K is for Kiss
As my fellow blogger Leandra Wallace once wisely noted, kisses are one of the most common acts you'll find in a love story - and yet they're one of the hardest things to write. This seems counter-intuitive - what's so hard about describing two people pressing their lips together? - but as soon as you think about it, you realize that it's true.
The first problem is that you can only say, "they kissed," or ""she kissed me," or even "he pressed his lips to hers" so many times before you start to feel like a broken record (am I dating myself by using that metaphor??) It gets hard to be creative after a while, and there's always a danger of getting, well, weird when trying to creatively describe two people touching their body parts to each other (and that previous sentence is a great example of that creepiness. *shudders*)
The second problem, though, and the bigger one for this WIP, is that you also need to infuse each kiss with meaning, especially that all-important first kiss... And I have six lifetimes going, with six or more different love affairs, which means at least four first kisses, and boy is it going to be challenging to make them all sound, not to mention be, as important, and as different, as they need to be.
So I'm practicing writing kisses these days. I'll spare you and won't post any examples, but let's just say most of them are fairly awful. It also occurs to me that writing is a really, really weird job sometimes...
Aww--I love reading examples of how people write and experiment with writing. I'd love an excerpt! Kisses really should have meaning, I agree. If you just randomly toss them out there all over the place they become less special. Provide meaning for one? You have gold. Good luck doing that with six lifetimes--that's a tall order, but one I'm sure your capable of filling!
ReplyDeleteBy the way--I also want to thank you for all of your recent comments. I've been really bad at responding to comments lately, but I truly appreciate all of your words and support!
ReplyDeleteI've only ever written one paragraph that contained kissing.
ReplyDelete"Lena put a hand to my cheek, caressed it. Her skin felt soft as silk. She lowered the hand to my shoulder, replacing it with her lips. They kissed me once, twice, moved to my mouth and kissed me again. I kissed her back." - from my horror/romance flash fic "Her Eyes" available on MicroHorror.com
Kissing really is an uncomfortable thing to write about, but for this story it had to be done for the ending to have the appropriate punch. I shall probably never write anything steamier, for moral reasons.
I agree with the kissing descriptions being a tough part of writing romances. First kisses are the worst.
ReplyDeleteGood luck! Guess that's why I just had one-two kisses in my entire second and third books.
ReplyDeleteI still say broken record...
Kisses would be hard to write and keep people interested and not squeamish or having their eyes roll up to the ceiling. Each kiss from a different partner is different too. Some are sloppy, some tastes like you just had a smoke, others almost feels like they just patted you on the head, others want to skip the kiss and go right to it and others make you dream of luscious chocolate melting in your mouth and you want more
ReplyDeleteThose scenes were always so hard to write when I wrote romance. In YA books, a kiss is often a little more vague except in the racier YA novels). In a romance, there was a whole craft to writing about a kiss. People who have never tried to write one have no idea how hard it is to come up with words for something that's so personal!
ReplyDeleteSince I don't really write romance, I find this challenging as well. But I am proud of the first kiss I wrote for Peter and Charles in St. Peter in Chains.
ReplyDeleteIf you think kissing scenes are hard, wait until you get to writing sex scenes. There's only so many ways to express lots of things found in those-Parts and practices. I really don't like writing those.
ReplyDeleteMore power to you. I haven't dared to write about anything more than a cursory kiss. Perhaps it would be a growing experience to dare myself to do so.
ReplyDeleteI still say broken record so I am also old LOL. Much older than you, I'm sure. I can't write kissing scenes at all and sex scenes are a total nightmare.
ReplyDeleteWe doubled up on a letter again :)
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking about how repetitive I was getting with the kissing in my book. I have to think up something new for them to do!
Yet reading first kisses is so sigh worthy!
ReplyDeleteI love the tension/anticipation right before a kiss. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me appreciate reading those kisses even more!
ReplyDeleteKissing scenes are tough. I avoid them whenever possible.
ReplyDeleteWith six first kisses, I'll be interested to see the differences between them. I can't wait to read it!
A character with more than one first kiss sounds cool.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever thought about writing a kissing scene and now, after reading this, I think I probably won't! :P
ReplyDelete6 first kisses sounds very interesting to read though! :)