Lighthearted thoughts about writing THE kissing scene by Kaye Spencer

I've written couple dozen romance stories, books, and novellas. Some have been published, others will someday be published, but many—for a variety of reasons—will remain unpublished and tucked away in the File Dungeon inside my computer. However, they all have one attribute in common.

Kissing.

Not just any kiss, but THE kiss. This is usually the first kiss that occurs for my hero and heroine.

 

I've written stories with plots that were simple to plots that took an Excel spreadsheet to keep all the details straight. I've written...

• an Old West gunfight that included paranormal elements of a herd of phantom cowboys chasing a phantom herd across the sky
• scorching love scenes that will make your toes curl
• a contemporary vampire story with a cowboy thrown in for good measure
• a love triangle that wasn't a 'threesome', but it will leave you sniffling and grabbing the tissue box at the end
• family saga of 150k that spans 15 years
• a mail-order bride story
• sweet romances that make you say 'ahhh'

BUT the kissing scene—the kiss that makes or breaks the story—holds me up every. single. time. In fact, during the rough draft stage in most of my stories, it's typical for me to *insert kissing scene here* and come back to it (them) later.

The kiss can't be too detailed or it can have an 'ewww' factor. But neither can it just be "...and they kissed". There's no emotion, no feeling in that. Whose point of view to write it from is sometimes difficult to decide. Is it the hero or the heroine who instigates the kiss? What are their hands doing during the kiss? Are they standing body-pressed-to-body or is there a little distance between them? Are they completely embraced in each other's arms or just 'holding' on to each other? Are the characters close to the same height or is one significantly taller than the other? This makes a huge difference in where they put their arms and how they have to bend their necks to make that kiss happen. Are they standing? Lying on a bed? Leaning across a fence or across the front seat of a car? Tongue or no tongue?

Decisions. Decisions.

Really, it all depends upon how well the two characters know each other when THE kiss happens, which is the major reason I write the kissing scene after my hero and heroine have spent the entire story together. By the end of the story all three of us know the emotions in the kiss.

In my current work in progress, a Halloween-themed western romance short story, I'm down to the wire before the deadline to submit the story to the publisher, and guess what scene is holding up the show. Yuppers, the first kiss. 0_o

So, I must trot back to the manuscript and finish that pesky kissing scene. The hero has figured out how he's going to accomplish the first kiss with the heroine, but the problem is, she's a hereditary witch, and he's just a little nervous that when he kisses her, he might turn into a toad.

But it's a chance he's willing to take. ;-)

Until next month,

Kaye

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