Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is “Sex in Your Novels: When Do You Use It, How Graphic Do You Get, How Does It Change Your Character(s)?”
I answered the question in my post title, so I guess I’m done and go finish trimming the tree!
All right, seriously, I suspect I’m fairly well known for writing the sexytimes into my stories. I sometimes teach classes in Sexual Tension and Sex as a Tool for Character Transformation. I think I’ve written maybe one or two fiction works with zero sex. Some of this is because my readers expect the sexytimes from me, sure, but it’s also because sex just always works its way into my stories. Come on over for a breakdown of how I use sex in a story like THE SNOWS OF WINDROVEN.
I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I love sex in my books. It’s a major guilty pleasure of mine. I actually dislike it when authors go for the fade-to-black these days or stick to kissing. No! Give me the sex. The more explicit the better! Let me marinade in the sexy-fun times.
That being said, it’s definitely an art form. Like if you go too step-by-step and don’t focus on the emotion, it becomes very unsexy. And if you’re writing about more than two people involved and you’re trying to explain where everyone’s appendages are, it becomes a visual game of Twister and takes you out of the sexiness of it. I’ve sat there going “Wait, so if he’s over here and she’s there, how’s the other person able to…?” Anyway, it’s a bad place to be.
This is completely off-topic because I was binge-listening to your podcast and heard you didn’t have a title yet for the next Moons book. Looking at what you already have, you seem to have established a pattern in twos. The first two books are a person’s name and something they’ve taken ownership of. The next two books are locations. Well, sort of. The forest is definitely a place. Tides could be a bit more nebulous, I suppose. Anyway, my uneducated suggestion would be to make another pair for your last books. You’ve sort of covered people and places so… things? “The Mask of Something or Other” for example if what they grabbed from the tomb is playing a role in the next book?
Don’t be embarrassed! I love it, too. The closed door thing drives me crazy. I won’t read some authors because of it. Not that I don’t enjoy their stories, but the frustration is too much for me and I end up more disappointed than anything else.
And I totally agree – if I find myself skimming while reading a sex scene, that’s bad, bad, bad.
Thanks for the title suggestions! I was thinking exactly that, the paired titles. Something using the mask is a great idea because it’s definitely playing a major role. 🙂