how to describe breasts creative writing

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Ways to Describe Chests and Breasts: A Word List for Writers

(Discover even more words in The Writer’s Body Lexicon .)

According to Thomas Fuller, the devil lies brooding in the miser’s chest. Rod Stewart said that a person has to have a burning desire in the chest to succeed. And then there’s Erma Bombeck, who quipped, “What’s with you men? Would hair stop growing on your chest if you asked directions somewhere?”

An overweight man or out-of-shape bodybuilder might have pecs that move and look like flabby breasts. A female stevedore or competitive swimmer might develop a muscular torso that appears more masculine than feminine.

In several areas of this post, I created separate headings for chests and breasts. However, you might prefer to apply words differently, sometimes for comedic effect.

When considering descriptors, pay attention to opinion adjectives and how they affect point of view.

Emotion Beats and Physical Manifestations

Before reviewing the following beats, note that he crossed his arms across his chest can be shortened to he crossed his arms .

Many readers will associate a puffed-out chest with aggression or arrogance, but they might not see a clear association with delight or determination. Ensure suitable context for vague emotion beats.

Aggression puffed-out chest

Aggrievement, distress shoulders slumped inward over chest chest, neck, and face flush and feel hot

Agitation, nervousness clutching papers against chest

Amazement holding a hand against chest

Anger thrusting chest forward, fists propped on hips

Anticipation holding a hand against chest

Anxiety tightness in the chest

Arrogance puffed-out chest

Confidence, scorn, smugness puffed-out chest light feeling in the chest

Conflict tightness in the chest

Confusion tightness in the chest

Contempt puffed-out chest

Defeat, desperation, discouragement when emotion is intense: chest pains or numbness accompanied by thumping heart

Defensiveness pressing chin against chest holding both hands over chest, shoulders hunched inward

Delight, euphoria puffed-out chest heart drumming in chest

Depression hollow sensation in chest

Desire heart fluttering in chest

Determination puffed-out chest

Disappointment tightness in chest

Dread, fear , terror chest pains clutching chest with one or both hands heavy sensation, tingling in chest closed posture, arms and fists pulled into chest

Embarrassment tightness in chest drooping posture, chest pulled inward

Envy, jealousy heartburn burbling up into chest

Excitement chest-bumping with another person or persons

Frustration, irritation tightness in chest

Gratitude placing one hand over chest (heart)

Guilt, shame tightness in chest lowering chin to chest

Happiness placing both hands over chest

Hatred tightness in chest when emotion is intense: chest pains or numbness accompanied by thumping heart

Hopefulness placing both hands over chest

Humiliation tightness and pain in chest

Insecurity holding a familiar item of comfort against the chest (stuffed animal, lucky charm, photo of a loved one, etc.)

Overwhelm sitting or sleeping in fetal position, with knees drawn close to chest

Pride puffed-out chest

Regret tightness in chest massaging shoulder or chest

Resentment tightness in chest

Sadness tightness in chest heavy sensation in chest massaging shoulder or chest

Satisfaction puffed-out chest

Sexual attraction embracing someone, with full chest-to-chest contact

Shame tightness in chest shoulders hunched forward over chest

Shock, surprise quickly clutching chest with one or both hands

Sympathy crossing hands over chest, and curling shoulders inward

If you need additional beats, consult a body language dictionary . (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Adjectives, Both Chests and Breasts

A to C abnormal, adolescent, amazing, ample, armored, athletic, bare, beautiful , blood-caked, bloodied, bloodstained, boyish, brazen, bristly, bruised, bulging, bulky, bushy, childish, chubby, clean, cold, compact

D and E damp, defined, deformed, delicate, developed, developing, diminutive, divine, effeminate, elongated, emaciated, empty, enchanting, enormous

F and G fabulous, fat, feminine, fevered, flat, flawless, fleshy, fragile, frail, frosty, frozen, full, furry, gleaming, glossy, glowing, gorgeous, grimy, grizzled

H to M hairless, hairy, hard, healthy, hideous, hirsute, hot, icy, ideal, immense, impressive, inflamed, insubstantial, iridescent, leathery, magnificent, marvelous, massive, meager, motionless

N to R naked, narrow, outstanding, painful, perfect, phenomenal, prodigious, prominent, proud, puny, raw, repugnant, resilient, rock-hard

S sexy , shaggy, shallow, shapely, shiny, shirtless, shrunken, slack, slender, slimy, slippery, smooth, sodden, sopping, sore, splendid, sticky, stunning, superb, sweaty

T to V tempting, titanic, T-shirted, unattractive, underdeveloped, unimpressive, unprotected, unremarkable, unusual, veined, velvety, voluminous

W to Y warm, well-defined, well-fleshed, well-proportioned, wet, wondrous, wrinkled, wrinkly, young, youthful

Adjectives Breasts Only

A to D akimbo, alert, alluring, ample, barren, blubbery, bold, braless, budding, buoyant, busty, buxom, chaste, chesty, conspicuous, dainty, delectable, delicate, diminutive, dry

E to L empty, enchanting, enlarged, exuberant, fake, firm, flabby, flaccid, free, generous, gigantic , girlish, heavy, high, huge, immature, jaunty, large, little, lopsided, lovely, lumpy, luscious, lush

M to R maternal, mature, miniscule, modest, monstrous, nascent, numb, oversized, padded, pendulous, perky, pert, plump, pretty, ripe, rotund

S saggy, sensitive, shriveled, small , smallish, soft, succulent, sweet, swollen

U to W unbound, unencumbered, unfettered, upright, upstanding, useless, virginal, voluptuous, well-endowed, withered

Adjectives, Chests only

A to F angular, athletic, bearish, beefy, bony, brawny, broad, buff, built, bullish, burly, cadaverous, carved, chiseled, clear, confident, congested, deep, expansive, frail

G to O gangly, gaunt, handsome, hard, haughty, hench, Herculean, hollow, hulking, lean, male, mammoth, manly, masculine, matted, meaty, mighty, musclebound, muscular, obdurate, overdeveloped

P to R powerful, puffed-out, rasping, raspy, resonant, ribbed, rickety, rigid, robust, rugged

S scrawny, sculpted, serviceable, sinewy, skeletal, skinny, sleek, slick, solid, sonorous, strapping, streamlined, strong, stubbly, sturdy, sunken

T to W taut, thick, thin, tight, tough, unyielding, valiant, vast, weak, well-muscled, wheezy, wide

Similes and Metaphors

Rather than copy any of the following, leverage them as ideas for your own phrasing.

• breasts like twin doorknobs
• breasts like twin watermelons
• breasts more wrinkled than last year’s apple crop
• breasts that bounce like water balloons
• chest as blocky as a chest of drawers
• chest flatter than a smushed bug
• chest hairier than a barber’s floor
• desire that burns like a wildfire in one’s chest
• fear cinching one’s chest tighter than any corset ever could
• grief — an anvil crushing one’s chest
• heart beating in one’s chest like a butterfly trapped in a net
• shock piercing one’s chest like a lightning bolt

upper body like a bulldog’s chest

Torsos that spend hours bared in the sun will mirror the color and tone of a character’s neck and face .

If a character keeps the upper body covered most of the time, it will be lighter in color — humor fodder for Canadian or Icelandic protagonists, perhaps?

B to W bronzed, coppery, creamy, crimson, dark, fair, freckled, lily-white [cliché], milky, orange, pale, pallid, patchy, pink, rosy, sallow, salt-and-pepper [cliché], snow-white [cliché], snowy, speckled, swarthy, tanned, tawny, white-haired

See also the Color/Tone section of 300+ Words to Describe Skin .

Exposure to many substances will cause a person’s chest to retain the aroma, often affecting first impressions.

If a woman, who has referred to herself as a “single virgin” in a matchmaking app, arrives with the smells of baby powder and spit-up emanating from her cleavage, her prospective date might suspect she isn’t telling the truth. A CEO whose chest smells like wet dog might trigger a sneezing fit and subsequent avoidance by a prospective investor.

A person’s chest or breasts might smell like, reek of, or be redolent with the scent of:

A to D almonds, antiseptic, baby oil, baby powder, bacon bits, a bakery, barfed-up booze, bat guano, the beach, body wash, burnt flesh, C4, camphor oil, cat food, chocolate milk, coffee grounds, cookie dough, depilatory, diaper cream, dirty socks, dog breath

E to R egg salad, a forest glen, formaldehyde, goose grease, Grandma’s kitchen, gunpowder, halitosis, honey, kerosene, K-Y Jelly, lamp oil, lemon frosting, maple syrup, musty beard, old books, a one-night stand, orange peels, peppermint tea, pilfered doughnuts, pipe tobacco, rancid coconut oil, road kill, rotten cheese

S to W salad dressing, sandalwood, sawdust, shampoo, a skunk, soap, a sour dishrag, sour milk, a spice rack, spit-up, stinky towels, strawberries, sunblock, sweat, talcum powder, tar, tent canvas, too much cologne, vanilla, wet dog

Many shapes in this short list can refer to both chests and breasts.

A to W asymmetrical, barrel-chested, bell-shaped, blocky, concave, conical, convex, domed, flat, misshapen, pear-shaped, pigeon-chested, pointed, pointy, round(ed), shapeless, teardrop, triangular, wedge-shaped, well-rounded

Verbs and Phrasal Verbs (1): Transitive

These verbs take direct objects. A character’s chest might burn with desire, fill with air, or strain against shackles.

A to S ache (from, with), brush (against), burn with, engorge with, fill with, heave (against, into), peek out of, press against, resemble, rub (against), scrape against, slam (into), strain against, support

Verbs and Phrasal Verbs (2): Intransitive

The verbs in this section don’t require an object. A chest might balloon, congest, or expand. Period.

A to G ache, appear, balloon, bead with, bleed, bounce, bulge, burn, clog (up), collapse, congest, constrict, dangle, deflate, distend, drip, expand, freeze, gleam, glisten, glitter, glow

H to T hang, hurt, itch, jut, leak, perspire, prickle, protrude, rattle, relax, ripple, sag, shine, shrink, sink, spasm, strain, sweat, tickle, tighten

Verbs and Phrasal Verbs (3): Verbs that Take Chest/Breast or Chests/Breasts as an Object

Serafina bandaged her chest with strips torn from her petticoat.

Brad thumped his chest . “Nobody tells me what to do.”

An arrow pierced the knight’s chest .

A to H adorn (with), bandage (with), bare, batter, beat at (with), beat on (with), blanket (in, with), claw at, clutch (with), compress, cover (with), crush (with), cut (with), decorate (with), display, draw on (with), expand, expose, feel (with), flash, hold, hug

I to S inflate, lacerate (on, with), massage (with), paint (with), palpate, pierce (with), poke (with), press (against), puff (out, up), punch (with), push (with), shake, shave (with), slash (with), slather (with), slice (with), squeeze, stab (with), strike (with), swath (in, with)

T to W thrust out, thump (with), touch (with), uncover, unveil, wax (with), wound (on, with)

Nouns, Both Chests and Breasts

N to T nipples, pecs, pectorals, thorax

Refer to the next two sections as well for suitable nouns.

Nouns, Chests Only

You might (usually in poetry or older works) find breast used as a replacement for chest , as in: He beat upon his breast .

Compared to the plethora of slang and vulgar terms coined by authors for breast(s) , I discovered a dearth of similar words for chest . Fodder for an opinion editorial, perhaps?

B to T breast, Chewbacca sweater, gorilla torso, lung carpet, man boobs, manpelt, manssier-stuffer, muscleini, rib cage, thorax, torso, trunk

Find more words by googling slang terms for chest .

Nouns, Breasts Only

If your character is an uncouth jerk, you might be able to get away with using some of the rude words in this section in dialogue. Otherwise, you’ll invite the ire of readers. As Shakespeare’s Falstaff said, “Discretion is the better part of valor.”

If you need more offensive words, google derogatory terms for breasts or offensive names for breasts .

B to F bazookas, boobs, bosom, bra stuffers, breast-o-raunts, bust, buzzums, casabas, chesticles, chi-chis, cleavage, Daddy’s playground, double-Ds, flotation devices

G to X the girls, healthy lungs, hooters, jugs, knockers, mammary glands, mammas, mammillae, melons, milk tanks, mosquito bites, num-nums, ta-tas, teats, tits, twins, wardrobe malfunctions, XL lungs

Props augment a story or twist it in new directions. Try some of these to add humor, pathos, or intrigue.

A to I angina, beard that reaches to or covers the chest, broken rib, cancer, chest cold, COPD, cough, CPR, crumbs, emphysema, extra nipple, glitter, honey, huge nipples, inflammation

L to W laceration, mastectomy, mastitis, measuring tape, missing nipple, muscle shirt, nipple piercing, pneumonia, scabs, scar, sequins, tattoos, wart

Clichés and Idioms

Chest … chest … chest … breast … breast … breast …

Excessive repetition? Maybe you’ve incorporated too many clichés and idioms. Try these replacements.

• close to one’s chest: confidential, hush-hush, secret
• strong enough to put hair on one’s chest: powerful, pungent
• to bare one’s breast: admit/show vulnerability
• to beat (on, upon) one’s chest/breast: bewail, lament, mourn, regret
• to get something off one’s chest: admit, confess, reveal
• to make a clean breast of it: admit, confess, reveal
• to take a spear in the chest: admit, concede, confess
• to thump one’s chest: bluster, boast, brag, swagger

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6 thoughts on “ Ways to Describe Chests and Breasts: A Word List for Writers ”

Extremely helpful for me

Thanks, Max.

Good luck with your writing!

Thank you so much for all the diversity. Your awesome for sharing.

Thanks for stopping by, Jodene. I’m glad you found the post helpful.

Stay safe and wonderfully writerly.

I was hoping to find a way to describe the areola, the color of it and the nipple.

Thanks for stopping by, Kim.

Areolas would vary in color depending on race, exposure to sun, excitement, and other factors. Try this post for shades of brown and pink that might suit your WIP:

https://kathysteinemann.com/Musings/colors/

Breast Adjectives: Describing Words with Examples

When it comes to describing the beauty and allure of the female form, one area that often captivates our attention is the breasts. These exquisite features possess an undeniable charm, and finding the right words to describe them can enhance our appreciation of their unique qualities. In this article, I’ll be exploring a range of adjectives that can be used to eloquently depict the allure and shape of breasts. From delicate curves to mesmerizing symmetry, we’ll delve into a collection of descriptive words that will help you paint a vivid picture in your mind. So, let’s dive in and discover the perfect adjectives to celebrate the beauty of breasts.

Whether you’re a writer seeking to add depth to your characters or simply someone who appreciates the aesthetics of the female form, having a rich vocabulary of adjectives at your disposal can make all the difference. From the softness of “supple” to the alluring appeal of “voluptuous,” we’ll explore a wide range of descriptive words that capture the essence of breasts. Along the way, I’ll provide examples to showcase how these adjectives can be used effectively to create vivid imagery. So, get ready to expand your vocabulary and bring your descriptions to life as we embark on this journey through the world of adjectives for breasts.

Table of Contents

How to Describe breasts? – Different Scenarios

When it comes to describing breasts, it’s important to choose the right adjectives to evoke the desired imagery. Different scenarios call for different types of descriptions. Whether you’re writing a novel, poem, or simply want to appreciate the aesthetics of the female form, here are some examples of how to describe breasts in various situations:

1. Sensual and Romantic

When depicting a sensual or romantic scene, it’s crucial to use adjectives that elicit passion and desire. Consider words like:

2. Playful and Whimsical

For example: Her perky breasts danced as she skipped through the meadow, their bouncy nature adding to her carefree spirit.

If you want to highlight the strength and empowerment associated with breasts, choose adjectives that convey confidence and resilience. Consider words like:

For example: Her powerful breasts showcased her strength, each muscle defined and commanding attention.

For example: Her soft breasts, like blossoming flowers, were a testament to the beauty of nature.

Remember, when using these adjectives, it’s important to do so tastefully and respectfully. The ultimate goal is to appreciate the unique qualities of the female form and enhance the imagery in your writing. So, choose your words wisely and let them bring your descriptions to life.

Describing Words for breasts in English

When it comes to describing breasts, there are several adjectives that can be used to paint a vivid picture. These descriptive words can evoke different emotions, highlight different qualities, and create a specific tone in your writing. Let’s explore some of the adjectives that can be used to describe breasts and their examples:

Example: “Her alluring breasts caught my attention, drawing me in like a magnet.”

Example: “Her perky breasts added a touch of playfulness to her charismatic personality.”

3. Strong and Empowering Adjectives:

4. Natural and Organic Adjectives:

Example: “Her supple breasts were like delicate flowers, a testament to the beauty of nature.”

Adjectives for breasts

In this section, I’ll discuss various adjectives that can be used to describe breasts. It’s important to remember that when appreciating the beauty of the human body, these adjectives should be used tastefully and respectfully. Let’s take a look at some positive and negative adjectives for breasts, along with example sentences illustrating their usage.

Positive Adjectives for Breasts with Example Sentences

Synonyms and antonyms with example sentences, synonyms for breasts.

When it comes to describing breasts, there are several synonyms that can be used to capture their beauty. Here are some examples:

Antonyms for Breasts

While we appreciate the beauty of breasts, it’s important to acknowledge that not everyone’s body is the same. Here are some antonyms that describe aspects that may be different:

As we appreciate the beauty of the human body, let’s remember to use these adjectives tastefully and respectfully. Each person is unique, and it’s important to celebrate and respect our differences.

Describing breasts can be a delicate subject, but it’s important to appreciate the beauty of the human body tastefully and respectfully. Throughout this article, we’ve explored a range of adjectives that can be used to describe breasts, both positively and negatively.

The variety of adjectives available to describe breasts allows us to appreciate their beauty in a respectful and tasteful manner. So, whether you’re admiring their allure or celebrating their uniqueness, remember to choose your words wisely and embrace the beauty of the human form.

Related Posts

Describing blood: adjectives with examples, adjectives for age: describing words & examples, adjectives for fight: examples and describing words.

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WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Physical Feature Entry: Curvy Build

June 29, 2013 by BECCA PUGLISI

Physical description of a character can be difficult to convey—too much will slow the pace or feel ‘list-like’, while too little will not allow readers to form a clear mental image. If a reader cannot imagine what your character looks like, they may have trouble connecting with them on a personal level, or caring about their plight.  One way to balance the showing and telling of physical description is to showcase a few details that really help ‘tell the story’ about who your character is and what they’ve been through up to this point. Think about what makes them different and interesting. Can a unique feature, clothing choice or way they carry themselves help to hint at their personality? Also, consider how they move their body. Using movement will naturally show a character’s physical characteristics, keep the pace flowing and help to convey their emotions.

Descriptors: buxom, voluptuous, curvaceous, sensual, bosomy

People Likely to have an Curvy Build : confident women, celebrities

Famous Examples :

• Marilyn Monroe
• Dolly Parton
• Beyonce…

Thoughts on Curves:

With curves, attraction is in the eye of the beholder. For some, they don’t consider a woman curvy unless she’s got big boobs, a tiny waist and not a scrap of extra meat anywhere else. Others view full-figured women as ‘curvy’. The best way to show curves…

Simile Help:

• Connie floated across the room toward our table, swaying her hips like a runway model. She might be pushing forty, but the way her yellow dress melted into her curves caused even the prettiest twenty-something to bristle and send a glare her way…

 Clichés to Avoid : curves in all the right places

Twists on the Stereotypical Curvy Build:

• Curvy women always seem to be beautiful and young. What’s wrong with a middle-aged woman having strong bosom to waist to hip proportions? Or give us a woman with a beautiful body but a plain face?..

Describe your character’s features in a way that reveals more than just a physical description. Show what he looks like while also reinforcing his personality and emotional state, thereby doing more with less.

Need concrete examples of how to describe your character in a compelling, magnetic way? Good news!  This thesaurus has been integrated into our online library at  One Stop For Writers . There, you can find help with  metaphors and similes , as well as the best ways to  describe your character using movement.  The entire Physical Feature collection is cross-referenced and linked for easy navigation. If you’re interested in seeing a  free  sampling of the updated Physical Feature Thesaurus and our other descriptive collections, head on over and register at One Stop!

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers —a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

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Reader Interactions

July 6, 2013 at 3:48 pm

Great post with awesome examples. It’s nice to see a discussion on curvy body types as compared to the emphasis on the ulta-thin model types. It seems to me that Marilyn Monroe is still considered a sex symbol, so that speaks volumes.

July 6, 2013 at 1:52 pm

I really enjoyed this post! Loved the examples. Great to encourage we writers to break out of the same old boring stereotypes, too. 🙂

July 1, 2013 at 2:18 am

Great post, Angela! Being on the full figure side of the coin, I liked what you had to say there: “Others view full-figured women as ‘curvy’.” 🙂

Good points made throughout; all very helpful.

June 30, 2013 at 11:49 am

Thanks, Angela. There is a lot to think about here. Breaking stereotypes almost always makes for a more interesting read.

June 29, 2013 at 10:03 pm

I guess what I meant by confident is that there is such emphasis on women to be skinny. Therefore, many women who are comfortable with being curvy are confident in how they look and don’t fall prey to the “you must be skinny to be beautiful” train of thought. I think there are enough women out there to qualify to put this in the “likely” category, but no, certainly not all curvy women are confident and i wouldn’t want to imply that they are. Thanks for weighing in! 🙂

June 29, 2013 at 9:58 pm

Oh, god, the granny example. I’m dying.

I would argue that women with a curvy build aren’t necessarily “confident.” Some have had the experience of being treated as sex symbols, and feel extremely uncomfortable with it. And with all this recent focus on being thin, other “curvy” women feel that their curves mean they’re “fat.”

Another idea for an unconventional “curvy” lady might be someone who tries to hide their shape.

30+ Words to Describe Different Body Shapes and Sizes

By: Author Hiuyan Lam

Posted on Last updated: October 20, 2023

Categories Vocabulary Boosters

When describing characters, it isn’t enough to call them “tall” or “short”, or even “fat” or “slim”. It requires specific words to describe body shape to paint an image of the character in your readers’ heads.

Surely the character’s body shape is more than just a generalized term. You may even have two “fat” characters, but using the same words to describe them wouldn’t do much justice when one is stumpy, and the other is tall and paunchy.

Once you have conjured up the character in your head, you need to pay close attention to these words to describe their body shape and pick the most suitable ones:

7 words to describe a muscular/athletic body shape

  Not all muscular/athletic body types are the same. Sure, they all fall into the same category, but using more specific words to describe body shape paints an even clearer image of what you envision a character to be.   Here are 7 words to describe body shape for muscular/athletic characters:  

You May Also Like:

30 of the Best Words to Describe a Good Athlete

7 words to describe a sexy body

  There are different understandings of what it means to be sexy, so you have to be more specific when writing about this body type.   For some, sexy means a person with large breasts and buttocks, while others find smaller features more attractive.   Take a look at these words to describe body shape for sexy characters, then take your pick:  

7 words to describe a fat body shape

  Now, let’s move on to characters one can generalize as “fat”.   Here are 8 words to describe body shape for the different versions of fat:  

20+ of the Nicest and Most Positive Words to Describe Elderly

8 slim body shapes

  Just as there are different versions of a fat body, there are different versions of slim body shapes. Use any of these words to describe body shapes of slim characters to paint a more accurate picture:  

25+ of the Best Words to Describe Fireworks in Writing

5 words to describe body shape when talking about body sizes

  You may also use words to describe body shape based on a character’s size. This will help to put things into perspective for your readers and makes your choice of words more effective.   Here are 5 words to describe body shape when talking about the character’s size:  

  And there you have it! 30+ of the best words to describe body shape for virtually any character you can think of.   Now, you can work on developing other elements of your story to complete a spectacular piece. Good luck!  

How to Describe Women Without Degrading Them

The Expanse's Avasarala is too busy looking fabulous for any sexist nonsense.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the sexist ways women are described in fiction. Given the normalization of the male gaze, this has left some men feeling unsure of how to write a positive description. And it’s not just men who describe women in problematic ways. While women are less likely to objectify female characters, internalized misogyny can still sneak into our work. So let’s look at the cultural baggage that comes into play when we describe a woman’s appearance and how we can make our description women-friendly.

Pushing Back Against Cultural Pressure

The first thing to be aware of is simply that our culture obsesses over the appearance of women much more than it does men. This means that women are held to a higher standard when it comes to their looks, they are expected to invest more time and money into looking good, and the public feels entitled to scrutinize every detail of their appearances. In many places, a woman can’t even walk to the corner store for eggs without strangers commenting as though she’s on a runway and not on a personal errand.

Not only are women expected to look flawless, but they’re also expected to look that way without effort. Most women have to invest in their appearances to meet society’s expectations, but if they don’t hide their efforts, they could be labeled as vain, shallow, or manipulative. This creates a constant Catch-22, making it impossible for the vast majority of women to live up to cultural standards.

Avoid Over-Focusing on Women’s Appearance

To avoid reinforcing this pressure, first compare your description of women to your description of men:

• Are you spending more words on the appearance of women?
• Are women more likely to be described as attractive than men?
• Are some women described as repulsive while the less-attractive men are given more neutral description?

You’ll want to have more physical description the more important a character is. However, if you find that you’re spending more words per woman than per man because you have a slew of minor male characters and no women in similar roles, that’s a big problem that you’d better fix.

Her Appearance Should Reflect Her Effort

Instead of writing women who were born looking photoshopped, be realistic about the amount of effort that goes into a polished appearance.

Not all women put much effort into their looks, so not all female characters should either. But if a woman isn’t paying attention to her appearance, that should show with details like frizzy hair, chapped lips, ruddy skin, or wrinkled clothes . Maybe her hair is cropped short so she doesn’t have to comb or style it, or maybe she has a messy bun that’s actually a half-assed bun and not an artful display. Don’t present these things like they are a problem – women don’t need to look perfect, and some women focus their energy elsewhere. But also don’t use their lack of effort to make them seem special or better than other women, aka, “not like other girls.”

On the flip side, let some female protagonists invest in their appearances. A female character might wear cosmetics, spend some time with her hair in curlers, or hog the bathroom for an hour every morning. Don’t describe this as unattractive or a personal failing. On the contrary, the time she puts into her appearance should make her look good. After an hour in the bathroom, she might emerge with shiny curls, perfect-looking skin, long dark lashes, and a smooth, color-coordinated outfit.

Validate a Wide Variety of Looks

After that, it’s important to give women a wide variety of appearances and treat all of them as valid ways to be.

