Poetic Sex - is it possible ?
Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 12:45 pm
Making Your Sex Scene Fit Your Story
By Nicole Murphy
With the raging success of EL James' 50 Shades of Grey, there are undoubtedly a
LOT of writers thinking of writing their first ever sex scene.
It's really important that your sex scene is a vital part of the story. Don't write
a sex scene just for the sake of writing a sex scene. Sex scenes that aren't fully
embedded in the story feel fake, they lack connection to the reader and will therefore
lose a lot of the sexiness, no matter how skilled the actual scene.
There are a lot of theories about what scenes have to do, and mine is pretty simple.
In my mind, any scene you write in a book has to do as least one of these things:
* Reveal character
* Show the world
* Advance the plot
An okay scene will do one. A good scene will do two. A GREAT scene will do all three.
The easiest of these to achieve with a sex scene is the revelation of character.
In real life, there's an intimacy and a vulnerability to sex that can show sides
of ourselves that even we didn't know existed. Fictional sex scenes can do the same
thing - they can show different facets of a character e.g. the mousy secretary who
becomes a lioness in the bedroom. They can show the playful side of your character.
They can show the damage. They can show the selfishness or the self-sacrifice in
a way that no other scene can.
Showing the world can be done through both the setting of the scene, and the actions
of the characters. It can be a way of introducing a place to the reader in a unique
and interesting way. Rather than have a hero and heroine just walk through the park
where the body is later shown in a crime novel for example, they could scurry into
the bushes for a quick tryst (and if the scene shows that the hero is scared of
being discovered because it would blow his underground cover but he can't resist
the heroine, it's also revealing character). A sex scene can show the politics
of your particular world-building. Does the position they hold influence who they
sleep with, and when? If you write fantasy or science fiction, it's a great way
to naturally show things such as the way magic works or the science of your world.
How do characters actually have sex?
Finally, there's moving the plot forward. In erotica, the sex scenes are vital to
the plot, which is generally about the developing sexual relationship and the growth
of the characters within their sexuality. Every scene needs to show that growing
understanding of who they are and what they want, which makes sex in erotica automatically
plot related. A stand-alone sex scene can play a number of roles in a plot - it
can be one of the causes of conflict. It can change the plot by sending the characters
spiralling in a new direction via a new obsession. It can be the distraction that
stops the protagonist from seeing the vital clue. It can destroy the life of a character
and be the impetus for the entire plotline of having to rebuild a marriage or career.
So when you're trying to decide whether to write a sex scene, make sure it's doing
at least one of those three things - revealing character, showing the world, advancing
the plot - and you'll have a vital, important element of the story that won't feel
fake.
*****
Poetic Sex - Naaah.
Not in bush poetry !!!!!
By Nicole Murphy
With the raging success of EL James' 50 Shades of Grey, there are undoubtedly a
LOT of writers thinking of writing their first ever sex scene.
It's really important that your sex scene is a vital part of the story. Don't write
a sex scene just for the sake of writing a sex scene. Sex scenes that aren't fully
embedded in the story feel fake, they lack connection to the reader and will therefore
lose a lot of the sexiness, no matter how skilled the actual scene.
There are a lot of theories about what scenes have to do, and mine is pretty simple.
In my mind, any scene you write in a book has to do as least one of these things:
* Reveal character
* Show the world
* Advance the plot
An okay scene will do one. A good scene will do two. A GREAT scene will do all three.
The easiest of these to achieve with a sex scene is the revelation of character.
In real life, there's an intimacy and a vulnerability to sex that can show sides
of ourselves that even we didn't know existed. Fictional sex scenes can do the same
thing - they can show different facets of a character e.g. the mousy secretary who
becomes a lioness in the bedroom. They can show the playful side of your character.
They can show the damage. They can show the selfishness or the self-sacrifice in
a way that no other scene can.
Showing the world can be done through both the setting of the scene, and the actions
of the characters. It can be a way of introducing a place to the reader in a unique
and interesting way. Rather than have a hero and heroine just walk through the park
where the body is later shown in a crime novel for example, they could scurry into
the bushes for a quick tryst (and if the scene shows that the hero is scared of
being discovered because it would blow his underground cover but he can't resist
the heroine, it's also revealing character). A sex scene can show the politics
of your particular world-building. Does the position they hold influence who they
sleep with, and when? If you write fantasy or science fiction, it's a great way
to naturally show things such as the way magic works or the science of your world.
How do characters actually have sex?
Finally, there's moving the plot forward. In erotica, the sex scenes are vital to
the plot, which is generally about the developing sexual relationship and the growth
of the characters within their sexuality. Every scene needs to show that growing
understanding of who they are and what they want, which makes sex in erotica automatically
plot related. A stand-alone sex scene can play a number of roles in a plot - it
can be one of the causes of conflict. It can change the plot by sending the characters
spiralling in a new direction via a new obsession. It can be the distraction that
stops the protagonist from seeing the vital clue. It can destroy the life of a character
and be the impetus for the entire plotline of having to rebuild a marriage or career.
So when you're trying to decide whether to write a sex scene, make sure it's doing
at least one of those three things - revealing character, showing the world, advancing
the plot - and you'll have a vital, important element of the story that won't feel
fake.
*****
Poetic Sex - Naaah.
Not in bush poetry !!!!!
Being more of a traditionalist (and in true bush poetry vernacular) I'd just hump my swag 
