Our little miss editor, Apple Masallo has a new update on her helpful blog. I’ve copied down what she calls the ‘Love Scene Sins’ ® and I’m putting down some thoughts after each item.
1) Thou shalt add many ‘tension’ scenes before the LS takes place.
We are writing about people. Men and women who have feelings. They won’t just shed their clothes and start pumping without any sort of interlude. Even dogs sniff each other’s butts as a manner of foreplay before they get into it, ya know?
2) Thou shalt not add a love scene just for the heck of it.
One reader commented on one of my novels, cute lang, bakit walang LS? I said, kailangan ba? It works without the LS, why should I put it in? You see, yes, sex sells. But is that all you want readers to read from your work? What about the big story? What about the romance?
3) Thou shalt not use medical terms for body parts.
It’s not romantic to be reading about a hero running the skin covering his phalanges over the heroine’s mammary glands. Or maybe the heroine getting a kick out of biting the hero’s labium inferius oris. You get what I mean.
4) Thou shalt concentrate on the emotions and thoughts of the characters, and not on the mechanical descriptions of love making.
Readers need to feel with your characters. They have enough imagination to see the scene without you having to describe minute by minute what your couple is doing. You’re not writing a manual for lovemaking. Show. Don’t tell.
5) Thou shalt add more tender scenes like staring into each other’s eyes, touching faces, kissing nose or temple.
6) Thou shalt use ‘tamer’ words in place of the intimate body parts.
7) Thou shalt use English narratives when describing parts of the scene that may sound offensive or vulgar in Tagalog.
8) Thou shalt not write a love scene concerning taboo topics like rape, incest, infidelity, voyeurism, sadism, exhibitionism, etc.
9) Thou shalt not write too many love scenes in one novel.
For points 5 through 9, always put the ‘kilig’ in the intimacy. Remember we are writing romance, not erotica. Think Judith McNaught. Something like Judith Krantz is already too much. Taboo is waaaay over over overboard. Not a lot of people are comfortable reading p**p** or t*** or s**o. Yes, they’re body parts and technically, they’re not entirely bastos but you have to admit, they do sound vulgar in our language. We’re not saying don’t do it. Just look for a publication that caters the more extreme versions of love scenes.
10) Thou shalt write only what you are comfortable to read.
Or else, you will end up writing stuff that are less than favorable for other readers to read as well. This doesn’t just apply to writing love scenes. Applies to writing in general too.
So… what are you waiting for? Go write. 🙂
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