Now I have to make those words good. And add a scene, and try to delete 5000 words and...before Feb 3.

I have this book free as part of this promo with the World of the True North. This is college hockey romance,(no halftime in hockey but maybe in love) there's also non-hockey queer and straight romances. Some are free, some $.99, if you're interested: hearteyespress.com/wotn-promo

Sometimes it's not learning something new, but being aware of what you already know. I wasn't sure what I was getting into with this, but I think what I mostly got was to be intentional, and remember the purpose of smut.

It's not in either of the books I'm currently working on, but the next one is my first friends to lovers, and I know the set up to get them into sexy times, and it's the first true friends to lovers I've done. A little bit comfortable, a little bit awkward, a little we can't undo this...

My totally uninformed take: porn is just sex, erotica is sex with the story line second, and smut is a story line that includes sex.

Within the limits of what I'm comfortable using (everyone has a word like moist that icks them out) I try to let the characters choose the words that suit them. Or that suit the circumstances. Sometimes if they're horny enough, they'll change their words.

It's smut, people. Read with discretion.

That varies a lot by character, but in the time around the smutty scenes, I try to make them communicate because I think they should. Outside of that, they usually have to learn to communicate better, since they're usually working through something.

I'm a pantser. I'm always surprised at what happens.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, #Smutcember! I'm partial to the Yule vibes myself, but any excuse for a little holiday spice. 😏 With that in mind, we ask you: Do you plan your characters with specific kinks, or do they arise organically? #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, greetings from France.

My editor told me that the sex scenes should have an arc, just like the characters in the story. There should be a reason and a progression to them. Maybe that's really obvious, but my first book, I needed to hear that.

Spouse has read a couple of books, but is uncomfortable with it. My mom no longer reads smut. I have friends who've read it and a surprising number of strangers.

I've never done this. Mostly because there are too many stories in my head already in the current world I'm writing. But if I were to do this, I think I'd use my closed door romance characters to see what they would get up to...

I had originally planned one couple for later in this series, but it involved people who'd been mentioned, but weren't involved in the other books, so I changed the characters I'd planned for that book. And now one of them will be the MMC in the first of my next series.

Stupid brain messing things up...

My characters have surprised me, but not when it comes to who they hook up with. I just discovered my new hockey player is afraid of heights, but his LI hasn't changed.

Touch, the most. Sight and sounds as well. I've used taste as well, but not smell, I don't think. For which is used when, it depends on whose POV and what they're doing - at times one receives more and the other gives, and sometimes they both/all are getting pleasure.

The story is friends to lovers, so once they have smutty times, they have to acknowledge the sexual attractiveness of the other. There were some small changes before they have sex, but after, it's a big shift.

One POV at a time, but there are times when there's a POV change in a long sex scene, after a break, with a scene change marker. Not sure I think it out in detail, but since each book has two or three detailed scenes, we do get the POV of each MC. (Not done more than two people in a sex scene.)

This made me think. I find the sex scenes challenging to write, so once I've hit the 'quota' I tend not to write the details. But that may also be partly because the sex scenes have done their work, and now we're working on the black moment, etc.

Riley has a drive to suceed that faded for Wayne. And Wayne has a generosity on and off the ice that Riley hasn't felt free to indulge, which makes him much more popular and a part of the team than she is.

These two take an escape from real life when they get the chance. And smut happens.

I think new - I may be a total weirdo, but I like it when things don't go perfectly. Parts bumping, is this okay, I didn't wear my sexy underwear...

I love cocky/I am not impressed. Also, famous person/regular person. And writing hockey romance, there's lots of scope for both of those.

My spouse won't read my smutty books. And when someone talked about a creative writing thing where people shared what they'd written, my response was I just wrote a sex scene and I'm not reading that out loud... Also, my mother disapproves of 'those' books.

For me, I think it's the buildup. One couple I picked for this are starting out as antagonists, so the build up has to work or the sex and aftercare won't make sense.

