Thursday, October 14, 2010

First Kiss



There is nothing more important or memorable than a first kiss. In life and in fiction. I am writing for teens at the moment so some of the first kisses I am writing are FIRST KISSES. You know that first ever kiss that some of us had earlier than others. The first kiss of which every subsequent first kiss is a reflection of.

I know that one of the reasons I read and write romance is to remember that feeling of excitement and discovery at the beginning of a relationship. To shiver with the memory of hands touching, those careful looks from the corner of eyes, feeling dry mouthed, my heart thumping and stomach churning before that first kiss.

I have been trying to recreate that feeling in my current book. I have a sixteen year old heroine who is enamoured with THAT boy, you know the one… mysterious, dangerous and completely gorgeous.

"His other hand came up and held my face still. There was nothing gentle in the way he held it. As his mouth was millimetres from mine I heard him say,
“This doesn’t change a thing.”
And then he was kissing me.
Except kissing didn’t do it justice.
His lips touched mine and all the stone left in me leapt to the surface and span. His lips were hard against mine until my mouth opened on my gasp of astonishment.
He was kissing me.
And then it changed, warm wet air exchanged and his lips softened. As he tasted me, my head held up by him. My body held safe by him as I leant against him my legs rubbery.
Sparks exploded in my head.
He was kissing me.
An incandescent trail warmed its way from my lips down through my chest into my stomach, which was lurching and churning and dropping.
He was kissing me.
My eyes had closed as he had got closer. I flickered them open briefly to see him looking at me. His hazel eyes still open and dark as he looked at me.
Was he kissing me?"

When I wrote this and the second kiss (which is the really the first TRUE kiss) I thought back to all my first kisses (and being a single woman of a certain age there have been a few). Some have been memorable for all the right reasons and some for all the wrong.

My very first kiss was when I was sixteen and at a school dance, like my heroine. Sadly that is all there is in common. So I thought to some other first kisses. Standing under a lamppost in Leeds in the snow stealing kisses every time we got to a curb or lamppost. On a river bank with me nervously talking and him kissing me to shut me up. At a Christmas party with a guy I had liked for a long time. On the bus after a night out at a ski resort, having held hands under the table all night. On my birthday on a sofa after having been cooked a beautiful lunch. Coming out of a pub on a cold night giggling because the brim of my hat was in the way and then afterwards being left breathless and stunned. Each kiss was as different as the person it was with and this is what I have to remember when I'm writing. Each hero and heroine are different and so their first kisses need to be to.

What do you remember about first kisses?

Come back on Sunday when Susanna will be posting

17 comments:

  1. I mostly remember noses. . .and, regrettably, teeth.

    Thank heavens art doesn't *have* to reflect life! :)

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  2. Ooooo been there. I sometimes think there should be a lesson when you are a teenager into the art of kissing properly.

    There have been some truly horrendous experiences *shudders*

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  3. I remember my first kiss as a peck when I was only about 10 (bit premature!). But I remember that kiss with much more feeling and affection than my proper first kiss later on as a teenager. I think it was the excitement, the place and the person.
    I loved that piece from your novel Biddy, I so want to read your book now. I really made my heartbeat stop as I read it.

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  4. My first kiss was hidden away in some overgrown bushes at the age of 13. I had braces, he had wonky teeth and he bit my lip (not in the seductive way I might add!) so it was memorable for all the wrong reasons! But, I look back now and smile because every first kiss will be a bookmark in everyone's lives; whether it be good or bad, it's always remembered.

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  5. I had my first kiss when I was six. Being somewhat bossy even then, I virtually forced my best friend to kiss me behind the dustbins outside my house. Before you get any ideas, my best friend was a boy who was a year younger than me (Hmm, toy-boy?). He was easy-going by nature and usually didn’t mind being told what to do, but I remember him arguing against this idea. I had to try really hard to convince him that since we were playing “mummies and daddies”, it was what we had to do since they did. He finally agreed, but I can’t say it was earth-shattering in any way :)

    I too want to read your book now, Biddy!!

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  6. Biddy - I love your list of first kisses and it have a me a time time thinking through my various first kisses....the real first one was absolutely dire and it's a wonder i didn't go off kissing for life......

    lx

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  7. Sarah - I love that you have a great memory of your first kiss. And thank you for your kind words :-) about my book.

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  8. Lucie - you are so right, first kisses are a bookmark. My first one is still known by friends as Mr Chicken Crisp... I'll leave you to think about why.

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  9. Pia - but even if it wasn't earth shattering it is a great memory :-) And hopefully my book will get read one day.

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  10. Liz - I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think my first one definitely put me off for a while.

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  11. Biddy, my first kiss was rather better than yours, I'm happy to say. I was fourteen, and he was my very first boyfriend, and I can still close my eyes and be back in that moment. Perfection.

    I also had one very memorable kiss in the rain, by a fountain, in France, that I'll never forget.

    But the best was the kiss that I didn't expect, from my best male friend, under the mistletoe once at a party, when I was fifteen. I thought, 'Wow!' at the time, but then we were just friends, and both of us were already attached to other people. But boy, I remembered that kiss!

    That's why, seventeen years later, I married him :-)

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  12. Great kisses, Biddy.

    My first kisses were not memorable at all, either in a good or bad way. Good thing we have fiction to fall back on! ;)

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  13. well i have never been kissed and im 15. None of the boys seem interseted in me, and to be honest, i dont know any boys. would love for someone to grab my face gently and tell me i am beautiful and then kiss me softly, as we are in the snow or the rain. sigh. a school girls daydream, that probably wont come true. :(

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    Replies
    1. Oh I missed this comment. So sorry! I didn't have my first kiss till I was 16, I was at an all girls boarding school and knew no boys. They got them bussed in from a boys school! That school dance where I had my first kiss I was determined I'd have a kiss so I was a tad singleminded about it. No romance. I just wanted it over. It took another few years before anyone gave me a truly romantic kiss. But I've had decades of kissing frogs, some of those kisses which started so sweet were candy floss. Melted and disappeared leaving me sick.
      However, I do dream about the kisses I want. And write about them. And carry on writing about them. Daydreams come in handy sometimes.

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