A post from the old Writing Wrongs and Typos blog that I still like. Funnily enough, I have gotten to know some amazing Erotica writers over the past year. They are swell folks really. I'm still not a huge fan of the genre, but I can say that my perceptions have changed a bit.
Original post:
So, I was thinking about this last night. Sex scenes. They come in all flavors. It generally breaks down to:
* Painful to read
* Obtuse to the extreme
* Detailed and clinical
* Pornographic
* Tastefully erotic
* What the hell was that?
* YAOI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* Medieval
The PR is a scene written with obvious distaste, poor descriptions and language bordering on the 18th century.
O to the E - So vaguely written you aren't even sure they had sex until thirty pages later a side character makes a joke about it.
DC - Reads like a medical journal/textbook.
Porn...duh.
Tasteful - difficult to achieve, using appropriate language and detailed descriptions.
WTHWT?
- When after you read it you exclaim, What the hell was that?
Different from O to the E because you knew sex occurred but cannot
imagine why anyone would do/say any of that. Ever. For any reason
YAOI!!!
- Well, if you've been on the internet the past few years you'll
probably not need any explanation, however, I suggest you head to your
search engine if you must look it up.
Medieval - "Please, sheath your sword." I think that says it all really.
To avoid the cliche's, one must practice, let other people read the scenes
and you need to read some good scenes to get your started. This means you
have to know what good sex, realistic sex and tasteful sex are.
This
can boil down to the old adage "Write what you know." Well, I've seen a
whole lot of young fanfiction writers out there writing sex scenes.
They base these scenes on A) Porn. B) Other fanfiction and C) Erotic
novels from their mom's bookshelf.
Generally speaking these
youngster have a skewed idea about sex that involves lots of hot dudes
having sex with one another and use of the words "member", "shaft",
"sword", "spear", "staff", "stave", etc. Innuendo is king amongst our
virginal writers.
That's not to say a person who has no personal
experience can't write a sex scene, they can. They just need to get a
better idea about the difference between Porn, Erotica, and Tasteful
Sex.
Each of these things has their place. Porn seemingly has no place in "High
Literature". What defines porn precisely? Well, porn is when the goal,
focal point, of the story is sex. <Addendum to this> There are books that are considered "classics" that are very close to pornographic subjects. There's Story of O, which is well known and award winning.I believe you can see graphic sex in a novel and it not be porn. <end addendum> The End Game, as it were, of porn, is sexual gratification. Erotica is a
story based around sexual encounters and steamy romance. Erotica can titillate and inform, with semi-graphic to graphic sexual encounters. The important thing is, Erotica has a story line which is not purely a vehicle for sexual gratification. Though there are exceptions.
"Tasteful" sex
is found all across the genres. (To be fair, the horror genre also contains cases of explicit sex scenes)
<Addendum> Let's take a moment to discuss the sex scene in Breaking Dawn. When I wrote this I was mainly thinking of adult fiction, not YA. However, there are sex scenes and suggestions of the sex in YA books, and some MG books as well. (Yes, I am pointing out Tamora Pierce and the Lioness Quartet as MG and containing sex). Breaking Dawn which is marketed as YA, has fairly explicit sex scene in it. So, sex crosses the borders of the age separation, and not just genre.<end addendum>
If you set out to write porn, that's
fine, erotica, fine. You should know, both of those things can be just
as difficult to write as tasteful sex. Just because it's porn doesn't
mean you can have a typo. It makes you look sloppy. Though I do doubt
the teenage boy reading it will pause because you put their instead of
they're.
Erotica is a high-volume industry. Dozens of titles are
published every year in that genre in various flavors. Most of those
titles are...trash. They're moniker-ed dime store novels for a reason. <Addendum> Whew, this is where my opinion comes in as a tad changed. There are still loads of trash in the romance/erotica section of your local grocery store. However, that doesn't mean there aren't some real diamonds there too. The romance and erotica writers I've met this year have been super people, and many of them write some amazing stuff. Pigeon-holing all romance as trash is just wrong. There are some great writers in the genre, and it's unfair to them to paint everyone with the same brush. Especially when I count myself among them.<end addendum>
I
suppose my point here is that you don't need to be a sex-fiend to write
good sex scenes. You just need to be well - informed, well read and you
could always go talk to your doctor if you have any questions.
We
will always write based upon our personal experiences, and when it
comes to writing sex it needs to a bit more personal and a lot less
popular. Popular perception will nearly always steer you the wrong way
when it comes to this subject. And as always, get a good reader and
practice, practice, practice.
Enjoy!
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