{"id":553,"date":"2009-10-04T09:01:20","date_gmt":"2009-10-04T15:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/?p=553"},"modified":"2012-02-18T08:17:55","modified_gmt":"2012-02-18T14:17:55","slug":"chemistry-101-mini-lesson-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/04\/chemistry-101-mini-lesson-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemistry 101–Mini Lesson 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Physical description is a gold mine for a romance writer to heighten chemistry.<\/p>\n

Especially when the hero\/heroine is viewed through the eyes of the other.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. This is a very legitimate way to build physical awareness.\u00a0 Because as one character is taking in the other physically and processing that information, they are, by the very nature of that act, becoming increasingly physically aware of that person.<\/li>\n
  2. We are full of minor, interesting imperfections that if we observe about ourselves, would make us come across as either anal or appearance obsessed.\u00a0 By having another character do it, particularly if it is a little detail that might not even get noticed by someone paying less attention, underscores that person\u2019s physic al interest in us.<\/li>\n
  3. By what he or she notices, you are revealing things about the POV character.<\/li>\n
  4. By what he or she thinks as he or she observes the other character, you are revealing even more about the POV character.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And here is a massterful example from Meredith Duran, excerpted from Bound by Your Touch<\/em>:<\/p>\n

    \u201cYou think a great deal of your intelligence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    She pursed her lips.\u00a0 The movement exposed a hint of dimple.\u00a0 In conjunction with her starchy manner, it seemed wholly incongruous. A mere anatomical fluke, he told himself; just a trick of her tightened lips.\u00a0 Nevertheless, he found himself staring at it, wondering what he might do to make it deepen.\u00a0 Breathy gasps, flashing dimples: the idea came to him that Miss Boyce\u2019s body liked to sabotage her. <\/em><\/p>\n

    \u201cOf course I do.\u00a0 I\u2019m a woman.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t think highly of my intellect, who will?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    He wrested his eyes from the dimple.\u00a0 Such a peculiar mix of affront and bravado. Her sisters were the acknowledged beauties, but Miss Boyce had her own charms\u2014made particularly visible now, in the context of her improvisational honesty.\u00a0 Her eyes were alert with intelligence.\u00a0 The other night, he had looked into them and discovered they were heavy-lidded.\u00a0 This gave her a perpetually sleepy appearance, so she looked always as if she had just risen from bed.\u00a0 He smiled, suddenly won over.\u00a0 She had risked her own comfort to come here.\u00a0 Let her have her victory.\u00a0 \u201cTouch\u00e9, darling.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

    She did not like the endearment.\u00a0 Her face, so bright when she defended her learning, went as dark as a shuttered window.\u00a0 \u201cBut let me come to the point.\u00a0 You must wonder why I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    \u201cTo beg forgiveness for your father\u2019s foul deeds, I suppose.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    Her mouth tightened further.\u00a0 Christ, but that dimple conspired against her.\u00a0 It drew attention to her mouth, which was overly wide and completely unfashionable, and suggested prospects that were not appropriate to the moment.\u00a0 Or, for that matter, precisely legal.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Amusement stirred in him.\u00a0 Odd, unexpected, and undeniable: he was wholly attracted to her.\u00a0 At some primal level, his body took note of hers.\u00a0 The imperative it issued was blunt and unpolished: five thousand years ago, he would have dragged her off to a cave somewhere.\u00a0 And no doubt Miss Boyce of the Stone Age, bereft of an education to sharpen her tongue, would have sharpened a rock instead, and neatly gutted him.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Now of course this is fair, as Meredith is probably the<\/em> prose stylist among our generation of romance writers.\u00a0 But this is a perfect example of how to deepen chemistry through what for another writer might be a throwawa bit of dialogue: the noticing and interpretation of quirks, the increasing physical attraction, the ironic self-awareness on the hero’s part.<\/p>\n

    Learn from the best, I say.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Physical description is a gold mine for a romance writer to heighten chemistry. Especially when the hero\/heroine is viewed through the eyes of the other. This is a very legitimate way to build physical awareness.\u00a0 Because as one character is taking in the other physically and processing that information, they are, by the very nature … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31],"tags":[27,54],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":559,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}