Plus, slowing your pace may make it difficult to speed back up again.Īnother reason to truncate your sex scene could be your audience. The hot and heavy sex scene can become a grind to read. If you spend a few pages, or even a chapter, detailing the entire sexual escapade, your storytelling can suffer. Employ RestraintĪfter writing the sex scene, you may realize that there’s no need to include every single detail. The movement of light and shadow on their skin. Describe the feeling behind every glance. And don’t forget about the emotional exchange between your characters- how one may adjust their position for the other. Look at each moment as a still photograph and describe what you see. Instead of saying that the characters had sex, describe exactly what’s going on. Never is that advice more important than with a sex scene. Here I am with your daily dose of “show, don’t tell.” So, if it makes sense for the characters, don’t allow your sense of embarrassment to weaken the story. Remember that you’re on this step because you believe this sex scene is integral to your story’s plot. If it’s clear to you, it will be clear to your reader. Your job is to write down what you see the characters do. Instead of thinking about your reader, think about the characters and what you’re seeing. your average reader) when they’re documenting lurid sex. However, no one wants to think about their mom (i.e. Usually, I recommend that you always visualize your reader when telling your story. This is the one time when you can’t think about who’s going to read your book. Come back after you’ve eaten some nachos, downed a beer, and thrown modesty out of the way. If that made you squirm, you’re not ready. There are arms, legs, emotions, sweat, and nipples. When you write sex scenes, it’s gonna get raw. If the answer is “yes,” let's go to the next step. So, does the sex scene move the story forward? Learn more about pacing and tension in this post. Pacing is one of the most important parts of storytelling. It’s not always necessary to share every intimate detail with your readers, especially if it drags the pacing to a halt. Sometimes, you can simply imply that sex happened without retelling the entire scene. Trust your characters to make their own choices.Ī follow-up question to ask is if this sex scene moves the story forward. We give the character a set of circumstances, watch how everything plays out, and then we write it down. Instead, we take on the dual role of voyeur and recorder.
As writers, we shouldn’t impose our will on the characters. That response should flow naturally without your interference.Įven though your characters are created beings, they still have their own agency. As a writer, you can control the obstacles that you put in your character’s path, but you can’t (or shouldn’t) control how the characters respond. In fact, adding gratuitous sex to your novel may actually slow the pace, cheapen the story, destroy your characterization, and insult the reader.īefore adding sex to a story, always figure out if the move is something that your characters would actually make, or if it’s something that you’re forcing. Characterization, pacing, and plotting should do the heavy lifting. You don't need to include sex in your novel just to grab your reader's attention.
Sex sells in Hollywood, but literature is more nuanced than film. But if you're writing in another genre, like mystery or speculative fiction, you may not need to add sex at all. If you're writing a romance novel, sex scenes are almost always mandatory.
Storytelling sex scene how to#
So, without further ado, let’s discuss how to write a darn good sex scene in fiction. You must take your time and approach it with care, because, just like with sex, there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. You can’t just jump up and jackhammer out a sexy scene. It takes skill to write an immersive and emotional sex scene. Even though this may be your first experience, I’ll do my best to not make it as awkward as, well, your first experience.
Let’s talk about how to write sex scenes.
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