Rebloggable version, as requested by davrosbro. :)

Oooh!  Yes!  I love kisses.  Kisses are where it all starts ;).

Okay, first, remember that a kiss is much, much more than just lips.  It is lips, but also tongues, teeth, eyes, faces, hands, noses, bodies, heartbeats,  breath, voice- and most importantly, a kiss is emotions.  A kiss without emotion is just wet mushy lips stuck together.  Ew.  Gross.  The most important part of a kiss isn’t the how, but the who- because of the emotions between the two people.

Okay so:

lips- Lips can slide, glide over each other smoothly, or they can be chapped and rough and dry and get stuck on each other.  They can match, top-to-top and bottom-to-bottom, or they can overlap, with one person’s top or bottom lip captured between the other person’s lips (yummy).  If there is lipstick or chapstick there is lipstick or chapstick flavor, otherwise, lips don’t have a taste (can you taste yours?).  Lips also can smack- the sound of two of them coming together or pulling apart, because they’re wet and warm and soft. 

tongue- Tongues are always wet, and always warm.  They’re very versatile.  They can trace over lips, teeth, or another tongue.  They can be smooth and graceful or teasing and flicking.  When tongues are involved, there is drool.  It’s only sexy when you like the person you’re kissing, or else it’s kinda gross. :P

teeth- teeth can clack together awkwardly, or teeth can bite down sensually.  A person biting their own lip is cute, a person biting another’s lips is sexy.  A person biting gently is sensual, a person biting roughly is sexual. 

eyes- Eyes can be wide open with surprise, half-lidded with desire, fully closed with pleasure.  Eyes can gaze lovingly, lustfully, wistfully, hungrily, seductively- it all depends upon the emotions of your characters.  Have them do whatever you like, but don’t leave them out- give them at least a mention!

faces- Faces are what the lips are attached to.  Noses bump, cheeks flush, ears turn red, foreheads either wrinkle or relax.  Kisses can leave lips, quite easily, and become kisses on chins, cheeks, noses, foreheads, ears, necks, throats.  Kisses on noses or foreheads are cute and adorable, kisses on cheeks are sweet, kisses on chins, ears, and throats are very sexual.  And a kiss on the lips can be all of those! <3

hands- Hands are super-important.  In order to describe a kiss, usually you want to also describe the hands.  Where are they?  Does one character have their hand behind the other’s head or back, holding them close?  Are they on someone’s shoulders pulling them near, or pushing them away?  Fingers brushing someone’s cheek or palms grabbing someone’s ass convey two very different kinds of situations, even if the kiss itself is exactly the same.

noses- Noses are annoying.  They easily get in the way, especially for first kisses!  People have to tilt their head to one side or the other, and if they don’t, noses bump.  I’d only mention noses if a kiss is supposed to be awkward or uncertain or nervous.

bodies- bodies are either close together, or far away.  Someone can be surrounded comfortingly by someone’s arms, or terrifyingly trapped by them.  Bodies are warm or hot, they are calm or nervous, relaxed or tense.  Body language says a lot.  Is your character pulling away, or moving closer?

heartbeat- Hearts can beat fast or slow, and that’s about all they can do- but there are lots of reasons why they do!  A heart can beat fast with fear or excitement or nervousness; a heart can pound with lust or race with terror or sing with joy.  Hearts can glow, cower, or shatter.  When you really want to drive the emotions of a character home, mention the heart.

breath- To me, the most consuming part of a kiss is the breath.  The air that someone else has just breathed going deep into your lungs is very intimate.  Lips and tongues don’t have a taste, but breath does.  Each person’s breath tastes different, smells different, and surrounds a person differently than anyone else’s breath.  Breath can be warm and sweet, breath can be hot and sexy, breath can be hot and frightening.  It is something that is very present and should not be left out.  A lot of writers leave breath out.  And it’s so important; it’s the most intimate part of a kiss.  Someone else is breathing into your lungs, and it’s either heaven or it’s hell.

voice- Voice conveys much, even without words.  A voice can groan, whimper, gasp, moan, catch, whine, scream, sigh.  Voice can convey emotion powerfully, and while some kisses are silent, usually they’re not. 

emotion-  Emotion is the most important- and the thing you try not to say.  You want to describe it, through all of the things above, so that it’s perfectly clear what your characters are feeling, without you ever using the “feelings words”.  If they’re in love, their bodies will lean close, their eyes will smile, their voices will giggle softly.  If they’re nervous, their palms will sweat, their noses will bump, their voices will shudder.  If they’re afraid, their muscles will be tense, their faces will grimace, their lips will not open.  Emotion is the color that you keep inside your mind as you write; it’s the base line that drives the description behind everything else you say.

