Wednesday, April 13, 2011

"K" is for Kiss

"K" for the A-Z Blogging Challenge is kiss.



No, not these guys ---->






<---- Something more like this.




Smooches.  Smacks.  Pecks.  Puckering up.

Kisses can mean so many different things: Goodbye.  Hello.  It's not you, it's me.  Yes, I will marry you.  I'm trying to distract you from what's really happening.  Ew, yeah, you really need to brush your teeth.

It also matters who is kissing.  Is it a kiss by Aunt Sally that a child tries to shy away from because she always smells like cabbage and hugs too hard?

Is it a spontaneous gesture by a young sailor, who grabs a pretty woman and bends her back in a kiss to celebrate the end of the war?

Is it between two movie stars in one of the most iconic movie kisses of all time?






Are the kisser and kissee in a Disney movie?



All of these kisses come across differently, and require little description...there are pictures, after all, which doesn't require the viewer to imagine how they appear or do much interpretation.  When writing, it's similar, but the author has to create the visual for the reader to allow their imagination to take over.  As with any action, kisses can arguably come out just as powerfully in writing as on screen.  We've all read books in which we squeal when the couple you've been rooting for kisses for the first time, or groan when the two people you don't want together lock lips.  It's all in the word choice.  The writer (who is usually following some sort of plot or outline) has to go along with the feel of the story.  Who is kissing?  Is it a romantic situation, or between relatives?  Hell, do the characters even like each other at all?  What does the kiss feel like from the narrator's perspective?  Is it soft/hard/possessive/painful/scratchy/toothy/drooly/sloppy/dainty?

We (as a reader) know if it's a "good" kiss if we can feel it from the narrator's perspective.  Did we feel violated when the narrator's ex-boyfriend kissed her at that party?  Did we swoon when the narrator's boyfriend proposed and instead of saying "yes" she laid one on him?  Did we cringe when the narrator's neighbor lets her dog lick her full on the lips (sorry, but that really grosses me out)?

Do you have a favorite literary kiss?

p.s. If you like my blog, please give a follow!

xoxo Sarah

9 comments:

  1. Great post! (I did K for kisses too).

    I honestly can't think of a favourite literary kiss, I keep getting visuals from movies or television.

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  2. I did Kisses as well with a poem.

    Literary kisses, I like the kisses in Knight in Shining Armor (the old school novel and only romance type novel I can stomach.) And perhaps the Hunger Games.

    Great post!

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  3. Hm... I can't think of one right now, so I'll take a pass. I'm slightly brain dead at the moment!

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  4. LOL! Great post. I have written 2 kiss scenes. The Almost Kiss was racier than the kiss one. I loved writing them both. I can't think of any I've read, though :O)

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  5. Gone with the Wind has some great kiss scenes - both Scarlett & Ashley, and of course, Scarlett & Rhett.

    I have to admit though, loved the Kiss (the band) pic at the top of your post, although I was neer a fan, it simply amused me. That pic really drew me in as I was scrolling the many blogs I follow. Couldn't wait to read this one (and you did not diappoint.)

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  6. OK, I gave your blog a follow! I'm not sure if the kissing scenes in my books are meaningful, pivotal, etc. but I try!

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  7. Interesting. I still get childish when it comes to kisses and such as a reader. I don't get as into it as writers probably want me to even though I write romance stuff sometimes. Then again, I also get a little bored with all the f/m ones that are every where. I want to see more girl/girl and boy/boy kisses. Especially in blogfests. Feel like I'm the only one sometimes.

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  8. Miss Sarah, I do believe that yours is my new favorite blog. I have a thing about dogs licking faces too - good god, do you know where that tongue has been? Gack. Anyway, as for literary kisses, I have quite a few favorites - it's usually the couples that you've been waiting and waiting for them to kiss and when it FINALLY happens, you can almost feel it and it's such a *squee* moment. I love the kisses that are so well written, your lips practically tingle because it's so real. As fun as it is reading them, it's fun writing them too - you can combine all your favorite literary and movie kisses of all time into one (or several) epic kiss.

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  9. @CR and Talli: I had trouble thinking of any that weren't on-screen kisses too!

    @Keylocke: Definitely the Hunger Games. That one both made me cheer and broke my heart because Peeta believed it and Katniss (at the time) was playing for the audience.

    @Madeleine: Is it bad that I like the ones I've written, too? :-P

    @Writing Goddess: Thank you! I love finding fun pictures to put with the posts. Scarlett with both Ashley and Rhett...definitely good kisses!

    @Sherri: Thank you for the follow! I'm glad you're enjoying the blog so far.

    @Dawn: I agree. I'd like to see more m/m and f/f as well. I'll be working my hardest to make the m/m kiss in The Curse (my erotic short I'm working on) worth it. :-)

    @Marie: Aww, thank you! I'm tickled. Haha, yes, the dog kiss...the problem is that I know EXACTLY where that mouth has been. I'm with you...I love writing kisses.

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