When I was a young Sailor, deployed overseas for more than six months as a time, I wrote the occasional dirty letter to my wife. It was a release to, shall we say, “keep the home fires burning” while I was gone. Trust me, she wrote some sizzling ones back to me, which made for plenty off cold showers in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Now, as a 55-year-old man, I am writing fantasy stories that include love scenes between young men and women, half my age. The problem is, it’s difficult for me to put that same fire into my stories that I once wrote to my wife.
You envision your love scenes like you would see in the movies or a romance novel, but it’s not the same when you’re doing it yourself. It’s like being a voyeur or cheating on my wife with someone else. I know that sounds wierd, but true.
As a writer, you have to imagine the situation you’re writing about to make it real for the reader. To be honest, I don’t think of myself as a sexy man anymore (although my wife says I still am). That’s what makes this hard (ignore the pun) for me. Sure, I could watch porn or read a dirty magazine for inspiration, but it’s not the same. I want the romance, the seduction, the lovemaking, not graphic sex, in my stories.
It’s especially difficult when you have daughters the same age as the characters your writing about. It makes me feel like a dirty old man watching girls at the beach behind mirrored sunglasses. So how do you do it?
For someone like me, it involves lots of sleepless nights. When I’m writing, the story I’m working on occupies my dreams. I’ve been working on this love scene for more than a week now. I replay it in my head at night, re-read it on my computer screen several times to make sure it feels right. Like I said, sleepless nights.
Unless romance is the backbone of your writing style, it’s not easy to pick up on. The best advice I can give is to trust your instincts and give into your own feelings of love, passion, and romance. You can’t go wrong.
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Mark Piggott is the author of the Forever Avalon book series. Forever Avalon is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon. The Dark Tides is available for purchase as a book/ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iUniverse publishing. The Outlander War, Book Three of the Forever Avalon series is coming soon from Austin Macauley Publishing.
For me, these late night D&D sessions fueled an already active imagination. Combine that with missing your wife and newborn baby daughter and it can lead to some rather strange dreams. During my first deployment, I started having a recurring dream of being with my wife and daughter on an island of fantasy and magic, lost in time and space. That dream evolved and grew with each of my deployments and subsequent birth of my other children.
Recently, another of my anime obsessions has led me to the “Fate” series (Fate/Zero. Fate/Stay Night, and Fate/Apocrphya). There are more than these three in the series, but that’s all I’ve watched so far. It’s not just the intricate storylines, the fast-paced fighting, or the beautiful animation that drew me in. As a fantasy writer, the heroic spirits are what truly facinated me.
One of my favorites of this series was the reimagined Frankenstein monster. She (yes, I said “she”) was a beautiful creature with immense power. When I first saw her, I did not even think Frankenstein, and yet there are incredible subtleties within this character that you don’t expect. She doesn’t speak, except in grunts and groans. She wields a lightning mace (that resembles the equipment from Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory) that can release an electrical strike that can wipe out a forest. There are unusual attachments on her head, incuding something resembling a unicorn horn, that’s almost “steampunk” in nature. Yet, through all this power and ferocity (she is a Bezerker class) there is a delicate child inside. In one scene, she sits in a field, looking at flowers, reminding me of the monster from the movie, and yet, I don’t see the monster. And neither did her master. She was, at times, breathtaking.
I think every one of us knows a “tearjerker” when you see one. They come in many shapes and sizes. It could be a movie, a song, a television show, or even a good book. I am the first one to admit that I am a “big baby” when it comes to certain things.
I think it’s okay to cry when the time calls for it. The other night, I was watching Sword Art Online II on my iPad while my wife was watching Shark Tank on TV. (FYI, if you haven’t watched SAO, you should, and spoilers ahead!) It was the episode where Yuuki, a girl with AIDs who was living in the VR realm, died surrounded by her friends and all the gamers in ALO. It was quite an emotional moment. I just couldn’t help it as the tears just poured out of me. My wife looked at me as if I was crazy, crying over an anime, but I just couldn’t help it.
As writers, we are constantly working on our craft. I try to write daily, even if its just adding a few sentences or a paragraph to my next novel. When researching different tips for writers, the one thing I always come across is READ, READ, READ! As writers, we need to read other stories to help us with style, plot development, and even a sense of direction. When you read someone else’s work, you have a feel for them , as a writer, and see into every technical aspect of the story. You see every part of it, like the bricks in a building, creating a structure that’s a beautiful sight to see.
Don’t you hate it when you wake up in the middle of the night, from a vivid dream or something else, and you have the next idea for the book you’re currently writing? As much as I love it when that instantaneous idea of genius hits me; after I wake up, it’s so hard to go back to sleep. I have to write it down before I forget it, or it will rumble around in my head, keeping me awake even longer. That’s the problem you run into as a writer… A lot of sleepless nights. The question is, do I ignore those late night inspirations for the sake of sleep?
It’s taken me over a year, but I’ve finally finished writing and editing the third book in the Forever Avalon series, The Outlander War. This is the finale of the first trilogy in the series following 
There are so many ways for authors and writers to tell their favorite stories, whether its a retelling of an old legend or a brand new story. These folk tales and fairy tales are the composite of our combined history. The give us hope, give us faith, and make us believe in something more than our everyday life. For writers like me, myths and legends are the source of inspiration for my writing.
Mark Piggott | Fantasy & Steampunk Author 