Saturday, May 8, 2010

Writing Sex Scenes

One of the things I enjoy most about writing The Rule of Love is crafting the sex scenes. I promise, it's not because I'm a total pervert. It used to take me days of cringing and blushing before I could force myself to complete a pivotal love scene for my characters, but no longer. Writing this manuscript has been so important in helping me "get over it" and just get it done.
Sex can be one of the most intimate moments that people can share, but how do you convey a full sense of the experience? Especially, when the difficulty with sex scenes often lies in the descriptions of genitalia; more often than not, the scene becomes crude or comical, dependent on the terms you use. When I used to read historical romance, I often skipped the sex scenes because they were too explicit instead of sensual, or completely ridiculous. No more heaving or aching bosoms, please. And the idea that a very virginal heroine would be completely at ease exposing her naked self to a lover for the first time, know exactly where and how everything goes, and have a mind-blowing orgasm seems too far-fetched.

In writing Rule of Love, I focus most often on the emotions of the POV character and an exploration of the senses of the POV character, rather than who's doing what, in where, to whom. In the balance between physical acts and emotions, the latter usually wins out. And, there are at least ten of the twenty-three chapters I've written so far devoted entirely to sex. My first chapter opens with an orgy. No gratuitous scenes, because sex is not just sex in this manuscript. It also conveys a deep level of intimacy and love between characters. There's sex for the simple pleasure of it, and scenes that involve the domination and subordination of characters. It helps that my critique partners are both open-minded and they've provided wonderful feedback. I hope the audience I'm writing for will one day feel the same way.

As a reader or writer, how do you react to sex scenes?

   

Time flies when you're having fun, or writing novels.

It's been a tremendous twelve months. A new job and health issues have impacted my writing time, but I'm still at it, trying to wrap...