It's kind of like the reason they call it woman p*rn or whatever. Most women (and a lot of people in general, really) prefer the emotional side over the visuals, and that tends to be clearer when you're in someone's head - to put it as simply as possible.
Oh, I find the emotional side plenty interesting, in theory, I've just rarely seen it done well. But then I don't exactly go out of my way to read that kind of stuff, I'm sure there's a world of high-quality examples out there. Maybe it bears looking into, see if it's something I want to explore in my own writing. Don't think sex scenes have a place in the stories I'm writing now, but maybe in future projects.
When I say it's better on television I don't mean that
entirely literally, and I'm not referring mainly to the phonographic aspect. It's just one of those things, same as, say, fighting or dancing, wherever physical activity meets choreography. There's a lot you can do with color, lighting, music etc. to really ramp up the eroticism. Very much a preference thing, and surely it's possible to do really well in writing. Just haven't really given it an honest try myself.
So um... you write romance. Or at least books with a heavy romance subplot from the sounds of it. The only "must" in the Romance genre is a HEA or HFN and a focus on romance - whatever that looks like for your characters. That's literally all. You can even have only 40%-60% of the plot be romance and the rest be fantasy, sci-fi, adventure, whatever and call it Fantasy Romance (or other applicable genre). There isn't even a requirement for open door sex scenes. Fade to black is perfectly fine and preferred by many.
Yeah, it's possible I'm making a distinction where none exists, and maybe the Romance genre isn't as rigid as I've led myself to believe. Had to look up the terms HEA and HFN, which goes to show how ignorant I am in that realm. Not sure I'd call my romance subplots "heavy" and they certainly don't take up 40-60 percent, but romance
is something I've been leaning increasingly hard into. My novels have up to a dozen main characters, and one or two of them might get a big romance plot. Historically I haven't been doing a lot of "start to finish" stuff, but in
The Eight Barrows Braves I have one relationship that kicks off somewhere in the first act and grows over the course of the book, it's really the first of its kind I've done in much detail and I'm still learning the ropes. Mostly I've used "settled" or "finished" relationships, like a married/otherwise long-term couple or former lovers brought back together by circumstance, or stuff that's more in the realm of casual flings.
It's not
that long since I first started writing about love and romance in any capacity, but my stories are much richer for it. I find there aren't many better ways to get to know a character than to investigate who they love and why, and
how they love. It makes me so much more invested in them and I hope some of that rubs off on the readers.
Regardless, your stuff sounds like things I'd like to read.
That's nice to hear, and always a possibility. There should be another
Eight Barrows Braves chapter in the Workshop soonish, at least, just gotta settle some real-world stuff first so I can take time to do a few critiques of my own. One of these months I'll get around to it.
I can't speak for anyone else, but personally, I've had enough of such things.
