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Hello, I Love You
Jan. 23rd, 2009 03:00 pmThere's this great post over at Smart Bitches where they discuss the "insta-fuck" and its growing popularity in romance, and then ask their readers whether they like this plot device or whether it's something that turns them off. People weighed in pro and con, but it seemed as if the majority actually viewed it as a turnoff.
This leads me to wonder whence comes all this push to have the hero and heroine jump in the sack before they even know each other's names. Does it come from the editors? The agents? The writers themselves? Because it doesn't seem as if most of the readers who visit SBTB really enjoy it all that much. That's not to say that they don't enjoy a well-written, steamy sex scene. They would just prefer those scenes to come after they've had a chance to get to know the couple involved, enjoy the buildup of romantic tension, and wonder whether the hero and heroine are actually going to get it together or not. I think the commenter "Sandra" put it very well: "I am sick and tired of porn being marketed as romance. I don’t object to porn when its marketed as such. But ‘romance’ is supposed to be about relationships."
I don't think anyone will call me a prude. I have been known to write a sex scene or two myself. But I agree that this rush to have people hop into bed in romance novels is interfering with the one thing I like about reading (and writing) romance -- the slow burn, the increasing sexual tension between two interesting people. If they're already in bed by page 10, I'm disinclined to care too much about where it goes from there. Or maybe I'm just feeling defensive because I do tend to write the old-fashioned sort of romance -- you know, the one where they don't have sex until the end, or at the very least until more than halfway through the story.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
This leads me to wonder whence comes all this push to have the hero and heroine jump in the sack before they even know each other's names. Does it come from the editors? The agents? The writers themselves? Because it doesn't seem as if most of the readers who visit SBTB really enjoy it all that much. That's not to say that they don't enjoy a well-written, steamy sex scene. They would just prefer those scenes to come after they've had a chance to get to know the couple involved, enjoy the buildup of romantic tension, and wonder whether the hero and heroine are actually going to get it together or not. I think the commenter "Sandra" put it very well: "I am sick and tired of porn being marketed as romance. I don’t object to porn when its marketed as such. But ‘romance’ is supposed to be about relationships."
I don't think anyone will call me a prude. I have been known to write a sex scene or two myself. But I agree that this rush to have people hop into bed in romance novels is interfering with the one thing I like about reading (and writing) romance -- the slow burn, the increasing sexual tension between two interesting people. If they're already in bed by page 10, I'm disinclined to care too much about where it goes from there. Or maybe I'm just feeling defensive because I do tend to write the old-fashioned sort of romance -- you know, the one where they don't have sex until the end, or at the very least until more than halfway through the story.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
