Give me some Action! Writing Sports Romance with actual Sports

Every author approaches every subject differently, but, depending on what kind of life your character lives, you'll likely be doing some research about their job. If the hero or the heroine are cops, spies, doctors, or space captains--well unless you share that occupation, you probably have no idea what their days look like. Or how this job impacts their personality. And if you wan to write a nice, three dimensional character--which you better! if not, be gone! :P--you better inside their head while their holding that gun, or scalpel, or phaser. Not sure how you'd react if that green lady with four tits in the corner hit on you? Better figure it out! ;) 

The rules are no different when you're writing sports romance. If you have the passion to write about the sport, you have everything you need to put together a good action scene. Add a few details to bring the reader closer to the action and you have a great action scene.

Yes, I'm repeating ACTION. No matter how you look at any other scene in your book, sports scenes should be approached just like a fight scene, a battle where so much is at stake the men or women are willing to give their lives to win. Granted, in most modern sports, the chances of dying are pretty slim, but that's irrelevant. To reach a professional level, your character dedicated their lives, most often from a very young age, to the sport. This moment means everything to them.

Whether it be baseball, football, tennis, or my personal favorite, hockey, you've got all the workings for a damn good scene. Tension, movement, a fast pace . . .

But don't be tempted to throw your readers rink-side for a season's worth of games. This is still a romance novel. Give them the game, show them where the love interest fits in, show who they are underneath all the pads and blockers and guards. Have fun with all those rippling muscles and sweat slicked skin. And if you don't know what to do with them then . . . well, that's a post for another day!

Game Misconduct has several hockey scenes, some longer, some shorter. Here's a shorter one to show you the points I brought up in the post: 

Music erupted from the speakers of the stadium. The crowd rose from their seats for the singing of the national anthems. Sloan held his helmet under his arm and took his place dead center on the blue line. His tongue touched his bottom lip, still slick with Oriana's peach-flavored lip gloss. That kiss topped them all.
 

As usual, there were plenty of empty seats in the forum. Being the owner's daughter, Oriana claimed a seat right by the rink where the Cobras came on the ice. When Sloan came out, she'd hopped out of her seat and leaned over. He'd climbed up, and the crowd went wild as they kissed. Suddenly, weird sixties-style guitar strumming cut off the ACDC riff. The Monkees' When Love Comes Knockin' played out, making him feel like a putz. A very lucky putz.

The fans laughed. They cheered. Then the kiss replayed on the scoreboard. Oriana's cheeks got redder than the maple leaf on the flag, and she hid her face inside her jersey.
 

Adorably shy, but he had to give the girl one thing, putting herself out there had taken some guts. Maybe her original plan hadn't gotten Paul to back off, but their public display should do it. He'd look like a fool if he tried staking a claim now. And her father would probably do anything in his power to stop her from showcasing her relationships with him and the other men again. Fine, she hadn't kissed all the men, but she'd kissed him while wearing Mason's jersey. That would get people talking.

Our girl's a winner. Sloan grinned. He was proud of her. And he was even more determined than ever to make her just as proud of him. Of all of them. The crowd roared as the teams met at center ice. The ref dropped the puck; Sloan won the face off. He passed the puck to T.J. who whipped it to Vanek. Vanek evaded a check and streamed to the other end of the rink. Sloan rushed the opponents' net with Perron. Fanned the puck. Kicked it to the other side of the net. The puck hit a Blue Jacket defenseman, and Mason stopped it with his stick and redirected it to Vanek who tucked it in the net just as the goaltender skidded to block Mason.

Red lights blared, and Sloan crashed into Vanek, hooking his arm around the boy's neck to congratulate him. Mason, T.J., and Perron slammed into them, whooping like madmen. You'd have thought they'd never scored before.

Hope you enjoyed the post! And, as always, feel free to ask questions in the comments.