{"id":5223,"date":"2007-07-10T02:39:48","date_gmt":"2007-07-10T02:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shilohwalker.wordpress.com\/2007\/07\/10\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/"},"modified":"2007-07-10T02:39:48","modified_gmt":"2007-07-10T02:39:48","slug":"heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those of us who love erotic romance, we’ve probably run into this at\u00a0one point or another.<\/p>\n

That erotic romance that had so much promise.\u00a0 It had a blurb that caught your attention, maybe even a kick butt cover and the first few pages were wonderful.<\/p>\n

Then you get into the story, or at least you read further into the story, and you can’t<\/em> get into it.\u00a0 It’s mechanical.\u00a0 It’s boring.\u00a0 It’s predictable.\u00a0 Insert Tab A into Slot B\/C\/D (or two tab As into two different slots… whatever!)\u00a0 but there’s little emotion.\u00a0 What could have been a beautiful love scene was little more than sex and it didn’t do anything to advance the plot, didn’t do anything to bring the hero and the heroine closer together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What’s missing?<\/p>\n

Emotion.<\/p>\n

How do you get that emotion into the story?\u00a0 I can’t necessarily say it’s easy.\u00a0 If it was easy, everybody could do it and then we wouldn’t be reading books that had the heat but lacked the heart.<\/p>\n

There are ways however to get that emotion into the story.<\/p>\n

I asked some fellow writers the following…<\/p>\n

What are some techniques for getting across the emotion in your books?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jaci Burton<\/a> says<\/p>\n

think of the impact of the relationship between the characters in every scene–how they feel, how what happens to them changes them, both externally and internally<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Angela Knight <\/a>says\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dialogue is a big one.\u00a0 I try to think of myself as an actor playing that character.\u00a0 What would I say, given the character’s motivation?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Toni Blake <\/a>says<\/p>\n

I just make sure that, no matter what\u2019s happening in the book, the character\u2019s emotions are on the page. Whether it\u2019s a sex scene or otherwise. If I read back over something I\u2019ve written and it\u2019s not very apparent how the characters are feeling, I know I need to add that in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what does all these mean?<\/p>\n

The reader needs to know what your characters are thinking and feeling.\u00a0How do you accomplish this? Well, I think Sunny<\/a> is the one who summed it up the best…at least for this part.<\/p>\n

She said<\/p>\n

Intimacy, getting inside the character’s head is the key thing for me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You get into the person’s head. Ways to do that are (choke, it hurts to say this because I’m not a plotter by nature) plotting and doing some sort of preliminary characterization. Write the character’s backstory, or at least think it through. What happens to us in our lives helps to shape us, how we react, how we think, how we feel. The same goes to our characters. A woman from an abusive relationship isn’t going to trust easily when she meets the man of her dreams. No matter how wonderful he is. We can’t expect her to. It makes sense when we see this woman resistant to Mr. Sexy and Wonderful and why she isn’t going to let him sweep her off her feet. But if we don’t know what’s behind her resistance, she may end up looking like a stupid twit that we don’t really want to see with Mr. S & W.<\/p>\n

Since PBW is making me work, I’m going to pass it on.\u00a0 If you’re interested, come back and give me the names of two characters, the hero and the heroine and some backstory on them.\u00a0 This can be from a WIP or you can just pull them out of the air.\u00a0 Who knows… you pull them out of the air, you just might end up with another story to tell.<\/p>\n

**Updated to add… the backstory thing has me intrigued.\u00a0 And this isn’t just going to be a one day workshop.\u00a0 I think I’m going to do a short series on it, exploring it a little each week until I’m done.\u00a0 I’ve got plenty of author responses and this will keep me busy blogging for a little while at least.\u00a0 ;o)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of us who love erotic romance, we’ve probably run into this at\u00a0one point or another. That erotic romance that had so much promise.\u00a0 “Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10161045129738658_54762468447":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[44,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-romance","category-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nHeat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion - Shiloh Walker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion - Shiloh Walker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For those of us who love erotic romance, we’ve probably run into this at\u00a0one point or another. That erotic romance that had so much promise.\u00a0 "Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shiloh Walker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorShilohWalker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-10T02:39:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/shiloh_logo-2-e1410738561344.png?fit=100%2C115&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"115\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shilohwalker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@shilohwalker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@shilohwalker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"shilohwalker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"shilohwalker\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4a0549ddc3adddbd9f57abb7c37335da\"},\"headline\":\"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-10T02:39:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":694,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Romance\",\"Writing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\\\/\",\"name\":\"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion - Shiloh Walker\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-10T02:39:48+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/2007\\\/07\\\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/\",\"name\":\"Shiloh Walker\",\"description\":\"Let Me Tell You A Story\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shiloh Walker\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/07\\\/cropped-shiloh_logo-e1310090037952.png?fit=49%2C50&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/07\\\/cropped-shiloh_logo-e1310090037952.png?fit=49%2C50&ssl=1\",\"width\":49,\"height\":50,\"caption\":\"Shiloh Walker\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AuthorShilohWalker\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/shilohwalker\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/shiloh_walker_author\\\/\",\"http:\\\/\\\/pinterest.com\\\/shilohwalker\\\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4a0549ddc3adddbd9f57abb7c37335da\",\"name\":\"shilohwalker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"shilohwalker\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.shilohwalker.com\\\/website\\\/author\\\/shilohwalker\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion - Shiloh Walker","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion - Shiloh Walker","og_description":"For those of us who love erotic romance, we’ve probably run into this at\u00a0one point or another. That erotic romance that had so much promise.\u00a0 \"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/","og_site_name":"Shiloh Walker","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorShilohWalker","article_published_time":"2007-07-10T02:39:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":100,"height":115,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/shiloh_logo-2-e1410738561344.png?fit=100%2C115&ssl=1","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"shilohwalker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@shilohwalker","twitter_site":"@shilohwalker","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"shilohwalker","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/"},"author":{"name":"shilohwalker","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#\/schema\/person\/4a0549ddc3adddbd9f57abb7c37335da"},"headline":"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion","datePublished":"2007-07-10T02:39:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/"},"wordCount":694,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Romance","Writing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/","name":"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion - Shiloh Walker","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-07-10T02:39:48+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2007\/07\/heat-with-heart-day-1-finding-that-missing-emotion\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Heat with Heart Day 1, Finding that missing emotion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/","name":"Shiloh Walker","description":"Let Me Tell You A Story","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#organization","name":"Shiloh Walker","url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/cropped-shiloh_logo-e1310090037952.png?fit=49%2C50&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/cropped-shiloh_logo-e1310090037952.png?fit=49%2C50&ssl=1","width":49,"height":50,"caption":"Shiloh Walker"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorShilohWalker","https:\/\/x.com\/shilohwalker","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/shiloh_walker_author\/","http:\/\/pinterest.com\/shilohwalker\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/#\/schema\/person\/4a0549ddc3adddbd9f57abb7c37335da","name":"shilohwalker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8abbb1e96efdc186d6277cdff598b840d4ba778c838739a98a1086f4d33fc30d?s=96&d=wavatar&r=pg","caption":"shilohwalker"},"url":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/author\/shilohwalker\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}