Wednesday's Writer's Tip - More on tension in romance #MFRWauthor

Karen's Weisner's From First Draft to Finished Novel has a lot of good tips. This is the finish of her points in creating romantic tension, an important part of a romance novel.

Humor can play a good part. This is helpful when the tension builds to a point where there needs to be a release. When tension builds to a high point without some kind of release the story could plunge to the depths and cause the reader to put the book aside. So a bit of laughter could provide the release and perhaps a moment of magic.

There are two kinds of romantic tension. There is the physical and the emotional. To avoid one or lean to heavy on one kind leaves the romance lacking. So look at both sides of the attraction and show what's happening on a physical level but also what the viewpoint character in a scene is feeling.

Don't write love scenes just to put more words on a page. There are some characters who seem to need many love scenes but there are others books when you want to scream, Not another one. if the love scene can come out without changing the story, you may not need it but need to find other words to bring your story to a good conclusion.

Less can be more. I've written love scenes that take pages and they work. I've also written very short ones that  fit the story. So think about shortening these scenes,