• Please include some women who are heavy, old, hairy, or have other traits outside the zone of conventional attractiveness. Present those things as neutral in value and just one trait of her appearance, not something that defines the way she looks.
• Don’t penalize women for being feminine . Wearing frills, lace, or pink doesn’t make a woman silly or frivolous. Similarly, rejecting those things doesn’t make her tough or practical; that is, unless she’s changing out of her lacy skirt for practical reasons, like she’s about to go hiking.
• Don’t force white standards of beauty on all women . The darkness or paleness of a woman’s skin should be described as a neutral trait. Let black women have natural hairstyles that are described as normal and professional. If you are writing about a woman of color with blue eyes, don’t single out her eyes as her most beautiful feature.

When working to counter cultural pressure, it’s critical to remember that reverse pressure is still pressure. For instance, if you say that women shouldn’t wear burkas because burkas are sexist, you’re only reinforcing the notion that other people get to decide what women wear. If you say that women should wear whatever they want, burkas or bikinis, now you’re actually removing pressure. The same goes for weight loss or anything women do to meet cultural expectations.

Focusing on the Person in the Body

When narration prioritizes the male gaze, women are presented like they’re on sale at a meat market. The attention goes to the size and shape of all of their body parts, and who they are as a person is ignored – bonus points if their bodies are compared to food or other consumables. This is what is commonly called “objectification,” and it’s what people have been criticizing in narration written by men.

Similarly, many of our stories stress that women must be beautiful, and they aren’t really beautiful unless they won the biological lottery. Women are all supposed to be that fairy-tale princess who is the youngest of three daughters and has lips as red as roses. This once again takes a woman’s personality and agency out of the equation, instead focusing on the inherent value she supposedly has.

Describe Her Persona

A good way to counter this is to focus on the personality your character has and how that’s expressed in a unique look.

• Does she love gardening? Maybe she has grass-stained overalls and tanned arms. Her hair is casually tied back so it’s out of the way.
• Is she artistic? Maybe she expresses her creativity with a carefully color-coordinated outfit with a patchwork skirt she sewed herself from fun patterned fabrics.
• Is she bad and broody? Maybe she wears a leather jacket with chains and black lipstick .

This doesn’t mean you can’t describe her body at all, but keep it general and neutral in value. Go ahead and say whether she’s young or old, but don’t present being young as attractive or being old as ugly. She might be tall or short, dark or pale, thin or heavy.

Use Style for Wish-Fulfillment

Even when women write for other women, it can be hard to escape cultural pressure. Often, wish-fulfillment for women includes a character who thinks of herself as ordinary looking, so she’s relatable, but is still described as attractive – particularly in the eyes of other people. That way, women can still have the wish-fulfillment of being beautiful. This pattern may feel good to some women in the short term, but it still reinforces the pressure to be naturally good-looking.

Instead, you can give women wish-fulfillment by outfitting them with some smashing styles. If your protagonists go to a formal event, describe all the nice things they are wearing. While lots of women like dresses, every woman has different tastes and style preferences. Some women in your story may prefer masculine clothing – make her look dashing in a top hat and tailcoat. While we’re at it, please include male and nonbinary protagonists in the fun.

In addition to clothing, hairstyles, makeup, and jewelry are all good things to highlight. If you’re a style newb, you can look up some pretty pictures online and google things like “types of skirts” so you know what terms to use. Many outlets also write about the fashion choices in popular TV shows, so that can be a great place to get inspiration for speculative-fiction outfits. When in doubt, give an outfit two to three colors total, and choose either gold or silver jewelry – not both. For fun, include embroidery or jewelry featuring symbols such as plants and animals.

You can also give characters wish-fulfillment clothing for situations outside of big social events, but keep things practical. Don’t make her trek overland in a long, delicate skirt . Instead, give her a finely woven cloak that helps her blend in and makes her look mysterious.

If you are going to use physical features to describe a woman as good-looking, I recommend focusing on her face. That’s where we show our thoughts and feelings, so a description of a face is less inherently objectifying than descriptions of other parts of her body. However, resist waxing poetic about her lips unless a kiss is imminent.

Including Sexy Attire in a Positive Way

The most contentious part of designing a woman’s appearance is whether or not she is wearing clothing that is tight or revealing. All too often, sexy clothing is clearly included to please men, and it feels objectifying to women. However, that doesn’t mean that women in stories should never wear sexy attire. Women are often stigmatized for wearing sexy clothing or otherwise taking control of their sexuality, and never showing fictional woman in sexy attire won’t fix that. If you’re reading this article through, considering the issues raised here, and are willing to follow a few guidelines, then I trust you to narrate a scene where a woman is wearing a sexy outfit.

Break the Madonna-Whore Binary

The first thing you need to know is that attractive women are generally sorted into two opposing stereotypes: the “Madonna” and the “whore.”

• The Madonna is virtuous, modest, and chaste. She is naturally beautiful, but she doesn’t know that she’s beautiful or make an effort to enhance her appearance. Female love interests are almost always Madonnas.
• The whore is vain, manipulative, and promiscuous. She uses sexy clothing and makeup to look more attractive to men. She knows that she’s sexy and uses it to her advantage. In stories, she’s used for objectifying eye candy and the occasional one-night stand with a male hero.

Both the Madonna and the whore are unrealistic caricatures. This may shock you, but most women wear fairly modest clothing in their daily lives and then choose to wear something revealing when they go to the beach or to a club. They actually change how sexy their clothing is depending on what’s appropriate in that situation. It’s mind blowing, I know.

However, our stories keep sorting women into these sexist categories. So when a fictional woman wears sexy clothing in situations where it doesn’t make sense or acts really seductive, that’s a big red flag. It means she was designed as a “whore” – a sexual object for men. This is what you need to avoid when you depict women in revealing clothing.

Besides showing regular women occasionally wear sexy attire in reasonable and realistic ways, it’s also critical not to associate sexy clothes with any kind of character flaw. In many stories, villainous women will wear sexier clothing than heroines will, or a female protagonist will start wearing sexy clothing as an indication that she’s morally compromised or acting out . As soon as she recovers, she’ll wear modest clothing again. These depictions support destructive Madonna-whore stereotypes.

She Should Always Be in Control of Her Appearance

The demonization of sexual women is often in conflict with society’s frequent desire to see women be sexy. This desire doesn’t always come from men. For women, occasionally dressing up in sexy clothing can be a fun fantasy. So our stories have concocted a gross way of making female protagonists sexy while maintaining their Madonna status: the sexy clothing is forced on them.

At its most benign, this trope might involve a hired stylist who picks out the sexy clothing for the protagonist, and she grumbles but wears it anyway. Worse, she might have to wear sexy clothing because she’s going undercover as a French maid or because a man has tricked her into putting something skimpy on. Sometimes it’s a full-on Return of the Jedi situation, where the protagonist is a sexy slave who’s forced to put on a gold bikini. Regardless, these stories take away a woman’s control over her body and then treat that like it’s no big deal.

This pattern – wherein women have to avoid the stigma of being voluntarily sexual, and therefore control is taken away from them to make them sexual – is what links slut-shaming to rape culture . So, suffice to say, I really, really don’t want you to do this.

Please note that describing women in scenes where they are dressing or bathing is just a slightly less gross way to accomplish the same toxic goal. Women are not trying to present their half-dressed selves to the world, so don’t make your narration into a Peeping Tom.

Keep It About Her, Not Spectators

A common misogynist stereotype is that women like to weaponize their appearances. Supposedly, every aspect of how a woman looks is carefully designed to manipulate others. Though in real life cleavage is often the unintentional result of a normal V-neck shirt and a chest size that’s big enough, many men will assume it’s a calculated gesture meant for them. This idea is then used to justify harassing women, and it furthers the harmful narrative that women are secretly in charge through social manipulation or that women use seduction to control men.

That’s why it’s important to frame a woman’s appearance as being about her and not about the effect it has on other people. This goes double when she’s wearing something sexy.

• A woman may wear a short dress because she knows it looks good and that makes her feel more confident, but don’t say she wears it to wrap men around her finger.
• She can be wearing skinny jeans because it’s the current fashion, not because walking down the sidewalk will get people’s attention.
• If she’s gotten into shape at the gym, she might celebrate that achievement by buying herself a new bikini that shows off her abs and wearing it out to the beach. But she shouldn’t get the bikini to show up a rival.

This doesn’t mean that women won’t ever use their appearances to make the right impression. But if a character’s doing that in your story, it should be because she’s headed into a high-pressure situation – like a job interview. Don’t treat her clothing like it gives her mind control.

If you’re writing from the point of view of a man nearby, you can say what she’s wearing and that she looks good in it, but don’t describe all her body parts or suggest that men have no choice but to stare. The idea that men can’t help themselves around women is used to justify sexual harassment and assault.

Our culture still has a long way to go in responsibly handling issues of appearance and attraction, and Hollywood is not helping. When in doubt, put lots of women in your story, make them all different, and let their appearance follow their personality.

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Comments on How to Describe Women Without Degrading Them

I think it’s also important to remember that a woman will not pay the same attention to her attire in every situation. Back home after a long day, she’ll most likely lose the bra for comfort and hang out in an old sweater and a pair of sweat pants or yoga pants. Not because the yoga pants are tight, but because they’re very comfortable to wear while you’re doing housework or hanging out on the couch with your dinner. Women generally do not hang out alone at home in lacy underwear and perfect makeup – that’s a male fantasy. Likewise, clothing for bed is usually not chosen for looks, but for comfort. Women also keep ‘period panties’ in their wardrobe – old and cheap panties they wear during their period, because it’s much less of a problem (and cheaper) if they get stained with blood and the stain doesn’t wash out.

On the other hand, a woman going out for a night will pay attention to her looks, will do a makeup as professionally as she can, will carefully choose all parts of her wardrobe and all accessoires to fit together, will colour-coordinate her appearance. A woman just going for a drink with friends, on the other hand, will not make as much of a fuss of it. It always depends where she expects to end up. A woman who goes out a lot in a more or less modern setting and has many formal dinners/parties to go to might have a ‘little black dress’ of sorts – the style depends on fashion and on how confident a woman feels about her body, but in a lot of formal situations, you can’t go wrong with a black dress going down mid-thigh to knee level as a woman. Black can be combined with every colour and, if it’s not patterned itself, every pattern, which means that one dress can be combined with many different types of shoes, purses, shawls, belts, etc. Since all of those are usually cheaper than a dress, that saves money. Likewise, a woman in business may have two or three business costumes in different, but complimenting colours, so she can switch out jackets and skirts or trousers during the week, creating a different ensemble every day. Generally speaking, black, grey, beige, and red or blue fit well with each other and can be freely combined. With white blouses underneath, you can walk around looking a little different, but always professional every day for relatively little money – especially if the cuts of your costumes are more on the classic side which never really goes out of style.

My female characters look and dress very differently. Jane Browne dresses comfy when she can get away with her ‘cargo pants and hoodie’ signature outfit, but she can very well dress up for a social gathering (or wear twin-sets and skirt as the ‘niece’ in one book). She’s aware of the way she dresses herself, because it’s part of her job. Every agent, no matter the gender, should know how they present themselves in a certain situation. Her alter-ego Jane Doe (from an alternate universe series I’m writing myself) prefers leather jacket, tight jeans, and heavy boots for her criminal work, but also knows how to dress up and change her looks for situations where that’s useful (such as conning someone). When going out, once she has gone nominally legal, she prefers an evening suit, since her girlfriend usually wears beautiful dresses. Edith Grand, a soldier/former mercenary who turns up in both series, is very tall and strong in build and usually dresses in uniforms, uniform parts, or similar clothing. She keeps her hair in an altered crew cut and usually doesn’t mind her looks too much – they’re not important for her work or her life. Gabrielle Munson dresses in male clothing, because she pretends to be a man. She wears dark suits, white shirts, a slouch hat, and always gloves, both to hide her not-quite-male hands and because her necromantic power sometimes bleeds into her hands and makes them feel icy cold. Maddie Dempsey, who has a male alter ego in the vigilante known as the Eye, dresses feminine as the girl reporter she is in her official life, but in a baggy suit (with a padded vest to look more male in build underneath) when out as the Eye.

Generally speaking, it pays off to think about what your female character is going to do in their clothing. If it’s more of a party or a formal affair, clothing will be more expensive and they’ll pay more attention to their looks. If it’s for travelling through the country side, clothing will be far more practical and made from fabrics which do not tear easily, they might forego makeup and will usually just gather their hair somewhat. If they’re working, their work will dictate what they wear or how they do their hair – from representative clothing and coiffed hair for a secretary to dungarees and a braid or bun for a mechanic.

Thank you for this article Chris, I think it is much needed!

As a not conventionally attractive woman myself, I’d like to add that having a gorgeous female protagonist often feels alienating to me, even if it was intended as wish fulfillment, as I have trouble identifying with that. I much prefer average-looking protagonists, but maybe that is just a personal preference.

I also think that we should try to get away from the notion that a love interest has to be beautiful (or instantly recognized as beautiful, as this is something I believe develops together with a positive relationship and attraction). Why not have one or two characteristics that are usually considered unattractive (such as a crooked nose, not-great teeth, large ears, whatever) described in a neutral tone, and not mattering at all in the developing romance?

“While we’re at it, please include male and nonbinary protagonists in the fun.” Yes please! I’d also like to see more male and nonbinary characters engaging in the examples of primping and showing off their bodies that you discussed how to describe respectfully.

Additionally, I’d also like to see more men depicted in the sorts of sexualised ways that more often get associated with women (though I don’t think I’d want that for nonbinary characters, since “sex object” is one of the few depictions that gender-ambiguous characters regularly get when they show up at all). Labyrinth is my go-to example for that sort of sexy depiction of male characters, though it does veer into the “sexy costume = villain” trope that you mentioned.

I’d recommend reading this tongue-in-cheek article where men are described as women in literature; https://www.themarysue.com/if-male-authors-described-men-like-women/

That was very entlighting, especially the faux-soical-engineering part. Some concerens about the woman i write and draw are gone – but i found some points to correct too.

I found it always easier to frist think of the personality and archtype of a character and base the cloth around that. I also tend to ask: “Do i belive a character would choose this clothing willingly? And why? When no: then don’t” – sometimes help avoid übersexy BS and other unpractical nonsense.

Hope this makes a little sense ^^’ Thanks a bunch :3

It definitely makes sense. Once your character is fleshed out, you know whether or not they’d wear something. And if they’d wear something in the situation in which you want them to wear it.

One thing I would like to see more is a disabled woman who is considered (and considers herself) beautiful. Preferably w/out fetishization or infantilization. And if possible, w/ enough self-confidence that she is not desperately GRATEFUL to anyone who considers her attractive. Nor should another character get “special points” for considering her attractive, as if that’s not normal

In the erotic graphic novel series “Omaha the Cat Dancer”, the sexually active Shelly Hine did not lose her sexuality or her interest in sex when she lost the use of her legs and started using a wheelchair.

More of that, please

And while we’re at it, can we have a cis character think a trans character is beautiful, w/out freaking out after learning that the beautiful character is trans?

Just to touch on your second point: for the last couple of years the long running webcomic Questionable Content (seriously long-running, it started in 2003 and is still going 4000+ pages later) started a romance between series original, average straight/cis guy Marten and more recent character Claire, who is trans. They gradually become friends, and when Claire eventually tells him that she’s trans (which is also when it’s revealed to the reader) he’s completely accepting of her. It’s not actually until after she tells him that he decides, y’know what, I really like this person and I want to be with her, and the fact that she’s trans is irrelevant to him.

QC is a super long run though, I think Claire first appears around strip #2000 or so, so be prepared for a slow build. Worth it though, IMO.

Not to say that we don’t need more depictions of both kinds of relationships and character building: we absolutely do. I just thought you’d like to know that there are some out there. :)

A good example that I remember of a disabled woman (or girl, given that the heroes in this series are kids) being considered attractive is Thorgil in The Sea Of Trolls, who loses the use of her hand in the sequel.

Also maybe Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road? She’s not sexualised or anything, and I don’t remember whether she became a love interest to Max, but a lot of fans certainly found her attractive.

A possible example of an attractive disabled woman could be Paulina in Charlotte Brontë’s “Villette”.

First, Paulina is really small. When she’s first introduced in the novel, she’s only six years old, but seems to be roughly toddler-sized. When she reappears in the plot, the MC Lucy sees “a poor child!” being trampled by panicking people who flee a fire. Turns out it’s Paulina, who’s now seventeen and as big as she’ll ever be.

Second, I thought as I read the novel that she’d probably be diagnosed with something neuropsychiatric if she had lived today. As a child, she clings VERY hard to a VERY small number of people, while indifferent to others. When she becomes super upset, her reaction is to lie face down on the floor, dead still and silent for hours on end. She also has a real savant memory. As an older teen, she’s more socially competent, but she still reacts very oddly and detached sometimes. Like literal minutes after being trampled by a panicking crowd, she calmly points to her arm and says her shoulder has been dislocated. Most people would be scared, crying etc. She’s not generally unemotional, though, since she pours affection over the few people she does feel attached to.

There’s more than one man who thinks she’s both funny and really beautiful, and she ends up marrying a man who the MC Lucy had a serious crush on (in the end, though, Lucy sincerely wishes them luck; she’s really fond of Paulina, who’s incredibly kind, even though she’s a bit odd). Paulina’s DAD, on the other hand, has SERIOUS difficulties realizing his girl is all grown up, and that men might be attracted to her. He says that surely no one can think her a beautiful woman; she’s just a funny little pixie. At one point he says he can’t believe she’s more than twelve years old, and an exaspirated Lucy goes “She’s not twelve, she’s grown up, even though she won’t get any taller!”

I really liked the Paulina character, she was so interesting.

Any advice on describing female love interests?

While they don’t have to be physically attractive, it often helps if they are and the (usually male) protagonist/narrator will be aware of that. On the other hand, it’s extremely easy to overdo. Especially if we are reminded of their sexy looks over and over again. Even disregarding sexist baggage, female readers shouldn’t suffer from the cringe I felt when reading Twilight’s repetitive and purple descriptions of Edward.

Still, having a male narrator get floored by an attractive female love interest without resorting to the male gaze isn’t easy.

Don’t make the attraction about the love interest’s looks. Make it her character or skills instead. Yes, she can be physically attractive, but if the male lead is in love with her because she’s so good with a sword or a great diplomat, the looks can be mentioned and then put aside, they won’t be pulled up over and over again. Assuming that the only reason to love someone is their looks is per se bad. Looks can get you interested, but if there’s nothing more to a person, there’s not going to be a long relationship in it.

I’m aware of this which is why I generally think that looks should only be described in the introduction scene.

I was just wondering if there are any traps to watch out for.

Honestly, I think that “having a male narrator get floored by an attractive female love interest” is the one time where the male gaze can actually be appropriate. If the woman is wearing sexy clothing and it’s a scenario where it seems natural to take in peoples’ appearances (a party, for example), then it doesn’t seem at all disrespectful to mention her beautiful figure and how great her clothes look on her. As long as you steer clear of sexist language, don’t focus on it for too long, and don’t mention it again outside of the first impression, then you’ll be fine.

They can notice her and notice she’s attractive and looks good in those clothes, but if their whole interest in her is based around how ‘hot’ she is, you’re not doing it right.

And, yes, stay away from sexist language, that’s always a good idea.

agreed with 99% of this. but one caveat here: “Not all women put much effort into their looks, so not all female characters should either. But if a woman isn’t paying attention to her appearance, that should show with details like frizzy hair, chapped lips, ruddy skin, or wrinkled clothes.” …that sounds somewhat extreme unless the character is either prone to frizzy hair, ruddy skin, etc. or REALLY not caring AT ALL. characters who spend ~5-10mins in front of the mirror won’t have the ELABORATE styles of those who spend a hour, but implying that any ‘style’ at all is “all or nothing” isn’t helpful either.

(particularly since jeans+t-shirt don’t show wrinkles even if they’ve been tossed on the floor overnight; many issues of frizzy hair are the result of uninformed choices in shampoo/condition or de-snarling methods not time invested per se; it takes maybe a few seconds to apply chapstick and chapped lips are uncomfortable to start with… etc.)

I just think it’s really important for us to get away from the idea of women looking perfect with no effort. If your protagonist only spends five minutes in front of the mirror but readers still see her skin looks good because she spends those five minutes putting on a bit of concealer, that’s all good, you’re still showing that putting in effort pays off.

And if she deliberately makes choices about her appearance so she doesn’t have to put in much effort, that’s good too, but that of course comes with compromises of its own. Women’s clothes generally have higher requirements for care because people expect women to put more effort in. So if she’s mostly limiting herself to t-shirts and jeans because she can throw them on the floor without consequence, that’s something in itself to note.

And I have to ask, if she’s not prone to frizzy hair, chapped lips, ruddy skin… then what natural imperfections does she have? It’s not that women who naturally look gorgeous don’t exist, but right now we have too many of them in our stories and that’s imposing unfair expectations on women.

…the only point I’m trying to make is that female characters shouldn’t always be harped on over their appearance, full stop. That was clearly the intent of the article, but that one section seemed a bit less clear on that point to me because of the emphasis on appearance-related detail, hence the comment.

in other words, the author doesn’t HAVE to make some huge deal out of the characters’ ‘imperfections’ just to avoid her being supernaturally gorgeous without effort. write that the character doesn’t put much emphasis on her appearance, and simply don’t have the narration/other characters fawning over how gorgeous she is for her supposed ‘natural beauty’ or whatever. she’s just average – legitimately average (like the majority of people) and it’s not worth commenting on beyond basic descriptions like “she had red/brown/blonde wavy/straight long/short hair worn loose/in a ponytail/a messy bun/a braid” etc. problem solved. No need to single out that her nose is ‘too big’ or she’s ‘too short’ or ‘not skinny enough’ or ‘looks too masculine’ or she has severely crooked teeth that some people react badly to, etc. – or even to state that she just isn’t seen as attractive WITHOUT having some obvious, specific ‘flaw’ or ‘imperfection’ (…perhaps a more common issue anyway?). Make ‘(un)attractiveness’ a non-issue, with no particular comment on it, because for such a character it IS a non-issue. that’s all.

(obviously, this doesn’t apply to a story where the intent is to explore the specific issue of appearance standards, but that’s by no means a necessary element for every plot. likewise if the character is attending a fancy-dress event.)

to be clear: if the character IS supposed to put a lot of effort into looking attractive to others, then yes: describing how that pays off in terms of people noting how attractive they are, is all fine and good. but if they don’t care, the narrative generally shouldn’t either and certainly shouldn’t penalize them for that by dwelling on each and every ‘imperfection’.

This should be the sequel article to another more important article that is just the words “DO NOT DESCRIBE THE BREASTS” because male authors… sure can be something…

Well that is pretty much what this article boils down to: https://mythcreants.com/blog/five-signs-your-narration-is-sexist/

lol I was thinking about The Magicians when I wrote this comment and its one of the books in the other article. Lev Grossman must be stopped.

Thought exercise, as a proof you don’t need to be a sexist.

“As she put on her favorite shirt, the fit was just too tight. Amber looked in the mirror. She was saddened that it would never again fit her as it once did. She was excited about getting some new clothes today, but knew this would be her last time wearing the only thing she had from the times her parents were healthy.”

I don’t need to describe anything beyond her thoughts, and why she’s sad about this shirt. The concept is that she’s “developing”, but I want the reader to focus on her mind.

In the very first draft of my first book, I did well already by the standards of this article with regards to the female MC and her female platonic friends and acquaintances. But BOY was the female love interest described in a horribly male-gazey way! Fortunately, I realized this myself and rewrote all of that before showing ANYONE ELSE the draft. That first draft is now deleted and gone forever, haha.

I remember a conversation I had many years back with other WLW, about “Inner Terrible Dudes”. Like, you’re with another woman, and suddenly you find yourself slipping into a really stupid male gender role with stupid macho behaviour, etc. (“Terrible” in a sense you could still laugh about in hindsight, I should add, so no one get the wrong picture… but, like, embarrassingly doing stuff just to prove how strong you are, stupid shit like that.) I definitely think only a minority of WLW suffer from Inner Terrible Dude, but alas, I’m one of them. Now I’ve been in a monogamous marriage with a man for ages, so it was a long time since Inner Terrible Dude raised his head in a dating scenario, but I think he came up again when I was writing a female love interest in my first ever novel…

I think it’s all good now, since a number of women have read later drafts or the final version and think the love interest is a good character… but I still cringe thinking about the first version!

Great article! Another thing I find ridiculous is just how many bad descriptions there are of women going “OMG, I’m so pretty/gorgeous/sexy” followed by describing how hot their bodies are, it’s basically a parody of Narcissus falling in love with his own mirror image, except it’s not portrayed as a sad curse but something totally normal for women to do.

Hi my name is Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way and I have long ebony black hair (that’s how I got my name) with purple streaks and red tips that reaches my mid-back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Amy Lee (AN: if u don’t know who she is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to Gerard Way but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a witch, and I go to a magic school called Hogwarts in England where I’m in the seventh year (I’m seventeen). I’m a goth (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Hot Topic and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a black corset with matching lace around it and a black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black combat boots. I was wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow. I was walking outside Hogwarts. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of preps stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

That description isn’t so much of a problem for describing a woman … it would be just as bad, if it described a man. Yet, yeah, avoid that at all costs.

I read “My Immortal” and now I’m 99 % certain that it’s intentionally bad and written to be funny. :-)

I became convinced that My Immortal had to be an intentional parody when the author called Sirius Black Harry’s Dogfather!

You’ve brought to mind two other types of description that annoy me.

The first isn’t strictly gendered, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if it’s used more for female characters: the ‘evaluating herself in the mirror’ introductory description. Nobody looks at their own reflection like they’re seeing themselves for the first time and grading each feature based on its attractiveness. (It does, however, make more sense if the character really is seeing their own appearance for the first time).

The second type of description that annoys me is when a character’s conventionally attractive traits are described as if they aren’t. ‘My eyes are too large and my lips are too full to be considered pretty. A light dusting of freckles across my nose ruins my otherwise perfect complexion. I wish my hair was blonde but, alas, it’s only a rich chestnut red.’

A question about always being in control of what they wear – a character of mine marries into a wealthy family to control their army and has to blend in. She never really cared about appearance, only fabric from being a weaver, and I was using it like a homesick thing. No one forces her or anything, she’s kind of chill about it and has way bigger concerns. Is it OK so long as it is never sexy? Is there a way to make sure it’s OK?

Personally I think there’s a huge difference between a scene where a woman has to dress in a disguise (not a sexy disguise, just a regular uniform or the same clothes as the locals) in order to blend in, and a female character being forced against her will (or just randomly lose all her previous modesty) to strip down or dress up in a fetish costume.

