A Reader's Advice on writing good sex.
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| Title: | A Reader's Advice on writing good sex. |
| Creator: | |
| Date(s): | Jan. 30, 2004 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Harry Potter |
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| External Links: | A Reader's Advice on writing good sex. |
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A Reader's Advice on writing good sex. is a 2004 essay by Aja. The focus is writing smutty Harry Potter fanfiction.
It is part of a 2002-04 series of essays. See About Writing.
Some Topics Discussed
- PWPs
- Sex Tips for Slash Writers
- some specific stories referenced are astolat's "Weather of the Heart," wankersore's "Quicksilver" and hackthis's "Entwined," amanuensis1's "A Spell To Turn Tigers to Butter," dahlia777's "Silver Chain" series, "Four Letter Words" by weatherby
Introduction
What with one thing and another lately I have been thinking about the way people write sex scenes in their stories, and I have decided to talk about it. I think that even if we don't necessarily seek out the smuttiest fics around, we all want to read good writing, and we all know how to appreciate a really good sex scene as an audience. It's from this perspective that I'm approaching the subject. Just for the sake of comparision [sic], before I go any further, I want to talk just a bit about my personal, all-time favorite NC-17 rated fanfics, because they exemplify the standards by which I judge writing about sex.
Sections
- PWP should never be written as porn without plot.
- Go for the why over the what.
- Choose emotion over mechanics.
- Be true to character experience and POV.
- Avoid anatomy lessons.
- But know your anatomy, and your sexual mechanics.
- Don't write with a particular kink as your goal.
- Use your setting.
- Find the shift in every scene.
- The bottom line: feed their desire, feed ours
- Teh Recap.
Excerpts
Don't write with a particular kink as your goal.
Sure, you can say, "I want to write Bottom!Draco and Virginal!Harry!" Go for it, by all means. But as you keep that in mind, don't let that determine the direction of your fic. When you make a certain aspect of a fic a goal of that particular fic, you can easily lose momentum, especially because a lot of times a fic will want to head in a completely different direction than you intend it to. To be so focused on that particular aspect of your fic that you refuse to let it go where it wants to is to limit both the possibilities of your fic and yourself as a writer. (A non-smut example of this: I set out specifically wanting to write a parody fic starring Mariachi Pants!Draco. I wound up with "The Reader." I'm dead serious.) You have to learn not to corral your fic, or else you may never find out what kind of fic it wants to become.
When I see somebody squealing about how they're writing Top!Harry or Top!Draco, I, as a reader, often feel as if they're so focused on who they want to have in the submissive and dominant positions that they miss out on all the subtle emotional interplays and shifts in dynamic that occur in a scene. If you don't understand what I mean, reread Quicksilver. Take note of how many times Aspen shifts the control in that scene, and what effect it has on the drama and the emotional impact of the ending. Then think about how a declaration from wankersore before she started writing it that she wanted to write Bottom!Harry, or Top!Draco, would have altered the focus and the overall effect of the story.
A good writer doesn't need validation from knowing that they wrote a certain reader kink into their fic. If they're following the direction of the story, then they're going to be just fine no matter what. If you write a good story, with a strong emotional focus, then it's not going to matter to your readers ultimately who's on top or who gets to come and who doesn't. Think about your own sex life. How often does it matter to you which position you're in, or if you get to come all the time every time, so long as the sex is great? I'm guessing that when the sex is great, it's great, period, and those kinds of things don't really signify during each individual sexual encounter you have. So when you're unsure about the direction of a story, think about your own individual encounters, and ask yourself how truthful what you're writing is to what you yourself have experienced.
Use your setting.
In any given smut fic, what is going to motivate the characters ultimately is their *desire* for one another. If they're really really hot for each other, then chances are their ultimate and most immediate goal is going to want to be to have sex as easily and as conveniently as possible. This does not, however, mean that you need to write them getting off in five minutes by fucking against a wall. Yes, *they* want to get off as quickly as possible; *we* as readers want to see them do it in creative and interesting ways, ways that appeal to our sense of escapism and our imaginations.
Say I'm having a really hot Weasleycest tryst that's set in, oh, their house. Their house is always full of people--it's never going to be the right time for them to start counting how many licks it would take to get to the center, if you know what I mean. Also, these are two characters who grew up in a really big and really nosy family. They're probably not going to be screaming at the top of their lungs or doing anything too graphic or attention-getting. They're not doing anything special because they don't have enough privacy or enough time--and they're probably not even going to do anything hot like moan one another's names. So, how can you make this scene really interesting and engaging for a reader?
Teh Recap
Good sex in a story must be a reflection of character. It must also be a reflection of the dynamic between two characters (or three, if you're writing a threesome). If possible it should be a reflection of change occurring between those two characters as a result of what's going on. And it should always be a reflection of desire.
Whenever you write anything, and especially when you write smut, find the emotional center of the moment you're describing, and draw it out through the setting and through the character's actions and responses to what's happening. Doing that will win your readers over nine times out of ten. Because you'll be writing about a physical attraction, sure, and about physical responses--but we, as your readers, will be able to feel it too. Because it's ultimately our emotions that are being engaged as well as the characters.' And that, as we say in show biz, is where the money is.