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It’s Like Riding A Bike (Sorta)
Having been a news reporter prior to writing fiction, I think it’s pretty safe to say I’ve written just about everything…
First there were the articles about kidnapping, drunk drivers, crooked officials, dangerous roads, overweight cops, petty thefts, stupid crooks, house fires, and so on & so on. Then, there were the short stories and novels ripe with family tension, psychopaths on the loose, acts of murder, death scenes, and the like.
But there’s one thing I’ve never written–until this past weekend, that is. And it’s not an over exaggeration to tell you I’d have sooner walked on hot coals and sat through another city zoning meeting (or ten) than actually put this to paper by my own hands.
Yepper. I wrote my first honest-to-goodness sex scene.
No, you haven’t clicked on the wrong blog. The Good Girls do, indeed, write mysteries. Those innocent and oh-so-gorgeous faces you see to your left thoroughly enjoy concocting ways to kill. And, even more importantly, how to get away with it.
However, a few months ago, one of those little story ideas that often take root in a writer’s head, grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go. In fact, I was so excited about the basic seed, I barely blinked when it spoke to me in a genre I’ve never written.
Romance.
I mean, why not? I’m a writer. That means I write. And I’m a firm believer that the quickest way to literary disaster is to fight with your story.
Sooooooo, I picked up a few titles from the line I was targeting and familiarized myself with their style. I liked the feel of the characters, the depth of the storylines, and the attention to details. But somehow, in all that research, I seemed to gloss over one minute aspect…
My two main characters would have to…you know.
Pushing that teeny tiny little fact from my mind, I wrote the first three chapters and sent them off to my agent. She, in turn, promptly sent them to the line we were targeting. A few months later we got word they were interested (yay!), but, seeing as how I’m not a romance writer, they wanted to see the rest.
No problem.
I continued writing, my pace inexplicably slowing over the past few weeks. At first I thought it was due to my new job and, subsequently, less time to write. Then I chalked it up to not feeling a hundred percent and having a number of things on my plate. But as I got further into the book, my pace continued to slow until it came to an all-out halt.
Hello? Anyone home?
It was about that time—when I was simply staring at my computer screen for hours on end—when I uncovered the root of my problem. A problem that had nothing to do with work, health, and life, and everything to do with the simple fact I was approaching THE scene. And I had absolutely no idea how to do it.
In a literary sense of course. 
So, on Saturday, I finally took the plunge and…surprise, surprise…I not only survived, I actually, um, kind of enjoyed the ***cough*** creativity that ensued.
Really.
Will my hero and heroine go at it once again? Not in the next few chapters thanks to some serious angst that comes into play between them the following morning. However, should they decide to give it a whirl again before my final key stroke, I won’t be quite so squeamish the second time around (though they’ll have to find a different locale as I stretched THE scene out over multiple levels of her home 
).
How about you guys? Do you enjoy reading sex scenes (if they work in the story)? Do you tend to skim through them on warp speed, skip over them entirely, or read them word for word? And if you’re a writer, have you attempted one yet? Any rules of thumb you care to share–or even just speculate upon for the sake of some interesting conversation?
Hugs,
~Laura
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