So we’ve talked about getting to your characters.  We’ve talked about backstory and reasons why the H/H should (or shouldn’t) be together and how to show more emotion in bed and making the sex scenes love scenes.

Since I’m lazy and I don’t always explain myself clearly, again, we’re going to hear what other authors had to say about it when I asked them,

A good romance is going to have emotional tension.  A good erotic romance has to have both emotional and sexual tension.   How do you accomplish it? 

Jaci  Burton said

I think in erotic romance you have to have both emotional and sexual tension. Entwine the two together–make the characters feel both emotional and sexual longing for each other. Physical longing is great, but if that’s all there is, the reader isn’t invested in the characters, doesn’t care about them being together. It’s just sex. Emotional longing, the craving of the mind, heart and soul to be with that one person they know they have to be with–that’s the big payoff in an erotic romance

Sylvia Day said

Since the sex should be moving the plot/character arcs forward, the tension should be inherent. One of the reasons why I love reading/writing erotic romances is because it’s fantastic to watch the sexual tension between two people who’ve already had sex, yet know that furthering the relationship will impede their goals. Once you’ve had a pleasure, resistance becomes much harder. You know how good it is; you want more. Fighting an addiction is tense, and that’s where the sexual tension comes into play.

Angela Knight says

You accomplish sexual and emotional tension by reminding the reader frequently that they’re attracted to each other, and why.  You also have to stress their reasons for NOT becoming a permanent couple.  “I can’t fall in love with her because she’s a werewolf, and I’m not.”  Or whatever.  What you’re doing is creating tension between that romantic, erotic attraction and all the reasons they can’t be together, so the reader is thinking, “How is she ever going to resolve this?  How are they going to get together?”

What works for one writer isn’t going to work for another.  I tend to get hmmm… dramatic…almost overly so, I think, and when I write, I try to focus on what emotions the characters are feeling when they are together, whether they are fighting, whether they are making love or facing down death.

But one thing clear from everybody that I’ve talked to is that the emotion is crucial

We are writing erotic romance.  Yes, it’s explicit, it’s HAWT, it might make you want to jump into an icy shower when you’re done, but it’s a romance.  If you’re working through the book and it’s lacking that emotion, go back and see if you can get that emotion in there.  Yes, it can take time.  Some can write faster than others but you have to set your own pace and make the book. 

You can’t just string sex scenes together and think that’s what makes an erotic romance.  That’s not even erotica.  It’s just porn and that’s usually not what a reader is looking for.

Get the heart into the book and it will be worth it in the end.