My writing partners and I (here at Musetracks) have lots of fun discussions on love scenes. And because we have a guy with us, it gets quite interesting. The ladies in the group, Candi, Jenn and I write pretty hot scenes, although it’s mostly Candi who writes the real erotic romance stuff (and quite well I dare say).
Regardless, we always try to find ways of describing intimate body parts that fit in the mainstream genre and don’t get too silly, read: purple prose. I once used the words “his hardness” in a story and was told by our male Musetracker John that it sounded like a royal address. Okay, that was funny. So now I stay clear from “hardness”. I tend to use the word “erection” or just plain he and her, himself, herself, (as in “he was inside her”) hence avoiding the whole issue entirely since I haven’t made the jump to “c-words” yet. Yes, I know I am not very brave.
It is quite funny to Google “purple prose” which Wikipedia defines as:
a term of literary criticism used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so overly extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context.
(as romance writers/readers we don’t need that definition, do we? We recognize purple prose easily)
Online, you’ll find a call to get creative with it by entering the Purple prose parody contest at the All About Romance blog. You can learn all about it and how to avoid it at the well known article The Purple Prose Eater by Deb Stover .
Some argue that some passages of Twilight read almost as purple prose. Sparkling vampires anyone? For a writer of dark paranormal writer like I am, the sparkling vampire is just well… a little too purple.
The funniest purple prose expression I ever heard is “purple-helmeted soldier of love”. I never knew people wrote like that. When I was reading those romance novels from the “purple prose” era, they were all translated in French and somehow the flowery language had been pared down in the process.
What do you think when I list:
bayonet, behemoth, broad sword, cannon, cutlass, cyclops, firearm, fullness, grandness, harpoon, hotness, hugeness, jutting manhood, lance of love, love muscle, love stick, magnificence, maleness, manfulness, manhead, manhood, massiveness, mightiness, needfulness, pillar of steel, pistol, potency, power drill, power tool, pride of the morning, proud evidence of his desire, pulsing hardness, rigidness, saber, searing loins, spear of love, swollenness, symbol of manhood, thickness, throbbing thrill hammer, totem pole, tumescence, timidity, turgescence, turgidness, urgency, wand, weapon, vastness, Yule log(!). (reference: Taylor Manning)
So many euphemisms to describe that hero! Have you ever written those? Read them somewhere?
(originally posted by M-C at The Romance Roundtable blog)
Posted by Marie-Claude Bourque 
