Blog Chain: Show Me the Love

I have a bad cold now and am so not loving that. BUT, today’s blog chain is about another love–of the literary kind. Kat asks:

How do you feel about love scenes? As a reader, are you put off by the gratuitous? As a writer, do you shy away from spelling out the down-and-dirty? Or do you write until your computer lights a cigarette?”

When I’m reading, I prefer really good, steamy making out to sex. This is probably because the books I’ve read with sex portray it so unrealistically and make me cringe. In fact, I should make a list and give them to teens as a way to convince them to wait–because it’s that bad.

One of the reasons I swooned over TWILIGHT was because it was so romantic. All Bella and Edward did was kiss and there was so much passion and angst in those kisses. I think it was a good example of how to build romantic tension and create romance without intense physical contact. That said, I DO like to read and write steamy scenes. I don’t write elaborate sex scenes but I do write heavy make-out. HARMONIC FEEDBACK  by Tara Kelly is another book that does this well (this and so many other things; it’s a terrific moving novel and you should read it if you haven’t). Tara writes great boys.

But something I’ve been thinking about recently is how to write a book that is appropriate for 7th and 12th graders alike. The new YA idea I have is one that will focus on kissing only and the impact of that because when I was a teen, kissing was EVERYTHING. When I look at old diary entries, they just go on and on about how I want to kiss this boy and that boy and how cool it would be if so and so kissed me while slow dancing and what that first kiss is like.

How about you? What floats your boat in fiction? For more steam, check out Michelle’s and Laura’s posts.

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