Last week we went over the first five beats of a romance novel. Let’s move on today and talk about the last four beats.
Beat 6: The Sexual tension (the Kiss!).
This is my favorite part. (Ok, I like the dialogue leading up to it too!) But, a great romance has at least 2 great kisses—sometimes three. (If you’re writing for ABA, you might have more than a kiss).
Kiss One: An “introductory—I didn’t mean to, did we just do that?” Kiss
Kiss Two: A, “I really want to kiss you now and I’m going to” Kiss
Kiss Three: And an “I love you, and I mean it” Kiss
If you have to, the last two can be combined.
Of course, before the First Kiss you, want to build desire, an awareness of each other, an agreement that they aren’t repulsed by each other and even a hope that maybe, oh, no, really, oh, I shouldn’t think that but YES, I want to kiss him!
That often happens before the Intro kiss. But you can have an intro kiss where it takes them off guard that they then ponder later, and decide they like it. A lot.
Between the intro kiss and the “I really want to kiss you,” kiss, there is wooing and sparks and some whys (we’ll get to that), until they realize their heart is engaged. And this kiss means something.
Often, after that, we might have the black moment, but it could also happen before this kiss and the second kiss could be combined with the end.
The Introductory kiss should occur before or at the halfway point of the book.
If you were to pick up a Steeple Hill, or Harlequin, you could open half way, and usually there is the kissing (okay, the sex scene). The second kiss occurs in the last ¼ of the book. Usually.
In my current WIP, my hero and heroine are pretending to engaged. Which causes them to be in romantic situations. They have a FAKE kiss ½ way through the book…that leads to real attraction.
The second kiss occurs at the end. (unless they absolutely demand another one…! ) (which they might).
As far as kissing rules – just write the kiss you are comfortable with. I have a “would my mother read this?” rule and that seems to work fine for me. J
Beat 7: The Breakup: The biggest WHY NOT rises to push them apart. Every romance has a Breakup—or a Black Moment. That reason why they can’t be together. Without it, we have no triumphant run into each other’s arms! We have no giant sign of happiness.
We have no conflict, tension and late night reading!
YOU MUST HURT YOUR CHARACTERS and make them BREAK UP!! I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, really.
I know there are a few novelists who don’t want to be mean to your characters—but if you don’t, then they don’t ponder their existence, hit their knees, find the truth and change into better people. And we want better people, right?
Just say, as you’re typing…this is for your own good, I promise!!
We talked about the Black Moments/Epiphany and how to create them earlier this year, but as your sketching out your novel, pick the biggest WHY NOT. It is this element that causes them to break up. (The Black Moment archived posts: http://www.mybooktherapy.com/index2.php/?cat_63)
Here’s Mine in my current WIP: My hero’s mission is going to get an untrained person hurt. AND, he can’t fall for her, so he stages a breakup. This fight embarrasses and hurts her, and she believes all his feelings for her were just an act (like the feelings her ex-non-boyfriend-turned-future-brother-in-law) which gets at her core issues that she’s a “leftover”— And then she does something that makes him think she can’t be trusted (his why not)
Ask: What makes your hero/heroine break up. (don’t worry, you can change it later—right now you are just brainstorming). Ideally, the breakup also be tied in with her greatest fear.
The break up is essential to a romance, because we want true love to win…but if it isn’t at stake then there is not fear of losing, no turning pages. But – there should be a good reason for them to be together, which lead us to tomorrow’s blog…WHY do they love each other?
See you tomorrow!
Susie May