Just one of the reasons men can’t stand Romance novels. I read some of it because it’s the best selling genre. I wondered if I could incorporate anything from it. The men and the dialogue were so unrealistic and so purple I thought I’d puke.

Great stories often have great love stories as part of it. But that is not what you find in most romance and erotica.

PS…I’ve enjoyed the takeover immensely, and I promise to never use “old.” Ewww, grandpa.

An interesting point, Mary. It gave me a sense of déjà vu. I too learnt to ‘get inside’ my characters’ inner selves from writing their more intimate encounters.

The first crime novel I wrote, ‘Transactions’ – “The special selection box of assorted tarts”, had two teenaged schoolgirl prostitutes at the core of its plot, who would come from their well to do country home into Bristol city centre to work the streets. They’d change at the station, and each would be picked up by a couple of early evening kerb crawlers (on streets notorious at the time for streetwalkers). The money they earned paid for their night out clubbing and a taxi home. (This was based on a real scenario I was told about, though I made the two girls sisters in my book whereas the originals were just ‘best friends’). Naturally the competition from two pretty, well dressed, youngsters upset the regular street girls who were often working to support a drug habit.

One teenager was over the age of consent, while the other was just below, so when I got the book accepted by a publisher (after polishing and re-writing considerably) some of the, albeit sensitively written, sex scenes were questioned. The publisher liked the writing but felt that although Amazon were OK about sex scenes, they frowned on any details where underaged sex was concerned. Amazon was an important gateway, as most books he published were in Kindle format initially to be followed by paperback editions.

It was suggested that I either made both girls older, which would spoil the jeopardy element of the plot (Would the younger girl’s unaware regular client be caught out or not?) or that I should seriously edit those scenes involving the younger, but older looking (important to the plot), sister. I did the latter, which in fact improved the book by implying and suggesting more than was actually described in the scenes. My publisher was happy with the result (https://www.ex-l-ence.com/collections/crime-detective/products/transactions)

However, writing those original scenes, which one female beta reader was sad to hear I’d cut because she found them tender and warm rather than blatantly erotic, taught me to write from within my characters rather than writing as an outside observer simply reporting what’s going on.

Nothing’s wasted though, as those removed scenes were saved in my ‘useful stuff’ file and later re-used, with only changes to names, hair, dress, and other relevant details, in a later story in what became the ‘Lena’s Friends’ series of crime novels. The latest one, ‘Sharknose’ – “Seeing that toyshop has just reminded me of something” has just been published in Kindle edition, with paperback to follow shortly. (https://www.ex-l-ence.com/collections/lenas-friends/products/sharknose)

Hi Mary –

In my first novel, I did put in a sex scene–not heavy, just there. Later, felt it showed the passion, but didn’t think it belonged. It was fine for me to write it and delete. Sort of like backstory but something that never occurred… It did show up in their actions the passion they had toward one another — without jumping into bed, and how much they had to fight it back. So the look don’t touch scenes became more powerful in subsequent revisions. Their other emotions — like what you shared — were stronger.

BUT THE IMPORTANT PART of the experience was that after getting so intimate with my characters, my writing dramatically improved. Suddenly I knew how to live inside my characters hearts and minds. Dialogue improved exponentially and I could now have fun with my characters, shed tears with them, anguish for them, etc.

The sex scene never made it into the novel, but the novel finally came to life. Thanks for letting me share.

oh wait — that should have been my pup eating some-THING gross, not some-ONE…. jeeeeez