Tim Stretton has posted a fine piece on his blog about writing sex scenes.
Lawrence Block once raised the question as to whether a sex scene could ever be gratuitous if it were in a sex novel. As I've been on the topic of books on writing, allow me to also point to Susie Bright's How to Write a Dirty Story.
Susie--of Susie Sexpert fame, founder of the women's magazine On Our Backs, and author of the fine short story Dan Quayle's Dick) would probably deny there is ever such a thing as gratuitous sex. (Alas, guys, Susie is a lesbian, and therefore not in our dating pool.)
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6 comments:
I have no comments to make about writing sex scenes. However...
You have been tagged.
http://the-walrus-said.blogspot.com/2008/01/writers-meme.html
If you break the chain, nothing whatsoever will happen to you. You have been warned.
I always find it rather quaint when people bandy the word 'gratuitous' about. I mean, yeah? So what? All fiction is gratuitous in a sense anyway, so what's wrong with gratuitously sexy fiction? (I feel like I should be adopting a Southern American drawl a la Larry Flynt when I say things like this, but I am serious.)
Hi, Janet--
Nothing whasoever will happen to me?
That IS a dire threat!
Hi, Faye--
"All fiction is gratuitous in a sense anyway..."
That's a good point. Such a good r4remark, in fact, that I wish I'd said it.
("You will, Oscar, you will.")
Hi David, Thanks for the mention; I'm flattered. I'll tell you a secret about my Dan Quayle story. As you remember, it's about this wild dream I had about Dan Quayle, in which we had a secret affair.. this all coincided with some odd events in real life. The sex scene with Dan was based on my experiences with my real=life boyfriend at the time. Dan should only wish... Anyway, I'm both bisexual and also a fierce critic of gratuitous sex scenes, anywhere. "Gratuitous" usually means "poorly written." If it works, you'll be compelled, and hold it in your memory for a long time to come!
Best, Susie Bright
Wow! Susie Bright, here on my very own blog!
You're bi? I thought you were just joshing us. (The first thing I ever read of yours besides some issue of OOB was Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World, so perhaps I overgeneralized.) Good to hear there is still hope for Persons of Penis.
As far as gratuitousness goes, you're right. I've never heard anyone say of a scene, sexual or otherwise, "My god, what a great scene! Why was that included?"
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