The Art of Writing a Sex Scene, Part 2

[zelda_zee]

Thanks again to elliotsmelliot and to everyone who responded to the first part of this essay. My apologies for the delay in posting the conclusion of it.

Warning: essay includes frank discussion of sex and porn and lots of naughty words. Look on it as NC-17-rated meta.
Disclaimer: This essay is entirely subjective. I’m not trying to tell anyone how they ought

Comments

[elliotsmelliot]

Thanks for posting this and using such helpful examples from your own fic and others to illustrate your arguments. As someone who only writers fade to black sex, I still enjoyed your commentary because a lot of the points I think are relevant to writing in general, or I found interesting as a reader.

Actions are the hardest for me to describe. Seriously, I can be at a loss to describe how someone is fidgeting. I’m worried about a scene I’m working on right now that has people standing there and talking for the longest time. Is that in character or am I just being lazy by not having them move around more? I admire anyone who can choreograph the logistics of a sex scene because there is just so much going on. I’ve resorted to blocking things out before in person or with stick figures and have used Mr. E.S. (knowingly and unknowingly) as a participant, just to see if what I was imagining would make sense.

It’s important to keep the emotional story focused throughout - not to be distracted by possible (and possibly tempting) tangents that you could wander off on.

Thanks for this reminder. I know I can get overambitious in regards to this and try to throw everything in at once. I think it’s important to remember your goal for each scene and not overextend your focus. (Unless, of course the character is Daniel Faraday for who I could imagine thrives on rambly and sometimes inappropriate tangents!)

I'm going for better than real

As someone who yearns for “real” in her fiction, this is one case where I am happy to see better than real. It’s the moment where you have the emotional hitting the physical in what is usually such an intangible process. I can’t image there is a real way to describe it.

Your promotions of using beta and writing multiple drafts have made me think about another exercise we could do here. I think it would be interesting for an author to volunteer to show the progress of a paragraph or a scene from first to last draft and provide commentary on its evolution.

[zelda_zee]

Oh, no problem and thank you. I'm sorry this got delayed. Life got in the way and then I really had a hard time with some of this part.

Well, that's good that you found this was relevant even though you go for the FTB. I tried to make the essay broad enough so that writers who don't write explicit stuff might still find something useful. Glad to hear you were able to.

Writing physical action is complex, and inserting it into a long bit of dialog can be tricky. You don't want to distract, but then, people do move about when they talk. Finding that balance can be a pain. As always, my rec is multiple rewrites. *iz totally predictable*

I've found myself in some very contorted positions trying to figure out sex scenes. Thank god Mr. Z's never walked in on that - though I suppose I'd just explain what I was doing if he did. He'd think it was funny.

Ha! Yes, tangents are encouraged when writing Faraday!

I've written realistic sex, but when I write porn it tends to be a bit more fantasy-based, so it seems okay to go for something better than real, especially with orgasms, which would be nearly impossible to describe in concrete terms. The realistic way to describe an orgasm is like, "Sawyer grunted and came. 'Awesome,' he mumbled. The next sound Sayid heard was a snore."

Ooh, yes, I like your idea. That would be cool! I'd like to see how others do it. I was actually thinking about that as I wrote my most recent fic - that process, I mean. Cuz parts of that fic changed a lot and I cut some stuff I liked a lot, and I was wondering if other people do that, cut things they like if they're not working, or if they find a way to make the parts they like work. I tend to cut, but I don't know how common that is. Seeing the progress of a paragraph of a small section of a fic would be interesting.

[elliotsmelliot]

Sawyer grunted and came. 'Awesome,' he mumbled. The next sound Sayid heard was a snore."

Ha! It sounds so crackish when it is put that way! Poor Sayid, no post-coital cuddles!

I am a big fan of re-writes. Every time I open my fic, I read from the beginning and make big and small changes. I only know it is ready to post when I can read through it and not fix anything. Sometimes when I am stuck on the action amid dialogue, I just write the conversation first and go back to add in the descriptive stuff.

I know you are helping Falafel with her story, and possibly others, but would you have time for another beta this week? I was not going to take you up on your offer mid-series, but I am concerned about the pacing of my Desmond looks for Penny series.