Love Have you ever read a love scene so perfect, your heart is full, your eyes are wet and you actually want to cry out at the beauty you've witnessed? Do you forget you've been reading "mere" words instead of experiencing the most emotional, exciting moment of your own life?

STEP ONE: Use exaggerated awareness. "Exaggerated awareness" -- In romantic fiction, an exaggerated awareness between the hero and heroine is so crucial, it can't be overstated. In a romance, you take for granted that these two were destined, meant to be, fated, designed for each other by God Himself. Therefore, the characters must live happily ever after. When the hero touches the heroine, even accidentally, the reader can see sparks igniting between them. When he looks at her, a profound feeling comes over the characters and the reader. The emotional impact needs to be conveyed through their every encounter.

Exaggerated awareness between your hero and heroine needs to begin immediately, the first time they come together in your novel, and it needs to increase in depth with each subsequent meeting.

STEP TWO: Set the scene and the mood for yourself and your characters. How do you get yourself into the mood to write a scene? Set the scene in your mind. Set the scene in your own living room if it helps you. Take note of things in their natural form. Scents, sights, tastes, sounds, textures. Light scented candles, peel an orange, and play romantic music.

STEP THREE: Don't forget the genre you're writing in. Imagine the sensuality of love in a romantic horror novel where the heroine both fears and is helplessly attracted to the mysterious, potentially dangerous hero. The heroine would be aware of the temperature of the room, the coldness, and the way she warms when the hero appears in the doorway. She would be aware of that shift of tension within and without her own body. She'd be aware of her palpable fear and excitement, warring with each other. She'd be aware of the shadows of the room, the shadows in his face, on his body. The moonlight spilling across the stone floor. She'd be aware of the hero's smell, primal and raw. She'd start at the slightest sound and would hear her own heartbeat and bated breathing in the eerie absence of sound that follows. His voice would both unnerve her and catapult her excitement...

STEP FOUR: Remember, it's all in the details. A trick to making tension prominent between scenes is to focus on a certain aspect that intrigues the opposite character. Each characteristic, quirk or little act builds on what's happening in the story and makes it more powerful. For Example: The protagonist is obsessed with the heroine's mouth from the beginning. You can imagine how he reacts the first time he actually kisses it.

STEP FIVE: Passion, dialogue and love can make for an interesting story He turned from the window, full body. His eyes were so intense, they resembled glowing coals. "You're not going to do this to me again. I won't let you." Without the slightest warning, he stalked toward her. Lori's breath stuck in her throat. He was going to walk out of here and she didn't have a clue where he would go if he got as far as his car --