Love scenes... Grr!

[eallen99]

I think a huge problem comes from writers who write sex scenes when they're uncomfortable with sexual descriptions. If you can't do it, don't do it.   

Bingo! That's me. Karma for the insight.   

~A~

Holy Crap Batman! If you guys read my book and any of the sexual encounters, based on the comment above, you'll think " we got us a gen - u - wine whore here at QT!"

[cheermom]

I have one scene where I have explicit foreplay, and I use the term explicit loosely.  Much of the rest is implied.  This is how I wrote one scene...

I was sitting in the middle of the room wearing nothing but one of his dress shirts, holding two glasses of wine.  “Do you know it’s been five days since you last made love to me?”

He walked over to me.  “Has it really?  Well, we’ll have to fix that now, won’t we?”

[Aiala]

Writers who possess the ability to compose great sex scenes have a leg up (er... bad word choice) on those (like myself) who don't.

Everyone's gift is different, which is why we have both Wuthering Heights and Lolita. What could be better? As William Cowper so famously expressed it: "Variety's the very spice of life." 

~A~

[luctari]

Variety is also the spice of sex scenes.  I'm reminded of the Woody Allen line.  In one of his movies, someone says to him "Sex isn't dirty."  And Woody replies, "It is if you do it right."

[Aiala]

"It is if you do it right."

TMI   

~A~

[violet]

Variety is also the spice of sex scenes.  I'm reminded of the Woody Allen line.  In one of his movies, someone says to him "Sex isn't dirty."  And Woody replies, "It is if you do it right."

One of my favorite Woody Allen lines..."Hey, don't knock masturbation. It's sex with someone I love."

 

Sorry...but I couldn't resist!!

[eallen99]

Hey, who let the adults out?

[AshK]

Variety is also the spice of sex scenes.  I'm reminded of the Woody Allen line.  In one of his movies, someone says to him "Sex isn't dirty."  And Woody replies, "It is if you do it right."

One of my favorite Woody Allen lines..."Hey, don't knock masturbation. It's sex with someone I love."

 

Sorry...but I couldn't resist!!

My favorite is the sex scene in "The World's Greatest Lover."

'Number three' goes on *all the time*...

[Coldfeet]

It really boils down to your characters and your style, doesn't it?  If Eallen's got an adventurous MC and a frank style, it would make no sense for her sex scenes to be filled with billowing gossamer drapes in the windows and kittenlike mews of delight.   If you've writing about a couple whose physical intimacy bores them to tears, you aren't going to provide pages and pages of their encounters (unless you hate them and your audience both).  You'll just handle the pivotal ones.

I'll admit to wanting to hide under a paper bag when I wrote the one full sex scene in my story.  It had to be there because it explored important aspects of both a relationship and the characters individually.  I wanted it to convey trust, fear, desire, and pleasure.  For my characters and my style, none of these things required explicit physical details.  The scene feels graphic to me, but it isn't, at least not by modern standards.

I have much less difficulty writing these scenes now, as long as it's from a woman's POV.  Unfortunately, the middle book of my trilogy has a male MC, and I feel less comfortable trying to speak for him.

[Aiala]

Okay, so I give my manuscript to a neighbor of mine. He's way more worldly than I am, with a background in the performing arts, savvy and hip and undoubtedly drenched in sex. He's about halfway through the novel, and yesterday we were talking, and the subject of my (ahem) prudishness came up:

Me: "Well, as you can see I don't do sex scenes. Except for that one with J and N, and it's milder than low-fat cheddar..."   

Him: "I thought you handled it just right. But you know, that part where C and L first meet?" 

Me: "Yeah, what about it?"   

Him: "You do know that it's extremely sexual, don't you?"   

Me: <gasp> "What?? But I don't describe anything!"   

Him: <knowing grin> "Trust me."   

Me:   

Sheeesh! So what's a starchy old prude to do?? 

~A~

[luctari]

Sheeesh! So what's a starchy old prude to do?? 

~A~

Take one Henry Miller and call me in the morning.

Luctari
 

[DHE]

I agree that it's different for every relationship.  To me, when I want a real connection between characters, it's all about those seemingly small, but incredibly personally important moments to that couple.  Whether it's in a sex scene or strictly PG, I don't think romance can be written in generalities, unless that particular scene is between characters the author doesn't actually want us to root for.  When it's tying those two people together, it's slowing down those important looks, showing how heart-stopping that brush of hands is, describing that warm whisper in the ear or the laughing wink from across the room, and that goes for sex scenes, to me, as well.  I like that moment that shows this isn't just your routine sex scene, there's something personal there (unless, as I said, it's between two characters whose relationship we aren't meant to care about, then the impersonal aspect shows us that...or can foreshadow trouble  ).  The sex can be more or less...ah, creative than other ones we've seen, I don't think it matters, as long as with the one's we're supposed to care about, there's something different from the others. 

And Aiala, those extremely sexual non-sexual scenes are my FAVORITE!!  Good for you!

[Aiala]

And Aiala, those extremely sexual non-sexual scenes are my FAVORITE!!  Good for you!

Well, thanks. Still, I wish I'd had some clue that a reader might see it...uh...that way. 

~A~

[eallen99]

And Aiala, those extremely sexual non-sexual scenes are my FAVORITE!!  Good for you!

Well, thanks. Still, I wish I'd had some clue that a reader might see it...uh...that way. 

~A~

Trust that you were guided toward those happy accidents. 

[Aiala]

Trust that you were guided toward those happy accidents. 

Yes, I'll try, but it's challenging because the scene in question involves two very very nasty individuals.   

~A~