When I started drafting Nevermore, I knew that there would be sex in the story. And that freaked me out just a little. If you've ever read any book with a sex scene in it, it usually stands jarringly apart from the tone/pace/language/you name it of the rest of the book. Even in erotica, sex is cheesy, which is why romance novels and their ilk are so frequently mocked. You can have cheesy sex, silly sex, boring sex, grotesque sex, or obscure, abstract, and uninteresting sex. Very rarely have I found stories where the love scenes don't make me giggle or wince.*
So I went into these scenes with a great deal of trepidation. I can barely write coherently at the best of times. How am I supposed to deal with something which trips up even the best authors? I still don't have a clue. But I've been spending a lot of time going over romance novels, erotica, and other fiction that has sex scenes in them. I've been trying to figure out some rules for what NOT to do. If I can't figure out how to make it work, I can try find out work makes it fail. The process of elimination is a good a method as any. I've already got a small list of things to avoid.
1. No dialogue during sex. It always sounds dumb and often interrupts an otherwise good moment.
2. Euphemisms for sex organs, like her 'lady petals' or his 'pride,' do not make it more romantic. It just makes you look like a bloody idiot. It's a vagina and a penis, commonly referred to as a pussy and a dick respectively. I mean, unless you're trying to be funny.
3. Describing what you're going to do to a person right before you 'do it' unvaryingly sounds ridiculous and makes you sound like a tool. (Refer to Rule 1. No talking)
4. Be consistent with the appearances of your partners. This applies to all parts of all books, but it's really distracting when a thin, kind of emo guy is suddenly buff once he takes his shirt off, and a pudgy woman is suddenly Venus. I know authors are thinking of how we appear in the heat of the moment, but you're missing a step somewhere and the inconsistency is annoying.
5. On another note of consistency, don't have a couple fucking on a bed and in the next sentence they're up against a wall, or bent over a table. CONSISTENCY! You can do it!
6. Believability is always key. If your characters aren't the type to normally throw caution to the wind and sleep with someone they barely knew, don't make them do it in your story JUST because you want them to get there. Be honest to their personalities when they aren't in the sack as you work to get them there. You may think readers are just after the sex, but we really do care about what happens before. Anticipation and all that.
7. Adrenaline rush is not a pass go, collect $200, get out of jail free card when it comes to sex. Yes, it is documented that in situations that trigger adrenaline, even if they're terrifying, we want to be close to someone. But do we act on those impulses? Not often and even LESS often with people we've only known for a few hours. At least have some sexual tension building up to it if that's how you're gonna roll.
I might update this as I as read/watch more, and notice more things that don't work.
Now, you might be asking yourself, "Maria, why does your book have to have sex in it at all? Isn't the market saturated with books with sex and romance as it is? Stand strong and keep your story free of icky, boy-girl smut." Okay, no one asks this except maybe the voices in my head, and they're notorious killjoys.
Originally it was just one scene to get a character into place and to justify my main characters reaction. But as the plot has come more into focus, my main characters sex life and escapades have become a larger part of the book and her growth. The acts themselves reflect Fin's (main character) mental state and her many changes. Sex, along with art, is the barometer by which Fin's mental and spiritual health is measured. And the comparison of sex acts between Fin and her many partners expresses the growing depths of her psychological issues.
So, yeah. Sex is kind of important to this book. This research is going to be very weird.
Avert your eyes! It's -
Maria D
*These rare exceptions are Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Anne Rice, and sometimes Nora Roberts.
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