Sunday, August 12, 2012

You want it when?!?!

I think one of the hardest challenges as a writer is to work a steamy love scene into a high suspense novella.  When your hero and heroine are in constant danger sex should be the last thing on their mind or it would be for the average person.
Sometimes a little humor can be used to slip it in as in the movie Serenity. Two secondary characters are facing death as the Reavers attack. Simon turns to Kaylee and says his one regret is that he didn’t get to know her better.  She asks as in sex. He replies yes. To which she declares she’s going to live.
In my novella, Taking a Risk, for the Dangerous Men/Dangerous Places Anthology, I have my hero and heroine hiking through the Amazon jungle trying to escape a killer. Not exactly the most romantic set-up. So how did I work in a little romance and a couple steamy love scenes? Like the movie Serenity, I used humor.  I didn’t insult the reader by trying to make them believe Leigh found Nick so hot, she had to have him regardless of the looming danger.  Instead Leigh figures she’s going to die so what the hell… she’ll be sexual satisfied.  She even tells herself this way there will be no awkward moments of trying to decide where this relationship is going – it’s not – she’s going to die.
As in my daily life as a writer, I like to find ways to color outside the lines. Find ways to add a little unexpected into my stories. So what are some of the best ‘unexpected’ things you’ve read?

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