Happy 25th!

Happy 25th Anniversary Alberta Romance Writers' Association (ARWA)!! Whoo hoo!!
So I don't normally have a scotch before 11am. . . I don't usually have a scotch in the daylight, but hey, it was a day of celebration. It was a lovely party, met some new friends, hung out with some old ones, wore a dress and heels, and celebrated our writing community.

Happy Writing!

Writing Sexual Tension, Heightening Your Readers' Satisfaction

I gave a workshop for ARWA on writing sexual tension. Enjoy and Happy Writing!

Sexual Tension, Heightening Your Readers’ Satisfaction

by Sarah Kades

I love writing sexual tension. It’s fun, it’s dynamic, and you get to create a storm of feeling within your characters. Your characters dance around each other and their feelings for each other and wrestle with darn near everything under the sun trying to ignore the burning heat that is threatening to scorch them if they don't give in to the passion exploding through their system.

But they can’t give in. Not yet. Something is stopping them from grabbing that other person and rocking their core. And not just any something. Nope. It has to be a big enough deal to stop this rocking attraction. And sexual tension isn’t soft and fuzzy. Soft and fuzzy has a place, mind you, but it is not when the stakes and the passion are so high somethings got to give and your characters have no idea what they are going to do because they can’t act on the attraction (insert plot element here where acting on it would be the dumbest thing in the world, internal or external conflict) and they can’t not act on the attraction (because the attraction and passion are so real, so intense, so burning that not acting on it is the most unnatural and dumbest thing in the world).

Sexual tension has very little (sometimes nothing) to do with the actual act of sex. Sexual tension is passion unsatisfied. It is emotion and conflict, both internal and external, with anticipation and frustration thrown in the mix. 

It is that passion, that attraction that makes your characters’ life impossible because they cannot stop feeling their beloved (or be-lusted) everywhere. It’s distracting and oh-so-fun to write your characters going through it. It is up to you how you put it in there.

Sexual tension scenes grip your reader. I want my reader to feel what my characters are feeling, feel the sexual tension, feel the sexual frustration, feel the heat that is the no holds bar, intense, crazy attraction that can exist between two people.

The core of writing believable, charged sexual tension, is to feel it. Feel that fire and translate it to your reader. Have you ever met someone and were rocked to your absolute core? Have you ever felt completely consumed by passion? Have you been floored that you could feel that much? 

Write it. Make your characters feel that. 

And if you haven’t experienced, no worries. As writers we create. Create that feeling, that passion, with so much clarity that your readers are caught up in the maelstrom of emotions and conflict, both internal and external, the anticipation and frustration, that they are squirming in their seats desperate for release, too.

We write sexual tension by overstimulating our characters’ senses with each other. We have (at least) five senses to work with. Go play and have fun working your characters into a frenzy over each other. Remember, sensuality trumps sexuality in the sexual tension game, so work with your characters’ senses!

Love (or lust) amplifies everything, it takes ordinary situations and experiences and blitzes the system with feeling. Everything is more intense because there is an underlying feeling that is inexplicable, and impacts everything, it amplifies everything. Sexual tension is part of that. Write it.

A few things to note:

Direct the sexual tension where you want it to go, not where you don’t. Don’t ‘conflict’ your characters into a corner they cannot get out of. Or a corner where your reader looses interest.

Throw your readers enough bones. Teasing your readers and characters is one thing, but they need something to tide them through. Sexual tension ebbs and flows. Heightening satisfaction includes the sensual dance of push and pull. Keep your reader actively engaged in this drama by keeping it rolling. Too much pushing with no pull will disengage your reader. Keep them engaged and wanting more.

Check otherwise “non-sexy” scenes and see if there is opportunity to heighten your hero and heroine’s awareness of each other. Sexual tension builds. Utilize the opportunities for it to build in your story.

Condom are sexy. Romance novels now include responsible, safe sex. Have fun writing condoms into your sizzling scenes.

Exquisitely craft your sexual tension scenes. Your characters, and your readers, will thank you. Happy Writing!

For more information, check out:

Juliet Burns, Sexual Tension – You want his WHAT to go WHERE? ©

 HYPERLINK "http://www.julietburns.com/tension.html" http://www.julietburns.com/tension.html

Connie Flynn, Creating Sensual Tension 

 HYPERLINK "http://www.theromanceclub.com/writers/articles/art0023.htm" http://www.theromanceclub.com/writers/articles/art0023.htm

Marg Riseley , The Exquisite Heat of Sexual Tension

 HYPERLINK "http://www.likesbooks.com/tension.html" http://www.likesbooks.com/tension.html

Saucy Minx

36,000 words in and I have a new opening scene. . . and by new I mean formerly know as page 60. My manuscript is a saucy minx.

Stay tuned for the upcoming Writing Sexual Tension entry. I'm giving a workshop on it. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

My Sunday afternoon

Play break in the mountains today. This picture reminded me of writing a novel, keep working on it and enjoy the trip.

Chef Michael Smith | Cookbooks

I first heard of Michel Smith because every time I happened to be flying WestJet, his show Chef at Home would be on.

I picked up one of his cookbooks and it is a family favorite. Happy cooking. . . and writing.

Chef Michael Smith | Cookbooks

rewriting scenes and de-cluttering

What did Shakespeare say? More matter, less art?

Whew. . . more scene rewrites. I'm digging the de-cluttering, though. I'm learning lots about myself and how hoarding words in a manuscript can be just as ridiculous as hoarding physical things in our lives. Do I really need to hold onto books I haven't read in 15 years?

But I digress. . .

I'm rewriting scenes and I am fascinated how attached to particular words or phrases or sentences I get. Why is that? They are just words and if the story changes and the words are no longer the perfect one(s), why should I be attached to them? I can go write more that are perfect for how the story now is. So silly. But I find myself looking at what was at one time a humdinger of a line, and now it is just out-of-place clutter.

Ouch.

Where appropriate, use your delete button. It is a friend, a resource, a tool to help us on our writing journey.

Happy de-cluttering. And writing!

Dierks Bently was in Calgary February 21,2012

Dierks Bentley was in Calgary last night!! Dang that dude gives a good show!! I had an absolute blast. Thanks Dierks, for coming to Calgary and I so have to put a concert scene in the next book.

Have a good tour!