To use a bad and a good example, in X-men: first class there’s an awful scene where a female CIA agent completely out of the blue takes off her dress (and just so happens to wear perfectly matching black silk lingerie) in order to follow the villains into a strip club, and the scene has no purpose outside of creepy voyeurism, whereas in the movie Inferno, based on a Dan Brown novel, a female assassin wears a police uniform in order to trick her target into thinking she’s there to protect them, and make local law enforcement think she’s one of them, which I think is a good example of a female character who couldn’t choose how her clothes would look, it’s a uniform, but it’s not portrayed as degrading or any different than the same situation with a male assassin would be.

Yeah, that is just fine.

As far as “wish-fulfillment clothing” goes, for me personally, a gorgeous evening gown is about the same level of wish-fulfillment as a badass cloak or fancy cape. …something to keep in mind for writers who want to attract a few more readers, maybe? Also, we should bring cloaks and capes back into fashion.

I always second any wish for cloaks and capes to make it back into fashion.

Yes, wish-fulfilment clothing for women can very well include a gorgeous ball gown (cape optional, but always a nice touch) or a bikini or a tight dress. The point is that the woman should wear those clothes because she wants to (and in a fitting setting), not because someone said ‘put that on.’

I also think it’s important not just to make sure it fits the character and the situation, but also looking at stuff like fashion magazines, doll crafting and what female illustrators draw their characters wearing, because from my experience, while revealing, most such things designed by and for women tend to be more intricate and elaborate to reflect one’s style compared to most boring and unoriginal or downright tacky stuff male comic artists and video game designers draw women wearing.

Just compare Bayonetta (designed by a female fashion designer) to Quiet (designed by a man who just wanted to make her sexy) and you’ll see the difference.

Good point. There’s a lot of female designs online by now on oodles of sites (I personally love to watch doll crafting) to get inspired by.

Bayonetta is definitely designed much less male-gazey than Quiet and I like the idea behind her clothing (the design still has some weird parts, but we’re talking about a Japanese action game, so weird design parts are essential – and they’re handled better with Bayonetta). Not to mention that Bayonetta is only mostly naked when calling on her powers, while Quiet is mostly naked the whole time because she ‘breathes through her skin.’ Sigh.

Indeed, and I also think a huge difference between them is that Bayonetta’s design tells something about her character, her color scheme, jewelry and hairstyle are all themed around the classic witchy imagery with black, cats and moons but with a modern twist, whereas Quiet’s outfit is just a bikini and ripped panty hose, and I saw no one actually being able to tell why she she was wearing it before the game came out and explained it.

And Bayonetta does sexy poses because she’s a bold and sassy person who likes to provoke people and lives in an exaggerated magical world, while Quiet is supposed to be a tragic character and her story even involves dark real-life traumas like torture and POW sexual assault, and she’s literally called Quiet because she can’t speak and has to rely on hand gestures and body language, yet 90% of said body language are just random sexy poses, just to show what a can of worms the character is.

I try to don’t keep apart males from females in my writings, so i spend the same amount of detail to describe the main female character’s elegant dress as the MC’s parade uniform. Also, women in my book wear from business attire to dresses to body armour just as every other character. There is one specific character that wears a somewhat skimpy dress under a cape and uses it to entice and manipulate her targets (be it males or females), she is a complex character and i’ll probably save her for another story, limiting her to show up once or twice as a mysterious puppeteer figure.

By the sound of it, you’re doing a pretty good job with your writing.

A lot of authors seem to struggle with treating all characters alike, no matter the gender. If you pay attention to the details of the clothes of all of your characters, it’s fine to describe them. It’s also always great if characters have an actual wardrobe somewhere and wear different clothes throughout the story (unless they’re unable to change them for some reason).

I have no problem with a complex character who works with seduction. Seduction can be a valid option and is sometimes used by male characters as well (cough Bond cough). What I resent is the ‘femme fatale’ type who is only defined by her seductive sexiness and often doesn’t even act because of her own agency, only following another (often male) character’s orders.

I just switch the gender in the description and check if it’s too verbose or seems unfit for either sex. I’m getting good results so far.

The problem i have with her is that i can’t cut the main plot line to tell her story, as is so tangential to the plot that i will need to tell it on another book. she just point the MC in the right direction and set the pieces up for future events. As a mysterious figure i think it will awake the reader’s interest to know more about her, but if it’s not the case, what is known is enough.

Have you ever had a minor character that you like so much you want to tell everyone everything about her, but being nor the time nor the place to do it?

You can certainly use the story to continue with the universe you have created later. Then it makes sense to put a character in as a side character and make them the main character in the other story. Let her be a mystery in this one, but suggest there’s more to her, then it should work out.

Hello! Thank you for the article. However, I have a few questions: 1. What do you think about female characters whose appearance isn’t described at all? What is the “default” in this case, and what should I be careful about? 2. What advice could you give about shapeshifters? How to avoid misogyny in describing a shapeshifter? 3. What do you think as “always beautiful” races (elves, faeries, angels, goddesses)? What pitfalls are there for characters, who, for example, don’t age after certain age? 4. If a characters belongs to a completely sexless and genderless race, is it possible for their description to be objectifying and/or sexist?

Thanks for this article. This is a useful article for writers of non-fiction as well as fiction. While those of us writing essays probably have less reason to describe the physical appearance of people, there are other ways that a similar set of gender assumptions make their way into the text. For example, historical analyses that identify people as “so-and-so and his wife” are still common. Political discussions in which men are acting but women are supporting men are also dismally familiar.

You don’t “Google” something, it is not a verb despite what some webpages claim.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, ‘google’ can be used as a verb.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google

Would it feel sexist to depict a female bartender/salesperson/etc. who dresses up her appearance and lets a little flirtyness come into her demeanor because it gives her an edge in her job? (Also, does it help to show that the same thing can work for a male character in the same position?)

I’m torn on whether that normalizes the “sexy=manipulative” idea or if that’s more equal to a woman taking charge of her appearance and sexuality in an empowering way.

Yes, unfortunately it would. It reinforces tropes about women being seductresses, manipulating others with sex appeal, or sleeping their way to top.

Having a male character that does the same thing may help marginally, but not enough considering the toxicity of this stereotype.

A women taking charge of her appearance and sexuality in an empowering way might include her asking men out because she wants to sleep with them, not because she wants something else from them.

Though I should mention that women are generally expected to dress attractively as part of customer facing positions, so her dressing attractive in itself would usually not be flirty so much as it would be meeting expectations imposed on her by others. By acting flirty is another matter.

Ah, okay! Good to keep in mind. Thank you for the response and the clarification.

Thank you for this article! I like how you broke this down.

Editor’s note: I’ve removed a comment for defending sexism under the iron clad logic of having female friends

Editor’s note: I have removed a comment for doing exactly what we said not to do in this post: pressuring women about what they wear.

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Crafting Your Narrator’s Emotional Truth: A Look at Nora Ephron’s “A Few Words About Breasts”

by Marilyn | Oct 2, 2014 | craft , Memoir , Uncategorized | 4 comments

“What ALL do we see then, when we look at the body anew? Particularly those parts that have been fetishized and plasticized, deified and desired, such as the female breast. For the literary essayist, a breast is rarely just a breast.”

Barrie Jean Borich

Recently, while preparing to lead a writing workshop for women with breast cancer, I pulled Nora Ephron’s memoir essay “A Few Words About Breasts” off the shelf.

“A Few Words About Breasts” is not about breast cancer. Ephron, who died of a blood disorder at the age 71 in 2012, never had breast cancer as far as I know.

But I wanted to provide the women in my workshop with a breast narrative that elevates breasts to a subject worthy of literature, a subject that is part of a larger narrative—both personal and cultural—and demonstrates a woman’s relationship to her breasts as integral to her relationship to herself and to her emotional truth.

In memoir, emotional truth is the substance of the story we are telling. It provides the emotional arc of the narrative—the deeper story—and makes visible the internal obstacles our narrator faces as well as the insights she gleans (or not) over the course of the story.

Plumbing the emotional truth of our own life experiences demands that we become vulnerable on the page so that our readers can connect with our narrator on an emotional level.

Developing our narrator’s character, however—rendering her as a complex, multifaceted human being with gifts and flaws, wounds and wisdom—is no easy task. Why not just ask a fish to describe water, right?

But as memoirists, we are obligated to see with clear vision the internal obstacles our narrator faces and to give shape and voice to this interior landscape on the page.

This challenge intensifies when writing about a subject such as breasts that is deeply personal and considered in the eyes of the culture a source of shame. You’re not supposed to talk about breasts! (Indeed, in my experience with breast cancer, society deems it more acceptable to talk about breast cancer, emphasis on cancer, than about the breasts that have the cancer.)

Ephron, of course, defies acceptable code of conduct.

“A Few Words About Breasts,” originally published in Esquire in 1972, conveys Ephron’s experience as a small-breasted woman who came of age during a time when small breasts were, well, not fashionable. (Funny to think of breasts as either “in” or “out” of fashion—like shoe style or skirt length—depending on their size and shape.) As Ephron puts it, “It was the 1950s for God’s sake. Jane Russell. Cashmere sweaters.”

By writing about her breasts without shame or apology, Ephron provides a window into her self-perception, which is shaped largely by a culture that judges her breasts inadequate. She crafts her narrator’s emotional truth with such precision that we feel her internal struggle in relationship to her breasts, and we become privy to the lifelong internal conflict this relationship poses.

The question for us as memoirists is, How does she do this?

By keeping her lens on key reactions to her breasts—both her own reactions and others’ reactions—Ephron invites us to experience blow-by-blow the unfolding of her emotional truth, which becomes the gripping internal arc of her narrative.

People’s reactions, after all, reveal what makes them tick.

By writing reaction into our memoir stories, we can reveal with a few strokes of our pen our narrator’s internal landscape, effectively bringing her character to life.

Ephron begins her internal arc at the point of her narrator’s desire for a bra at adolescence. All subsequent reactions that drive her internal arc forward stem from this initial desire.

First, there is her mother’s reaction to this desire:

“’I want to buy a bra,’ I said to my mother one night. ‘What for?’ she said. My mother was really hateful about bras, and by the time my third sister had gotten to the point where she was ready to want one, my mother had worked the whole business into a comedy routine. ‘Why not use a Band-Aid instead?’”

This paragraph, which goes on to include the aforementioned statement about Jane Russell and cashmere sweaters, closes on the narrator’s reaction to her mother’s sardonic reaction:

“’I am too old to wear an undershirt.’ Screaming. Weeping. Shouting. ‘Then don’t wear and undershirt,’ said my mother. ‘But I want to buy a bra.’ ‘What for?’”

Ending on the same note where it began, this paragraph establishes a loop-like pattern in the narrative—another person’s reaction to Ephron’s small breasts followed by her reaction to their reaction—that mimics Ephron’s life experience as she endures the scrutiny of other people’s reactions to the size of her breasts.

Ephron’s reactions change over time, mirroring her internal changes. When her future mother-in-law pulls her aside and offers unsolicited sexual advice on how to hide the fact of her small breasts from her husband in bed, Ephron says, “’Thank you.’” A reaction that brings to light the toll cultural judgment of her breasts has taken on her sense of self over the years: she’s lost some of her early fight.

That fight comes full circle when we witness Ephron as a young professional and budding writer at a cocktail party mingling with a woman who says to a man who’s just joined their conversation, “’The two of us together couldn’t fill an A cup.’”

Ephron’s reaction to this other woman’s behavior reveals an inner shift: she is beginning to see with clearer vision her fraught relationship with her own breasts as her internal arc reaches its emotional peak:

“Why does she say that? It isn’t even true, dammit, so why? Is she even more addled than I am on this subject? Does she honestly believe there is something wrong with her size breasts, which, it seems to me, now that I look hard at them, are just right?”

By crafting key reactions culled from the turning point moments of her own breast narrative, Ephron voices the deeper truth of her experience as a small-breasted woman in a society that belittles (sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun!) small breasts. The cumulative effect of these reactions is nothing short of a page-turner.

And a page-turner narrative driven by emotional truth is a gift for our readers. It shines light on what it means to be vulnerable and human.

Why not try you own hand at writing reaction as a way to craft your narrator’s emotional truth? Here’s a two-part writing prompt to get you started:

Writing Prompt: Put Your Narrator’s Reaction into Action

Part i: create your breast timeline.

Create a timeline of the turning point moments of your breast narrative. Turning point moments are moments that leave you changed. The change can be internal or external or both. For example, developing breast buds, first bra, nursing for the first time, being teased for your breasts, breast cancer, and breasts as a source of sexual pleasure are all turning point moments that might appear on a Breast Timeline. Set your timer for ten minutes. Don’t worry about chronology. Just get the turning point moments in your breast narrative onto the page in whatever order they come to mind.

Part II: Write Your Narrator’s Reaction

Circle one of the turning point moments on your Breast Timeline. What was your reaction to this experience? Was someone else’s reaction to your breasts part of this experience? Write this experience by turning your lens on the reactions it contains. This will help you to develop your narrator’s character and craft the deeper emotional truth of her experience as a female. Set your timer for 10 minutes and write. You can do this for as many entries on your Breast Timeline as you wish.

And when you finish, leave a comment below. I would LOVE to hear your experience with this writing prompt. Did your writing of the timeline or of reactions bring you new insight about your relationship with your breasts?

What a rich and fertile topic–and what a beautiful explication of Ephron’s essay. I’m surprised to find (grateful to discover) that motherhood, over time, has evened out much of the early shame ledger for me, because it freed me from the trappings of strictly sexualized associations. Had a wonderful teacher in college who used to say breasts are for 2 things: a woman’s own pleasure, and feeding her children (struck us all as so radical at that time). It would take years for me to live what she said, but I’m grateful she said it so early on. Wonderful writing exercise…I will be back after I’ve written, when I can.

Hi, Tania. What an insightful teacher, and isn’t it amazing that it takes us so long to learn or as you say “live” her lesson? A sign of just how entrenched the shame is until we realize it. Then there’s no stopping us :). Look so forward to hearing how the exercise goes for you! All best, M

Wow. Thank you, Marilyn. Ephon’s experience took me back to my own mother’s “you don’t need a bra” reaction to me when I screwed up my courage to ask for one, and then humiliated me further when she finally took me to the children’s clothing store where we shopped and announced to the clerk, “we’d like to introduce this young woman to her first bra.” I did the exercise, though, on an experience at age 18 when a male co-worker at the Vermont resort where I had a summer job, in front of a group of us, suddenly reached over, grabbed my bikini-clad left nipple, gave it a severe twist, and then laughed, “titty twist!” My reaction then (1972) : confusion, shame, humiliation. My reaction now: outrage. I see the male entitlement that, at its worst, is rape – this is mine to do with as I please. How I wish I’d had the wherewithal to kick him squarely in the nuts, but if I had, no doubt I would have been labelled an angry bitch who couldn’t take a joke.

Wow, Susan, isn’t it amazing how many stories and deep, rich emotional truths our breasts hold for us? Thank you for sharing this incredibly powerful comment. Have you seen the latest issues of Harper’s? Rebecca Solnit has a piece on women and silence. It’s fascinating. Addresses the experiences you mention in your comment. All best, M

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How to describe a female character's figure without comedy?

Do you know a good way to describe a female character's figure?

I'm writing a fairly serious story, but the only way I know how to describe this is from comedy stories, where they work out some joke that gets the point across.

Constable Angua had mastered saluting first go. She wouldn’t have a full uniform yet, not until someone had taken a, well, let’s face it, a breastplate along to old Remitt the armourer and told him to beat it out really well here and here , and no helmet in the world would cover all that mass of ash-blond hair but, it occurred to Carrot, Constable Angua wouldn’t need any of that stuff really. People would be queuing up to get arrested. Terry Pratchet, Men at Arms

But I'm not sure how I should describe my characters in a serious context, as I mostly read comedy books. I want her to feel sexy, but I don't want to have to something like the cliche of her looking into a mirror and describing herself. More confusing, is I'm writing from a guy's perspective, so I don't know how to have him notice without him seeming bad.

Could you please give me some advice?

• description
• perspective

• 5 How does the male PoV see her? That will be your key. Is he attracted to her? Or does he find her repulsive for some reason? Does he perhaps love someone else, and therefore simply notices her and moves on? –  Thomas Reinstate Monica Myron Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 15:40
• 3 I would veer away from 'attracted to body/wealth/power.' That will feel exploitative, not sexy. He should be attracted to her because of her individuality, because of what she brings out in him. He wants to be more (attribute) when he is with her. –  SFWriter Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 16:25
• 5 How do you describe how your male characters look? The ones who are not objects of attraction/lust for your MC? Do that. –  Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 17:33
• 15 "I'm writing a fairly serious story" "I mostly read comedy books" - here's your problem. Try to read more books that are similar to what you write, and you'll know how to handle this and many other situations. Otherwise you may, despite all your intentions, end up writing a comedy book. –  Alexander Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 18:38
• 7 @SethWhite Even if your assertion is true in real life (and I don't agree that it is), one advantage of fiction is that there can be characters that are better than real people in ways that we wish we could be better, but can't. So if you want to make a straight male character seem really good, he will not care about her looks to the extent that a real straight man could never achieve, and he'll respect her for her actions in a way that a real straight man hardly ever would. –  Todd Wilcox Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 20:05

5 Answers 5

Don't describe the character's body. Let the action and the other characters do it for you.

"Have you met Lydia yet?" "No, why?" John and Andy exchanged a knowing look. "Let me just say that once you do, you'll forget all about what's-her-name".

Without any apparent shame, John and Andy leered at Lydia as she stormed off. "Man! Did you see that?" Andy whispered as soon as Lydia was out of earshot. "That's a body that just won't quit!" John laughed and he and Andy high-fived. "Sure, I guess," mumbled Brian. He shifted is feet and looked down. They were wrong, of course. Not about Lydia's body, but about it distracting him from his memories of Samatha.

One advantage to letting your characters show the audience another character's attractiveness is you learn something about all the characters, not just the attractive one.

Another advantage is that we all may have different visions of what the most beautiful woman in the world looks like. If you write, "She was the most beautiful woman in the world," it's pretty weak and we just read the words and move on. If you actually describe in literal detail, some readers will find the picture formed in their minds to be of someone they don't find particularly attractive. If you write,

Helen's beauty was spoken of by travelers and tradesmen all over the known world. Duels to the death were fought between would-be suitors almost every week. Princes, Emirs, and Sultans from the richest kingdoms brought huge dowries to Helen's father to try to sway him into forcing her to marry. But as beautiful as men all over the world knew her to be, to her father she was precious beyond anything, and he would not force her to marry against her wishes for any amount of gold.

Then the readers will imagine their own idea of what the most beautiful woman in the world looks like, and she will be that beautiful for each reader. It's really the only way to get a reader to really feel the beauty - they have to complete the picture in their minds.

• 7 +1 for really driving home the point about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Excellent advice. –  Thomas Reinstate Monica Myron Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 21:32

Read non-comedy books. Learn from other authors how to handle those things. (This is how writers learn how to write.)

Also, remember that you don't need to describe how your characters look unless it's relevant to the story. In my own reading it's rare to see a character's physical bodies described.

• What books would you recommend I read, which demonstrate this? Do you have some Romance books in mind, maybe? I haven't read many, a bit embarrassed to. –  user29283 Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 17:09
• No, just read whatever you like to read. The more you read, the more you'll learn to do it with a writer's eye, recognizing techniques that other authors use. (I'd only suggest you read romance if you're writing romance.) –  Ken Mohnkern Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 17:54
• 8 @user29283 While the first paragraph is useful advice, I think it's the second paragraph which is the one that's most immediately relevant to your situation. Because, let's face it, the only reason Pratchet needed that paragraph was comedy. If he wasn't attempting to get some laughs out of the concept of a woman guard, he wouldn't need that description at all. The only non-comedy-relevant portion of that paragraph is "Carrot found her attractive", which can be (and was) better covered elsewhere in a "show, don't tell" fashion. –  R.M. Commented Feb 2, 2018 at 19:47

Physical measurements seldom make any difference to the plot, and (IMO) it is an amateur mistake to imagine any character, male or female, with too specific a set of measurements.

Breast size, hip size, waist size, shoe size, are all far too specific, and if you think about it, this is the telling of facts, not showing the consequences of those facts, which is what you really want to do.

In rare circumstances, it might make a difference to the plot if somebody is extremely tall or short or obese, or an amputee or physically disabled or deformed, in which case such characteristics must be described. But whether a woman is small breasted, average, or large breasted would require a lot of contrivance to make this significant to the plot. Often, the normality or abnormality of height ratios may be useful clues, a few inches shorter, or taller, or if people are the same height, or if friends have interchangeable clothing (or not).

Show, don't tell. Show the consequences of beauty, not the clinical description of it. Here is a story, not yours, but one I made up here as an illustration:

Angela. For Billy, a name tinged with awe, the perfect name for the most perfectly proportioned woman he had ever seen. Every curve, from brow to ankle, an exact match to his dream desire. Her every expression felt like it tugged at another string in his heart. Every time he saw her, it punched the mute button on his thoughts, any words to say flew from his mind and he could only watch her, rapt and speechless. How could every man in the bar not feel the same? Sooner or later they would, he thought, and if he didn't find his tongue soon, he'd regret his cowardice for the rest of his life. It took him a week to work up the courage to say hello. But he wasn't new to this game. It just takes practice, son, practice, and keep it witty. If you ain't handsome, you best be funny. He practiced. At night instead of watching the games, at work instead of working, with his eyes closed so he could see her face, burned into his memory as if it had been there all his life. And thirty hours of rehearsal paid off. She laughed at his jokes. She knew his name. She touched his shoulder, and Billy was in love.

Three things:

Let the viewpoint character look at her.

Get into the guys mind and describe how he looks at her and what he thinks and feels about what he sees. How you do that will depend on what kind of person he is, so his perception of her is both a description of her and him .

Sometimes telling is better than showing.

If you give a detailed description of the woman's physique, that is both detrimental to the reader's ability to identify with your hero and cumbersome to read.

The more detailed a description is, the more effort it takes the reader to create a mental picture of the object. Try to describe someone sitting at a table without using the word table, and then compare that to "he sat at the table", to understand what I mean. If you can, rely on the reader's knowledge of the world as much as you can.

Also, if you describe the woman in detail, your readers might not think her sexy. Different men (and women) find different looks attractive, and any specific woman will appear desirable only to a part of your readership. To give all readers a sexy woman, do not describe her at all. Instead tell that she is sexy and allow each reader to fill the empty space of the woman's looks with what they themselves find sexy, thus allowing them to better inhabit your narrative.

Number two were two things: effortlessness of reading and facilitation of identification.

You don't have to describe her whole figure, sometimes describing just the face and a bit of her style works well.

Focus on her facial features, was she chubby or skinny? How did her jaw line look? Did she have makeup on? If so, how much did she put on and if it looks good or not. What kind of person did she look like? How did she dress herself? Does your protagonist have feelings for this woman? These are questions to consider while writing.

Here is an example paragraph:

"Her skin was clean and her blissful blue eyes reflected off of the light above us. Her lips looked like the leaves of a fully bloomed cherry blossom tree; her smile brought the satisfying image of maple syrup perfectly being poured on freshly baked pancakes.."

Try using figures of speech to make the description interesting.

I hope this helped, good luck with your writing!

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19,898 quotes, descriptions and writing prompts, 4,964 themes

breasts - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

• breast feeding
• breast size
• let down reflex
• public breast feeding

There is nothing more bewitching than Lucy's naked form. In clothing no heads turn her way to admire. They don't know what they're missing and I'm glad. The world can keep its supermodels, anorexic looking as they are. Lucy is soft and her breasts so warm, so responsive to the touch. As soon as my hand is upon them her kisses change, deeper, more sensual. I can't imagine anyone with implants can respond like that. Everything about her is natural and I love it. I love her too, everything that she is. I don't need eye candy to make the guys jealous, I need a soulmate to keep me warm at night and that she will always be.

There is something so disarming about seeing Miranda naked. There's a vulnerability in her eyes I can't resist. My eyes travel from her face to her collar bone, delicate in the semi-darkness, then to her breasts. Without lingerie they sit lower, more natural, less close together, each so perfect and moulded to her form. I don't linger too long, just enough for her to see how beautiful she is to me. It's her eyes I want to see and my hands can tell me the rest.

Nadia had the breasts of a french actress rather than anything North American television has to offer. The tops caught the moonlight, the underneath a soft shadow. She walked without shame or false modesty, knowing she was beautiful to the eye, sleek with an athletic frame.

The only part of Colette the men noticed were her breasts. Even in a sports bra they appeared enhanced. By the end of the day her back ached and the straps of her bra had dug deeply into her shoulders. The small chested women always glanced her way in envy but if she could swap she'd do it in a heartbeat.

Ava ran her hands down her front, over her body that changed by the day. No longer was she flat, yet she wasn't fully developed either. She turned sideways to the mirror to see her profile, to see how her new breasts protruded from her rib cage. She raised her hand to push from below, to push them upward into a larger mound of soft fat.

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Steamy yet Sophisticated: How to Write the Perfect Kissing Scene

One of the most difficult scenes to write is a kissing scene, or really any scene when when things get hot and heavy.

Writers worry about being too obscene (will my mother read this?), or even worse, not vulgar enough (no one wants to be labeled a prude). 

Humans are private creatures when it comes to lust, and illustrating an intimate scene can still make the most seasoned writer nervous.

The perfect kissing scene is found smack dab between these two adjectives in the title — steamy and sophisticated — as it is the balance of coy and crude that can develop into a beautiful scene.

In order to craft the perfect kissing scene, it is important to look back on the work of others in order to see what works. I’m going to give you two examples and explain why both of them work.

Wait one second:

All writers absolutely need to read the best post I’ve ever written: “ 12 Steps to Write a Bestselling Novel. ”

Pause on your obsession with kissing and plunge headlong into the best guide post on novel writing.

You won’t regret it.

Dolphin-Slippery Kissing in Sophie’s Choice

Considered by many to be William Styron’s magnum opus, this story chronicles the friendship between a young Southern writer and a polish Auschwitz survivor. In this scene the young writer, affectionally named Stingo, is observing a painting beside a young jewish girl named Leslie.

“In the shadows her face was so close to mine that I could smell the sweet ropy fragrance of the sherry she had been drinking, and then her tongue was in my mouth. In all truth I had not invited this prodigy of a tongue; turning, I had merely wished to look at her face, expecting only that the expression of aesthetic delight I might find there would correspond to what I knew was my own. But I did not even catch a glimpse of her face, so instantaneous and urgent was that tongue. Plunged like some writhing sea-shape into my gaping maw, it all but overpowered my senses as it sought some unreachable terminus near my uvula; it wiggled, it pulsated, and made contortive sweeps of my mouth’s vault: I’m certain that at least once it turned upside down. Dolphin-slippery, less wet than rather deliciously mucilaginous and tasting of Amontillado, it had the power in itself to force me, or somehow get me back, against a doorjamb, where I lolled helpless with my eyes clenched shut, in a trance of tongue.”

