Hello everyone! Happy Spring and Daylight Savings time! I actually got to walk the dog after dinner today in the twilight as opposed to the pitch dark. What a treat!
I wrote a sex scene for Brodie today. (What a way to start this post! lol) Anyway, it made me realize that I don’t have enough sex scenes in the book, and that I need to add one. So I immediately began asking myself, where can I fit this scene into the story so it flows naturally?
Back in the day (maybe 10? 15 years ago? who knows. time has no meaning in this dimension) I used to give a workshop on plotting sex. It was about how to plot your sex scenes so they arise organically from the story. You’d think this was an obvious thing, but believe me it is not. There are too many books out there where the author clearly was told or decided the story needed some sizzle and they just randomly inserted a sex scene. (I’m looking at you, Lee Child and the Jack Reacher books.) And by sex I mean everything from a first kiss in a sweet romance to a banging orgy. Even hot, longing looks constitute a sex scene if handled properly.
We’ve all had the experience of reading a book where suddenly characters are having sex with no context, no build-up, no raison d’être to the encounter. It neither flows from previous events, nor introduces anything to the plot. This. Makes. Me. Crazy. And it’s not limited to non-romance. I’ve read romances where the same problem exists. It’s not that hard to make the sex relevant to your plot. Particularly in romance, something important to the overall plot or character development needs to either cause the sexual encounter, or be a result of the encounter. Some important piece of information should be revealed. As a matter of fact, this is more important in romance than any other genre, although still should be a consideration in every genre.
Things to consider: why are these characters having sex with each other? Why are they having sex now in the story? Why is this sexual encounter important to these characters, or this story? You can’t just have characters in a novel have sex, because, well, they are married/dating/fuck buddies already, so they have sex. That’s b-o-r-i-n-g. And one thing no writer wants is to write a boring book, or a boring sex scene (unless that’s relevant to your plot!)
I’ve been thinking about offering this workshop again. What do you all think? Are there any writers out there who would be interested in doing a workshop on plotting sex into your story?
My favorite things this week:
Brush on Block. I love this powder sunscreen. I have two, in SPF30 and SPF50. I keep one by the door so I can just grab it and brush some on before I go out.
Soundcore Space A40 earbuds. I have a hard time finding earbuds that don’t hurt after a short time. I can wear these for hours. As a matter of fact, I just did when I was sitting with my napping husband after his recent surgery. If you’re like me, you should try these out!
Does anyone use hair combs anymore? I mean beside me. I love them. Hair clips and barrettes and even ponytails frequently give me headaches. But for some reason, hair combs do not. I love this simple pair from Amazon. *
Quote of the Week:
I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.
Khalil Gibran