Dirty Thoughts and Stories – When Love Scenes ARE a Part of the Story

Recently, I saw something on the sometimes-scourge of a social media site X (formerly known as Twitter) about unnecessary love scenes. I chose not to wade into that debate there but instead weigh in with my opinions and takes on the concept of love scenes in books (movies, too).

First, I love a good love scene. A good love scene to me is one that is ESSENTIAL (using all-caps to emphasize certain points here), meaning that it advances the story in terms of plot and character development. Now, are there love scenes that could have been cut and not affected the storyline at all? Yes, but there are times when I feel a well-choregraphed love scene (yes, with bare bodies and not much left to the imagination) can create more emotional engagement with the audience to see that. I believe it is a personal choice on the part of an author or filmmaker whether or not to do these kinds of scenes and I respect any author or filmmaker’s choice.

But I choose to write love scenes. In fact, for the romance stories I write, including what I will now call ‘romantic erotica’, love scenes are essential. I don’t just write bodies parts and inserting tab A into slot B kind of stuff. There are thoughts and emotions in my scenes and I let my readers decide how they feel about them. I love a good love scene and honestly, I haven’t read too many bad ones except those written by winners of the annual Bad Sex in Fiction awards (none of which I can see has been won by a romance novelist- which I find interesting but I’m sure romance novelists aren’t allowed to compete against the literary male writers who win this award with stunning consistency).

And I think a really well-written and well-filmed love scene can add weight to the story. A great example I can think of is from the movie ‘The Terminator’:

Spoiler Alert:

Before the final act of the movie, Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor are in a motel room, the first time they’ve been able to wind down and not be hunted by The Terminator. Sarah asks if Kyle had a girlfriend back in his time (the future). He confesses that he doesn’t, and instead, he reveals that he’s in love with Sarah (Sarah’s child of the future, John Connor, had told Kyle all about Sarah and gave Kyle a photo of Sarah). Then Kyle says, “I came back in time for you, Sarah.” And they embrace, and in a very beautifully-filmed scene, they make love. In the end, Kyle dies and Sarah is pregnant with his child, her son John. At the end of the movie, Sarah is making tape recordings for John in the future and one line in particular links perfectly back to that love scene, “In one night, we loved enough for a lifetime.” I honestly think if the audience hadn’t seen Kyle and Sarah together in bed, seen the poignancy and passion that line of Sarah’s wouldn’t have had the emotional impact it did. (I think it also made the dream sequence in ‘Terminator Two: Judgment Day’ with Kyle and Sarah so achingly-poignant, too.)

Now, years ago I read an essay or an interview (I can’t quite remember which) with the author Eileen Dryer (a wonderful writer and retired ER nurse and definitely give her a follow on social media) who once wrote (and I’m paraphrasing here from memory) that if your two leads are doing the deed in a barn while a bunch of cops are standing around stomping their feet in the snow listening to cries and moans and waiting for them to finish their lovemaking before the chase can continue, then that’s not the time or place for a love scene. But if your characters are in a place where they’re not being chased, like Kyle and Sarah in ‘The Terminator’, then you’ve got the right time and place to make your audience want to see your two leads get together and hopefully get a happily-ever-after.

Finally, what if love scenes ARE a very big part of the story? That’s what you’ll see in the story I’m posting today, ‘One Night Love Affair’. In it, I have two love scenes and yes, they’re explicit but in each character’s POV (point of view). Now, I did hold off on doing a third scene and not a fade-to-black they-did-the-deed kind of way either. And if you read the story I think you’ll see why. Because I DON’T write for titillation, or to shock, or show I’m uninhibited or just looking to upset pearl-clutchers. I write love scenes, and yes, explicit sex if I choose to, in order to portray sexual relations in a healthy, sex-positive way. I don’t believe in any form of shame, or guilt, or any kind of bullshit like that with sex between consenting adults. I mean, this is the twenty-first century and people need to grow up and stop being a bunch of ninnies, and also realize that sex doesn’t have to be portrayed like really shitty internet porn.

So with all this being said, I give you the first in a series of short romantic erotic stories I’m working starting off with ‘One Night Love Affair’:

Steve and Rosanna are fifty-something lawyers, both divorced with grown children, who are at a bit of a crossroads in their lives. And they’re both attracted to each other but with painful divorces behind them, they’re very shy about acting on this attraction. But a winter storm strands them in Boston in one hotel room, and away from everyone and everything in their lives, they give in to their attraction. But the next morning they have to decide whether it will be more than just a ‘one night love affair’ for them.

You can read this story here (link will open in separate tab) as a PDF file.