In this selection Styron’s masterful description keeps the reader glued to the page for every swirl of young Leslie’s tongue. So let’s analyze what exactly worked …

Styron uses the element of surprise to initiate this kissing scene. The main character is still in the process of describing the odor of Ms. Leslie when she startles him with a kiss. By abruptly launching into the kiss mid-sentence, Styron is able to catch his readers off-guard. This helps allow the reader to experience the shock of an unexpected peck.

Another use of Styron’s unpredictable writing style centers around the metaphors and similes that take the reader by surprise with their effectiveness.

Who would of expected that describing a tongue as a “writhing sea-shape” trying to squirm its way out the back of your head would actually work? Or that, keeping with the nautical theme,  Styron would be able to make it sound natural when he illustrates a tongue as “dolphin-slippery”? 

Yet these depictions are such colorfully unconventional ways to describe the act of kissing, that they actually work despite their less-than-arousing sound.

Let’s take a look at another iconic kiss scene.

Star-Struck Kissing in The Great Gatsby

In “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald’s story about wealthy Jay Gatsby’s ill-fated infatuation with the already married Daisy Buchanan, this scene describes a kiss between the two on a cool moonlight night.

“His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”

What makes this scene so compelling is the distinct and bizarre analogy Fitzgerald employs in order to describe the moment. A tuning fork struck upon a star? That’s utterly unique.

But remember that the majority of this kissing scene is the anticipation before the kiss. This is what writers most often forget. They go straight to the physical action and forget that the literary foreplay is the majority of the pleasure.

His figurative language in the second sentence makes the process of leaning in for this kiss almost metaphysical, as the speaker explains how this kiss will act as an act of therapy to cure all of the anxieties that plagued his mind. 

In Fitzgerald, a kiss is never just a kiss.

It can be a cure, an epiphany, a disaster, a transformation.

Kiss & Tell: 7 Takeaways From These Kisses

So what have we learned by analyzing these two scenes side by side?

• Spend some time describing in straightforward language what is happening, but don’t shy away from using strange and unusual metaphors for a kissing scene. 
• Don’t rush. Only bad writers treat a kissing scene as just the physical action between two sets of lips. A true kissing scene is the tension between two people before the kiss, the psychology during the kiss, and the reactions afterwards.
• A kissing scene isn’t just about the physical act of kissing. It’s really about the relationship between these two characters. What are they thinking? What do they really want (and it’s not always sex. It could be a connection, it could be avoiding the feeling of loneliness). 
• There is the early sexual tension, the physical act of lips meeting, and the climax can come either in the character’s thoughts about the kiss or in what they do after they’ve separated from each other (like the lightening in the Jane Eyre example below).
• Both in Gatsby and in the Siddhartha example below, the act of kissing becomes something more: it becomes a kind of revelation, an epiphany. Don’t be afraid to have your kissing scene lead your character into a profound realization.
• Is one enjoying it and the other hating it? Is one overthinking it and the other swept up in the passion? 
• In the Lolita example below, you will find an example of a kissing scene where you don’t trust the person describing the kissing. In Humbert Humbert’s version of the kiss, 12-year-old Lolita is the instigator of the kiss. But can we really trust his version of events?

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5 Bonus Kissing Scenes

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Before she could withdraw her mind from its far places, his arms were around her, as sure and hard as on the dark road to Tara, so long ago. She felt again the rush of helplessness, the sinking yielding, the surging tide of warmth that left her limp. And the quiet face of Ashley Wilkes was blurred and drowned to nothingness. He bent back her head across his arm and kissed her, softly at first, and then with a swift gradation of intensity that made her cling to him as the only solid thing in a dizzy swaying world. His insistent mouth was parting her shaking lips, sending wild tremors along her nerves, evoking from her sensations she had never known she was capable of feeling. And before a swimming giddiness spun her round and round, she knew that she was kissing him back.

Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse

She drew him toward her with her eyes, he inclined his face toward hers and lay his mouth on her mouth, which was like a freshly split-open fig. For a long time he kissed Kamala, and Siddhartha was filled with deep astonishment as she taught him how wise she was, how she ruled him, put him off, lured him back… each one different from the other, still awaiting him. Breathing deeply, he remained standing and at this moment he was like a child astonished by the abundance of knowledge and things worth learning opening up before his eyes.

Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides

The rims of Clementine’s eyes were inflamed. She yawned. She rubbed her nose with the heel of her hand. And then she asked, “Do you want to practice kissing?”

I didn’t know what to answer. I already knew how to kiss, didn’t I? Was there something more to learn? But while these questions were going through my head, Clementine was going ahead with the lesson. She came around to face me. With a grave expression she put her arms around my neck.

The necessary special effects are not in my possession, but what I’d like for you to imagine is Clementine’s white face coming close to mine, her sleepy eyes closing, her medicine-sweet lips puckering up, and all the other sounds of the world going silent — the rustling of our dresses, her mother counting leg lifts downstairs, the airplane outside making an exclamation mark in the sky — all silent, as Clementine’s highly educated, eight-year-old lips met mine.

And then, somewhere below this, my heart reacting.

Not a thump exactly. Not even a leap. But a kind of swish, like a frog kicking off from a muddy bank. My heart, that amphibian, moving that moment between two elements: one, excitement; the other, fear. I tried to pay attention. I tried to hold up my end of things. But Clementine was way ahead of me. She swiveled her head back and forth the way actresses did in the movies. I started doing the same, but out of the corner of her mouth she scolded, “You’re the man.” So I stopped. I stood stiffly with arms at my sides. Finally Clementine broke off the kiss. She looked at me blankly a moment, and then responded, “Not bad for your first time.”

Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Hardly had the car come to a standstill than Lolita positively flowed into my arms. Not daring, not daring let myself go — not even daring let myself realize that this (sweet wetness and trembling fire) was the beginning of the ineffable life which, ably assisted by fate, I had finally willed into being — not daring really kiss her, I touched her hot, opening lips with the utmost piety, tiny sips, nothing salacious; but she, with an impatient wriggle, pressed her mouth to mine so hard that I felt her big front teeth and shared in the peppermint taste of her saliva. I knew, of course, it was but an innocent game on her part, a bit of backfisch foolery in imitation of some simulacrum of fake romance, and since (as the psychotherapist, as well as the rapist, will tell you) the limits and rules of such girlish games are fluid, or at least too childishly subtle for the senior partner to grasp — I was dreadfully afraid I might go too far and cause her to start back in revulsion and terror.

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

The rain rushed down. He hurried me up the walk, through the grounds, and into the house; but we were quite wet before we could pass the threshold. He was taking off my shawl in the hall, and shaking the water out of my loosened hair, when Mrs. Fairfax emerged from her room. I did not observe her at first, nor did Mr. Rochester. The lamp was lit. The clock was on the stroke of twelve.

“Hasten to take off your wet things,” said he; “and before you go, good- night — good-night, my darling!”

He kissed me repeatedly. When I looked up, on leaving his arms, there stood the widow, pale, grave, and amazed. I only smiled at her, and ran upstairs. “Explanation will do for another time,” thought I. Still, when I reached my chamber, I felt a pang at the idea she should even temporarily misconstrue what she had seen. But joy soon effaced every other feeling; and loud as the wind blew, near and deep as the thunder crashed, fierce and frequent as the lightning gleamed, cataract-like as the rain fell during a storm of two hours’ duration, I experienced no fear and little awe. Mr. Rochester came thrice to my door in the course of it, to ask if I was safe and tranquil: and that was comfort, that was strength for anything.

Before I left my bed in the morning, little Adele came running in to tell me that the great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the night, and half of it split away.

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139 comments

How does it feel to really kiss?

Its like opening up your soul, tasting feeling and seeing every colour of the rainbow in their own sensual way, almost like catching a smile in a bottle, its softness, its sweetness… Like breathing in the person like a cool inhalation of oxygen to warm the soul.. Like nothing in the world exist but u and the person… This feeling like ur levitating off the ground floating in the air… What ur feeling cannot be put into words, nor has there get been any part of speech or figure of speech invented to describe it.. Its like an aphrodisiac, mixed with a Pandoras box effect , fireworks glowing inside u from the touch of the persons lips on u.

Woah, dude. That’s deeper than any of the kissing scenes in the article.

That was beautiful.

Wow. That’s quite deep.

Kissing feels like pressing your lips against slightly slimy cardboard and waiting to get on with the reasoning behind the kiss

You should write a book

Wooaaaahhhhhh…. that is some deep stuff but I do find myself agreeing with you.

Love it, you have enlightened me, now back to work and this time I know i need to engage senses

Damn. I’m shook from how deep that was.

that was beautiful…

this was so beautifully written it made me tear up and crave to feel it firsthand

*ahem* could I use this for the book I’m writing because I have no other ideas??

i ask the same thing cause i havnt experienced

It feels as if your whole world has been waiting for this moment. As if all the love inside your soul, as well as your body (with the right person) combine into lust and passion. The feeling of a good kiss is when your person your kissing wraps their arms around you, you feel as if you were safe but are complete aware of how you look, and wanting to impress them. A TRUE GOOD KISS, is the feeling when you feel sick to the stomach but strong as well. That, Sadie, is what I consider to be a good kiss.

I think how it feels, is when they lean in and look you in the eyes, before their lips fall on yours. The feeling of love and passion fills your soul. As if that kiss was meant to be yours. As if the person and you were meant to kiss. When that person grabs you and holds you close and kisses you so passionately, it makes you feel safe and completely venerable to that person. You feel as if your body will explode with the feeling of happiness, the feeling of being rarely safe in the persons hold. As if this pacific person was meant for you. And when it’s over, you just know. No kiss will ever compare. That is a real kiss. To me at least, Sadie.

She leads me to a small clearing. I see the starlight, those beautiful pinpricks of light in the infinite dark expanse of the universe. “Wow…” I stutter. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” she asks, slipping behind me. She hugs me around the waist, and I cringe instinctively away from the unexpected contact. “It’s… stunning” I grasp desperately for the correct word. “Turn around, I have one more surprise” she commands. I turn around, and all I see is her, her vibrant, fiery hair glowing with the silver cascade of the moonlight, the glow of the stars in her amber eyes, her delicate smile and the deep blushing on her face. “You were right, babe, it’s beautiful” I say, and her cheeks redden further. “There’s more” she says, and leans in quickly. Her lips touch mine gently and affectionately. My mind immediately crowds with a million thoughts, but I push them away for the moment, desiring nothing more than to enjoy this moment. Almost immediately, she recoils shyly and blushes uncontrollably. I stand in shock, the swarm of thoughts flowing into my mind. She begins to retreat, fearing that she may have taken things too far, too quickly. I move quickly to her, brushing away her hair. I lean in and gently guide her head toward mine. Our kiss lasts mere moments, but it feels great. Thousands of thoughts are forced away to make room for one single idea. Hold on to this moment forever. I release and rest my forehead against hers. “I love you, babe.” I say, barely more than a whisper. She blushes more. “I love you too” she whispers. Our lips connect once more. Each moment, the feeling of her soft, perfect lips becomes more and more provocative. It is in this moment that I truly realize that I am hers and she is mine. I was meant for this, I was meant for her. This is the first time that I have ever felt that I truly belong. I swear to god, we actually transversed the infinite planes to one in which time does not exist, because I am sure that if we were in the world, my passion for her would be enough to stop time, to hold this moment, to hold her, for ever. I wish to stretch this moment out into a thousand, just to feel her body against mine. She is Ember, she is my Ember, and I belong entirely to her. The world is gone, and we float through an infinite expanse of nothing, just the two of us, Abby and Ember. We love each other and that’s all that we need. We can stay here through all time and eternity. Sadly, the world of the living was not done with us yet. We release our lip lock. “That was… that felt amazing…” I stumble for words again. “I love you, Abby” she says, and I lay down on the ground. She sets her head on my breasts. After hours of thinking, I finally accept the embrace of sleep.

@Sadie and some others asking what a kiss feels like:

You are, very understandably, asking the wrong question. A kiss is never just a kiss. It’s the circumstances that determine what kissing feels like (and the meaning of the kiss is where your story lies). The first time I kissed a boy, I did it because I wanted to know what it would be like. I’d just turned 13 and worldly deciding it was time, but then the kiss turned out to be a huge disappointment. Wet, gross, my nose awkwardly bumping into his; it wasn’t what I’d imagined at all. The way my classmate’s tongue swirled in my mouth reminded me of the spinning cycle of a laundry machine. Was this what the fuss was all about? I wasn’t in such a hurry to grow up after that.

Fast forward to my first real party as a freshman in college where I kissed a man to distract him from his efforts to rape me. He’d drugged me and I woke up as he was taking my clothes off. I asked him to stop, but he didn’t. The ice-cold fear shooting through my veins overruled the nauseating revulsion of his unwelcome mouth on mine as I frantically bought myself time to think up an escape.

Every kiss in my life was different. I clearly remember the first kiss by a man I was deeply in love with despite my resignation that he would probably never want me. I barely registered the shock of his warm lips on mine because my world imploded, a signal sounded and doors closed between us. When the train slowly left the station, I couldn’t even feel my legs and floated to my seat in the happiest of dazes.

I’ve trembled in fear when I could no longer deny a man who’d been patient through many dates with me. I was terrified a kiss might lead to real feelings for him because I was nowhere near ready for a relationship and the impulse to flee, to actually run out of my own apartment, was battering at me but I locked my knees and braved the kiss anyway.

Speaking of knees: they gave out when my secret lover kissed me behind a curtain at a very public party as he whispered promises in my ear about what would follow later that night.

I’ve hated the kisses that I felt obligated to give, the taste of them like overripe oranges. But I’ve also begged for kisses from the men I loved, both for sloppy ones in the shower and sunlit ones in the morning. I’ve danced like a stripper after midnight to gain the affections of complete strangers when I was drunkenly trying to get over an ex, the anonymous arms around me healing the crumpled pieces of me fearing I’d never be noticed again. Sometimes I missed a man so much, kissing him felt like I was taking my first full breath in days. I’ve tearfully kissed men goodbye. One kiss shattered me with the sudden realisation that the man I loved meant for it to be the last. I’ve steeled myself for kisses intending to leave all my walls firmly intact, deliberately concentrating on perfect technique instead. I’ve kissed men intending a quick peck only to be swept up in a wave of heat. Last year I said “I do” before kissing my husband, all the while gripping his hands- both to let him know I truly meant it and to hold on for dear life. You’d think that almost 2 decades’ worth of kisses would qualify me to tell you what it really feels like, but I couldn’t possibly. Because a kiss is never just a kiss. Trust me on this. A kiss can be a pledge of love or a declaration of war, and sometimes it’s both.

Some writers reduce kissing to a purely physical act, and the result is a bad scene because kissing simply isn’t. Walking or cycling or eating an apple tends to feel roughly the same every time. Why? Because basic stuff like eating or moving from point A to point B usually doesn’t MEAN very much (unless it’s the first time walking after losing your legs in a car accident or there’s suddenly a worm in your apple on a bad day). Kisses never really feel the same because they always mean something. Even if it’s just a hasty smack and a “drive safe” between a husband and a wife, a kiss means something.

I think it’s helpful to see kissing as a way to communicate. Think about it: you never really have the same conversation twice either. If someone were to ask you; “what does talking really feel like?”, you’d probably pause. Because talking is never just… talking. Sure, you’re moving your lips, forming words, noises come out, language is chosen, but that’s not what it FEELS like to have a conversation, nor what a conversation is really about. What talking feels like depends rather heavily on the situation and the person you’re having the conversation with. Kissing is just like that; it’s interaction. It’s human connection. That’s why metaphors work so well when describing kisses. I never really know where my hands are during a kiss, but my brain always automatically processes what the kiss means. So when writing, I’d prioritise meaning over logistics and even sensory input every time. Without meaning, your readers won’t feel much either. Ask yourself: why does this kiss matter to these characters?

Also: never underestimate a hug or a brush of fingers or other non-verbal interactions. With the right meaning attached, they can be ridiculously powerful. I think it’s one of the great misconceptions of our time that we seem to think that only stuff in the bedroom counts. Also quite idiotic: all the times we label that same stuff as ‘casual’. It rarely ever is.

Just my 2 cents as I’m trying to figure out how to work the first kiss in the story I’m writing. I thought the article was really helpful. It reminded me of the basic fact that the meaning of the kiss always takes precedence.

Oh wWOOOOOOWWWW!! NOW THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. This is beautiful.

God, I needed to write a comment after reading such an enlightening comment. Thank you so much for your thorough examples and explanations, know that somewhere on this planet someone will keep this in mind when they write their kissing scene <3

It depends a lot on the person.

I personally do not feel much stimulated by kissing, for me my partner’s stimulation turns me on af.

It feels warm, soft & very intimate.

Kissing is like communicating with your partner. It makes you feel certain emotions you have never felt before. It is like connecting with your partner’s soul, and feeling the warmth of your partner’s breath. It helps build a stronger bond with your partner, and makes them feel welcomed.

I think it’s like a really awkward moment of sucking face.

Your breath is all entangled (you can’t breath well because you’re so close) and you’re choosing to trust your partners oral hygiene (like don’t they ask themselves??)

But my friends in relationships say it’s addictive.

In truth, a little awkward. A chaste kiss is just a mouth against a mouth – warm, but not really something one has to get very descriptive about. Open-mouthed kisses without tongue are probably my favorite (wow, I never thought of that until now, actually!) because they’re not as invasive as a kiss with tongue but not as chaste as a closed-mouth kiss. This kiss feels soft, unless there’s lip biting involved (which is hot until someone starts bleeding). Warm, of course. It’s almost like a caress. As for kisses with a lot of tongue, I can’t be trusted to describe such a kiss without letting my bias show significantly.

I’m very late to this party, but this is a great article! It definitely helped me while writing these type of scene’s in my story and the examples given from stories were also very helpful.

what’s your story?

So you think that YOU’RE late? I am like late late lol. but nevertheless, the article was helpful no matter how late people come to it.

Yo, you think YOU’RE late? If you’re late late – I’m late late late late late! Gotta agree though, this article has helped out my writing loads.

You think YOU’RE late? if you’re late late late late late, I’m late late late late late late late! Yeah, this helped though

You think YOU’RE late?

You think You’re late? If you’re….. oh, never mind.

I agree with all, this is a fantastic article and has literally just helped my kissing/love-making scene. Thank you.

lmfao what?

Oh, you poor, oblivious souls. These days, Late takes poor, unsuspecting humans and infects them with the plague you know as the opposite of “punctuality”. No cure has been found for Late, unfortunately.

So this is part of a musical that I wrote for fun but…. So Kate and Thomas are married and she has been abused in the past so she locks him in the bathroom once she sees the bed because she gets scared. He escapes through the door that leads outside and has made his way back into the room (Thomas tries to sneak away but Kate spots him)

Kate(spoken): T-Thomas….. I—– (turns away as if to leave) Thomas(running over to her and kissing her, silencing the apology. She pulls back and he lets her): Shhhh…..it’s okay. He did more than just shove you a couple times didn’t he? What did he do to you? I want to know everything. ( Kate stares at her hands) Kate (whispered): Knives can fly (Thomas takes her hands in his and rubs them tenderly in a circular motion): Look I can wait until you’re ready to talk but I’m also not leaving this room until you tell me everywhere he hurt you and how he did it. Kate(whispered): okay (Her shoulders are trembling and he grabs them gently but firmly to steady them) Thomas( soothing): now where do you want to start? …… So the musical continues and he gets her to tell him everything. She is also subconsciously buttoning her blue jean jacket up as she talks …… * so to make this easier I’m turning the rest into a story format on here* Thomas shakes his head in anger,” that man better be praising the Lord that he is in jail because if not HE’D BE DEAD. Kate begins to tremble and pulls away.”Thomas, please you’re scaring me,” Thomas relaxes and a look of worry crosses his face. “Sorry baby, I just got a little mad. Look I can sleep on the couch until you’re ready” he starts to leave but she stops him “Don’t” her voice is steady now, no longer afraid. “We don’t have to, baby” he again goes to leave but she stops him again. ” Please,” she kisses him and he immediately pulls back, worry written all over his face. ” Katy-cat” ” I want to ” (I can’t italicize but the want is emphasized) she kisses him again. Thomas pulls back and stares her in the eyes, ” are you sure?” She hesitates the fear visible in her eyes for a brief second before determination takes over. ” Yes….just….go slow” His voice grows gentle but firm as he says ” okay. If you start to panic, I’m gonna stop immediately and go sleep on the couch. Deal?” “Yes” Thomas scoots closer and starts to unbutton her jacket. [The stage darkens. The last thing visible is Kate’s jacket falling to the floor]

That’s really good. Great job!!

Thanks….really helped.. I’m 15 writing my first novel that is romance but fiction based….looking for someone to sponsor me to act it probably during the August holiday.

17 and working on my own stuff my dude. Keep writing, be as consistent as you can manage. You got this.

15 and writing a novel too. It’s nice to see all the positivity around

14 and trying but keep getting distracted. I am hoping all of you get it done and published.

17 and about to write a romantic and dangerously feisty scene. Helping a ton!

13 and trying as well. It’s a fantasy but there’s lots of romance :happy-face:

I write books in my free time, and they’re romance books, so yeah, this article was pretty useful for future references, thanks so much. does anyone know how to get a book published?

Honestly, anything that uses the phrase ‘gaping maw’ and ‘dolphin slippery’ should not be used as a template for a good kiss scene. Unless you’re into making out with Lovecraftian monsters those aren’t phrases you use to describe kissing. Vore, maybe. Kissing, no.

Thank you. I read that and my nose wrinkled like “whaaaa???” Is it surprising, yes. Is it a scene that would make a reader sigh in bliss. Absolutely no. Wow. That is a descriptor I would 100% stay away from.

Damn it was just mind blowing!!

Yessssss @TheBoi yesssss! Like yesssssssssssssss

“Are you going to be okay?” I whispered. “Yeah. Let’s just get it over with.” She took off her sweater. “Okay.” I breathed. She wrapped her arms around my neck and teased me with her big green eyes. “Okay,” I repeated. I awkwardly put my arms around her waist. We stared into each other’s eyes for an awkward second. I leaned down, and she brought her head up. Our lips connected. She deepened the kiss. With one hand, she took the hat off my head and dropped it on the ground. She ran her hands through my dark pink hair. I had dyed it because I constantly had trouble with being kind. I had little sympathy for people, so the color pink reminded me that some people do hurt like I do. It reminded me to have compassion for others. I got made fun of a lot for having such a “girly” hair color. I never listened, though. It was a decision that I made to better myself, even if I got beaten up for it. We both shifted so that Ash was on my lap. I tugged at the bottom of her crop top. My hand slid up her spine. I felt a tremor go through her body. My hand slid back down her spine, resting at her hip. I unconsciously tilted my head to deepen the kiss. We kissed more and more passionately by the second. After a moment, I unintentionally slid my hand down and lightly touched her on the back of her thigh. She stopped moving. “Stop.” “What?” I pulled away. “What’s wrong?” “Just stop.” She pulled away and got up. Without looking back, she ran away. I stared after her in disbelief. It took a moment for it to click. “Oh, no. I’m a terrible person.” I put my head in my hands. “What did you do?” Victoria’s expression hardened. I beckoned to her. I whispered in her ear, “I touched her where he did.” She stared at me, horrified. “You are a terrible person.”

This is an excerpt of a story that I’m working on. This part is when one of the main characters, Alexei, and his best friend, Ashlynn, are playing Truth or Dare with their class at a party. Before they were playing, Ashlynn got assaulted by a classmate. Alexei knocked the classmate out in an attempt to protect Ashlynn. But anyway, Alexei gets dared to make out with Ashlynn, whom he affectionately calls “Ash.” At first he blatantly refuses, but Ashlynn insists that it doesn’t bother her, and so they make out. Victoria is Ashlynn’s other best friend, by the way.

That’s amazing!! I’m an aspiring (fan) fiction writer and hope to actually be as good as that one day ahahaha….

Same haha, i write alot of fanfiction but i’m moving on to an actual novel soon.

wow!! me too this article helped me a lot. im 13 and i write lots of fanfictions on wattpad and kissing scenes are the hardest to write.

Damn. I want more

I’m having a hard time writing my first kissing scene. This helps lot!

ok…? once i had a dream where i was playing Spin The Bottle (not that I’d ever do that in real life) with some acquaintances of mine, and I had to kiss this one guy that i don’t like very much. it was a pretty weird dream.

Lev snickered slightly as he put his forehead to mine. Our lips were so close I could have easily kissed them. I felt his breath on my lips and closed my eyes, cherishing the moment. He leaned in closer and placed his lips upon mine. We were like that for a minute until he heated things up a little. He Kissed me harder as he gently tugged at my hair. “L-lev!” I exclaimed, pulling away a little and gasping for air. My eyes met his and I relaxed. His Green eyes gave me a lustful look.

What do you think?

That’s cool!!!

personally i don’t believe in the zodiac, but if you use the zodiac kissing/cuddling/flirting styles that match your character it can really help, or at least i think so here’s a part of my writing: Bill and Ford sit on the grass. Bill presses his forehead against the side of her face. Stanford just pokes him in the cheek. Bill smiles and closes his eyes pulling Ford closer. She pushes him back a bit.

“Aw, what’s wrong?” Bill asks with a fake pout.

“Nothing.” She says softly while laying her head on his shoulder and scratching the back of his head. Bill begins to pick the wild buttercups and and evening primroses to weave a crown which he put on her head. Ford gently pecks him on the cheek and chuckles softly. He pulls her in closer again and kisses her. Her eyes widen at the surprise but she soon became familiar with his fiery aggressiveness. As they fell into the grass Stanford broke from his iron grip and started giggling.

“I know you’re incapable of fun, but you should try laughing more, its so cute.” He smiles.

She just chuckles some more. “I don’t know how to respond to that.” He grabs her chin and kisses her again, this time she expected the bite. He presses his forehead against hers and looks at her. “Your eyes are like swirling galaxies.”

“I’ve heard it before.” She says pulling his tie and poking his nose.

“I should become an an astronomer because I can’t stop studying them.” She hits him on the back of the head before giving him another peck on the cheek.

