Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Creating a Romantic Setting
How to Create a Romantic Setting in a Romance Erotica Story When writing romantic erotica, one of the most important factors in the story is the setting. The romance genre opens up a whole new facet of feelings and situations for the characters and it is important to set the proper mood. For example, you could have a proper romantic tale set in a junkyard as long as the mood is still set for the readers. The five senses are the most vital tool to use when creating a mood and setting for romance and passion. When appealing to each of these, touch, sound, taste, sight, and scent, in the proper way, one can never go wrong. Firstly, consider the sight factor of the setting. Where are the characters? What do they see? What surrounds them? Let’s use the beach as our main example. They see the ocean; it is sunset. Describe the color of the waves, the hues of the sunset, and the way the colors of the sunset bounce off of the colors of the waves. Put yourself in the scene by closing your eyes and picturing yourself on the very beach you are describing. When writing romantic erotica, do not be afraid to be poetic. Describe the sun setting over the ocean like you are Keats or Shelley. It adds to the mood. Also, describe how they see each other. Describe what your characters are looking at when they look across at one another. Once you have the sights around your characters covered, your reader can picture exactly where they are and easily put themselves in the place of one of them. The next important thing in creating the mood is sound. What are they hearing as things heat up? What makes the mood romantic instead of just sexual? Continuing with the ocean example, the characters would be hearing the roar of the waves crashing onto shore, the squawk of the sea gulls, perhaps distant music from a boombox down the beach. Imagination is key here. Open your mind to all the possibilities, all the sensual things that could be going on in the background sound-wise. The scene is what you make it and the characters, though attracted to each other, are drawn together BECAUSE of what surrounds them. If someone is blaring heavy metal right behind them the mood would not be romantic. Scent is a huge factor in a romantic setting. Smell is one of our strongest senses and is also the number one sense that we remember by. When you catch a whiff of something familiar, it immediately takes you back to a memory, no matter how distant in the past. Walking down the street, a man is wearing cologne and you smell it. It is the same cologne your high school boyfriend wore and you are quickly flooded with memories of him and times spent together. Scent is inescapable. It can also be incredibly sensual. On the beach, for example, you sit on a blanket. The sun is setting, the ocean is roaring. What smells surround our couple as they slowly get closer and closer together? Is there wine? Perhaps they brought a bottle of delicious red wine with them and they smell the aroma of it as the sip. Did the man bring flowers? What kind? Are there scented candles? What scent? How does it affect them? Details here are encouraged. Perhaps it is a lavender candle, a definite sensual aroma. What does the evening smell like? Perhaps there is a restaurant down the beach whose scents waft to the couple, enticing them. Food is an aphrodisiac. Don’t be afraid to use it. How does he smell? How does she smell? She smells like roses on a hot summer day and it draws him to her. You can go anywhere with the smells surrounding your characters, but always make sure that they are surrounded with heavenly, sensuous fragrances. Taste is the fourth sense and is also vital to your romance. The couple can taste anything from delicious foods, heady wine or champagne, to each other. A little bit of both is generally the way to go. A romance story would never jump straight into the sex, so you have to set the mood with outside influences. Are they having dinner? What are they eating? Is it hot on their tongues, cold on their lips? How is the flavor? Is their wine or champagne? How does it taste in their mouths? Description again is most important here. No detail is too small. The taste buds are amazing things and can easily be exploited for the purposes of romance. When you’ve set the mood with outside factors and have moved on to the sex scene, describe how she tastes to him or vice versa. Describe the saltiness of his skin, or the fruity flavor of her lips. All the other factors of our romantic setting have led to tasting each other. Use it in your story. Touch is the final asset. All of the factors led to taste, but always end with touch. This is essentially your sex scene, except for a few furtive touches and feelings before. As an example, if she is sitting on the beach, what does the sand feel like between her toes? What is the air temperature like on his skin? Touch does include parts of the actual setting and that is very important. It is not, however, AS important as the sex scene itself and when our couple begins to explore each other physically. Hair, skin, clothes, are all essential to touching. Is she wearing a satiny dress? Is her hair silky, her skin petal-soft? Does his stubble rub against her skin when they kiss? His tongue is wet on her lips. His hands are strong against her back. You can go anywhere with touch and touch is the whole reason for the story. They have romanced each other and this is the culmination of that romance. This is where it was always leading, the eventuality of it. Our characters finally come together and it is beautiful. Make it beautiful, describe them, what they feel not just with their fingers or hands, but what it feels like when he touches her stomach, her leg, her sex. You drew your readers in with your setting, with all the other senses, but this is what they are here for. Make it worth their while. Describe! When writing a romantic erotica story, the setting is vital to the mood and atmosphere you are creating. The five senses need to be appealed to to make it as sensual as it needs to be. You need to engage your readers, bring them into the scene, into the story. Make them feel what your characters feel by describing everything properly. Appealing to the five sense is a sure way to involve any reader and a sure way to have the most romantic story possible.

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