How to Convincingly Write Romantic Scenes
I’ve seen a couple posts around talking about how much they hate writing romance and I’d like to extend my tips for doing so. Just to be clear, ‘romantic scene’ does not equal sex scene. Romance is a deep conversation by firelight, the first time your characters say I love you, it’s a touch of the hand, a lasting kiss, and yes… also sex. It’s whatever your characters see as romantic and you want to frame as such. So… let’s just jump into it.
With romance, you’re going to be focusing pretty heavily on the characters involved, but you can’t ignore their surroundings. So instead of breaking up the steamy goodness with descriptions of the park and the bench they’re sitting on, start the scene by setting the scene. Where are your characters? Write a solid few sentences of scene description. It gives the reader a sense of space to imagine whatever adorable or down-right-dirty things your characters are about to get up to.
Once you’ve set the scene, completely abandon it. Pretend like it’s not even there as you zero in on your characters. What are they thinking? How are they feeling in this moment? How are they interacting? Are they timid and shy? Passionate and direct? Is there a build up of emotion? Remember to use all five senses.
It’s important to deliberately choose words that coincide with the overall feel of the scene: Soft, sweet, and delicate evoke different feelings than rough, rich, and deep. Choose the words that are right for your characters in that moment.
Most romantic scenes are building up to a specific moment. Be it a sultry stare, a kiss, a long-awaited hug, or *ahem* whatever else. It can be good to tease the reader with what’s about to come. Mentioning a character’s pouty lips a few sentences before a kiss or strong arms before they’re drawn into them, describing their kiss as hungry or their stare as lustful before they fall into bed together. These are all good indicators that something’s about to go down. And it gets the reader excited for it.
And once that built up moment finally happens you’re probably going to want to describe every square inch of skin, every slight movement, every ragged breath, but WAIT! Now’s the time to reign it in. Leave something to the imagination. A paragraph-long description of a first kiss is too much. It takes the reader out of the moment. A couple of sentences should be enough to sufficiently describe what’s happening.
And finally, remember that perfection isn’t romanctic. You know what’s romantic? Running your fingers through someone’s hair and accidentally getting caught in the strands. Then you spend a few seconds standing awkwardly close together as they help you untangle yourself and you look into one another’s eyes and share a quick, unsure peck on the lips before breaking apart with a smile. It’s real. It’s awkward. It stirs up those jitters in the pit of your stomach. That’s romantic. Let your romance be weird, you cowards!
Aaaaaand that’s it. If you guys want more, I wrote “How to Convincingly Write Battle Scenes” if you’d like to check that out! And if you STILL want more, let me know!
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