K is for Kissing… and stuff.

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There were a lot of great words today. Kindness and Knowledge and all sorts of things with maturity and depth. There’s wisdom and life lessons out there on other people’s blogs.

Unfortunately for you, I just got off the phone with my sister, and that pretty much took us both back to junior high, and I’m still sugared-up from an impulse trip to Baker’s Candies. So, today’s blog post is about Kissing… and stuff.  **hee hee**

So, the book I’m working on–the one I’m posting here on my blog–is somewhere in the soft-science fiction to fantasy range. It’s the story of two cultures reconciling after a long–and sometimes vicious–war. My main characters are the queen who inherited the winning side, and an ex-soldier turned resistance fighter from the losing side. In a bid to foment rebellion, and expecting his own execution, he has married her. (Lepterians practice unilateral marriage. He married her. She didn’t marry him. It’s a thing.)

And then, she also didn’t execute him, so he’s pretty much stuck.

In a lot of ways, they’re vehicles for the cultures around them. And their romance, such as it is, is a parallel to the cultures coming together. Awkward as hell.

And I’m not exactly a romance writer. The romantic high point of my last novel was my main character’s husband helping her block a hostile takeover. **sigh**

And at some point… I can’t escape this–she’s going to have to kiss him.

**shudder.** Maybe if I just throw in a few more executions. You know, like at the very beginning? “She executed him, and then he died. The end.”

Honestly, I’m not sure where the problem is, but I’m a little squeamish. Or nervous. Or… something. I’m not sure whether that’s just that I haven’t written a lot of romantic scenes before, or if there’s some deep seated prejudice against romance (based old-school bodice-rippers and cigarette smoke, which I cannot separate in my mind) or if my muse is just telling me that I’m doing something wrong with this.

So, any thoughts or advice? Some of you are really good at this. What do you think?

5 Comments

  1. Juneta

    Reply

    Writing romance is uncomfortable for me too. It actually is not all that easy to write it. Great post.
    Juneta

  2. Patricia Lynne

    Reply

    Writing romance is tricky. Even in my stories where romance is more central to the plot, I struggle with those scenes. I can’t write about rippling muscles and stuff like that. Sometimes you just have to push through it and write it.

    ~Ninja Minion Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

  3. Karen

    Reply

    I’m going to have to take your advice and power through. I’ve given up hope the scenes will write themselves.
    Thanks for stopping by again!

  4. Eva

    Reply

    It’s been one hell of a week, so I’m coming late to comment on stuff. 🙂
    Anyway, this post made me think about it. I occasionally like to read (more or less trashy) romances, and very often find myself skipping kissing-and-making-out scenes, because, well, blargh!
    That said, I think the best are those that are evocative without being explicit. One of the best examples is the “love” scene between Angua and Carrot in Terry Pratchett (fans will know what I mean.) She has just found herself dressed more or less only in a bedsheet in his room. There are a number of complications on both sides. She tells him that he just shouldn’t talk, and then maybe it’ll all be all right. and then, it’s something like this (quoting from memory, not from the book):
    “After a while, the bed springs went ‘glink’.
    And then, for Captain Carrot, the Discworld moved, and didn’t even stop to cancel milk and the papers.”
    End of scene. To me, this absolutely wins. 😉

    Otherwise, I find I prefer scenes where the person through whose POV things go on concentrates sort of on what they’re feeling/sensing. I think it helps to concentrate on senses that are less abused in literature, like smell; and it helps to concentrate on how something makes that character feel emotionally, rather than describing rippling muscles of one, and detailed proprioception of the other…
    That, at least, is what I find I can read without cringing. Cassandra Clare is an example of somebody whose love/kissing scenes I read with enjoyment (though she writes for young adults). Most of the rest makes me want to escape through the window, however.

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