Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Scene I Love to Hate

This week’s theme is scenes in writing we really don’t like to tackle.

Annie’s was transitions. Rebecca’s was sex scenes. Both valid points. I don’t have issues with either of those, though. I love writing love scenes. They're different for each book depending on the characters and mood of the story. Transition scenes are more difficult but necessary and I do like them too :-) The type of scene I don’t like to write are the ownership scenes that come directly after a love scene.

Yeah, those. They're kinda sorta like a transition scene but with more at stake.

When I write a sex scene, it takes a lot of energy out of me. When it comes to writing that “afterglow” moment, I just want to gloss over it. I don’t care for them, because I hate to read the mushy, mushy scenes so many romance writers do. Sometimes, when two people have sex, the change in their relationship isn’t immediate and in no way do the players have a change of heart ASAP.

Yes, characters can have that “aha” moment when they know things will be different, but a writer needs to understand it’s a process and the characters need to progress naturally into the “I think I love you” stage.

That makes it tricky. A writer can make or break a book in these scenes.

Give me a fight scene, a sex scene, an action sequence any day, as long as I can avoid the “aftermath”. Sure, they’re a necessary part of the book, but they make me shiver. But, because writing is a job and a writer's responsibility is to learn every aspect of the craft, I buckle down and write them. Will I ever make peace with them? Probably. Will I love doing them? Probably not.

Have a great day.

7 comments:

Alison said...

I hate fight scenes.They kill me. I usually put them off until the very last thing and go back and plug them in. Sometimes that means having to fix the earlier parts but I deal. I think it's funny how we all dread things like this!

Sandra Sookoo said...

lol it is interesting. Everyone has something different :-)

Annie Nicholas said...

LOL! It is interesting how we all differ and fun to do this theme week thing.
I actually love writing these afterglow moments and sometimes can't make myself shut up.;)

Sandra Sookoo said...

lol thanks Annie

Cathy M said...

I actually love those afterglow moments too. That peace and contentment can show us another side to the characters.

booklover0226 said...

These posts are quite interesting; I'm enjoying them.

Thanks,
Tracey D

D L Jackson said...

Amen, Sandra. Another thing I don't like writing, that can go horribly wrong if you don't get it right.