Writing a love scene isn’t something you should just drop into your novel or story just because you wish to class it as a romance. A love scene needs to be woven in so intricately that it appears seamless. If you go to a book store and pick up a romance novel, you should be able to tell from the first few pages the following things:

a. That it’s a romance by the words and phrases used.

b. The heat level. Whether it’s a sweet or inspirational novel with little or no sex; a Harlequin Mills and Boon Modern Romance [with a moderate amount of love making scenes], or one of their more steamy lines such as Blaze; or highly erotic such as the Black Lace books, or Accent Press.

c. If it has sexual tension. Even in the sweet or inspirational novels, if it is a romance there should be some sort of sexual tension going on, otherwise it is simply not a romance. Even if we do not get beyond the bedroom door, there needs to be some sort of chemistry between the hero and heroine for it to be classed as romance.

A love scene is not:

a. Two characters behaving against their character traits just to get a bit of lovemaking on the page.

b. A device used to fill up pages. That would be cheating the reader.

A love scene should only be used if:

a. It’s crucial to the plot

b. It moves the story along

c. It reflects the characters’ motivations.

If a love scene can be removed from your novel without it affecting the plot, then it wasn’t really needed in the first place.

When writing a love scene the setting needs to compliment the characters’ emotions. The characters’ senses need to be sharpened and heightened for a love making scene.

A love scene should:

Tell the reader something more about the characters. Maybe it’s a time when a sense of humour comes into play. Or maybe it highlights their fears. After all, the two strongest emotions are said to be love and fear, with fear being the stronger of the two. So perhaps one of the characters fears falling in love or fears losing that love. Those kinds of things can provide the conflict to propel your plot forward.