“Do you know how hard it is when you have no one to talk to? When you are the only one that is different? Do you know what it feels like when nobody is there to love you? I don’t think I can do this anymore.” Vladimir put his hand underneath my chin and made me look at him. His bright green eyes lit up by the mini him. “No one and nobody?” I could feel his fire burn through the coldness that I was feeling. His hand that was on my chin moved to my cheek and his other moved up my arm. He trailed his fingertips on my forearm barely even touching me. It made me shiver, he didn’t look away from me when a car honked. I was scared lost in the pools of his eyes, I didn’t know if I wanted my first kiss to be with the person I’m not even supposed to be attracted to. Before I could even think of his brother finding out his lips parted mine. It was gentle at first he wasn’t sure if I wanted it, then it got firmer as I didn’t pull back. His hand went behind my neck and pulled my closer to his face, the other hand laying my on the ground. I don’t know if I was expecting fireworks, but this felt different than what I had imagined my first kiss would feel like. My hands wrapped around his neck before I could even think about anything. This is what I wanted. I didn’t want his brother, I wanted him. I felt the sand in my hair as he rolled my on top of him. This is apart of my fiction story where this girl is engaged to the prince, but found out that she is more attracted to his brother. This had happened before with the brothers where Henry’s (The one that the girl is engaged to) ex-wife thought she was in love with Vladimir and Henry had her killed after he had found out that she was sleeping with Vladimir.

I love it so much! Is it being published? I would love to read it.

“Can I kiss you?” I bit down on my bottom lip, nodding. “Close your eyes.” I shut my eyes, tilting my head slightly. Her hand moved to the small of my back, steadying me. She tilted her head, and I felt her hair brush my elbow as her lips met mine. I moved my hand down her face, resting it on the back of her neck. She wrapped her arm around my waist as she moved her mouth against mine, anxiety and worries making way to numbness. It was the kind of kiss that was so intoxicating your brain couldn’t handle thinking about anything else. We only broke when we needed to breathe, and I briefly basked in the image of her heavy-lidded eyes and slightly messy hair before our lips met again. She deepened the kiss, pulling me on top of her so that my legs were straddling hers. It was so much and not enough all at once. A high pitched scream broke us apart, ringing through the entirety of the school grounds.

The second the door closed, Henry was on Michael in a heartbeat, pinning him against the wall. Already it was far out of bounds of public modesty. Michael could feel Henry ever so slightly brushing his tongue over his bottom lip, requesting entrance. Michael denied. Rejected but not disheartened, Henry moved down to Michael’s neck. A small moan slipped out from between his lips as Henry nipped just below his ear lobe, before he made his devious way down to suck a lovebite on Michael’s sunkissed skin. His slender fingers were gently caressing the curve of Michael’s hip, while the other was softly grasping his jaw. Henry suddenly had the power to turn his husband’s legs to jelly, leaving him undone with just a few kisses and some very strategic touching. Michael felt helpless, his eyes shut and his head lolling backwards against the wall in a trance of tongue. At last, Michael gave in to Henry’s wordless requests, and as his sweet lips toyed with his, he was finally granted entrance. Michael struggled to keep his footing as Henry’s tongue softly mapped every inch of his mouth. As they broke apart for air, Michael took the opportunity to sensibly suggest that it probably wasn’t the best idea to get intimate in the hallway, as much as he wanted to. Henry agreed.

“Do you want to take this upstairs, or finish it later?” He smirked, before turning to inspect the delicious red mark he had left on Michael’s neck. He seemed proud of his work, and Michael couldn’t disagree. He was shaking, and felt like if the wall behind him wasn’t there, then he would have collapsed ages ago.

Michael considered his options for a few seconds. He could either go upstairs and be rendered subject to Henry’s magic, or walk away and start cooking dinner, and risk his kids seeing the red mark on his neck. He didn’t think he had enough mental strength for the latter.

“Let’s go up…”

Michael went up the stairs first, so that Henry would be there to catch him if his knees gave way. When he reached the landing without falling, he couldn’t say he wasn’t a bit proud of himself. He opened the door on the left to their bedroom, and Henry stepped in after him. He slowly shut the door behind himself, a kind of hunger in his eyes which Michael couldn’t quite place. It was almost predatorial, but he liked it.

“Come here. Gosh, your lips look…. delicious.”

Michael obliged without word.

“Gosh, your lips are delicious.” Henry murmured, sending sparks and shivers up Michael’s spine.

i can’t stop reading this, it’s really well written. i always reference it when writing because of how good and descriptive it is. great job!

That’s soooooo awesome!!! If that book is coming out, I will buy it. I have been looking trough the comments for so long and this is until now the best of all. I just wrote my first kissing scene and I think it ended up pretty good. This gave me so many ideas and I hope it’s okay, if I copy it? That was just really good job!

I’ve never had the chance to ever kiss anyone so making one up is even more difficult then I could even imagine I don’t know how to describe it but this sort of helped

Same, I’ve never had a kiss before so it’s harder then it should be

he grabbed my hand and pulled me back inside his grip was firm and the next thing I knew he slammed his lips to mine and nearly knocked all wind from my lungs. I hardly had time to react before he pressed his tongue to the seam of my lips I opened my mouth in shock he delved inside my mouth. It was a very sloppy kiss with the strong scent of mint being exchanged in the intermingling of our billowing breaths. He let go of my lips and we took in a deep breath before he dulged back in I could feel his saliva as it rolled off my tongue and seeped down my throat with every push of his tongue against mine.

I’m working on a romance novel and these totally helped!! There are two characters. It’s being told from the girl’s perspective. Neither has had their first kiss. The girl is uninterested, but the boy really likes her. Gradually, she begins to like him but they aren’t dating. There is some low-key flirting and a few romantic moments but nothing serious. I’m planning to have to boy go in for a kiss, but I have no idea how I want to describe it. He’s kind and considerate, but he’s also been having feelings for her for a long time and he wants to go all in. Anyone here have something I can tweak that I can use?

Here is one that I have been working on:

We stared at the sunset for a minute. I stared at the rosy clouds and commented, “It looks like I can just pluck the clouds out of the sky and eat them. Don’t they look like cotton candy?” He laughs. “I love the way you think.” I sigh, stretching my arms above my head and then placing them behind my back on the soft mossy ground. I lean on my elbows, and then, eventually, lie down completely. I fold my hands behind my head and watch the last of the sun’s rays disappear below the horizon. The first stars begin to peek out from the black curtain sweeping above out heads and the light of the full moon. There aren’t any crater or bruises — just a polished sphere of white looking down at me. I glanced at Ethan, surprised to realize that he was looking at me. Or, more specifically, my lips. “Is something wrong?” I ask. “Is my make-up smudged?” “Or something,” he agrees, staring at me with something in his eyes that I hadn’t seen before. I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. “Is something wrong?” my voice caught. He didn’t reply, instead leaning in closer. He lay down next to me, propped up by his elbow. His face was only a hair’s breadth away from mine. I turned to look at him and he pressed forward. He kissed me. I had known in my heart all along. He loved me. And now it it me full force. His hand crept up my spine, pulling me in close. His hand rested on my hip and behind my neck. His lips started to open mine. Trembling, I obeyed. I almost couldn’t breathe as his roving hands swept up my hips. I knew that he wanted me to kiss him back. I wanted to as well, but I was so shocked that I was completely immobilized. He pulled away. “Kiss me,” he whispered. I pressed my lips to his. My hand ran through his dark hair. I felt a tremor go through his body before he wrapped his arm around me. He slid his body on top of mine, bracing himself with his elbows so I didn’t get the full brunt of his weight. He kissed me harder, almost aggressively. His mouth opened mine. I swiveled my head back and forth, mapping out his mouth. I was wrapped up in the kiss, and I didn’t want it to stop. His hands clutched my forearms, preventing me from moving. His arms stopped carrying so much of the weight and he pushed down on top of me. He ran his fingers through my hair. I couldn’t breathe, what with my shock and his weight. I pushed off of the ground and he slid his body off of mine. In the process, his lips parted with mine and we both panted heavily. Then I scooted closer. I hadn’t been this close to someone before, and it made me feel safe. I kissed him gently, nothing fancy. I stood up, knowing that we couldn’t stay here forever. He did the same. “Goodbye,” I murmured, my lips wet. And before he could say anything, I took off, sprinting towards my house.

I really like the writing, just the “swiveled my head back and forth” part is a little weirdly worded.

Okay, I have a fanfiction that I’m working on, and I’m trying with the kiss scene. Please tell me your thoughts. The setting is they are laying on Will’s bed on their sides looking at each other: He cut me off with a sloppy kiss, due to our awkward position on the bed. I kissed back, grabbing his arm to pull him on top of me. Will nibbled my bottom lip making me let out a soft moan, which Will took as an opportunity to slip his tongue into my mouth. We moved in sync, passionately kissing each other. I felt connected to Will at that moment, more than I ever had before. He pulled off my lips and swiftly moved to my neck. He sucked and licked his way down, leaving marks that I’d later have to cover up later. I tugged at the hem of his shirt, and he knew what I wanted. In one quick motion he whipped off his shirt, and I sat up for a second to take off mine. There was a gleam in Will’s azure eyes that made chills crawl down my spine. He shoved me back down on the bed and kissed me again. I ran my hands through WIll’s golden locks, tugging at the back, making Will groan in response. Will had been hovering over me this whole time, but he now layed down, the weight of him crushing me, but in a good way. I could feel his boner digging into my thigh, which just turned me on even more. He left my lips again, kissing down my stomach. I was about to tell him to keep going when there was loud banging on the door. “WILLLLL!!! NICCOOOOO!! DINNER!!” Kayla yelled.

Oh my gods. Solangelo?

Oh my gods!!! Solangelo!!!

OMFG!!!!! SOLANGELOOO! LESSGOOO

wow nice touch really felt real

I am a complete and absolute bookworm. I am writing a novel [trying to] to enter in the young authors award. That article was really helpful as were the comments. I have a brief idea on how to write a kissing scene as though i am actually there. Thanks guys!

I’m writing a story, and I tried to write a kissing scene, but since I’ve never kissed anyone, I don’t know how good or bad this is.

“Well, I don’t know, there’s just something that I really wanna do,” he says, resting his hand on the back of his neck. Before I can ask what, he presses his lips to mine. At first, the kiss is sweet, kind of like a looooong peck. But all the innocence is stripped away as he parts my lips with his. He slides his tongue along my bottom lip, and I moan softly. He slips his tongue inside my mouth, and we battle for dominance as he leads me towards the bed. He gently pushes me down onto the bed. He climbs on top of me, resting on his elbows, careful to not put his full weight on me. He connects his lips to mine once again, and as soon as our tongues meet again, the door opens and we jump apart, Will quickly climbing off of me. I look over to see who interrupted our heated make-out session, and I see Connor standing there, smirking.

so ive been working on this story for a while now in 14 and never been kissed this website gave me a good idea of what to write could I maybe get some feedback . thanks guys 🙂 stay safe .

now im stood here in the middle of the hall looking around frantically , i need to find him right now . i take a step forward because i think i saw him but i was wrong then i take a step back in frustration and i bump into someone as i turn to apologise i see him his perfectly sculpted face.

for whats eens like eternitys we just stare directly into eachothers eyes most people would look at his eyes and see beautiful green baut at this very moment i see mountains and maps and thousands of miles of beautiful senary surrounded by coulors no one even knows exist and only i will ever see. i see myself and i see a future full of love as he looks down at my slightly parted lips. i know whats about to happen we both lean into eachother in slow motion only breaking eye contact for a few seconds to look down at his lips . our mouths touch the slightest bit and i pull away with anxiety then we begin closing the gap even more and then gradually this small peck becomes this much more passionate kiss with its own lifeline surviving by the slight movements of our toungs dancing in our mouths were connected body and soul in this moment the rest of the world spins so fast it becomes nonexistent in my mind . i lean further in to hold him and keep myself from melting into the floor, our eyes are closed but i can see clearer than i ever have. Its asif i can feel fireworks blazing , glowing and igniting something within me . were completely and utterly in sync in this very moment, i can feel his hands running through my hair and im tugging at his this moment couldn’t be anymore perfect. We both slow down and cautiously pull back i noow remember that everyone is staring at us and i can hear them clapping but i don’t care i look up into his eyes as i hug him and i realize he doesn’t care either we were together and thats all that mattered .

This will be the first kissing scene I’m going to write for my book, hope someone can give me a feedback. I’m a bit scared it’s not good enough..

And for a brief moment, they both just stared fondly at each other eyes.

Then Yoongi gently held Aen’s face with his other hand, tilts his head and slowly started leaning towards her.

Aen felt her heartbeat accelerate and when Yoongi’s face was just an inch away from her face, she abruptly close her eyes.

Yoongi felt the same, although his heart has been beating rapidly ever since Aen said she loves him for who he is. And when he saw her close her eyes, he smiled.

And finally the feelings they had for each other was sealed as their lips meet. 

They both felt happy and complete, and the 0 on their wrist glowed at the same time as well indicating their souls have bonded .

Aen feels Yoongi put her hand that was on his face behind his neck, then his hand was on her waist and pulled her a bit closer.

The kiss is sweet and is full of affection.

they shared made them feel like time had stop just for them and that this moment was already predestined to happen.

And as they both parted for a breather, they look at each other’s eyes and smiled.

The suprised studio date was really worth it.

I think it’s great, I myself don’t really like the very graphic kiss descriptions (that’s just me) but this is really good! make it a bit more consistent either past or present tense, as you’ve got “they both just stared fondly” and also “Aen feels Yoongi” so, just choose past or present tense and stick with one or the other is my advice.

I have never been kissed before im also working on something this is really good!!!!

Omg, guys! These are so good! I’m writing a novel, however, I have never been kissed before. Tell me what you think:

I stared at the sunset, the swirling twilight mixing with the dark purples and oranges and the red sun to make a spiraling masterpiece. I sighed with content, propping myself up with the heels of my hands. I turn my head to scratch an itch when I see Andrew staring at me. “What?” I ask, nervous. Then I clear my throat to try and remove the squeak in my voice. “Is something wrong?” It doesn’t work. Why am I nervous? I shouldn’t be nervous—nothing’s going on. After all, I’ve known him for a month now, and there haven’t been any sparks. Have there? My knees start trembling, and in an effort to retain our friendship—and my dignity— I smooth my skirt over them. In an effort to look casual, I say, “This looks like something you’d paint, Andrew.” He shakes his head and doesn’t elaborate. Eventually, he stands up and holds his hand out. I take it and gently pull myself up. “Audrey, there’s… something I should tell you.” He stares at me with that intense look in his eyes, that look where you can tell he’s thinking hard. His wide, blue eyes stare at me, and I reach for his hands. There’s something so irresistible about his stare. And before I can stop myself, I lean forward until my face brushes up against his. I wait a moment, in case he wants to pull away, but he doesn’t. And for a second, I doubt myself. My emotions are so tangled, no comb could straighten them. But there’s something that could. So I close that last bit of space and press my lips against his. I can tell he’s been waiting for this moment. And strangely, semi-consciously, so have I. He slides his hands down my hips and I shiver, and he senses it. He cradles me in his arms, tilting his head to deepen the kiss, and I part my lips. I wrap my arms around him, closing every last bit of space, and he picks me up; I’m much shorter than him. I run my hands through his thick, brown hair and smile. I never thought I’d be touching him like this before. He carries me to his house, setting me down on the porch. We part for a moment, breathing in, before indulging ourselves once more. I’ve always been so shy, but that part of me melts away. I tug at his shirt, urging him to take it off. With a sexy smile, he takes my hands, evading my efforts and leads me inside. We make it to his bedroom, not bothering to close the door before he scoops me up again. I feel so… brave in his arms. His hand slides up my back, warm and soothing. I melt into his touch and squeeze him to me. I want more but… I just can’t seem to get it. I pull away, and our eyes meet. He understands. He feels it too. And with that, he’s on top of me, tugging off my shirt and his. I run my hand down his chest, hard with muscle. I’m so indulged I vaguely sense him working at the button on my jeans. I lay back on the bed, stretching out my arms, inviting him to join me. He does, pressing his lips to mine, his minty breath is intoxicating, pulling me in, I scoot closer, my heart pounding. His lips part mine, and our tongues meet. I map out his mouth, feeling every inch. I slide my hands down his waist as his hands tangle in my hair. I haven’t been this close to anyone, ever. I don’t want anything else. I just need him. There’s no distractions, we dissolve into each other’s bodies. It all happened so fast, but I can’t feel anything else. There’s nothing else but Andrew.

Ok, are you a proffesional writer? Because it sure seems like you are . I mean seriously. How do you evn get that good?!

Ok, so this is a story that I finished a while ago, and I’m just gonna type up the kiss scene here, that is, if anyone can see it. My comments are kinda unapproved, so here goes. This story is about a girl named Amethyst who is secretly a hero named the Black Jaguar (not the Black Panther, that’s someone else.). She is friends (okay… more than that) with a guy named Easton. And as a superhero, Black Jaguar has a partner named Blue Tiger. This is the kissing scene between Amethyst and Easton, where they are in the woods, and (for some as yet unknown reason) they’re talking about their favorite types of kisses. This was my very first kissing scene I ever wrote, so please just read, and don’t judge. (the word are slightly changed from the original for this, btw.)

“I like the really slow kisses, the kind that go for a long time,” Easton said. “Shall I demonstrate?” Now Amethyst was completely shocked. Her heart began to hammer in her chest. “On me?!” she squeaked. Easton waggled his blonde eyebrows at her. “Of course on you, silly! Who else is there?” Easton said. Around them, the woods were mostly silent, except for the occasional bird song. “So do you want to?” Amethyst blushed fuchsia. In a very small voice, she said, “OK.” Easton then scooted over to her, his sea-green eyes filled with a smoldering passion as he came closer and closer, until he was less than an inch away from her. Amethyst’s heart was thumping hard, and her soft, freckled cheeks were a fiery shade of red. Easton placed his strong hands gently on her small shoulders, and lowered his face to hers. His forehead touching hers, he brought his lips to hers, and he kissed her gently, pressing his mouth to hers. The feeling of fire completely consumed Amethyst, and she was lost the kiss they shared. Their first kiss was a long one, full of mutual passion and a shared love. Easton buried his hands in her dark hair, running his fingers through it as he kissed her with an unearthly fire and passion. Amethyst felt herself falling backward, landing on the mossy ground with a slight thud. Amethyst ran her hands up his chest, it being surprisingly muscular for someone so slim, and Easton rolled to be on top of her, letting out a groan of delight. Easton’s hands moved out of Amethyst’s hair to keep himself up, and Easton gently opened Amethyst’s small mouth to let his tongue in. Amethyst’s violet eyes opened in surprise at the feel of his tongue in her mouth, but she eventually succumbed to Easton’s ministrations. Easton lifted his head up, long enough for him to whisper, “Amethyst, why don’t you kiss m–” but the rest of his sentence was cut off by Amethyst pressing her lips to his. Amethyst felt like her skin was on fire, as heat coursed through her veins, but she kept it up. She always wanted to be with this boy, she realized. Placing her hands on Easton’s strong shoulders, she sat up, and they stopped for a moment, the kissing having made them breathless but grinning. Amethyst swooped towards him, her mouth making contact in a moment, and she landed on top of him. With her on top of him, and Easton taking advantage of this moment to run his hands down her skirt-covered legs, and Amethyst placing her slender hands under his shirt and up his back. Finally, they broke apart, breathing heavily and lying on top of each other. “That was…great, for a first, second and third kiss,” Amethyst panted, getting off of Easton. Then they got up and ran hand in hand, into the distance, where destiny was calling their names.

In my book, it is pretty different than the rough draft, where someone sneaks up behind them and takes a picture of them kissing. And in the book, they have to cut the make-out session short to go change into their superhero costumes (but neither knows that the other is a superhero). Also, shouldn’t there be a stopping point in the kissing? I mean, I have standards for this stuff, so….. yeah. Anyway, hope you like it, and I hope I did it right!

(I’m a 15 year old girl and this is my first “spicy” scene as I like to call them XD.)

His breath is hot on my neck and I can feel a bulge pressed on my lower back. “What do you want me to do?” He whispers in my ear. Tingles shoot through my body from hearing those words. “I want you to show me you love me.” I say breathily.  His hands snake around my lower back to my stomach slightly pulling me closer. Soft kisses trail up my neck as he turns me around planting a passionate kiss on my lips.  Our lips move in unison changing from passionate to fiery lust. My hands touch his face bringing him closer to me deepening the kiss. He pulls away breathing heavily looking into my eyes.  “Let’s go to the bedroom.” He says with a husky voice. In one smooth sweep, I am carried into the air. We share teasing kisses as he walks slowly to the room. Sitting on the bed I straddle him, he grins before flipping me over with him on top. With a look in his eyes for approval, I nod. He kisses from my neck to between my breasts to my stomach then stops to look at me. He kisses lower and lower teasing my hot skin before opening my legs… (So, how was the scene?)

It goes very quickly. I think its too short. I don’t know where the clothes come off or if she’s nervous or if he’s excited or…

i would suggest maybe describing how the kisses feel (tingling, shocks, sparks, etc.) if you’re going to make this type of scene i advise to put more details in how they look. if they are blushing if they are taking in each other’s eyes (what colour are they?). adding what type of clothes they wear.

wow 😳 it’s crazy

Hey everyone, I’m really late to this, but please tell me what you think! I would love any feedback – this is just the middle bit of a kiss description. I realise it’s not that good but the only way I will improve is from your feedback.

Her skin was soft but her lips were chapped and weathered. As Michael ran his hand across her cheek he felt an irregularity, a scar of some kind. In his opinion it made her more beautiful and unique, like a gorgeous butterfly. She was new, yet felt oddly familiar. She fit perfectly into his arms, her lips seemed moulded to the shape of his and his hands curled around hers so perfectly he felt they had been made for him. Close up, she smelt familiar, somehow: wine, roses, honey… she reminded him of his home. She tasted like anything amorous. She tasted like tenderness, warmth and intimacy – he imagined holding her by a bonfire, watching the reflection of the flames dancing across her skin. She tasted like pure, clear water, as though it came straight from a spring. She tasted like passion, like pure, unrestrained passion. Whatever she tasted like, it made Michael want more.

Dang! This is soooo good. It’s really deep and descripitive. You don’t even need feedback!

DANG! It’s brilliant! Really deep and descriptive. I tried to think of feedback but it doesn’t need any; it’s so perfect. Great job dude!

Wow that’s awesome! I’ve never written a kissing scene before nor have I been kissed but I’m doing my best to figure out the best way to do mine.

wow, that was really good!!! you put the right amount of decryption in every little action and you pinpoint every single detail beautifully

“Can you come here Ezlyn?” “Sure David.” We walked into the woods and David started speaking. “Over this year I have realised how I need you in my life. I realised that I woke up to see you smile and laugh. I can’t live without you, I need you by my side.” “David,” This was very odd for him. “No let me finish. I need to love you. You are so special to me, you can’t even know how much I love you. I love you so much.” He leaned forward and I took a step back to find my back against a tree. My nose breathed in his sandalwood cologne and I was immediately calmed. He wiped a strand of hair from my face and gently began to kiss my lips. He wrapped his hands around my neck and the kiss became more aggressive. My stomach flipped and knotted and my knees became weak. Time stopped and both of our personalities changed. David became bold, I became shy, and I loved it. David stopped to breathe and then came back to my face. His kisses were like black holes pulling you in until you are lost. It was a sweet but bruising kiss that left me wanting more, but it wasn’t enough. I grabbed his collar, pulled his blue shirt and himself closer. I slipped my hands through his hair, getting caught on knottes. He picked me up and leaned me against the tree. I wrapped my legs around his waist, supporting myself. His tongue pressed against my lips, asking for permission to enter my mouth. I granted it to him. His mouth tastes like a sweet mint, spicy but not overwhelming. His grip slipped and we fell to the ground, he chuckled. “Hey, that was n-not fun-ny.” I whispered in between kisses. “Then let me kiss the pain away.” “Deal.” He laid on top of me kissing me and making me forget. He made me forget the past year almost completely. David slowed down until he stopped, leaving a searing heat on my lips. “Well, that was, uhh, hot.” “Hot, that is the word you came up with David. What about ravishing, heated, sweet, thrilling or even exciting.” “Yeah those words are better.” “Consider yourself lucky.” “Why, Ezlyn?” “Well I don’t kiss a lot of people.” “You haven’t kissed anyone before me have you?” “No. That is very rude to say, but, it might be true.” I whispered. “I haven’t kissed anyone either.” I smiled knowing that David was mine and only mine. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I rested on his chest. We fell asleep like that and I slept better that night than I ever did in the past year. I am 12 and a horror writer. I have copyrights to the book.

It’s really good. David’s sweet and Ezlyn is super cool. Nice job!

These stories are awesome! You should all be very proud of yourselves! From Starlight,11

i am writing a book about a girl and a boy who have been friends forever and everyone ships them. she is asexual sadly. im going to be 13 in a few weeks, I’ve never been kissed before and don’t think i ever will cause im hideous, and writing kissing scenes are the hardest since ive never experienced it before i hope ya like it, (sry if it’s kinda cliche) so here it goes: it started to snow. i started to shiver to try to calm myself down so Luis wouldn’t notice, but he did. he grabbed his jacket and put it on my shoulders as we kept walking down the sidewalk. this was normal for us, to flirt a bit, we had been friends since we were 4 and i didn’t want that to change. “so i’ve been wanting to tell you something, for a while now, . .um” he said breaking the awkward silence “yeah?” “i really really… really like you, and i know what people say about us and that we’re only friends but i can’t hold it anymore” “don’t, no please, were just meant to be friends nothing else, i don want to ruin that” “Please, i have loved you ever since” his voice started to break “im sorry, i really am” “please, can we just try?” “im sorry im just, im really sorry i just can’t fake me feelings towards you, i can’t it would crush you. we would ruin it all! we wouldn’t be like the cute couples in movies where we just end up together” “can’t we just try” he was trying to hold back tears, challenging to fall down his cheeks “no we can’t, i would ruin it all, with my temper and and with everything that i am i would break you! even more than you are now!” “so now were just going to forget everything?” he said in a fierce tone “no! i love you i really do, but not in that way! i reall-” he cut me off by kissing me. iaccept the kiss. it started slow and passionate. i dipped my head getting a better angle of his mouth. we fought for lower lip but eventually calmed down. he took in my gray eyes when i pulled back. “what?” he asked “i thought we where-” “im sorry i can’t” i cut his off looking into his pale blue eyes “wait what?” he asked in confusion “im really sorry, i really am but you know what i am i can’t do this to you” “i can’t believe it. i can’t believe that i actually thought we where going to work out” “no, i don’t mean in that way!” “so we can try?” “no, im sorry i really am, but i cant” ~ this wasn’t really a true kissing scene i just want feedback on what i should do to make it more interesting, it’s terrible, i know but please leave critisism blow i would love to get more ideas…

I think one thing you could try is to make the dialogue less…just them talking, maybe describe how they’re feeling, what they’re doing, etc. It’s good!

