And I don't mean in the nudge-nudge, wink-wink, innuendo laden way either. Although that is part of the point of sex scenes, I guess.
Sex scenes are hard to write. Really hard. There's a reason why a lot of writers just draw a veil over sex scenes and skip to the post-coital bliss; getting a sex scene to feel right is difficult. Getting a sex scene to feel erotic, as in erotic fiction, is even more difficult - you're trying to get a very specific reaction out of the reader.
And those sex scenes get even harder when they're not 'normal' sex, too - when you're trying to encapsulate thoughts and feelings and, well, urges about someone's fetishes. You've got to imagine yourself in a situation that many of us may have never even been in, or indeed, could never be in.
All this leads me here, to a sentence from a plot summary I wrote, probably about four years ago:
"At hotel, they check in and have rampant sex, all that pent-up tension."
Sounds simple, right? Two consenting adults getting it on. But for some reason (and if I'm being honest, it probably has very little to do with the sex) this scene has blocked me for months. Tonight, I finally finished it. And now, I hope, I can get back to writing the rest of the book. Let's hope.
PS: The book in question isn't the sequel to Practice to Deceive. That's on hold for now. In my foolish wisdom, I told myself last year that I could just 'finish off' The Babysitter. So that's what I've been trying to do. For about nine months.
I agree 100% - its difficult for them not to turn into either an anatomy lesson or IKEA instructions (insert tab A into slot B etc.) Also the language of these this is so charged, you almost want to slip into something a little more abstract to try and capture the feelings, the rhythms, the little sensual shocks and tremors.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right too - it's doubly difficult when its not vanilla sex, and you are aware that your audience (even if that audience is just you) is looked for very specific beats (fnar) to be met. Sometimes you have an image in your mind, sometimes you are trying to combine a bunch of different things.
I've written a few sex scenes on their own, without stories attached - just little 5-6 page scenes to experiment with different ideas. They're not really looking for stories to be attached to, they were just so i can see what works. Sometimes i'm tempted to post them for a bout of instant gratification.
I doubt posting them would get much instant gratification. But you're welcome to post them. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Rachel.