed and now that publisher doesn't take mystery/suspense anymore. Sigh.
Give me sensual. I've covered the basic biology/anatomy/physiology stuff. Give me a touch like eider down to a cheek, a promise written in a hot glance, excitement climbing panting breath by panting breath.
ReplyDeleteIf I wanted a Sexual Olympiad, I'd read the Kama Sutra.
That said, a good love scene with all connections made, including the physical, works. It's just so rare these days.
Thanks, Beth.
ReplyDeleteSue, you are so right on. There is a difference. Some don't realize that though.
Hi, Marie. Oh, I love mystery and suspense novels with hot, emotionally packed scenes. Danger heightens the senses more so than drama, don't you think? Can I ask you for your website info?
Rare. Now there is a word that is perfect. Why you do think that is so, Gwyn? Do you really think NY is just looking for sex? If that is the case, it's sad IMO.
Great post, Autumn! And I'm right there with you. There has to be more to the love scene than the mechanics to keep me reading. In real life, it takes more than good sex to keep a relationship going and the same holds true in a good book. Besides, what the reader imagines can often be far more satisfying for THEM than what we write. It's the unspoken that frequently holds the most power. My 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteOMG! I've used the insert Tab A into Slot B analogy so many times! For me, a good love scene can show me everything...or leave it all to the imagination. For me, the sex scene has to be about more than just sex. It has to reveal something about the characters or the plot. It has to be preceded by sexual tension and followed by something horrible. That way, it leaves me desperate for more. And like you said, I have to be invested in the outcome and that can only happen when I've fallen in love with the characters.
ReplyDeletei love a good scene as long as ten pages later, I'm not still reading the same love scene. Come on, even in real life, it doesn't take that long. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree w/P.L., lol, though I do enjoy some authors' scenes more than others. Eloisa James tends to grab me and keep me reading those scenes over and over. Others seem to be going thru the mechanics--does nothing for me at all either-and that applies even if I love the characters. I mean, after a while, how many times can a familiar act be described, especially in the same book?
ReplyDeleteJoanna Aislinn
Dream. Believe. Strive. Achieve!
NO MATTER WHY
The Wild Rose Press
www.joannaaislinn.com
www.joannaaislinn.wordpress.com
Wonderful post! I like a good love scene but sometimes the closed-door is much more intriguing. I read a well-known author's latest release recently, (not from TWRP lol) and the love scenes were so endless and so tossed in I just skipped them. It was almost like, okay, I need another thousand words so let's let them do this right now. Grrrrr.
ReplyDelete~Tanya
Tanya Hanson
www.tnayahanson.com
www.petticoatsandpistols.com
OMG, PL, you are so right. I had a CP who insisted ten minutes later her couples could couple. Well, it is fiction. LOL. Good call.
ReplyDeletePL did hit it, didn't she. I'll have to check out Eloisa, Joanna. I haven't in a while. She is such a nice lady and I always attend her workshops. I learn so much from her.
ReplyDeleteI hear you, Tanya and I could agree more. Thnaks for stopping by, lady.
ReplyDelete