Thanks! Your support helps me write.

I’m 12 and I’m attempting to write a romance/mystery novel. I haven’t ever been kissed before so do you guys have any tips for writing a kissing scene? If you do please comment them and I’ll try to use them in my scene. ONce I finish I’ll post it.

I just finished my kiss scene from the novel that I’m writing. So basically Niko and Cinder are from another universe but Cinder let and came to our universe. Niko is a shy soldier with a fierce side. She gets kidnapped and brought to our universe (more commonly known as Universe 27B to her) and is experimented on. She escapes and finds Cinder. There is a special bond between her and Cinder. So here it is.

Everything about her was perfect. The sheer softness of hair running through my hands like water running through a stream. The feel of her lips on mine is just like before. Just like the way she didn’t want to do this or the way that she passionately kisses. I push against her lips and I can sense this is what she wanted, no needed. I feel the pressure of her lips pushing me very slowly towards the edge of the couch. Her skin is cool like the air on an early morning walk. Ohh this is what I needed. I pull away knowing I’m about to fall off the couch. I grab her arm and pull her into the dark corner because that’s where it’s about to get even better. “Ohh Cinder” I hear her moan. All I’m focused on is her beautiful body. I slowly pull her arm towards the corner while still caressing her shoulders and neck and lightly press her against the wall. I pull away to tell her something but she just grabs me and presses her sweet lips against mine even harder to silence whatever I was trying to say. I don’t even know at this point. It’s so overwhelming I can’t remember what I was going to say. All I can think about is how much I’ve missed her. I open my eyes as she pulls away. “No baby, don’t leave.” “Never said I was.” She says with a smirk as she tugs at the hem of my shirt and slowly pulls it off. So this is what she wants.

This is just a first try so please let me know what you think. Thanks! I groan and try to get up. “Woah, Theo. You were just shot. Hold still and let me try to.” I start to chuckle, inducing another wave of pain. He nicknamed me Theo, short for Theodosia. Kinda always had a crush on him since that day 3 years ago. He knows that I’m more private, so he’s stuck playing nurse. “There are worse things than patching up a bullet wound you know,” he says as if reading my thoughts. “Like what? Having fun fighting?” I groan again as he pulls away the layers of clothes. He pauses for a second. “I’m going to roll your tank top, but it’s probably going to hurt. If the blood has started to dry yet, the wound will reopen. I nod and grit my teeth. He pulls up my tank top along with some dry blood. I gasp loudly and he grimaces. “Hey, at least it was just a graze.” “Shut up. You’re going to make me laugh and that hurts.” He smiles. “Okay I have some alcohol and that will work. Just don’t focus on it.” “Yeah, that made me pass out!” I say, closing my eyes. But he was already pouring it. I didn’t have time to think about something else before it started stinging. Until I felt lips on mine. I opened my eyes to him kissing me and my brain almost exploded. He pulled me closer to him, deepening the kiss. I loosely wrapped my arms around him. His rough hands slid up my back and helped support me upright. Cautiously moved my hands up to his face, and eventually his hair. My fingers tangled in until I couldn’t breathe anymore and broke the kiss. I could barely feel the gunshot now.

I’m writing a story, too. I’ve just posted the scene I’m writing and you guys have really helped me write it. I’m so grateful…thank you! your’e guys’s scenes are so great.

This is my story, and basically this girl is having her first kiss in the forest with her boyfriend.

My heart skips a beat and my knees get wobbly. I wasn’t standing up, so I couldn’t fall, but I’m sure I would if I was standing. I curl my hand around his neck, and the other one in his soft, curly hair. I open up and kiss him back, but I’m not quite sure if I’m doing it right. I close my eyes when it happens but secretly open one to see if he’s staring at me. His eyes are closed, too. I feel his cold hand touch my back and pull me a little closer. Shivers run down my spine. I feel my heart racing and my stomach jumps repeatedly. I’m pretty sure I just opened my mouth too wide. His warm breath on my face feels inviting. I can’t put in words how this kiss really feels. It’s like I’m floating, drifting away, and I feel happy…ready for this to end, but not just yet. I know it can’t work out with Caylen. I just want to cherish this one moment. We go on for a while…

What was that? Oh, he stopped. I make an uneasy face. When he smiles hopefully, I make a satisfied face. Caylen stands me up, walks me to my house, and gives me a kiss on the cheek before I excitedly run off to tell Emeline about the romantic adventure I had this afternoon.

Sorry, my story didin’t get posted. its unnaproved or something. but philo’s story is really good! amazing.

Wow. The talent you guys have is mind-blowing! I decided to write a bit of a kissing scene. So ya.

“What are you doing?”, hissed Noah, shutting the door behind them, his mind racing. “You weren’t there yesterday”, Kieran breathed, his eyes looking unearthly in the moonlight, “I wanted to see you”. Before he could reply, Kieran kissed him with such force that he was slammed against the wall. Noah didn’t resist, couldn’t resist, even as Kieran’s knee slipped in between his legs, parting them. The sweet smell of the boy he loved filled his nostrils, the scent calming his troubled mind, clearing it of all thoughts. Noah dragged him onto the bed, and they fell into each other, Kieran’s lips against his, tasting like peppermint and coffee and spices all rolled into one. Kieran paused to take his shirt off, and Noah shivered as he realised how broad his shoulders were. The shape of him, Kieran, took his breath away. And he wanted him all the more for it.

What do you think? It is only a snippet, but I think that it illustrates the characters’ relationship nicely. This is a great site. I HIGHLY recommend ‘Jane Eyre’. It rocks.

This is my character’s first kiss, it’s near the end of the book, so, some of the stuff they talk about might not make sense. This book is aimed at teens-preteens, so…let me know if you think this scene is ok for that age group. Well, here’s the kiss: “Hey!” Brook jumped, looking away from where she’d been watching Paleface and her foal Opal grooming each at the other side of the round pen. Dean was walking towards her. “Hey,” Brook replied, leaning slightly against the rails. “Um, it’s a lovely sunset, isn’t it?” Brook waved a hand around them, the farm and bushland around it was bathed in golden light. “Yes. Just beautiful.” Dean said. Brook was too busy gazing at the warm glow the setting sun left of the land and thinking about the wonderful sunset photos she’d gotten in her two week stay to notice Dean was looking at her. “How’s your arm?” Dean asked, pointing at her left arm, which was strapped in a sling. “Fine, it doesn’t hurt anymore unless I bump it or jar it, which I’m getting a little better at avoiding.” Brook said. She remembered the horrible pain when her arm had broken the evening before. “Jackson’s a real jerk doing that.” Dean said. ” But, you did really well, you were so brave.” He moved a little closer, laying his hand on Brook’s. “Thanks. In truth, I was terrified, but I knew I couldn’t just let him do that, I had to save Paleface and Opal.” “Does your arm hurt if I touch it?” Dean asked, reaching out and running his hand from her shoulder down to her wrist. “No,” Brook said. Dean stepped closer and put his arms around Brook, she buried her face in his shirt, there was something so comforting about Dean. He slipped a hand under her chin, raising her face. Brook gazed up at him, she noticed how gently he held her so he didn’t hurt her arm, and his smile, then he slightly titled his head, Brook did the same, in the other direction. Then she shut her eyes. Dean’s lips brushed softly against hers, she felt their lips lock, his breath soft on her cheek. She could stay like this forever. Then Dean pulled back gently and released her. “You…you kissed me?” Brook gasped. “Yes, I thought it would be okay…I’m sorry.” Dean looked flustered. “No, it’s fine, I was just surprised.” “I’ll really miss you when you leave tomorrow.” Dean whispered before turning and hurrying back to the house, leaving Brook gazing after him, unsure what to do next, or what would even happen next.

That’s it. What do you think? There is a lot of talking not much kissing, but, yeah…it is for younger readers. I’m not into all the “gaping maw” and stuff of one of the examples. I nearly puked when I read that. Anyway, Dean and Brook have known each for two weeks and been through a lot together (they’re teenagers, not adults, btw) and they have flirted a little but not anything serious. I’m thinking this will be a series and they may kiss again, but similar sort of kisses to the one I’m sending.

I think your kiss is great!

Okay, so I know I’m pretty late here, but here’s a scene from the novel I’m writing. I’ve never kissed anyone, so I was looking for some feedback. It’s a flashback of a time that the two main characters, Levi and Callisto, kissed. It’s told from Callisto’s perspective, and for a bit of background, they have been friends since they were seven. They had a falling out when they were thirteen, but the year before that is when the flashback takes place. In the current year (When L+C are 16) Callisto’s older sister, Emmeline, is getting married, so Callisto is kind of thinking about romance and the only time she’s kissed someone (which was Levi). So yeah, here it is:

I kissed Levi, once. It was about a year before the fight, back when Emmie had been dating Tristan for just a little while. We were sitting together on a set of concrete steps, near where we had first met. We weren’t really doing much, just sitting around, talking, enjoying one-another’s company. Or at least, I was enjoying his. I think he enjoyed my company, too, but I couldn’t quite tell. It was always hard to tell with Levi. “Has Henry ever kissed anyone?” I asked Levi. Henry was the same age as Emmie, so I figured he might have. Levi wrinkled his nose. “No.” He said it simply and matter-of-factually, like that was the end of the conversation. “Oh. Emmie has a boyfriend, now. His name is Tristan. He’s okay, but he and Emmie spend a lot of time kissing.” “That’s disgusting,” Levi said, shaking his head slightly, like he was disappointed that my sister would participate in such vulgar activity. For a moment, his face screwed up in thought, “No, Henry hasn’t kissed anyone.” He sounded as though he was trying to convince himself. “Have you ever kissed someone?” I asked. It seemed like the next question in what I thought was a rather logical train of thought. If it was possible, he looked even more disgusted. “No.” “Oh,” we were both quiet, for a minute, then I asked, “Do you want to try?” He looked confused. “Try what?” “Kissing.” He turned a little green. “No.” We were both quiet for another minute. I noticed he seemed unsure. Then, he seemed to be considering it. “Okay, maybe we should try it,” he resolved, speaking slowly and methodically, as though Congress had just reached the biggest decision of the century. “Great!” I exclaimed. I was excited to try it. Emmie sure seemed to like it. I leaned in towards him, but he pulled away. “Wait!” He yelped, “I don’t know how! I’ve never seen anyone kiss before.” That thought hadn’t occurred to me. “Never? Not even your parents?” He shook his head, his cheeks flushed pink. “Well, that’s okay, I’ll show you. I’ve seen Emmie do it, and Mama and Papa, too.” I leaned in again, and this time, he only shrunk back slightly. I put my hands on his shoulders. “There. And you put your hands on my waist.” He did what I said, looking immensely uncomfortable. “What now?” “Now, we close our eyes.” He squeezed his eyes shut, and I did the same. I leaned in slowly towards him. I opened my eyes slightly, to make sure he hadn’t leaned away. When our lips touched, he shrunk back a little, but we stayed like that for a minute, and he seemed to be more comfortable. Maybe it wasn’t a real kiss. Maybe we weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend like Tristan and Emmie, and maybe we never would be, but I felt a lot closer to him in that moment. I felt my heartbeat quicken and smelled the missing half of the butterscotch pudding I’d shared with him earlier. Then, the moment had passed, and we leaned away from each other. I was smiling, but he looked confused. “That was it?” he asked. “Did you like it?” He shrugged. “I don’t get what the big deal is.” That was when I realized that maybe he hadn’t felt it. Maybe he hadn’t felt the closeness, hadn’t felt his heartbeat quicken, or smelled the butterscotch on my breath. “Do you wanna do it again?” I asked. He shook his head. “No.” No, never again.

So yeah, it wasn’t much, just an innocent two-kids-kissing scene, but I’d still like feedback if anyone happens to read this. And I do have other stories where there will probably be more romance than this one, but I really don’t have much experience with writing kissing scenes (or kissing) so I thought this would be a good place to start. Anyway, let me know what you think of the scene!

Hey Katie, your story rocks. That’s all I have to say. You write like a pro. Have any tips for aspiring young writers?

Also, I like the way your character has a lot of personality. It really brings the story together and makes it more relatable. The comment about the butterscotch pudding is spot on, because it brings back the fact that they’re only twelve and still trying things out. This is my interpretation of the story; Levi is a mysterious and (possibly?) mildly autistic character. I say this because I’ve written and read about people like him, but it’s hard to know without context. Callisto is a slightly insecure, intelligent (but she doesn’t know it) and loving young girl in the story. My impression is that she is possibly now hardened by life and that she was hit with it in one big explosion of self-realisation. Possibly her fight with Levi? It she a soldier or someone who was exposed to a high level of experience all at once? Because that would make a lot of sense. If not, what is her story? It seems like it would be a really interesting one. Anyway, sorry about all this, but I couldn’t help myself. You’re writing like an experienced adult. Are you?

Okay, so basically, this is mine. So Jenny and Caylen travel to this magical world, and theres akwardness between them, but soon, Theres this war and stuff. (I’m not gonna get into the details.) But they both might die, so Caylen just goes for it. Although it’s told in Caylen’s perspective. Um…lemme know for comments and stuff. Hope u like it. today is my birthday anyway.

I stare deep into his hazel eyes. Did he feel the same way about me? As I did him? The truth is, I love him. He’s sweet, and kind…gentle, brave, handsome, funny, and he’s just…amazing. As he leaned closer, and closed his eyelids, I stared at him. Was he going to kiss me? He likes…me? Out of all the girls he could choose from. His lips get closer to mine, and I lean forward.

Our lips touched, and I somehow knew, from the moment, that he felt the same way. Time stopped and no one else existed but Caylen. My lips parted, and I kissed him. It was soft, at first. His lips brushed mine delicately, like butterfly wings. Then he pressed his lips on mine, a little harder, then he stopped, unsure. He kissed me again, and each time, I felt the excitement, and craving, of the kiss.

Lightning passed through me, and I felt lost, in a different universe, slowly flying away. I finally shut my eyes and really kiss him back. I curl my fingers into his brown, curly hair, the other around his neck. My heart beats fast, and my knees wobble. His cold hand creeps from my neck to my back, and he pulls me closer, deepening the kiss. A shiver runs down my spine as his other hand tangles in my hair. His delicate, innocent kiss, makes my heart flutter, and wiggle. Then my heart races, and my stomach jumps repeatedly, as his lips press against mine again. I breathe through my nose, so I don’t run out of breath. I let him kiss me as long as he wants. I let go, but then go back, and kiss him softly, determinedly, sweat dripping down my face.

No, you can’t. You have a war to fight.

I tell my conscience to let me cherish this moment. I curl both my arms on his neck, and put my hands together. I then get uncomfortable and put both on his shoulders. He stops kissing me, and I wonder if I moved too much.

“I…I can’t, I’m not sure if I..” I start, then trail off. I look away as I say it.

“I am sure,” Caylen says.

“Of…Of what?” I ask, worriedly.

“Of one thing..” He puts his arms on my shoulders, and he looks determined. “I…I love you, Jenny. You’re just…just awesome.”

I stare deep into his eyes again, until I kiss him again. This time it’s one peck, and we put our foreheads together and stare at the ground. I pant, until I look up at him and make an uneasy face. I ran out of breath. He picks me up, and I wrap my legs around his torso. I kiss his lips repeatedly, and then I stare down at him. He’s happy. That’s all I want right now. I kiss him another time, and then tell him,

“I have to go, I have to fight,” I say. I hold his hand and we walk to the battlefield.

Across the plain, I see Quests, Icicle people, Cavemen, dragons, bears, everyone fighting, with scratches, blood, and pain everywhere. There is a mixture of yells, screams, yelps for help. One person punches another, as somebody slices a sword through one. A bear with long claws slices a cavemens face. I worriedly look around for my mom, and Emeline, but I notice Rachel on top of a tree, hitting a caveman in the head, then kicking his balls, yelling in achievment. I start to run out to fight too, but I stop. I turn around.

“I love you too, Caylen.”

Thats it. You probably don’t understand, since it’s pert of the story, but you know. The kiss is the best part. Hppy late valentines day, now that I think about it. Thanks for your ideas, comment if u like it

This last one is told in Jenny’s perspective. I was thinking about the wrong thing. It’s a boy and a girl. And they’re not…you know, gay. So…yes

Ruby’s is really good. I never kissed anyone. before and it made me feel like i was actually there. and I like katie’s too, it feels like the kids are a little younger, and it wasn’t very….in the book, but it was a very good. scene. Very. I am an experienced writer, but I’m not THAT good.

I know this is super late, but This is from a fantasy story I am writing about crossover souls (fairies mixed with humans). Isaac and Nyx are on the way to the hospital under a white lie because Nyx doesn’t want to expose her position (who she is) and Isaac just been possessed in the pier bookshop.

As we wound round the different streets we had been to at some point or had no idea of, towards the hospital, the summer sun high in the late afternoon sky, I took his hand stroking it softly. Then as if were the opposite poles of a magnet we leaned in our faces touching. I could smell the sweat of the day’s memory on him, but I didn’t care. I could smell the off brand washing powder his mother used, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was his warmth against mine, to feel his wind chapped lips on mine. It was the sweetest few seconds, before he pulled back.

‘I’m sorry, I…’ he continued to contemplate a stray cat for a few minutes before moving on to the seemingly mundane green bushes of number 12. He was doing his best to avoid the awkwardness of looking in to my eyes. There was an awkward silence between us where the seconds, felt like hours. In that silence I contemplated the moss grown crack in the pavement and the smell of dogs breath that clung to the sea air. Then I spoke, I said what I knew he felt.

‘It was long overdue’, I pulled his face to look at mine, our lips meeting once again. We kissed in quicks succession under the dabbled light of the plane tree. It was as we were drowning in the elixir of love, stopping only to inhale the cold sharp air of the sea.

‘I love you’ he spoke with such sincerity it almost took me by surprise.

‘I love you too’ I said our hands interlocking

‘Well maybe that’s enough medicine…’ I cut across him

‘You’re still going to the hospital and don’t you dare try to wriggle out of it’ I said in a mock stern voice.

he chuckled ‘That’s why I love you’

I have never kissed (romanticly ) anyone before, so it would be good to get feedback on the start of this scene. sorry if there are any spelling or gramHe chuckledmar mistakes. I guess because I am 15, it is sort of like teen fiction. But I haven’t really put it in any age box because they are not always correct or need.

OK, so I know I’m a little (a lot ) late but I just want to say, Katie, your kissing scene was phenomenal. You write like a pro. I was here earlier, so here is my scene revised.

“What are you doing?”, breathed Noah, shutting the door behind them, his mind racing. “You weren’t there yesterday”, Kieran whispered, his eyes unearthly, the sharp edges of his jawline highlighted by the moonlight from the window. “Why didn’t you meet me?”, he whispered, as he forced his knee between Noah’s legs, parting them. “What were you doing that was so much more important?” Noah thought of the day before, of Livia, of Alex. The whirlwind of events. The memories. He had forgotten all about Kieran. Before he could reply, Kieran kissed him with such force that he was slammed against the wall. Noah didn’t resist, couldn’t resist. The sweet smell of the boy he loved filled his nostrils, the scent calming his troubled mind, clearing it of all thoughts. He didn’t have time to think. Noah dragged him onto the bed, and they fell into each other, Kieran’s lips against his, tasting like peppermint and coffee and spices all rolled into one. All too soon, Kieran tore himself away and Noah could see how hard it was for him, like he was starving and he was putting aside the only piece of food he had. Noah shivered, breathless, as he realised how broad Kieran’s shoulders were. It was late and the exhaustion in Noah’s eyes must have begun to show because the other boy lay down beside him and whispered in his ear, “Shh, go to sleep”. Noah closed his eyes. And he had no nightmares.

Sorry, I forgot to explain. Before this scene, Noah is friends with Alex (a girl) who likes him and he is wondering how he can tell her that he doesn’t back. But what he doesn’t know is that she has already seen Kieran and him together. Noah usually has nightmares because he was in a war with Alex(that was when they met). Noah and Kieran break up later on but it seems sad to talk about that now when their relationship is gong so well. As far as you know….. obviously that isn’t the whole plot of the story, but the rest of it is demons and death and betrayal and blood and I’m sure you don’t want to hear any of that 0.o

Sorry if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, and I know it’s late but I wanted to test out and see if this would work as a kiss that never happened or should have.

Maybe If they had been older and not seemed like brother and sister, this is when they would have kissed. I would be telling you about the warmth of his lips, about the pimple on the left side of his nose, the smell of conditioner and the way the seconds felt like hours . I would try to imagine, what it felt like to be lost in someone’s breath, but then I wonder if maybe all  they would find would be an awkward silence. So in some ways I’m happy it never happened , at least not now. I’m  happy he only whispered ‘I love you’ before he  disappeared in to the silent street  lit only by the orange sodium lamps, until they merged into the bright white LED light, that the council have started putting up. All along his words felt right because kissing might have ruined the bubble they had created. But they had never asked each other if they wanted  the bubble to burst.  He had never asked her if she wanted to find his heart beating on her Brest and his lips making lasting memories . Maybe all along she had needed to find the courage to ask him herself because it seemed they each in turn had felt there was no path to ponder on.

They had all-ways just excepted it wasn’t to be.

That is really cool, Iris! I love the way you describe the kiss how it would have been and how all the little details come together. Love. Just, love it.

Out of a sudden impulse of mine I moved my head right next to his while we were laying down and I kissed him. It was like a simple peck, in which he flinched and moved back. I got up swiftly and said in a panicky voice “Oh no I shouldn’t have done that, I-I’m sorry.” He got up and stared into my eyes intensely before grabbing my waist, pulling me in and pressing his firm lips against mine. In that moment it was like the world was still. It was just us against the world. The kiss became more intense as he started using his tongue as if claiming me he started moving his hand down to my lower back and continuing down. I felt as if this was right. He was the one, no doubt about it. I needed him; It didn’t matter if I chose him or Urca in that moment because it was just us. Us in this moment. We were the moment. I felt as though I would never need to come back up for air. I would drown in the deep unable to breathe for this kiss.

“We were the moment”. Love it.

woah this is truly amazin , every one of you have written so well, have put in you’re whole heart to it .I’m so happy as well as proud of y’all , kudos !! so I my writing is published on the platform Wattpad under the username : cursedsunshine. All my three books were well published last year , got so much hype but unfortunately someone hacked my account and I lost everything , but I didn’t stop there , writing gives me the freedom like no other .Hence I decided to go from the dust , it would mean a lot to me , if you are able to check out my story on Wattpad, thank you !

Just a side note, I have never kissed anyone or anything and this is my attempt at a kiss scene.

His breath is hot on my neck and I can feel a bulge pressed on my lower back. “What do you want me to do?” He whispers in my ear. Tingles shoot through my body from hearing those words.

“I want you to show me you love me,” I say breathily. 

His hands snake around my lower back to my stomach slightly pulling me closer. Soft kisses trail up my neck as he turns me around planting a passionate kiss on my lips. 

Our lips move in unison changing from passionate to fiery lust. My hands touch his face bringing him closer to me deepening the kiss. He pulls away breathing heavily looking into my eyes. 

“Let’s go to the bedroom.” He says with a husky voice.

In one smooth sweep, I am carried into the air. We share teasing kisses as he walks slowly to the room. Sitting on the bed I straddle him, he grins before flipping me over with him on top. With a look in his eyes for approval, I nod. He kisses from my neck to between my breasts to my stomach then stops to look at me. He kisses lower and lower teasing my hot skin before opening my legs…

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

My hand shoots up to turn off the alarm on my phone while a loud groan escapes my mouth. God, my alarm couldn’t have waited a few more minutes. Nick hasn’t been on my mind for a while, that was a nice dream that I wish continued. I open one eye at a time adjusting to my bright room, curtains are next on the list of things to buy. With a stretch, I push my covers off and sit to get out of bed. If you are interested in reading the rest of the story, here is the link to it: https://booknet.com/en/book/outstanding-b144301 The story is free to read. 😛

I just recently turned 15 and I’m curious as to what different skill paths I should take to better my schooling and personal life. I’m not very confident in my writing skill, personally I think I’m not that good and what I write is a bit choppy, if I could get some feedback I’d be really appreciative (AKA I crave validation so feed me peasants). Also I changed the names of people so I don’t get killed. Tyler and Brandon it is.

“Never Tyler. Never ever. You’re amazing, and so strong. You hold all this pain in and still get up each day and push forward. I’m so inspired by you and how you are able to hold your head up from the water and get through each and every minute. You’re incredible, truely. I wish I had been there earlier, maybe then I could have helped you through everything thing you’ve been through, and I’m sorry that I wasn’t. But I’m here now and i’m not letting you go, even if you scream and push me away, I need you to know that I’ll always be here. I want to see you happy. I want to make you as happy as you make me and Ty… you make me really, really happy.” Brandon smiled, grip tightening around Tyler’s neck as he stared into the taller boy’s eyes.

Tyler’s brain short-circuited as he started into the pale blue of Brandon’s eyes, watching as the boy’s eyes shifted towards his own, pupils growing and flush rising up his cheeks. He slowly lifted his hand so it was resting on the side of Brandon’s jaw, rubbing his cheek delicately as the world around them slowed, freezing until it was just the two of them. Nothing else mattered in that moment as they stared into each other’s souls, their hearts. No words were spoken and yet, everything had been said. If any moment in his life had anchored his soul, Tyler was sure it would be this very second, gazing into the innocent and yet so devious eyes of the boy before him. He could all but feel his heart crumbling and falling into the hands of the other, every thought, every emotion that ran through his mind like a plague was now in the hands of the only person he would ever expect them to fall into. Because of course, who else to let himself be vulnerable with then this boy? How could he not trust him with his whole being? Tyler glanced down, watching as the boy licked his lips subconsciously. Raising his gaze once again he looked to Brandon for permission, letting out a harsh breath, he questioned. 

“Angel, if it’s okay with you, I’d really like to kiss you right now. May I?” The brunette spoke, tongue darting out over his own lips in anticipation as he sat, one hand on Brandon’s cheek and the other resting softly against his hip. “Please Ty.” The boy all but whispered in return, gripping slightly higher at Tyler’s hair from under the taller boy’s beanie. Tyler smiled slightly at the feeling of it, leaning in to let his lips just barely graze the other boy’s.

