Writing colors

Romance

@TransparentWorld  inspired this chapter. The adorable young writer asked for some pointers to writing a romantic scene. I'll try to give some advice here for all to profit from.

Characters

No romance can be succeeded if the characters aren't well designed. They need to sound not only interesting, but also LOGICAL, which is the most difficult to achieve. If a suffering boy for example is still resisting his love for a hot mesmerising jock in highschool, or a vamp or werewolf... and said boy pushed his love away, but the loved insists and pulls him into a warm hug while he caresses the boy and eases his painful memories, and they end up kissing a reckless kiss that becomes hotter by the second, as the lover starts groping the boy and making him moan under his touch etc. etc.

well, such a scene cannot be truly felt if the supposedly suffering boy acts like a bitch and keeps hurting people around him.

If you protray a character for being gentle, mean, abusive, revengeful, etc... you need to stick with that characterization. Only then, the plot will give a natural feeling, like a stable basis for you to write whatever you want, romance, drama, horror...

Convince

Unlike what many believe, as a writer, you have to convince the readers that someone (a character in your story) is in love with another. I believe so many writers think that they can rely on 'love from first sight' because it's easy to pull off. Well, that might be true, but the relationship will not be convincing to the public.

Even love from first sight needs to be argued for. You need to explain why and what exactly drove someone to fall in love or even to simply like another.

Build the tension

Once you know in your head that you want to 'ship' two characters together, do not just dive into it. You should build up the tension. Let the characters work for it, and lead them (and therefore the reader) to wanting nothing but for them to kiss.

Action

Do not be afraid or embarrassed of a love scene. How much you want to describe is up to you as a writer, but even without a detailed description, you can still win the readers' hearts. For example, you can describe the impression of a lover after he had sex. The way the memories wouldnt leave his head, the way he can't focus or keeps grinning like a fool...

There are so many ways to make a love scene sound amazing, even if you don't display every second of it.

Realistic

Even if the story s themed 'fantasy', the actions of the characters need to be realistic. For instance, it is untasty to make a lover come from just seing the one he/she loves from afar! 

So if you did it once, please don't do it every time the lovers see each other! By reading such thing, my only thought is that they need to see a doctor!!

Also, unless you're talking about supernatural creatures, a man does not come thrity time, five minutes apart -_-

Just be realistic, take your time and you'll see that the scene is much more interesting on its own.

Color brush

Do not hesitate to make your characters blush or hide their face. If someone known as a ruthless person blushes, it is veeery endearing! Bt don't break the roughness of a character too soon, though. Once the fans got it well in their head that that guy almost never smiles, then you can bend him a little and let the fans enjoy and gloat.

Also, I talk from a personal experience when i say that you can make an unromatic scene feel romantic as well. It doesn't ork on all fans, but it does on some of them. For example, a rape scene can have a romantic feeling to it. Or a kidnapping, etc.

All you need to do, is let the hurt character voice his pain, while also reflecting the joy/pervertness of the other character. The fans will certainly not love the one who's commiting rape, but they can feel the romance and get attached to the story.

Also some fans feel things they don't dare to admit! hhhh  I feel like i'm a lawyer when I say this: Love your fans, care about them, but don't believe everything they say :D

Clichès

Just like you said @TransparentWorld , writers should keep away from clichès. If the readers are not surprised, they're not happy. Even if you're writing an amazing 'chef-d'oeuvre'. 

I admit, I myself try hard not to fall into clichès, but i failed once. So the trick is to write enough good scenes, that even when you screw up one of them, it is unnoticed :D

Not really unnoticed, readers notice EVERY THING! But they don't bug you with the one untasteful scene, because they have a lot of good ones to enjoy ;)

Now that being said, go romance the shît ut of this world  :D

Bisous!