Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The Art of the Tango & Romance


 
In my last post, I spoke of my decision to move into the Romance genre more fully. I enjoy suspense and have that as a background in writing, but, like anything, after a while a change is needed.  I think it came about because of two things. One I already mentioned—my association with romance genre critique partners, but the other is that when writing in this genre, you must delve more fully into the character’s emotions, feelings, thoughts than in any other genre. For me it is like going fully into life. That gritty stuff that makes us tick. All the emotions we feel and try to figure out about ourselves, about life.

Mystery buffs enjoy the puzzle—the who done it, how it was done and maybe why it was done and the tension as the suspense escalates. The plot seems to be more important overall. With romance, it’s more about the interior life (even with the more erotic romances—to be effective it must be about the story more than just be titillating)—which is why mostly women read romance. We are always trying to understand feelings, relationships and men. That insatiable part of us that drives men crazy. Reading romance is an outlet for women to feel that romance that is not always possible in real life and gives insight. (Men read and write romance as well, so this is just a general statement, but many more women buy romance novels)

With men, it is simply—go out, hit the animal over the head, bring back the meat, done. But women’s minds are constantly searching for meaning and how things work and how can we improve things—sometimes ad nauseam.

So, the next two new books I’m working on are romance. One is the Japanese Heian era love story of the past life of Tessa and Jack from Dance the Dream Awake (who did not get together in that book) and is tentatively entitled, Haiku Dance (or My Miyoshi). After that, Tessa and Jack will finally get together in a present day explosive erotic romance that hits the ground running, presently untitled.

As a result of getting into romance, I immersed myself into learning about the push—pull of female/male energy at work in love relationships and how to best relay that in words. In a previous post, I had posted a picture of a tango I love to watch (repeatedly), and one of my internet friends and fellow blogger, Sherry Isaac, commented, “Is there any dance more passionate, embodying the love/hate intricacies of a love affair? I think not.”
Right on.

As you watch the tango, the dance of seduction, think about the elements that go into it. The tease begins as the woman touches him. His reaction builds in intensity—the way he looks at her, runs his hand along her arm, leads her body in the dance. The fire in their blood is exhibited in the many ways they react to each other. Love can be tame and sweet or firey and out of control—or any of the stages in between, as exhibited:

-by the feelings of desire on her face

-the looking away, to go inside to feel the passion increase, at times fighting it

-the footwork; the push and pull, twists and turns of male/female energy playing out the desire, lust, jealousy, hate and anger.

All very erotic stuff and easier to watch than to write about effectively. In the romance genre, you are writing about the passion of life and must build the tension through all the different ways that love can play itself out.  So now watch the tango with new music than the link on my Pinterest page (because my critique partners don't like that music as well) and enjoy while I go back to work on Haiku Dance.
 

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By the way, how do you like my new blog look? It was overdue for an overhaul.
 
 
 


6 comments:

Jackie Taylor Zortman said...

First of all, I absolutely LOVE the look of your blog. I didn't see it before, but was impressed with it the very minute it opened, thinking, "What a great look!" I agree that there is no more passionate dance than the tango. I am presently rewriting a book that has both romance and mystery in it and men and women are absolutely wired differently when it comes to romance...or anything else, for that matter. Good job!

Cora said...

Thanks for stopping by. Yes, men are certainly wired differently and we keep trying to figure them out.

Anonymous said...

Ah, Cora. I always say it's easier to kill people than to love them on paper and keep things interesting. A tangled tango indeed.
JoAnne Lucas

Cora said...

And you kill people so well, but love scenes - well miniscule.

Anonymous said...

The love scenes may be small, non-graphic, but the whole story is a love scene.
J.

Cora said...

Point taken.