Sharon Page :: Blog

Congrats Lacy, on the gorgeous cover for your book. That is going to fly off the shelves—he’s irresistible.

As for me, I’ve been struggling to think of a post for today. I’m knee deep in plotting a paranormal romantic suspense. I’m in the storyboarding phase—my term for writing bits and pieces of scenes and then rearranging them until I have a story. While doing this I realize what I’m missing and fill the page with notes in caps such as “WHY IS HE DOING THIS?” “MAKE HIM A THREAT” and “NO! NO! NO!” Ah, the smooth, orderly process of writing is such a treat.

My current struggle is that I wanted to build a very hot, intense, erotic relationship between my hero and heroine. However, there is now a child in jeopardy in my story and the hero’s younger brother is a suspect. And I just can’t picture bringing the couple together for hot sex while they are under so much pain and stress. So I may have to do some replotting. I always admire writers who can elegantly combine suspense and sex, because it is such an art of defining character motivation. I do see how a writer can make it believable that a character can feel passion when he or she is surrounded by danger. In some ways, it might be a survival instinct along the lines of “mate while you still can”, or maybe even “bond with an ally.” But making characters feel desire when someone else is in danger? I can’t do it.

My first book SIN (Aphrodisia, Sept 06) blended my love of erotic romance with Agatha Christie “who-dunnit” mysteries. My elegant houseparty is actually an orgy. In SIN, I felt I got just the balance I wanted between suspense, fear, and hot sex.

So I’m back to the “storyboarding board” (my computer) to see if I can figure this one out. For those of you reading and writing out there, have you read many erotic romantic suspense stories? Any favorites?

Apologies on being late with my post. My excuse is the usual summer one—the kids at are home and no possible way to get on a computer while potty-training my son. When he says he has to go, he simply is not kidding.

I’m in an odd place right now, where I haven’t written an erotic scene for over 4 weeks. I almost feel like I should be making some sort of confession. And I’m definitely suffering withdrawal. Right now, all the “accountant like” part of writing takes precedent, such as preparing an outline/synopsis of my next story. Researching. Thinking out logistics—timing, setting, how far it takes to travel, should my hero and heroine start in the same town, etc., etc.

And I’ve wondered why I wish I could just push all that aside and indulge myself by writing an erotic scene. Other than the fun factor, of course. And I think it’s because, as has been mentioned before here, that those scenes are the ones that best reveal characters. And I really, really want to start getting to know my characters.

When I wrote my first published historical erotic romance, A GENTLEMAN SEDUCED, I would think up the scenes in the morning before I got out of bed. So then I would be very excited to get to the computer and get to work. This way, the scenes came out of order. I just knew what my hero Lucien would do, and what his emotional reactions would be. His playful bondage scene from near the end of the book was written somewhere during the middle, and chapter four required seven re-writes…that sort of thing.

So I have a question for other writers out there—do you write your scenes in order, or do certain scenes, sex scenes or others, just leap into your mind and beg to be put down on paper, even if they are completely out of order?