Sexual Tension Between Scenes

Here’s a hot tip for you romance writers out there! I’ve been reading Karen Wiesner’s book First Draft in 30 Days, and she has a good idea on building sexual tension between love scenes. It sounds like a good one, so I’m passing it on. Karen says:  

          “A trick to making sexual tension prominent between scenes is to focus on a certain aspect that intrigues the opposite character. For instance, in one of my novels, an erotic obsession began early in the book with the heroine watching the hero drink from a bottle of beer. This common act is palpably exciting to her. As soon as he leaves the room, she picks up that bottle and puts her own mouth on it. The hero comes back to find her drinking his beer. This increases the sexual tension between them until the fantasy becomes reality. In another book, the heroine loves the way the hero smells, so much so that the first time she enters his apartment, she ducks into his bathroom and snoops for his cologne. . . and ends up spilling it on herself, so the hero knows she was snooping when she comes out. This sensual awareness increased the tension considerably.”

          I like this idea! It certainly opens up a way to work with details in a meaningful way — building sexual tension on the page.