Why I Write Emotionally Intense Romance (Without Explicit Scenes)

For me, the best stories are the ones that rip my heart out, stomp on it, absolutely destroy it…and then put it back together again.

A story like that needs characters who struggle. The struggle doesn’t have to be world-ending. It can be as simple as having undiagnosed autism that’s never even named in the book, because it’s not something that has ever been on the character’s radar (à la Claire in Mistakes We Never Made). It could be as complex as severe trauma and abuse (think both Angel and Nathan in Small Great Joys). The struggle could also land somewhere in between.

That being said, as much as I love having my heart broken as I watch characters go through these things, my heart just can’t take graphic language, violence, or sex. My brain spends so much time trying to process those things that I sometimes end up missing the heart of the story, which means that I struggle to be emotionally invested in the characters or plot, let alone find any sort of catharsis when I finish the book.

I’m fully aware that this is a struggle not everyone has, but I also know that there are others like me out there—readers who want to be deeply, emotionally invested in characters facing real problems; who want to read about longing that makes their hearts ache; and who want to be immersed in the story without being jolted out of it because of unexpected explicit content.

So, those are the books I write. Partly for myself, and partly for anyone else who’s looking for the same thing.