Wow, that was a lot!  Gosh I hope it wasn’t too much!  Keep in mind not every kiss has all these things- this is just a list of things to consider when writing a kiss, and based on how long of a kiss you want to make.  Keep in mind that typing “they kissed for a long time”…that’s six words, it takes half a second to read, so that’s a short kiss!  If you want a long kiss, you need long sentences that make the reader linger. 

if you’re like me and struggle with varying the gestures your characters show — this might help ! a comprehensive (bordering on too long) list of different gestures and body language you could include in your literary ventures. i claim no ownership for this list, it was sourced here: x

he lowered his head

she hung her head

he ducked

she bowed her head

he covered his eyes with a hand

she pressed her hands to her cheeks

she raised her chin

he lifted his chin

her hands squeezed into fists

his hands tightened into fists

she clenched her fists

she balled her fists

he unclenched his fists

her arms remained at her sides

There is no shame in what you are feeling, Harry. On the contrary… the fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength.

a comprehensive and long list of sensual and somewhat-torrid verbs, nouns and adjectives you could include in your…steamy literary ventures ! i claim no ownership for this list, it was sourced here: x.

WARNING: NSFW, R-rated vocabulary !

— crematorium, a novel by c.g.p.

“you do like to flirt with death, rask, don’t you?” bas said.

“it’s more of a dance, i’d say.” she replied. “waltzing is so much more romantic, isn’t it?”

genre ; ya fantasy status ; outlining themes ; power hungry teens, crematorium shenanigans, hmm that panopticon in the distance is kind of ominous, it’s a secret crematorium y’all, monsters men and monstrous men, grim discoveries beneath the streets, copious amounts of moth imagery, a little bit of a hivemind (as a treat), overuse of fire symbolism, bonding over deadly things, enemies to allies back to enemies, dysfunctional found family, faithless companions, tiptoeing through the afterlife.

everyone knows about the crematorium. everyone that matters, at least—rich or poor, smart or dull, beautiful or plain. if you matter, you know about the crematorium. if you’re important, you’re chosen for it.

to be an apprentice under the jan veer is the chance of a lifetime, and not just anyone is selected. those that are—handpicked by the man himself, of course—are cunning, devious, volatile. those that are chosen are the sort that don’t mind playing with a little fire.

when the body arrives, none of the new apprentices are quite sure what to do. she brings upon questions that are unanswerable, faces that are unrecognizable, and secrets that were meant to remain untouched. she brings upon something dark, something dangerous, something that will change kilkrie forever…

… sibyl rask has never been one to run from away when things get dangerous, and she isn’t going to start now—no matter how much the body in the crematorium looks like a ghost from her past.

… veerle mensink isn’t cut out for this sort of work—but to be under jan veer is to be nearest the people that killed her family, and that is more than worth getting her fingers burned.

… bastiaan welles is awaiting something far greater than himself to come to the city of kilkrie—and he is beginning to grow impatient, beginning to crave claiming it for himself.

… sander de vos wants to run away from the skeletons that are chasing him—but one misstep will lead him spiraling down a path he will never be able to recover from.

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LOOKING FOR BETA READERS—

hello! my friend angelique is looking for a beta reader for her high fantasy ya novel OF BLOOD AND ROSES. she’s not on writeblr but she’s been writing for ages and was basically the one that kicked my ass into finally doing something with the ideas in my head. right now she’s based in the same city as me and is represented by an agent at D4EO literary agency. her and her agent are looking to get another readthrough of the manuscript before they send it off the editors again.

genre : dark fantasy, romance, action demographic : young adult word count : 93,000 triggers : domestic (parental) physical abuse, violent scenes synopsis : 

Blood. Grit. Honour. Those are the Guardians Guild words. For the past five years, trapped in the underground Vesperian fighting Pits designed to turn even the most innocent of boys into hardened killers, that witless mantra is all that Draxler Druen has ever known. Light, warmth, and love have all become things of the past. And when his best friend Grant Petruchio is convicted of the crime of trying to escape the Pits, hope threatens to die with him. 

Princess. Healer. Murderess. As the daughter of the Lord Elder Rose, the most powerful and ruthless man in the realm, Amber Rose knows what true suffering feels like. It’s why the gods have given her a curse and a gift一the power to take other people’s pain away with a single touch. But when she is attacked while working as a healer by an injured soldier starved for her blood’s numbing properties, she accidentally murders him in an effort to save herself, setting off a series of unforeseeable events.

An ancient promise forged in blood. Despite their shared childhood, Amber and Drax have had nothing to do with each other for the past five years. That is, until the Blood Oath. Suddenly, for Drax, the threat of becoming a monster if he survives the Vesperian deathmatches pales in comparison to what will happen if the Lord Elder Rose gets his way and the Blood Oath isn’t fulfilled. 

Two lives intertwined by magic. In the end, the choice that Drax is forced to make is simple ; die for what he believes in, or kill for the girl he loves. And no matter what he chooses, blood will rain.