It was Brandon that closed the gap between them, fingers locking into place in Tyler’s hair as he pushed his lips against the older boy’s. Tyler felt like an addict, Brandon slowly becoming his drug. The smaller’s lips just felt so soft and plush against his own cracked and dry ones, creating a contrast that Tyler never expected to feel, but now that he had gotten a taste, he couldn’t get enough of it. In one swift movement the two of them became one, they clung to each other as if they were the only other thing in this world, and in a way, Tyler supposed they were. Brandon gripped him tighter, pulled him closer like he was the only solid being in a spinning world and Tyler in turn, let both his hands fall over the younger’s curves and onto the dancer’s waist, fearing that one wrong move would leave everything around them shattering to pieces. Both the boy’s took their time, holding onto one another and allowing themselves to fall into a rhythm. Breathing the other in like they had been deprived of air their whole lives, it was sweet, it was soft, and it was their’s. Their moment to forever hold and cherish. Their’s to dream of and smile at. Tyler felt as though nothing could ruin this. This was special, a moment that he would forever hold close to his heart. Just him and Brandon.

Late as all hell, and while I’ve been kissed, I haven’t done it enough to capture it well. I’m also writing this from a man’s perspective, instead of a woman’s, so I worry I’m doing it wrong…if there’s feedback, that would be lovely! Otherwise, feel free to make fun of my shoddy work, haha! (Please note, this is a fantasy/sci-fi narrative, with a mention of a fictional language in it!)

Could he tell her? Yes, he could. Should he was perhaps the question he was asking. His mind floundered for a single, logical thought. Find the pros and cons, weigh the outcomes, that was what he was supposed to be doing, but his brain had faded into a sluggish mush. He could recognize nothing but her hair, dotted with tiny jeweled snowflakes; her eyes, that held far too much softness for someone who was so unpredictable; her hands, trembling against his face.

Thantil took them, folding them within his. Her skin remained soft, even in the cold. He had seen how other’s hands had cracked, the flesh scuffed like rocks. Hers did not feel that way. It made him wonder, not for the first time, if she held some sort of magic within her. Surely she did. She had enchanted him in a way he had never thought possible.

He held her gaze, waiting for her to say no. It never came. Not when he pulled her closer to him. Not when he lifted her hands. Not even when his lips brushed over her knuckles. He watched her eyes close, her lips part –

“Nor ver ch’ah, vah bta rect’tin’ecot,” she mumbled.

Just kiss me.

He let go of her hands, yanked her forward, and did just that. Damn feeling, damn passion, it damned him to the thousandth depth of hell as yet another piece of the man he was meant to be crumbled into the vast ocean that was her.

Wow! All of your scenes are amazing! You are all really talented! Here’s one that’s a part of the novel I’m writing. But before that, I guess I should give some background. Basically, the story’s about the best track & field team in the state. Two of the best runners – Asa and Whitney – are pretty good at annoying the hell out of each other, but they’ve always kinda liked eachother. During an away meet against their team’s rival school, Whitney hides in the bathrooms for a couple minutes to get away from Asa, but he’s sent to look for her. They end up talking a couple things out and eventually kissing – and Whitney misses her event. Then Joseph, their coach, walks in on them Despite the trouble they’re already in…well, I mean, I’m not gonna spoil anything, so here’s the scene:

*CVHS = cade valley high school, that’s the team*

Surprisingly, we weren’t banned from sitting together on the bus. Joseph was at the very front, and instead of my usual seat with Laurel and Ashlyn, I sat in the very back with Asa. Luckily, I had the window seat. His arms were wrapped around me and I was holding both of his hands, a position I never expected to feel so comfortable. I looked up at him and we both smiled – just a little. I put my head on his shoulder and glanced out the window from the corner of my eye. I watched as we passed cars and trucks and houses, nothing I’d never seen. As soon as we pulled into CVHS, Asa and I got off the bus along with everyone else. But instead of walking me to my own car, he pulled me to his. Still wrapped up in each other, we slid into the backseat, and before we could bother to close the door, his mouth was on mine. It was dark outside, so it was likely that people could see us due to the lights that turned on in Asa’s car. But it didn’t matter, nothing mattered. Soon, he was on top of me and I was sinking into the leather car seats. I didn’t know where Joseph was or if he’d yell at us, but neither of us seemed to care. For a moment, Asa pulled away and muttered; “God, why did I wait so long to do this?” I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him back down to me. We pressed our foreheads together and I whispered “I don’t know” softly. I pressed my lips against his and ran my fingers through his thick hair. He lightly brushed his finger across my cheek, sending a tremor through my body. I didn’t care what the first or next person to see us thought, so what if I was kind of, sort of, definitely kissing my sarcastic and admittedly hot ex-enemy? Our lips separated and Asa got off of me, giving me room to sit up. I glanced at him, only to find that he was staring at me, smiling. “What?” I asked. “All this time spent annoying the shit out of you and I never took the time to notice that you’re really pretty,” he answered. I laughed weakly. I wanted to say I never thought you were capable of making me feel this way, but instead, I managed a quiet “thanks.” “I- th-this is crazy, I-I-I never thought-” he shook his head. “Never mind.” I’d never heard Asa stutter before. I laughed softly and kissed his lips. When I pulled away, he slid out of the open car and I followed. Then, in one swift motion, he pushed me against the side of the car and kissed me harder than the last time. Much harder. From there, everything went from affectionate to aggressive. Passionate to something more than lustful. Sweet and harmless to addicting and intoxicating. We were under some sort of trance, and I couldn’t breathe. Then, right there in the school parking lot, he pulled off his sweatshirt and then his jersey, tossing them both into the open car. It probably wasn’t the best idea to get this intimate considering our current location, but I was too caught up in the pleasurable pain Asa was inflicting on me. I felt like I could barely keep my footing, and if it weren’t for his grip on me, I’d be on the ground by now. He made his way down to my neck, placing rough kisses as he went. Breathing heavily, I felt his boner that I somehow hadn’t noticed digging into my leg, which only aroused me further. I lightly ran my thumb over his rough lips, and that made him grab my wrists and kiss me again. Suddenly, he let go of me and tugged at my jersey. Again, my mind went straight to the fact that we were in the school parking lot and anyone could be watching, but I removed it anyway. Asa closed every inch of space between us by wrapping his muscular arms around me and kissing me with an open mouth. We were skin-to-skin, and it felt good. Asa slid his hand into my bra, and for some reason I let him. We both slipped our tongues into each other’s mouths, and when they touched, it made me tingle all over. He tasted like spearmint gum and the red Gatorade I’d seen him drinking during the 4×4 relay. It wasn’t the best combination, but I still wanted more. I hoped I tasted alright. After all, I’d pounded popcorn and Kit-Kats after Joseph told me I wouldn’t be running my next event. Speak of the devil, Joseph’s car rolled right past us. I wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for him shouting, “What the hell? Asa, put a shirt on! Who’s that – Whitney? Wait, come on. Seriously, you two?” Both of us turned and stared in shock like a deer in headlights. “Honestly. Again? I JUST talked to you about this. Not okay.” Joseph shouted. “If you can’t keep your hands off each other, I’m going to have to separate you and kick one of you off the team. Or both of you. I don’t care.” “I- Joseph, Asa is one of our fastest runners.” I managed. “You can’t kick him off the team.” “You can’t kick Whitney off either. If we’re going to win fucking state again this year, then you’ll need both of us.” Asa added. Joseph shrugged. “We have others. And watch your language, Byers. AND I believe I told you to put a shirt on. You too, Whitney.” I picked my jersey up off the ground and slipped it over my head while Asa pulled his sweatshirt out of the car. “Are you happy now?” Asa snapped. “Watch your tone,” I warned him in a whisper. “We’re already at risk of being kicked off.” Asa shook his head. “See you at practice, Joseph,” he groaned, and started to walk away. “Nice try,” Joseph stopped him, “I’m suspending you from the team. Either you or Whitney.”

So there we go. It was obviously a little more than they both expected, but it turned out badly again. What do you guys think?

Okay, so it’s not exactly the ✨big kiss✨ but it’s the first kiss that doesn’t count, if you will. But it triggers a lot of contemplation later in the story.

I stood, hands on the rails of the fence, waiting for him. He’d told me over text he had a note to deliver to me. Why he couldn’t just text me the contents of the note, I wasn’t sure. Eventually, I felt a tap on my shoulder. “It’s me.” I easily recognized Aiden’s voice. My eyes traveled to his hand, balled up into a fist. The note. I expected him to hand it to me, but he didn’t. He grabbed my shoulder, pulled me up to him, and pressed his lips against mine. I knew it was just a coverup. Something to hide the exchange. I could tell by his hand slipping into my back pocket, shoving the crumpled note in there. It was only a coverup. But out of all the coverups, he kissed me. But then, he pulled away and slowly removed his hand from my pocket, careful not to make the note visible to the public. Aiden gave me a small nod as he walked away and I did the same, but walked in the opposite direction. The whole way down the trail, the note burned a hole in my pocket and the thought of our kiss burned a hole in my head. I told myself it didn’t count as a kiss, not a meaningful one. The kiss didn’t count. And that was the way it would be.

SoOoOoOo…whatcha think?

I have been writing Christian stories since I learned the alphabet. This is an excerpt from an old story I dug up when going through my computer. I was young, so not sure if this is any good, but let me know! Back story: The girl, (Corsorvia Blanche, AKA Page) and her crush who hasn’t spoken to her in months (Job Morgan) have been magically transported to the world of Obathia to help the creatures of the 7 Realms be freed from the eternal winter. Page thinks it’s just for them, but in reality, it’s drawing her closer to Elohim…and to Job. In this scene, they just escaped near death from Cloakers (tractor-sized wolves) and are continuing on their way through the barren, frigid wasteland of Obathia. The title of the book is ‘Edge of Obathia’ so this is the very last page and a half of the book. Everything inside of the *stars* is Elohim speaking to Page’s heart and mind, calming her fears. Anything in caps is what her fear is telling her. Let me know your thoughts, thanks! God bless!

“Do you remember snow days in England?” I laughed. “We would be so excited each morning it would snow, and the night before we would be fervently praying for snow. Now…oh well, now all that excitement is bloody gone.” “Ah, yes.” Job sighed. “This trip has certainly changed many things for us.” I smiled as I thought of the serene calm flowing through me. Yes, I knew there’d be danger ahead. Yes, I knew there’d be peril. But I was not afraid. I had the love of Elohim in me. *The Lord is your light and salvation—so why should you be afraid? The Lord is your fortress, protecting you from danger, so why should you tremble? I have loved you and protected you all the way, Corsorvia. I will love you and protect you the rest of the way, too.* I heard the small voice in my mind, never anything but a peaceful whisper. Meanwhile, the voice of fear always shouted in my mind. I CAN’T DO THIS. CLOAKERS WILL ATTACK ME, OR I’LL FALL IN ANOTHER LAKE AND SURELY DROWN THIS TIME! I CAN’T DO THIS! I CAN’T DO THIS!!! Still the whispering voice came like a soothing blanket. *Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Do not fear them, for the Lord your God is the one fighting for you. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but mine. Lay your burdens down with me! and I will take care of you. I will not permit the godly to slip and fall.* Tears came to my eyes as I answered Job quietly, “Yes. Yes they have.” He slipped his hand into mine and squeezed it. He knew what I was hearing. He had heard it many times, too. “What has changed for you?” I asked him, swiping at my eyes. He let out a heavy breath. “I’ve only just begun to see the way Elohim sees; even though I took this journey years upon years ago.” He seemed to pause before adding, “I’ve also realized that those I love are always closest to me, no matter where I am.” This stopped all the voices I was hearing and almost stopped me. I tried not to hope for what that meant, but what could I do to help it? I kept walking, and tripped over nothing. “Woah!” He said, leaning over and offering me his hand. “Are you alright?” My face went red. “Yes.” I helped myself up, brushing snow off my parka. “Not sure what caused that.” Job grinned, raising an eyebrow. “I might.” I set my hands on my hips and glared at him. “You wish.” “I won’t deny it.” His answer caught me off guard and I tried not to show it. “Let’s not get cheeky.” “You say cheeky, I say honest.” The look on his face was sincere. I could only hope my own expression portrayed calm. My heart was beating wildly fast. “Ellie May interrupted me, and I intend to finish what I started.” He took a step closer. My mouth fell slightly open as I whispered his name. I didn’t get to finish my sentence before his strong hands were gently holding my neck, his lips pressed against mine. We were kissing. I was kissing Job. JOB was kissing ME. I had wanted to for years. It felt perfect, as if we were made for this moment. The moment his lips touched mine, my brain very nearly exploded and the air was smashed out of my lungs. My knees were weak and my hands trembled. All my senses seemed elevated, but I could barely think. To stop my hands from trembling, I slid them up his head and tangled my fingers in his long hair. He slid his foot forward just half a step, tilting his head. I took in a shaky breath through my nose and leaned into him. He assaulted my senses; the taste and smell of him closer to me than ever before left me wanting more and more. His caress on my neck was gentle but his kisses were rough and unapologetic, showing he had wanted this for a while. And so had I. My knees were about to give and I clung to him for dear life. Sheer delight shot through me as his hands glided down my body to the small of my back, then to my hips, sending shivers down my spine. The world (if there was one, because it seemed like only he and I existed as we stood there kissing for what felt like an eternity) was spinning around me like the tumbling cycle on a dryer. But his strong arms wrapped around my waist and held me tightly. I knew he wouldn’t let me fall. I nodded my head, deepening the kiss, showing him how much I needed him. He responded with a soft groan at the back of his throat. He drew me closer. Minutes later, he slowly pulled away as the sound of rushing water suddenly became known to us. I had been so caught up in the kiss I hadn’t heard the roar of the waterfall we both turned to look at. I held him a little tighter, staring at the monstrous outpour of icy water. “J-job…” I whispered. For some reason, it felt dangerous to speak at normal volume. “Where are we?” He looked at the waterfall like it was much more than it was. He replied in the same soft tone I had used. “We made it to our first benchmark, Page.” He swallowed. “We’ve reached the edge of Obathia.”

I’m a young writer and I’ve never been kissed. This is my first attempt at writing a kissing scene and I wanted to know what some other people think that aren’t my friends lol

I slowly walked to the doors and placed my sweaty palm on the doorknob, turned it, and pulled it open aggressively. When it swung open I saw Flynn standing there with his hand up like he was about to knock. We stared at each other for what seemed like hours. Neither one of us was sure what to say. He came in and closed the door behind him, slowly. I noticed him taking turns between looking me in the eyes and looking at my lips. “Hi-” I started to say something but when I blinked something made contact with my lips. I opened my eyes wide and saw Flynn, his eyes closed and relaxed like we were a married couple that has been doing this for years. All at once, it was like I was feeling, tasting, and seeing every color of the rainbow at the same time. My heart skipped a beat, and my hands got hot and sweaty. My emotions were so tangled, no comb could straighten them. He wrapped his strong arms around my waist and rested them on my hips. The kiss had enough power to force Flynn’s back up against the closed door. We stood with our bodies forced together against it as our lips were pressed into one. He pulled away from me and I stood with my hands relaxing on his chest. I stared into his deep brown eyes and he stared back, lovingly. He leaned his head down and kissed me again. This time, his lips didn’t separate from mine for a long time. They were warm and soft. I tangled my hands into his silky smooth ginger hair. When I pulled back for air, he smiled. No one said anything, but nothing needed to be said. I just hoped it wasn’t just a dream. Without moving off of him, he searched for the doorknob with his free hand. I untangled one of my hands from his hair and placed it on his. “I’ll let you know,” I whispered. He picked me up and carried me to my bed. When he gently threw me down, we sat next to each other. Just like I had hoped, he kissed me once again, stopping repeatedly for gasps of air. I felt him grab my knee like he needed help not falling over. He pressed his lips against mine with a fiery passion. I felt like I was in a Disney movie. I felt alive again. Like my parents still had their apartment, and my grandpa was still alive. This was my home, next to Flynn. The last thing I remember was combing my hand through his soft hair and him whispering to me: “I love you,”

Quote: This helps allow the reader to experience the shock of an unexpected peck.

A peck? A measly PECK? You read something of this caliber and that’s how you describe it?

A little further along, quote: Who would of expected that…

“would HAVE” — and this, on a website purporting to dispense advice?

Please don’t judge!

Jayla grabs my hand. I turn to her, eyebrows raised.

“What?” I ask. She flinches.

“I… Kagen… I… really like you.” She holds her breath, eyes not daring to meet mine. I straighten, and she takes my silence as a bad thing. Jayla shrinks away, shaking her head. I put out my hand to stop her from leaving.

“You like me?” It’s the only thing I can think to say. My mind is buzzing with thoughts. Then a small smile curls the corners of my lips up. I lift her chin with my finger, and pull her face towards mine. Our lips connect, hers warm and soft. I move my hand behind her neck and pull her closer, deepening the kiss. She places her hand in my hair, curling her fingers into it so she sends shivers racing down my spine. We brake away too soon. Her cheeks are rosy and her eyes are shining. I want to say something, but my mind is blank. Then, with a small smile, she scurries of.

I’m trying to write a romantic book where a couple struggle to survive because of an abhorrent war. How does this paragraph sound?

As Peter approached Layla, Layla began to shy away. “It’s ok.” Peter reassured. Layla stepped out of the shadows, and held Peter’s hand tightly. “Are you sure they’re gone?” Layla asked, searching the dark alley. “Yes,” Peter replied. “I’m sure.” Layla sighed. She laid her hand on Peter’s face, and then hugged him. “Thank you,” she said, motioning for a kiss. She placed her hand gently on Peter’s face, and then brought his face close to her’s. Then, she reached in for a kiss. Her pale, swollen lips gently brushed against Peter’s lips. Then, Layla nudged her lips closer to Peter until they finally kissed. People gathered around and cheered. The sky cleared away the thick layer of smoke. The war was finally over.

I’m trying to become a writer but have never been kissed before, so bear with me!

The world awakened as I wondered, staring as she flew, bounding through the forest like a doe. Her hands were flown out beside her as she danced through the rain, smiling at me through her sorrow. “Parch! Come here,” she beckoned, twirling around as she laughed. I slowly approached her, smiling unsurely as I stumbled about. “How can you be still while the world is so alive?” she cried, taking my hand and spinning me about. I hesitated, why, still today I do not know. She frowned, releasing me. “How can it be that you still are embarrassed with me?” I shook my head. “I’m not embarrassed, I’m just-“ “Then dance!” she laughed, shaking her head full of shiny wet hair. I sighed. What was I truly afraid of? Hurting my pride? She was right, I was a cowardly thing. But I wanted to please her, I guess that’s why I did it. I began to dance, twirling and spinning with her, my arms stretched wide as I began to sing. I was there, with her, and I would remember that moment for the rest of my days. In my mindlessness I stumbled, falling to the wet leaves of autumn. “Parch!” she shrieked, appearing at my side. “I’m ok-“ I started, before she lay down next to me. “Look at the sky,” she sighed, stretching her hands out as though if she tried hard enough she could grab the clouds and weave them into some beautiful dress. She then grabbed my hand. “Parch, you are unlike any boy I have ever met.“ Her eyes met mine. “ What do you mean?” I slipped my hand out of her’s, propping myself up under my elbow. “You, my friend, are afraid of me.” She laughed once more, sitting up herself. “A-afraid?” I sputtered, bilking out the rain. “Yes! You are. Or at least, if falling in love. Or perhaps to lose someone again.” “Again?” I looked at her. “Yes. Yes, I believe that is why you haven’t let down your guard. You are scared of accepting me, only to lose me. And suddenly I knew she was right. “But I won’t let you go, Parch Grant. I will keep you if you keep me.” And I knew she would. I nodded. She leaned into me, her breath sweet as the falling autumn rain. I squeezed my eyes shut, holding my breath. I didn’t know what this would bring, what this would mean- and then she kissed me. Her lips brought forth a marvelous firework of protection, of care. Her hand held my face as I relaxed, kissing her back. And the we broke apart, held by that moment until the end of all time.

This is my first attempt at a kissing scene. I’d love to know someone else’s feedback on it!

An arm strong and gentle stole about Katelyn’s waist, pulling her towards him. Liam’s hands gently grabbed her slender waist. She fit perfectly in his arms. The warmth of his touch drew her closer. So close she could feel his soft breath against her cheek. His eyes were a magnet the desire in his eyes drawing her towards him. Liam’s fingers brushed her cheek. She flinched at his touch. For an instant, he hesitated, afraid that she might pull away. Then, leaning towards him, she surrendered herself to him. His eyes searched her face in a questioning gaze. Her expression held no reserve or hesitancy, only perfect trust, and tender love. As Liam pulled her close, her hands slid up his chest around his neck. A shy, gentle touch. His gaze traveled to her lips. He glanced into her eyes, silently asking permission. She nodded. Tender and affectionate, his hand caressed her cheek. Willing herself to stop trembling, she leaned into him. Slipping his hand under her chin, Liam drew her lips towards his. She yielded to his touch as if the whole world melted away in the embrace of his arms. His lips brushed hers. The touch was hesitant. A tremor ran through her body. The rush of warmth surged through her, drawing every sense towards him in that impassioned moment. She pressed her mouth to his, the sensation of his lips against hers assaulting her senses. His left hand glided up from her waist to the small of her back, pressing her body to him. Liam held her in his arms, willing the moment to go on forever. He felt her longing, reserve, and passion, melt away in the safety of his arms. He drew back, their lips parting, but he didn’t let go of the delicate frame. Her heart beat against his chest. She was his. So small, so weak. And in that moment he swore to protect her from every pain and heartbreak he could keep her from. He would love this girl for eternity. Brushing back her hair, he kissed her forehead and whispered to the angel he held in his arms, “I love you.” He spoke in low, tender tones, his eyes saying far more than his words. Katelyn’s voice was soft but unhesitating. “I love you too, Liam,” she murmured shyly.

Listen, I love your insight. And it’s right. Yes! It really is. The stages are okay. It’s just that the examples used have to be the most boring kissing scenes.

They focus more on before and after the kiss instead of emotions during the kiss. Which I find a bit boring.

Maybe it’s not the vibe I’m looking for.

The first kissing scene is like, yes a surprise but, it’s as if a fish out of water (literally). those tongues flip and they flop and they wiggle. GHAADD!

The next kiss is like the character couldn’t wait to get it over with then buttered it up with a bunch of nice words. Like how you’d describe a nice soup that you’re not really in the mood to have.

But personally, I did like the stages you put out. It makes writing more of a science but it does give some more insight. So thank you.

I am a young author and I am writing hate-to-love romance for the first time. I would love a few tips on this scene. The setting is that they are lying side by side on a bed while Ethan reads a book to Skye.

Please, i’d like your comments on this.

Suddenly he became very aware of their position, there on the bed, under the sheets. Ethan’s gaze slid to Skye, who looked back. ‘Only … Only if you want it,’ he said uncertainly. ‘Kissing a prince is not on my to-do list, mind you,’ she replied flatly. Ethan blushed violently and turned away from her, holding the book in front of his face as best he could. ‘Did I embarrass you now?’ said Skye. ‘You’re mean,’ he said. He swatted at her with the book before hiding behind it again. She laughed softly. ‘Well, kissing a prince may not be on my to-do list, but…’ Ethan’s heart skipped a few beats as she pushed his book down. The lump in his throat widened as Skye’s face came closer. He stiffened completely and didn’t dare move a fin, afraid of doing something wrong and thus breaking the magic of the moment. He knew nothing more and then just waited, completely overwhelmed. ‘Only if you want,’ she whispered, her lips even more a few millimeters from his. He felt her warm breath brush past him and get lost in the storms of her eyes. Of course he wanted it, with all his body and all his heart. But his yes came out in the form of a choked squeak, since his throat was completely constricted. She smiled and leaned in even further. Ethan’s heart thudded against his ribs and his head exploded. Skye’s mouth was surprisingly soft. She smelled of the crisp night air and the stars, if that made any sense. Electric shocks slid down his spine, obscuring his thoughts. The one, scattered particle of his brain that still made an attempt to work told him to do something. Ethan flung the book away, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him, answering the kiss passionately. Skye put her hands flat against his chest and pushed him down on the bed. He gasped against her lips, displacing all thoughts, and let his hand slide into her raven-black hair. He tilted his head and deepened the kiss. Their surroundings became a blur until only Skye was there, the girl he loved. She tugged at the hem of his shirt, whereupon he sat up straight for a moment to pull it off, catching his breath in the process. As soon as he had it off Skye kissed him again. He let himself fall back into the sheets. It all happened naturally, as if it was meant to be. It wasn’t hard to believe that, either. His hands slid to her vest and unbuttoned it. He couldn’t care less about the consequences. It made them feel good to be able to be bad. He had jumped off the cliff. All he could do now was hope there was a safety net.

Terrific article, and very interesting comments. A very important thing is missing, though. Consent. It’s so important (and sexy!) to ask for permission to touch another person. I’m not sure why it’s left out here – maybe because the examples are from older novels – but there are so many reasons why touching another person without their permission can harm them. If we want to see more compassion, respect, and healthy sexual relationships in the world, we as authors, need to model them. It doesn’t “kill the mood” to ask to touch or kiss or anything else – harming someone with your touch kills the mood far worse.

Thank you for the tip! I will see what i can do

Sorry if this is even worse. I am a bit nervous when writing stuff like this and most of the time i just hope its not stupid or childish. But anyway, here is the fixed version of it. I hope it is better.

