If you’re talking ‘bout the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the moon up above, you might be tackling this thing called “love,” but here’s a hint: if you’re writing about a lover ravaging another, it’s not a happy love story.
To take it up a notch—and maybe a few decades forward—let’s talk about what’s happening when it’s getting hot in here.
Remember:
- To “ravish” is to enrapture, to fill someone with immense delight, or to carry someone off by force.
- To “ravage” is to devastate or destroy.
One can be a word that intensifies a moment. The other can be a brutal typo that makes the romance and erotica editors of the world wince.
If it helps, remember “ravishing” is an adjective that means captivating and entrancing. These are good things. Ravaging is not a good thing.
So next time you write about the stars in the sky and a girl and a guy and the way they could kiss
à la the 1964 pop charts or next time you want to quote Nelly lyrics, think hard about your spelling. There’s no worse way to kill a heated moment than with bad word choice.
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