Just as with anything you write, it’s important to make your sex scenes credible. I’ve blogged before about Stacia Kane’s great little book, Be A Sex-Writing Strumpet, which provides excellent, detailed advice for writing sex scenes which are not only credible but compelling; but if you want a quick primer you won’t find better than this post by an anonymous New York editor. Read it now.
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That’s great, Jane. Thank you for the laugh. *slopes off to rewrite Chapter 39…*
Thanks Jane. Nothing like a quick primer!
Good suggestions there. Sex scenes can actually be easier to write if you base on experience, because we all have vivid memories of incidents when our emotions were hightened. Certainly for me, these memories include those of sexual encounters.
In my opinion, often the best sex scene is no sex scene. They are extremely difficult to write well unless you’re writing in a genre where they’re expected. Neo and Trinity in The Matrix Reloaded was one of the worst things I’ve seen on the big screen (or any screen). I doubt it’d have been any less cringe-worthy in text.
That’s not to say that sex scenes can’t work well. The one in Orwell’s 1984 was one of the most effective scenes in the entire book — because it had a point to it far beyond, “Hey, we’re horny!”. I can’t think of very many others I’ve enjoyed. It’s not that I’m a prude — quite the opposite, really! — it’s just that when I’m in the mood to read (or watch TV/a movie) and when I’m in the mood for something naughty are almost invariably separate. I know I can’t be the only one.
A friend gave me a copy of “Be a Sex-Writing Strumpet” for Christmas. Wish HapiSofi would write a book as well – he/she has a great sense of humor to go with the excellent advice.