Writing a compelling, visceral love scene can be the most daunting of challenges – how many times have you tried, without success, to evoke the eroticism, tension, suspense and thrill of first contact?

The temptation is to make it too obvious, too easy. Or to fall into the trap of ‘happily ever after’. We might all crave ‘perfect love’, but reading about it can be irritating, and even worse, boring.

So here is a practically failure proof antidote to perfect love: Look under your kitchen sink, and pick a detergent or household cleaner. Write down random words and sentence fragments from the warning label. Now incorporate those gems into a love scene.

Nothing like a little irritant to jump start love.