Today another dear friend is stopping by to talk about kissing. With all this kissing going on, we might all need some ChapStick!!!
Welcome the super-fun Abby Mumford to the blog to share some of her favorite kissing scenes 🙂
(An Aside: Tomorrow @ValerieFM80 & I announce the contest rules and the PRIZE! Check back.)
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What is there to say about kissing? Well, a lot, really, but since I keep that part of my life off the interwebs, I’m going to tackle the act of writing about kissing. As a writer who’s still learning the craft, I’ve made it my goal to read as many kissing scenes as possible. It’s all in the name of research, of course.
There are the super hot, super perfect, super blow your mind scenes, like this one from YOURS TO KEEP by Shannon Stacey (who always writes about kissing with all the passion it deserves (and then some)):
When his face got close enough so she registered his intent, she raised her gaze to his, but it was too late. Before she could react, his lips met hers, his hand still on her back to hold her close, and she closed her eyes.
Practice. That’s all it was. And if her body started tingling and her fingers itched to run through his hair, and her body wanted to melt against his…well, that just boded well for a month of pretending they were into each other, didn’t it?
The jolt of heat that ran like an electrical shock through her body could be an unwelcome complication, but she’d worry about that later…
Then there’s the seemingly more innocent, but still just as potent scene from IT’S IN HIS KISS by Caitie Quinn:
Before I knew what he meant to do, or could argue with him about the pity kiss, his lips brushed mine. And then they took mine. And then I lost track of time… maybe even days…or years.
It wasn’t so much that it made me remember past kisses. It was more like it made me forget every other kiss I’d ever had.
And on the other hand, there’s the kiss that is startling in its starkness from THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater:
Puck unfolds her arms just enough to keep her balance as she leans to me, and when we kiss, she closes her eyes.
She draws back and looks into my face. I have not moved, and she barely has, but the world feels strange beneath me.
The delightful thing about kissing (well, okay, just one of the delightful things) is that each one is specific to the couple. It’s a grand way to learn about the characters, get to know their situations, read into their motivations, and have a helluva lotta fun while doing so.
Bring on more research!
Luv YA 
Abby, I loooooove the Puck & Sean kiss! Isn’t it amazing how, out of context, those two sentences sound very cold and boring, but in the book it’s so charged and intense, because of everything that’s happened before then, and everything we know about the characters? Aaaah. I need to reread that book.
Bria, thanks for all the kissy-kissy!
You know what tho, I read right over those lines without really noticing them and then a few pages later went… Wait. What? Did she kiss him? And had to go back. It was a good lesson for me in under-playing a big moment.
As much as I loved the kiss, it was the scene in the kitchen that did me in 😉
i agree with both of you — bria, the kitchen scene is really my most favorite scene and adriana, that kiss scene, out of context, is soooo different than when read in context, but that’s the genius of maggie’s writing, each word serves a purpose and when you remove words, the surrounding words lose meaning and emotion.