Hi - Below is a posting for an on-line writing course that I thought some of you might be interested in.  This is the one I just finished (I think) and it was quite interesting and informative.  I didn't participate a whole lot, just printed out the lessons to work on later, but it was really good.  For anyone interested in writing for publication (which is what it is geared towards) it could be very helpful.

WritersOnlineClasses.com is proud to present its monthly online class for the month of April, 2007:
 
April 1-30, 2007
Sex Between The Pages: Understanding and Writing Sexual Tension
INSTRUCTOR: Mary Buckham
Cut-off date to receive registration and payment: March 28, 2007
 
For more information or to register, go to www.WritersOnlineClasses.com (under construction)   OR email info@WritersOnlineClasses.com
 
DATES:  April 1-30, 2007  $25.00
            Sex Between The Pages: Understanding and Writing Sexual Tension: How do you write great sexual tension?  That’s the question Mary Buckham posed to Linda Howard, Stella Cameron, Susan Andersen, Nancy Warren and more Romance writers who write great sexual tension from sweet to spicy hot.   In her workshop, Mary combines these lessons from real-writers with the practical understanding of the 12 stages of Intimacy, based on Desmond Morris' works, and more recent findings by scientists on the amazing role biology plays in mate attraction and selection. Findings that can be directly incorporated in our creation of powerful sexual tension. So if you want to learn how to increase the sexual tension in your work, don’t miss this opportunity.
 
INSTRUCTOR BIO:
        Mary Buckham’s latest release, INVISIBLE RECRUIT, was a May 2006 Silhouette Bombshell that earned reviews such as “sizzling”, “to-die for sexual tension” and “the next Linda Howard”. Currently Mary is working on a Thriller series set in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. She has hundreds of free-lance articles to her credit, a non-fiction book and is a former Magazine Editor. She is also a national writer workshop presenter both on-line and at workshops around the country.   Mary encourages you to visit her website at www.MaryBuckham.com for more information about her, her appearances and workshops and her current writing projects.
 
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Mary O’Gara  -and mail to-
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Albuquerque, NM 87110-4099
COST: $25.00 SEX BETWEEN THE PAGES
 
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Thanks this looks like a good course. I just blew all my money on the Sims 2 Seasons ep. pack so I have to wait till I get my hands on some more cash.

That is funny in a way because you first have to distill sexual chemistry and the person who truly does that will earn a fortune!

So happy you pass this information on (all sorts of writing tips).  It can be learned but so much of art has to come from innate talent too.  

If anyone buys this I'd love an honest review of its helpfulness.  UST is easy with some characters in fanfic if you have their true voice and it was part of the characterization, a bit harder when the writer has to make it from whole cloth.  Thanks again.

Kathleen

Hi Kathleen, Yes, there's no question that the bottom line to writing is an innate talent, but good techniques (and learning to recognize bad ones) can be learned.  The course is aimed at women who are trying to get published and most of them were writing romance novels, some historical romances, so naturally they were using this stuff all the time.  You are quite right, that we have it fairly easy what with having the characters handed to us to play with; but I've seen enough unrealistic relationship development in fan fics that I think it could be useful.

I didn't participate a lot, partly because I was embarrassed to be putting up a piece of fan fic when the other students were presenting their original characters/plots/etc, and partly because I'm not working on something right now that required me to use any of the lessons.  The twelve steps are very interesting, though, and can be helpful to anyone, no matter what they are writing.  

For those who did contribute either plot lines or small scenes, the feedback was excellent and you could watch the development in some cases where the author took a later lesson and changed (for the better) something she'd already written and submitted for one of the earlier lessons. Quite interesting, really. The instructor mainly offered a suggestion here, a question there, whatever it took to get the author to look at her scene from another angle.