Suddenly he became very aware of their position, there on the bed, under the sheets. Ethan’s gaze slid to Skye, who looked back. ‘Only … Only if you want it,’ he said uncertainly. ‘Kissing a prince is not on my to-do list, mind you,’ she replied flatly. Ethan blushed violently and turned away from her, holding the book in front of his face as best he could. ‘Have I embarrassed you now?’ said Skye. ‘You’re mean,’ he said. He swatted at her with the book before hiding behind it again. She laughed softly. ‘Well, kissing a prince may not be on my to-do list, but…’ Ethan’s heart skipped a few beats as she pushed his book down. The lump in his throat widened as Skye’s face came closer. He stiffened completely and didn’t dare move a fin, afraid of doing something wrong and thus breaking the magic of the moment. He knew nothing more and then just waited, completely overwhelmed. ‘Only if you want,’ she whispered, her lips even more a few millimeters from his. He felt her warm breath brush past him and get lost in the storms of her eyes. Of course he wanted it, with all his body and all his heart. But his yes came out in the form of a choked squeak, since his throat was completely constricted. She smiled and leaned in even further. Ethan’s heart thudded against his ribs and his head exploded. Skye’s mouth was surprisingly soft. She smelled of the crisp night air and the stars, if that made any sense. Electric shocks slid down his spine, obscuring his thoughts. The one, scattered particle of his brain that still made an attempt to work told him to do something. Ethan flung the book away, wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him, answering the kiss passionately. Skye put her hands flat against his chest and pushed him down on the bed. He gasped against her lips, displacing all thoughts, and let his hand slide into her raven-black hair. He tilted his head and deepened the kiss. Their surroundings became a blur until only Skye was there. Suddenly she pulled back. She looked at him breathlessly, and for a moment he had no idea of time or place. ‘Is … Sorry, I’m too quick.’ She wanted to scribble straight already. ‘No, it’s okay,’ he said, before he knew it. She stiffened. ‘Seriously? ‘I wouldn’t say it otherwise,’ he smiled. He had never seen her so shy. ‘I-I’ve just never really done this before-you know…’ “Do you trust me? She hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. He realized how hard this had to be, after Leo and all the things that had happened. He let his hand slide down her neck and kissed her again, but more quietly, more calmly. He felt her relax. He leaned back a little. “Sure? I understand if you’re…’ ‘Yes, yes I’m sure.’ ‘Okay.’ She tugged at the hem of his shirt, whereupon he sat up straight for a moment to take it off, catching his breath in the meantime. As soon as he had it off Skye kissed him again. He let himself fall back into the sheets. It all happened naturally, as if it was meant to be. It wasn’t hard to believe that, either. His hands slid to her vest and unbuttoned it. He couldn’t care less about the consequences. It made them feel good to be able to be bad. He had jumped off the cliff. All he could do now was hope there was a safety net.

Your examples suck, two were about underage characters, one involved way too much tongue propaganda, and the others were just boring to read. Maybe next time try reading a book by a woman and not an incel from the 1920s.

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News, Notes, Talk

Dear male writers: here’s how not to write about breasts.

Today, on the garbage website that controls our lives, some actually very good writing advice from author and editor Katherine May, which I present below without further comment:

A note from a very weary editor, to all male writers: Women’s breasts are not communication devices. They are not sending you, or your male protagonists, encoded messages. They are, in fact, insentient. They neither dance nor issue invitations. — Katherine May (@_katherine_may_) September 6, 2019

In the vast majority of scenarios, they don’t merit a mention at all. You know how it’s rude to stare at boobs in real life? It’s a similar breach of etiquette to mention them repeatedly in your prose, while their owner is just going about her daily business. — Katherine May (@_katherine_may_) September 6, 2019

(While we’re on the subject, few women will come to a spiralling climax from anyone grabbing them. Just so you know.) — Katherine May (@_katherine_may_) September 6, 2019

In addition, they are rarely arranged for your personal approval. I know, it’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Most of the time they’re just sitting there, just as your own moobs are just sitting there, quite innocently, not carrying any meaning whatsoever. — Katherine May (@_katherine_may_) September 6, 2019

And here’s a very simple rule of thumb: if you’re describing a woman in a professional context, do not – I repeat, do NOT – mention her breasts. It is not just irrelevant; it’s downright icky. If it would count as sexual harassment in real life, don’t put it in writing. — Katherine May (@_katherine_may_) September 6, 2019

Now, it may well be pertinent to talk about boobs when your characters are having sex. Bon. However… Breasts have no musculature, and so cannot move independently. They do not surge upwards in excitement unless their owner is bouncing on the bed. (In which case, good for her.) — Katherine May (@_katherine_may_) September 6, 2019

They are not woodland creatures. They do not tremble, vibrate, rise to your touch, or indeed sit up on their hind legs and sniff the air in anticipation. — Katherine May (@_katherine_may_) September 6, 2019

They do not – please god – nestle. — Katherine May (@_katherine_may_) September 6, 2019

We know you love boobs. I mean, who doesn’t? They’re adorable things. But if you are trying to write a serious novel please try to hold back from mentioning them all the frickin’ time. It’s downright creepy. If ever the phrase ‘kill your darlings’ were relevant… — Katherine May (@_katherine_may_) September 6, 2019

I also highly recommend this thread’s mentions. Reader and writers alike: you’re welcome.

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Unveiling the Art of Depicting Arousal in Writing

Positive Psychology

The Importance of Vocabulary in Describing Sensual Scenes

When it comes to writing about arousal and intimate encounters, having a rich and diverse vocabulary is crucial. The words and phrases you choose can greatly impact the reader’s experience and level of engagement. By using the right vocabulary, you can effectively convey the intensity and passion of a scene, making it more vivid and realistic for the reader.

However, it is important to strike a balance between being descriptive and being explicit. While it is essential to use words that evoke desire and arousal, too much explicitness can detract from the artistry of the writing. It is important to find that fine line that allows the reader to use their imagination while still getting their heart racing.

Best Tips for Writing Erotic Fiction

Writing erotic fiction requires a delicate balance of sensuality and storytelling. Here are some tips to help you create captivating and arousing stories:

• Develop well-rounded and relatable characters: In order to create scenes that arouse your readers, you must first establish characters that they can connect with on an emotional level. Understand their desires, fears, and vulnerabilities, so that the reader can become emotionally invested in their journey.
• Build anticipation: The key to writing erotic fiction is to slowly build anticipation and tension. Engage your readers by gradually intensifying the sexual tension between the characters. This can be achieved through lingering gazes, light touches, or suggestive dialogue.
• Use sensory details: Engage your reader’s senses by providing vivid and sensory descriptions. The touch of skin, the scent of passion, and the taste of desire can evoke powerful emotions in your readers.
• Experiment with different points of view: Writing from different perspectives can add depth and variety to your erotic fiction. It allows the reader to experience the story from multiple angles and enhances the overall arousal factor.
• Edit and revise: Like all forms of writing, editing and revising are crucial in creating compelling erotic fiction. Pay attention to pace, flow, and the overall impact of each scene. Make sure every word counts and contributes to the desired effect.

Exploring the Power of Metaphors in Portraying Sexual Desire

In the realm of erotic writing, metaphors can be powerful tools for portraying sexual desire. Metaphors allow writers to convey complex emotions and sensations in a way that is relatable and imaginative to the reader.

By using creative and evocative metaphors, writers can tap into the reader’s subconscious, triggering their own desires and fantasies. For example, comparing a passionate kiss to a devouring flame can evoke both excitement and a sense of danger.

However, it is important to use metaphors responsibly and with sensitivity. Avoid clichés and overused comparisons. Instead, strive to create unique and thought-provoking metaphors that enhance the overall sensuality of your writing.

Techniques for Conveying Emotion in Intimate Encounters

Portraying the emotional aspect of intimate encounters is just as important as describing the physical sensations. The emotional journey of the characters can significantly enhance the reader’s experience and connection to the story.

To effectively convey emotion in intimate encounters, consider the following techniques:

• Show vulnerability: Allow your characters to be vulnerable with each other, sharing their fears, insecurities, and desires. This can create a deeper emotional bond between the characters and the reader.
• Utilize dialogue: The conversations between characters in intimate encounters can reveal their true emotions and desires. Use dialogue to convey their innermost thoughts and feelings, adding depth and authenticity to the scene.
• Include internal monologues: Giving your characters a voice within their own minds allows the reader to understand their thoughts and emotions on a deeper level. Internal monologues can provide insights into their desires, doubts, and conflicts.
• Employ body language: Non-verbal cues, such as body language and facial expressions, can effectively communicate emotions during intimate encounters. Show how the characters react physically to their desires and how their bodies communicate their emotions.

The Role of Imagery in Depicting Arousal in Literature

Imagery plays a crucial role in depicting arousal in literature. By using vivid and evocative imagery, you can transport the reader into the scene, stimulating their senses and igniting their own desires.

When writing about arousal, consider using imagery that engages all the senses – sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. For example, describe the warm and musky scent of a lover’s skin or the rhythmic sound of their breathing. Allow the reader to fully immerse themselves in the experience.

However, it is important to strike a balance between explicitness and leaving room for the reader’s imagination. Use imagery to suggest and evoke arousal, rather than describing every explicit detail. This allows the reader to actively participate in the scene, making it a more personal and intimate experience.

Understanding the Language of Passion in Writing

The language used to describe arousal and passion in writing is crucial in creating a powerful and engaging experience for the reader. Words have the ability to evoke intense emotions and sensations, and it is important to choose them carefully.

Avoid clichés and overused phrases when describing passion. Instead, strive for originality and authenticity. Use words and phrases that are genuine and reflect the unique dynamics of the characters and their desires.

Additionally, pay attention to the rhythm, pacing, and cadence of your writing. Use the natural flow of language to create a sense of passion and intensity. Experiment with sentence structure and length to add variety and enhance the overall sensuality of the writing.

Sensory Details: Enhancing Arousal in Romantic Scenes

Sensory details play a crucial role in enhancing arousal in romantic scenes. By engaging the reader’s senses, you can create a more immersive and stimulating experience.

When writing romantic scenes, focus on providing sensory details that evoke desire and passion. Describe the softness of a lover’s touch, the taste of their lips, or the warmth of their embrace. Allow the reader to visualize and experience these sensations, making the scene more intimate and arousing.

However, be mindful of overloading the scene with too many sensory details. It is important to provide enough information to stimulate the reader’s imagination, but also leave room for their own interpretation and personal experiences.

Unveiling the Art of Depicting Arousal in Writing Leadership Strategies

Unveiling the art of depicting arousal in writing requires a combination of skill, creativity, and empathy. As a writer, it is essential to understand the power and responsibility that comes with portraying intimate encounters.

Here are some leadership strategies to help you master the art of depicting arousal in writing:

• Research and knowledge: Take the time to research and understand various aspects of arousal, desire, and intimacy. This includes understanding different perspectives, experiences, and preferences. Gaining knowledge will help you write with authenticity and sensitivity.
• Empathy and respect: Treat the characters in your writing with empathy and respect. Understand their desires, fears, and boundaries. Avoid stereotypes or objectifying language. Show a deep understanding and appreciation for the complexity of human sexuality.
• Open communication: If you are writing in collaboration with others or seeking feedback, create a safe space for open communication. Encourage discussions about consent, boundaries, and any potential triggers that may arise from your writing.
• Continual learning and growth: Writing about arousal is an ongoing learning process. Stay open to feedback and continuously seek ways to improve your craft. Attend workshops, read books, and engage with communities that focus on erotic writing to expand your skills and knowledge.

Common Mistakes to Avoid when Writing Erotic Content

While writing erotic content can be exciting and fulfilling, it is important to be aware of common mistakes that can detract from the quality and impact of your writing. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

• Overusing explicit language: While it is important to use language that evokes desire, using explicit language excessively can come across as gratuitous and diminish the artistry of your writing. Focus on finding a balance between being descriptive and being explicit.
• Lack of consent: Consent is a crucial aspect of any intimate encounter. Avoid portraying non-consensual or coercive situations in your writing. Always emphasize the importance of consent and create scenes that promote healthy and respectful relationships.
• Using stereotypes: Avoid using stereotypes and clichés when portraying characters and their desires. Embrace diversity and individuality, and create characters that break away from traditional societal norms.
• Forgetting emotional connection: Arousal and intimacy are not solely physical acts. Remember to emphasize the emotional connection between characters in your writing. This will deepen the reader’s experience and create a more meaningful and authentic portrayal.

The Evolution of Erotic Writing throughout History

Erotic writing has a long and rich history that has evolved alongside societal norms and taboos. From ancient texts to modern literature, the portrayal of arousal and desire has undergone significant changes.

In ancient civilizations such as Ancient Greece and Rome, erotic literature was often celebrated and considered an art form. These works embraced sensuality, often using vivid descriptions and metaphors to convey desire.

During the Victorian era, however, erotic writing was heavily censored and relegated to clandestine publications. The explicit portrayal of sexual desire was considered immoral and scandalous.

In modern times, erotic writing has seen a resurgence, with authors embracing the genre and exploring diverse themes and experiences. As societal attitudes towards sexuality continue to evolve, authors have more freedom to explore and depict arousal in a variety of ways.

Understanding the history of erotic writing can provide valuable insights into the evolving attitudes towards sexuality and the portrayal of desire. It serves as a reminder that the depiction of arousal is deeply influenced by cultural and societal context.

In conclusion, the art of depicting arousal in writing requires a nuanced approach. It involves the skillful use of vocabulary, metaphors, and sensory details to create vivid and engaging scenes. The emotional connection between characters and the portrayal of desire is just as important as the physical aspects. It is crucial to depict arousal with empathy, respect, and authenticity, avoiding common mistakes and embracing continual learning and growth. By understanding the language of passion and the power of imagery, writers can create intimate and arousing experiences for their readers. So, unleash your creativity and explore the thrilling world of erotic writing.

Tapping into the Senses: Using Sound and Smell to Evoke Arousal in Writing

In the art of depicting arousal in writing, one must not underestimate the power of the senses. While visual descriptions are often favored, incorporating the auditory and olfactory senses can bring the reader’s experience to a whole new level. This sub-article explores how writers can utilize sound and smell to evoke arousal in their writing.

The Power of Sound

When it comes to writing about arousal, sound can be a potent tool for enhancing the emotional response of the reader. By incorporating specific auditory details, you can create a more immersive experience, guiding the reader’s imagination to conjure up their own sensations of pleasure.

Consider describing the soft, rhythmic moans that escape the lips of lovers entangled in a passionate embrace. These sounds not only contribute to the realism of the scene but also evoke a sense of intimacy and vulnerability. The gentle whispers, gasps, and sighs exchanged between characters add depth and sensuality to the narrative.

Additionally, the sounds of their surroundings can also play a role in setting the scene. The rustling of silk sheets, the crackling of a roaring fire, or even the soothing hum of rain against the windowpane can add layers of sensory richness and further immerse the reader in the world of desire.

The Aromatic Language of Desire

Smell is an often underutilized sense in writing, but it can profoundly influence how readers engage with a story. The scents associated with arousal can trigger powerful memories and emotions, resulting in a more visceral and authentic connection.

Introduce the reader to the alluring fragrance of jasmine wafting through the air as two characters embrace, creating an atmosphere of temptation and allure. A subtle hint of musk, mingled with the scent of sweat, can evoke the rawness and passion of a steamy encounter.

Describing the smell of freshly brewed coffee or the rich aroma of dark chocolate can also engage the reader’s senses, subtly provoking a sense of anticipation and desire. These olfactory details can intensify the reader’s emotional response, making the scene even more evocative and stimulating.

By skillfully incorporating sound and smell into your writing, you have the power to transport your readers into a world of desire and heightened senses. Through detailed and immersive sensory descriptions, you can unleash the full potential of arousal in your writing.

Exploring the Taboo: Writing BDSM Scenes with Sensitivity and Authenticity

While exploring the art of depicting arousal in writing, it is essential to address the topic of BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Dominance, Submission, Sadism, Masochism). This sub-article delves into the proper approach for incorporating BDSM scenes into your writing, ensuring sensitivity and authenticity.

Nuanced and Informed Character Development

When writing BDSM scenes, it is crucial to depict characters who have a deep understanding and respect for the dynamics and boundaries of such relationships. Characters should be well-developed and three-dimensional, with complex motivations and desires that extend beyond merely engaging in BDSM activities.

It is essential to portray the mutual consent and negotiation that occurs in such relationships. Providing a realistic portrayal of safe words, consent protocols, and aftercare activities will help dispel misconceptions and promote a deeper understanding of the BDSM community.

Accurate Representation of BDSM Practices

Authenticity is key when it comes to writing BDSM scenes. Proper research is necessary to understand the various BDSM practices, roles, and dynamics. Writers should consult reputable sources, such as books, articles, and individuals with experience in the BDSM community.

Pay attention to the accurate portrayal of bondage, discipline, dominance, and submission. Understanding the psychological aspects of power exchange, role-playing, and the nuances of different kinks is crucial in creating believable scenarios. Properly depicting the significance of aftercare is also essential, as it highlights the care and emotional responsibility involved in BDSM relationships.

Tackling Taboos with Sensitivity

BDSM is a subject that is often stigmatized and misunderstood. Sensitivity is essential when writing about these taboo subjects, as it can provide a platform for education and dispelling myths. Tread carefully when exploring the extremes of BDSM, ensuring that you handle potentially triggering content responsibly.

Moreover, avoid fetishizing or sensationalizing BDSM in your writing. Instead, focus on the emotional connection, trust, and dynamics between characters. By showcasing the nuanced aspects of BDSM, you can portray the experience with empathy and understanding.

Writing BDSM scenes with sensitivity and authenticity demands research, empathy, and a commitment to breaking stereotypes. By creating well-rounded characters, representing accurate practices, and dispelling misconceptions, you can contribute to a more profound understanding of this complex and misunderstood aspect of human desire.

FAQS – Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is the significance of depicting arousal in writing? A1: Depicting arousal in writing adds depth and realism to intimate or passionate scenes, allowing readers to emotionally connect with characters and enhancing the overall impact of the narrative.

Q2: How can writers effectively portray arousal without resorting to explicit language? A2: Writers can employ imaginative and sensory language, using metaphors and similes to evoke the sensory experiences associated with arousal, such as heightened senses, racing heartbeats, or flushed skin.

Q3: Is it necessary to depict arousal in every romantic or intimate scene? A3: Not necessarily. The inclusion of arousal in writing should be intentional, serving the purpose of character development, plot progression, or enhancing the emotional impact of specific scenes. It is important to strike a balance and avoid overuse or gratuitousness.

Q4: How can writers avoid clichés while depicting arousal in their writing? A4: Writers can strive for originality by exploring lesser-known metaphors, similes, or expressive language to depict arousal. They can also rely on character-specific reactions and unique perspectives, avoiding repetitive or stereotypical descriptions.

Q5: Are there any guidelines or considerations when depicting arousal in different genres of writing? A5: Yes, the portrayal of arousal may vary across genres. While romance or erotica genres may require more explicit or detailed descriptions, other genres like suspense or literary fiction might focus on subtler emotions and rely on nuanced language to convey arousal. It is important to understand the expectations and conventions of the specific genre.

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Describing Words

This tool helps you find adjectives for things that you're trying to describe. Also check out ReverseDictionary.org and RelatedWords.org . Here are some adjectives for breasts : . You can get the definitions of these breasts adjectives by clicking on them. You might also like some words related to breasts (and find more here ).

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Words to Describe breasts

Below is a list of describing words for breasts . You can sort the descriptive words by uniqueness or commonness using the button above. Sorry if there's a few unusual suggestions! The algorithm isn't perfect, but it does a pretty good job for most common nouns. Here's the list of words that can be used to describe breasts :

• spectacular bare
• dimly speckled
• modest but distinctly feminine
• unmeasurable and infinite
• formerly ample
• withered, empty
• weary and happy
• luxuriously soft and full
• upright virginal
• still high and full
• high, perfect
• rather plentiful
• sleekly full
• small, up-jutting
• ripe, white
• tiny, pointy
• especially extra
• nicely conical
• bare and full
• miraculously generous
• tanned small
• thine ideal
• monstrous meaty
• artificial, military
• marvelously full and soft
• rather silvery
• phenomenally full
• rough, ravenous
• black plump
• full upstanding
• attractive, ample
• hugely outsized
• young and perky
• full benignant
• massive iron-clad
• large, upstanding
• curved, smooth
• superb, large
• motionless and peaceful
• smooth scented
• diminutive, iridescent
• once astonishing
• old unquiet
• full, tanned
• sanctified and luminous
• softwood, ripe
• delicate, disheveled
• empty and wrinkled
• free or valiant
• small and promising
• bare and powerful
• small upstanding
• faithful, silent
• ponderous greenish
• still hot and fevered
• virginal, royal
• beauteous female
• newly pneumatic
• speckled or striped
• small, unencumbered
• oft deluded
• young, pear-shaped
• curious rock-crystal
• veined bare
• many god-like
• softly resilient
• wrinkled female
• magnificently impressive
• soft unfettered
• boldly outstanding
• thy guileless
• supple, full
• high, small
• grecian or italian
• slimy, crimson
• rather small and flat
• obdurate icy
• perpetually swollen
• pert and perfect
• permanently swollen
• full and yet youthful
• charming snow-white
• forlorn and dry
• small pointy
• mortal, weary
• incredible, naked
• icy and tranquil
• still big and sensual
• dark alluring
• immeasurable and infinite
• large fatty

Popular Searches

As you've probably noticed, adjectives for " breasts " are listed above. Hopefully the above generated list of words to describe breasts suits your needs.

If you're getting strange results, it may be that your query isn't quite in the right format. The search box should be a simple word or phrase, like "tiger" or "blue eyes". A search for words to describe "people who have blue eyes" will likely return zero results. So if you're not getting ideal results, check that your search term, " breasts " isn't confusing the engine in this manner.

Note also that if there aren't many breasts adjectives, or if there are none at all, it could be that your search term has an abiguous part-of-speech. For example, the word "blue" can be an noun and an adjective. This confuses the engine and so you might not get many adjectives describing it. I may look into fixing this in the future. You might also be wondering: What type of word is breasts ?

The idea for the Describing Words engine came when I was building the engine for Related Words (it's like a thesaurus, but gives you a much broader set of related words, rather than just synonyms). While playing around with word vectors and the " HasProperty " API of conceptnet, I had a bit of fun trying to get the adjectives which commonly describe a word. Eventually I realised that there's a much better way of doing this: parse books!

Project Gutenberg was the initial corpus, but the parser got greedier and greedier and I ended up feeding it somewhere around 100 gigabytes of text files - mostly fiction, including many contemporary works. The parser simply looks through each book and pulls out the various descriptions of nouns.

Hopefully it's more than just a novelty and some people will actually find it useful for their writing and brainstorming, but one neat little thing to try is to compare two nouns which are similar, but different in some significant way - for example, gender is interesting: " woman " versus " man " and " boy " versus " girl ". On an inital quick analysis it seems that authors of fiction are at least 4x more likely to describe women (as opposed to men) with beauty-related terms (regarding their weight, features and general attractiveness). In fact, "beautiful" is possibly the most widely used adjective for women in all of the world's literature, which is quite in line with the general unidimensional representation of women in many other media forms . If anyone wants to do further research into this, let me know and I can give you a lot more data (for example, there are about 25000 different entries for "woman" - too many to show here).

The blueness of the results represents their relative frequency. You can hover over an item for a second and the frequency score should pop up. The "uniqueness" sorting is default, and thanks to my Complicated Algorithm™, it orders them by the adjectives' uniqueness to that particular noun relative to other nouns (it's actually pretty simple). As you'd expect, you can click the "Sort By Usage Frequency" button to adjectives by their usage frequency for that noun.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source mongodb which was used in this project.

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Shannon Davidson Member

Describing a goddess

Discussion in ' Word Mechanics ' started by Shannon Davidson , Jan 6, 2021 .

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('funpub_234caa881631c2f7f38399b0ededc271'); }); I'm struggling a little with a description of one of my characters. This is an urban fantasy that involves gods, angels, and other entities. In this passage, Artemis is meeting with the angel Gavril just before a rebellion breaks out in the heavens. Thoughts? Too wordy? Cheesy? Good? Bad? “Did you get it?” a voice called from behind him. Gavril started, then turned as a woman stepped from the shadows, gliding gracefully toward him in a regal and unharried manner. As was befitting an exalted figurehead, Artemis arrived in full splendor, robed in the finery of her station. Bejeweled in strings of pearls, she wore a simple dress of pleated linen draped elegantly over her body. Clasps of gold pinned the garment at her shoulders, while the many rings and bangles she wore clinked musically with the sway of her arms. The setting star, Veix, hovered directly behind her, its golden light casting a suggestive silhouette through the sheer fabric of her gown, the narrowing of her waist and the fullness of her breasts and hips leaving very little to the imagination. He didn’t know how she did it. Even amidst a rebellion, the goddess was flawless. Artemis caught Gavril watching at her and smirked at the flush in his cheeks. “Eyes to yourself, angel . These goods aren’t for you.” Gavril cleared his throat, embarrassed to have been caught staring. “Shouldn’t you be wearing something a bit more… sensible ?” “Like what? Tell me, Gavril, what does someone like myself wear to one of these things? I’ve not participated in a rebellion before.”  

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googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('funpub_234caa881631c2f7f38399b0ededc271'); }); It depends on how accurate you're going for with naming her Artemis. Artemis is the goddess of the hunt in Greek mythology, so she's often depicted with a bow and wearing fairly ... sensible clothing. Stuff one wears to hunt in, I gather. If you're going for a softer version of her, then I suppose what you've got is fine, but I don't really know the context of how you've presented her rings true to someone about to go into battle. It seems it'd be difficult to fight wearing bangles and many rings, especially since she needs her arms and fingers to wield her weapon of choice. I feel like some sort of armor would be more appropriate? Unless this is the peace talks before the fight happens they're going to. Then I think the finery would work. Hope this helps.  

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('funpub_234caa881631c2f7f38399b0ededc271'); }); Yes, those are great questions and observations. The attire I picked for her is important for what happens next in the scene. But you pointed out something else. Gavril shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d know the plan. Need to reword that. Thank you.  

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googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('funpub_234caa881631c2f7f38399b0ededc271'); }); With all due respect, this doesn't sound like Artemis at all to me. Besides being Goddess of the Hunt, she was also a Virgin Goddess. She had no interest in men whatsoever and even made Zeus promise she never had to marry and that she would remain untouched. There are also stories of how she treated men who ogled her. One she turned into a deer and he was then brutally killed by his own hunting dogs. Therefore she'd most likely never play the role of temptress as it seems here. Her reaction to the angel looking is also weird in the context of her mythological persona. In fact, I would have guessed this was describing Aphrodite rather than Artemis. Just my five cents.  

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('funpub_234caa881631c2f7f38399b0ededc271'); }); Thank you. Yes, this was done intentionally and makes sense in the context of the story. This is being told from the POV of the gods in an alternate reality/mythology sort of way.  

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googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('funpub_234caa881631c2f7f38399b0ededc271'); }); I think it's a pretty well done section. I would hint that what he sees is just a fraction of her splendor. She could say this in some way. "You have not even seen my final form!"( haha!) If a man really saw the embodiment of her chaste perfection, the longing would burn through his sockets, his brain, and leave two smoking holes in the back of his skull.  

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('funpub_234caa881631c2f7f38399b0ededc271'); }); Nice... thank you  

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how would one describe breast?

While writing up many things I found my self wondering how I would be able to describe things better, like breast for example. I wondered if I could be doing it better so I ask here for tips on that as I hope I could elevate my current vocabulary to then find better ways to make my paragraphs and sentences pop and feel more smooth as you read them. Any and all tips and advices are appreciated and I thank you for your time.

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