There's nothing better than escaping into a good love story — and bonus points if there are ~sexy times~ in said love story. But what goes into writing that romance? Cue Jill Shalvis, New York Times best-selling author of dozens of contemporary romance novels. She's picked up a thing or two in the years that she's written eight series (the most recent of which, the Heartbreaker Bay series, she describes as "Friends meets Sex and the City"). See below for Jill's tips to learn what goes on behind the scenes of, well, your favorite love scenes.
1. A sex scene can’t just happen randomly — there has to be a reason for it to be there. “It has to be organic to the story. In my case, maybe something funny happens or there’s dialogue that makes you realize these characters are connecting in this way. If it’s in the story and it doesn’t seem real to the characters, people are going to skip it. In Accidentally on Purpose, for instance, the first time Elle and Archer get all hot and heavy, he kind of throws her down onto her couch, and the couch breaks underneath them, and they fall to the floor. To me, that really tells the reader, 'You know what? I really am reading about Elle and Archer.' This isn’t an unnecessary scene.”
2. Good heroes should be redeemable but not total pushovers. “They can come from any walk of life — it doesn’t matter what side of the tracks he grew up on. It’s all about the heart. I like them a little alpha, a little badass. I like a little bit of trouble and mischief. If they happen to carry a gun for a living, that’s even better.”
3. And a good heroine can’t be defined solely by her relationship with the hero. “She has to stand alone. It can’t be the man that defines her; it can’t be love that defines her. She has to have some inner core strength no matter what her circumstances are in the moment. And at the end of the day, like the hero, she has to be redeemable.”
4. Mismatched couples are infinitely compelling (and amusing). “I love when there’s deep connections between two people you wouldn’t think naturally go together, and on top of the deep emotion, you also get funny events. It’s gotta have some funny to it; it’s gotta have some excitement.”
5. Minor characters are really important for setting the scene. “I need more when I’m reading and when I’m writing. No one has just their significant other in their life. You have work people, you have family people, you have friend people, and I like to see the whole picture. You get a better sense of the characters. Everyone’s different with their boss, versus someone who works underneath them, versus their sister, versus their dad, versus their best friend, versus their frenemy. You’re different. So to really understand a character and to believe them, you’re going to have to see them interact with different people.”
6. …As are men who are not the hero. “I’m all about the bromance. I personally read romances for the men, so I like to have a bunch of them around, and there’s something pretty damn wonderful about a really great relationship between men. Whether it’s brothers or friends or families that you’ve created for yourself, or real family, whatever it is, the bonds between men fascinate me.”
7. Don’t use dumb euphemisms for penises and vaginas. “I don’t like when people use silly names for body parts. Let’s just say the body parts. Is there a problem with that?”
8. Try not to be intimidated by the stigma around romance novels. “There used to be a stigma to it that I never really understood because, if we’re talking about romance, we’re talking a love story, a monogamous love story that has a great ending. So I don’t really understand what the objection to that is. Are you objecting to a great relationship? Are you objecting to sex? I kind of doubt that.”
9. And definitely ignore the haters. “If I’m looking at reviews, which I try never to do, 90 percent of them are positive. I just don’t pay much attention to the negative, and try to remind myself that it’s one person’s opinion and not everyone likes funny, contemporary, sexy romances. I had a letter not too long ago, [where] the lady said, ‘Your characters have too much sex and say too many bad words. All of them.’ Which means she’s read all of my books to decide she doesn’t like them. So I don’t really take that as a negative. Yes, my characters have sex, and yes, they swear a lot, because that’s real life.”
10. Learn from your favorite authors. “Rachel Gibson is probably one of the people who taught me how to be funny. I read her before I was a writer. I would turn down the pages where she made me laugh and then go study them.”
11. Always keep in mind your happily ever after. “There’s a lot of innate conflicts: There’s geography, there’s the fact that people don’t necessarily talk anymore — you’ve got your handy devices, and you can text, and you can never necessarily have a face-to-face conversation — there’s political differences and views, there’s all sorts of things. But at the end of the day, it’s about connecting with someone, whether it’s male and female, male and male, female and female — whatever it is, it’s about connecting with someone and falling in love.”
Jill's most recent novel, Accidentally on Purpose, the latest installment in the Heartbreaker Bay series, is available now.
Follow Heeseung on Twitter.
