Nathan Bransford - The Forums

@#@%$H@$LKJ@#$*&@(*#&$%@:OI#$J$(!!!!!

I just really needed to get that off my chest. I have made a decision for the better (I hope) to change my WIP from romance to YA. I just couldn't stand by the scenes I'd written (yes, I chickened out). Some were pretty steamy... I couldn't even read them out loud to my sister on the phone (blushing), how am I going to do a book reading?

Am I nuts? Have you ever written something that you just cannot stand by?

Well, you could read aloud the parts that aren't so steamy. But it sounds like you are more comfortable this way, and that's what's important. Good going! Maybe down the road you'll come back to the romance genre...

Sounds like changing it to YA is a good thing. You HAVE to be comfortable with what you've written...how else would you deal with thousands of people reading your novel?

I've done the same thing, Robin. In one of my WIPs my opening scene was one of...well, let's just say I wanted my readers to know what a womanizing @$$ this guy is... When I went back to it after a few months I couldn't even read it. I had to delete almost all of it and clean it up in more ways than one.

Since then I've decided that if I would be embarrassed if my Mom or sister read it, then I won't write it. And I'm a much happier writer.

Good for you!

Please post a steamy scene so we could better help you figure out the approach you could use were you to do a book reading.

If you're more comfortable with it as YA, then roll with it.

Although, I do have to mention not all romance has to be peel-the-paper-off-the-walls steamy. Look at Pride & Prejudice, Twilight and The Notebook (to hell with what you say, Nicholas Sparks, I DO consider it a romance) -- all three are largely popular and have little to no explicit sex involved.

It's the tension, more than anything else that will rope readers into a couple. Unless you're writing erotica, in which case ... it's the sex.

gonzo2802 wrote:If you're more comfortable with it as YA, then roll with it.

Although, I do have to mention not all romance has to be peel-the-paper-off-the-walls steamy. Look at Pride & Prejudice, Twilight and The Notebook (to hell with what you say, Nicholas Sparks, I DO consider it a romance) -- all three are largely popular and have little to no explicit sex involved.

It's the tension, more than anything else that will rope readers into a couple. Unless you're writing erotica, in which case ... it's the sex.

Actually, erotica has a lot to do with the relationships as well. Most erotic stories also require some type of relationship building AND a HEA. The language is more frank and not covered in mounds of purple prose or anything else. It straight and to the point, but the story about the relationship is normally still there. Granted, there are those who are primarily about just the sex, but the relationiship and "plot" still has to be there. Check out some of the submission guidelines for erotica. Ellora's Cave, Red Sage type stuff. Underlying stories are important.

Adult romances DON'T have to have explicit sex involved. There a many romances that hves "closed door sex", meaning you don't actually read about the sex. They are normally referred to as "sweet romances" or something along those lines. Point being, you can still write an adult romance and if your not comfortable with sex scenes, you don't actually have to write one. The purpose of romances, no matter if it's YA, adult, steamy or more sensual, or even erotic, the basis of the story (what makes it a romance) is the development of the relationship between the H/H. Everything else in the background.

~JD