Screenwriting : Setting up a passionate love scene by Brian McAndrew

Each set up for each story will be very different. There is no one way to properly set up a passionate love scene that will work for every story.

If you are lost, watch the actors rehearse it and build it up around that.

Unusual advice, David. When I'm writing a screenplay I do not have actors around to rehearse. Is that a method you use often?

D M - I thought Brian meant some kind of 'set up' of rehearsal :)

Most often, love scenes are set up by the situation. If you have two characters who care for each other, but are in a situation where they are in danger, or only have a limited time left together, then the scene might be frenzied with very little build up or seduction. If the lovers are around each other all the time, the seduction might be slow and gradual. Your characters and their situation should dictate.

I second that.

me to I have an erotic story I'm working on well done Mark

I have a passionate part of my screenplay, and decided to have a gradual build-up, slowly crank up the passion and then cut - so that the audience can decide for themselves what happened.

Usually when it comes to writing a sex scene I think about my own sexual encounters and use that as inspiration for the scenes. Conversations between me and my girlfriend before and after play a huge role in making the scenes as believable on paper as they are in real life. When I wasn't having sex the scenes were horrible, I was taking something I watched in porn or in other movies and it made me want to burn the script. My advice to you and you probably won't hear this from any other writers on here is to go find a girl, have sex with her and put that into your script. Living and experiencing for yourself is what makes writing good, not following advice from a thousand other people who think they know what they're talking about.

Yes, I'm a big believer in research also. When in doubt, do more research till you get it right.

As I suspected.... There is no "proper way" to set up a passionate love scene. We each have different methods that we use differently. Some great methods here.

However you do it, it will invariably involve some build up of physical and/or emotional tension, either between the characters, or inside them individually as something that they project onto one another. Wether it is physical or psychological, the passion will come from having had to overcome a barrier or obstacle getting into the situation where they can be intimate. If their romance is too easily attained, it loses force. Even a story with a promiscuous nyphomaniac can show emotional build up of attraction for one character while having casual encounters with many others, simply because that other character completes a need that the others do not. Deliberate or accidental touching or proximity in the lead up can add to this tension as the characters (and audience) become conscious of their attraction to one another, sometimes even despite disliking each other (love/hate relationships are a popular technique for building this tension). Give the characters a reason to have feelings for one another, some background or history that compels them to each other. Maybe one has had a bad experience that the other helps them cope with either sympathetically or by challenging them. Maybe circumstances outside of their interaction force them to face an inner demon that they share or need to resolve together. If there is a barrier or obstacle to their connection, it will also be more passionate when it finally happens, just as a glass of water is better when you've been thirsty. The trick is to demonstrate that "thirst" and take some time doing it. The tension the audience feels can be even more important than that of the characters.