Thread: Fade To Black?

What's your policy on sex scenes in your writing? When are they necessary? Is it okay to have them in there even if you could fade to black? Or do you think it's just part of the story and the character's lives so you include it when you feel like it? Is it a vehicle for character development? How graphic would you go?

Are they necessary? How graphic? It's virtually impossible to answer that question. It all depends on the story and the context. I can tell you what I've done, but I can't see how that would make much difference.

I was reading a friend of mine's blog. She's a romance writer. One of her favourites (I can't remember who) writes fairly graphic sex scenes in her novels.
But rather than it being about what goes where and all the phallic pseudonyms, it's more about developing the romantic relationship between the focal couple. The author's opinion is that how they have sex is actually quite important to understanding their relationship.

I don't care to read sex scenes, so I don't write them either. I've never, ever found an explicit, descriptive sex scene to be anything but gratuitous, unless the whole point of the book was to turn someone on. Since I don't write for that reason, I see no reason to include sex scenes. Now, sexual tension, themes and discussion are different kettles of lubricant.

Now I have Metallica going through my head...

Like Joseph said - story & context.

I used to write graphic sex scenes in short stories based on chance rendezvous, and I would e-mail them to a particular lady friend of mine, but then there was this one night that I drank a little too much, and mistakenly sent a copy of one of these stories to a teacher of mine. Whoops.

If you want to write it, I'd write it. Sex scenes are like any other part of a book. They can be done well or poorly, and some people might like them, and others might not. Nothing you can really do about that.

Also, if you write it but don't think it adds to the plot/characters/theme when you're done, you can always remove it later.

My policy is to put as many in as I can get away with. And it's why I read womens books more than mens. You get through a whole book, without a sex scene, or it fades to black, or you get a short and distant paragraph about how they went to the bedroom together and I am very tempted to throw the book at a wall. That's of course if it pretends to have the makings. I can certainly read stories without, but if you lead on that way, and they do end up together, don't for heavens sake disappoint, though it can be as graphic or not as you like. Just don't leave me in the dark.
I agree with the fact that a lot can be said about a character with respect to their desires, passions, or lack of.

One time at the lake the only novels on hand were all these lady romance novels, so I have read one or two of the genre. Okay. . . I'm lying. It's all I buy.

All jokes aside (which was what that was, people. A joke), I have read one or two of the things, and I think that the steamy scenes don't necessarily need all the visceral details to be hot. So I guess I'm paraphrasing everyone else here. The artfully done scenes are often hotter than, say, the scenes that leave less to the imagination. That being said, as Eluixa mentioned, when the writer relegates a love scene to one or two topical sentences, like some kind of chaste Sunday-student's notion of what actually happens, Jane and Billy shared a bed, I feel pretty gipped.

Originally Posted by Like a Fox

I was reading a friend's blog of mine. She's a romance writer. One of her favourites (I can't remember who) writes fairly graphic sex scenes in her novels.
But rather than it being about what goes where and all the phallic pseudonyms, it's more about developing the romantic relationship between the focal couple. The author's opinion is that how they have sex is actually quite important to understanding their relationship.

For my secondary WIP I need to develop a low-level sexual atmosphere between the two MCs - attraction without copulation - in addition to the everyday stuff they do that moves the story forward. Knowing nothing about it, and believing I wouldn’t learn much here, I posted a query in the Women’s Fiction forum on that other BIG site whose name we’re not supposed to mention around here. The replies are coming in as I write but I haven’t read any yet. It’ll be an interesting evening.