Based on the books I've written so far, slow burn. I've only done one one-night-stand that of course turns out to be the worst person to have slept with. I started in closed door, so I usually do the emotional leading to the physical which means...slow burn.

My female hockey player likes that the male player is tall. She's 5'11", and quite fit, which some guys find intimidating. She likes being able to wear heels and not feel like they're out of balance. And for both? They're athletes. They like the fit bodies.

Ironically, this is from a WIP that isn't actually smutty...

An emotional connection and then, add the physical. Eyes lingering over a shapely posterior, forearm porn, tantalizing cleavage. Physical reactions, goosebumps, chills, shortness of breath, and getting wet/hard. Some interior dialogue.

I read a variety of smut, but write much more limited smuttiness. I also tend not to read similar things to what I'm writing, so I'm not mimicking someone else's smut, or anything else in my writing.

It's much easier to read than write for me, so I prefer reading it. Also, growing up in a very conservative environment, reading smut exposed me to a lot of things I'd never come across. And reading it is fun, but writing things like BDSM crosses into something I have no experience of.

I'vev written closed door to about a 3, I think? (about three open door scenes per book). I read spicier stuff than I write. Since I started writing closed door books, I guess I focus more on the emotional relationship and add the smut to enhance it.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm getting into here, but I have two couples I'm drafting books for, so it should be those couples, right? There's my MF pair of hockey players (she calls him an asshole their first meeting) and the hockey player giving his childhood friend a safe place after a breakup.

On our dog walk this morning, I met a trope. Couple in their 70's, at a guess, she's using sticks to walk on a level path, he's slightly ahead of her. They both say Bonjour. He's grumpy, she's sunshine.

This was great. I used it to think about the next book I'm writing, and it helped me dig deeper into the characters. I'm a pantser, but I think this one will need less revising since I've done some of the work now.

Don't have a song yet but the vibes for the FMC will be like Confident by Demi Lovato.

Still contemporary romance, subgenre, hockey, MF

Two hockey players, so I'll need to check in the women and men's teams share an arena or not. And since sex at the arena wouldn't really be that romantic, I'll need where they live. And I believe the initial meet will be at a coach's house for a Thanksgiving for North Americans.

All of Us Murderers by @kjcharleswriter.com just hit the top of my holds, so I've got that on my reader and that's my day booked. Sorry if you wanted me for anything. #romancelandia #reading

Getting back to this after travelling. This book is the first in a series, so the supporting characters HAVE to be interesting enough for people to want to continue. It's a women's hockey series, so mostly the coach and other players. Just have to weave them in.

For the MMC, contact with his father. Phone calls, messages, memories. For FMC, since the PWHL starts later than the French league, constantly checking signings, rosters, hoping for a call. I think.

This one I'm struggling with. I'm more of an intuitive writer - I've read voraciously since I was a kid, so I don't actually know exactly how the Acts line up. Is this what leads them to make some big changes, or what they find out once they've started to change?

MMC has to reevaluate his family history with the knowledge he's been the golden child and FMC will be reevaluating hockey play based on being more of a team player. I think. I'm a pantser, so things change as I write.

The inciting incident will be when the MMC and FMC meet. She's going to tell him about his sister, which is going to change a lot of his beliefs, and she's going to see someone who puts team not individual first. Not sure they'll realize anything but attraction though. Hmmm...

With the two characters, I'm doing this twice. Hers will have to do with becoming a team player, acknowledging her dream isn't more vital than someone else's. His is related to his father - he'll have to risk losing his family to follow his own dream for his own happiness.

I write romance, so the ending will be a HFN, or HEA for the two characters. I'm pretty sure with these two he's going to be the one making the sacrifice to keep them together when their careers clash.

Been sick, so trying to catch up. I need to get a female and male hockey player in Europe together - been thinking the coach of the women's team might have a Thanksgiving for all the North Americans playing hockey in the area.

When faced with a setback, FMC could blame others, perhaps risk injury to try to reach her goal at all costs. Or she could face the uncomfortable truth that things are out of her control, and doing her best is enough, and that she's still worthy if she doesn't succeed.