Eyes

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I'm not normally a person who reads romance novels, but my friend at work is always reading them and we're always talking about how much money these writers make - so I thought I would read some and try to write one (pay off my school debts)!

These characters have a lot of stuff going on with their eyes that don't generally happen in normal fiction. Their eyes: sparkle, shine, snap, look hungrily, devour, flutter, fill with desire, drink in, smile, conceal thoughts. Ok you get the point.

I always thought I was pretty good at making eye contact, the only time I have a problem with it is when I think about it while I'm doing it and that's rare. However, I have rarely seen eyes do anything but look at me. Does this stuff really go on and I miss it, or is this just fantasy writing? This particular list is geared to sex of course but I would think if they're doing all this stuff, eyes would be doing a lot of stuff during a normal conversation too that I could be missing.

when people flirt the eyes definitely do the dance and tell you all sorts of things that the mouth keeps a zip on. The world of NTs is all about successful deception of others and self.

Looking at peoples' eyes makes me extremely uncomfortable, to the point that I often shudder afterwards. Consequently I don't pay much attention to what peoples' eyes do anyway. Like, I don't know what colour eyes my parents have. I can look any animal straight in the eye though!

When you write romances, you have to use romance words and conventions. For me, that would involve a lot of faking about eyes and sensations and emotions that I don't notice, don't feel, have trouble believing other people truly feel such sensations. And don't get me started on the spinning heads. Oh, gah! I can't write romances because I find them too disgusting. I like writing about love, which has nothing to do with the genre of romance. Good luck.

Hi OctoberTiger - that's a great point about it being a replacement for internal monologue.

Hehe I know not many really make money, but I can dream, can't I? I've read a few so far and I'm really a little freaked out about this whole trend of women being submissive prostitutes to "powerful" men. Is that what most women fantasize about? I'd be kicking these guys in there you know whats! I hate to see young women reading this crap, if I write one it certainly won't be about that!

My husband laughed when he saw what I posted. Then he told me that yes, eyes communicate everything. When his little patients walk in the door, he checks out their eyes to see what they are thinking. Children can't always say what they are feeling, but the eyes will always express the feelings.

Molly clicked on the thread, her eyes gleaming in anticipation. Her eyes glanced over the words and sparkled in satisfaction, her hopes confirmed. Here was what she had been looking for!

A bead of sweat trailed slowly down between her breasts and she wiped it away absently, her eyelids fluttering shyly as she began to type. Observing the eyes that were upon her and burning into her very soul, she flashed a gleam of recognition in return from the knowing depths of her own silent, steady gaze as she drew out the moment, teasing, waiting, knowing her power, relishing it and using it until she knew they could take no more, and finally it was all over. She had held back, resisting, but now she released it all with abandon and surrendered to the begging of those troubled, brooding eyes that longed to know her secret. She lay finished, sated like a gasping dove as she forced the words from her trembling lips and announced with a tortured quiver:

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS EYES THAT BLOODY WELL FLASH, SPARKLE, SMOULDER, OR DO ANYTHING ELSE OF THE KIND!"

When I was about 11 years old there were some M&B novels in a self-catering holiday house that I was taken to. I remember reading them guiltily in secret and sighing to myself and longing to be grown up so that someone would flash his eyes at me and ravage me on fur skin rugs next to log fires.

It's all a load of pretentious drivel. If you want to stoop so low as to write trash simply to earn money when you are presumably capable of much higher things, I recommend you read Little Women and read the advice given to one Jo March.

Personally, if I were considering this kind of thing, rather than doing it seriously I would be tempted to do it as a parody and make it really over the top to naughtily take the p**s (see above). The irony is that most readers would think I was being serious, and my OTT erotic fiction would soon be in high demand due to being mistaken for the real thing.

I would place all my characters into stereotypical erotic situations and naughtily cut it off short by then having them react as people would in real life. "Sorry, we can't do this after all. I've got no condoms." "No, I don't want to jump into that desert oasis with you. It might mess up my hair." "Can we get out of this bubble bath now? My skin's all wrinkly and the water's going cold." "Look, I do like you. This just happens sometimes. Let me go and take some more Viagra and see if that helps."

Hmmm, I don't think it's going to be trash. Although, that is quite subjective. I think it's possible to write a romance that's about real people, just adding a bit more heaving and sparkling etc than I would have if left to my own devices. Anyway, if trash would pay my school debts, I would write trash were I able to. I just won't write weak women trash! Or men hating for that matter.
I liked your writing though - did I not tell you that you are funny!

Come on. You know it's trash. The genre you have chosen is not exactly going to get you nominated for the Nobel prize for literature, is it?

If I were in your situation, I'd be waiting tables, or working on a serious novel. I would never prostitute my art (unless it were to poke fun at other people prostituting theirs).

If you have chosen to write trash for money, be aware that publishing under your real name might seriously tarnish the possibilities of any future literary endeavours you might undertake. You might want to use a pseudonym. But then, I'm sure you already knew that.

Most writers of that genre write under fake names. That speaks volumes in itself. They know what they're producing is trash, and they do not want their literary reputation being associated with it. I would never attempt to publish anything I was ashamed to be associated with, but if you're desperate for money and have no such idealistic qualms, you will go ahead and do it, I suppose.