All's the Same in Love and War

Thought I would continue a bit on what I posted about yesterday: sex.

Typically, and historically, I have not written much about sex, at least not directly. For years I convinced myself it was because I was taking a moral high ground, but in time I was forced to admit that wasn't true. I'm just not that morally "high". The reason I have not written many sex scenes is the same reason I've been involved in so little of it in real life: fear and ignorance.

Writing about sex is embarrassing for me. And yet my most powerful writing comes from sexual energy. How does a battle scene derive from sexual energy, you ask? Well, I don't know if I can explain it well, or at all, but I believe that is exactly where the energy comes from. It is just redirected.

Writing a battle scene is kind of like choreographing a dance. Combatants must flow with - and against - each other. There are moves and counter moves. Actions by one stimulate reactions by the other. The climax of a love scene is ecstasy. The climax of a battle scene is death. And while the end (of a happy scene) is satisfying, it is the building up to it that is key. Without the build up, the ending is just that: an ending.

Generally, I have been well complimented on my battle scenes over the years. I have also done a reasonable job with emotional pain, especially as it relates to despair. What I have avoided for years, though, is even the attempt at writing a satisfying love scene.

The problem is the fear of being silly. For one thing, in order to write a convincing love scene I must be convinced of it myself. This means writing things which are a "turn on" for me, possibly. Not always. Depends on the scene. But even the thought that others will laugh at what I find romantic is intimidating. And so I have not done it.

That began to change with one of my later revisions of Swords of Fire: Book I. The story, while interesting enough, lacked real energy. It was difficult to truly care about the characters. In time I had to confess that it was because I was denying the characters their sexuality. While some were highly conservative (even prudish), it just wasn't realistic for all of them to be so. No society is perfect, and neither is any character. I had to accept the fact that my main character was entering the peak of his sexual youth. There was simply no way he could walk through life ignoring that. It was going to affect him. And so I began to write love scenes.

These scenes were written in a paper journal instead of in the computer. There's something more private about writing with a pen than with a keyboard. Don't know what it is, but it is how I feel about writing. So, like I often do when seeking a release for words, I just 'wrote what came to me'.

Reading it afterward made me blush. I even looked around to see if perhaps someone might be reading over my shoulder. I hadn't believed myself capable of writing something like that. And while the scenes all made it into Traitor, none did so with the same - how shall I say it - detailed description. The journals are all boxed away and sealed right now, but if memory serves me right, I wrote three or four pages for the once scene. It takes up a paragraph in Traitor.

What I found, for myself anyway, is that avoiding silly comparisons is key to writing a successful love scene. It's the comparisons which make people roll their eyes, or laugh at the imagery. Writing intent and reaction is far more important than other things. Like a battle. There is dominance, and at times it shifts from one to the other and back again. There is give and there is take. There are respites. But in everything, the action must flow like a river, with both the calmness of deep water, the suddenness of rapids, and perhaps the plunge of a waterfall. (Talk about silly imagery, right?)

Perhaps I am silly for having taken the approach I have. But I do tend to write my battles like love scenes and my lovemaking like battles. They're kind of akin. Only, in a battle there is a winner and a loser. In a love scene - just winners. Hopefully. If it's done right.

I'm still not a great writer of love scenes. But I like them now. The truth is, it has nothing to do with morality. It's passion. That's all.