Writing about love, sex, and romance

[tesseracta]

I'm curious about how you all approach writing about love, romance, and sex.

Are you comfortable and confident writing about these subjects? If not, what approaches do you take to get through it?

Which writers of either sims stories and/or normal fiction do you think do this best, or go to for inspiration, and why?

Thanks in advance. : )

[thelunarfox]

A topic like this I and I think Laura. Seriously, she's definitely my inspiration. I wouldn't have the confidence to even attempt any sort of love scene if I hadn't learned how to do it right from her.

When it comes to these things, I find less is more. The readers can fill in the blanks once they know some of the details. (Of course this is my usual MO.)

And when it comes time to actually post, I close my eyes and hit the post button, lol.


Illandrya, I think you did this very well on the second part of Lost and Found. I remember I was stunned!

[tesseracta]

I also liked the romance and love scenes in "Lost and Found" too. I actually re-read this several times this week, when struggling to write my first Sims 3 kiss scene (which was also a pined-for kiss). I think Ilyandria did a good job with Veronika too, with both “the kiss” and its aftermath.

Lunarfox, you do a good job with being tastefully steamy. Your last Ruin update made me fan myself. ^_^

I’ve mentioned before too, that I love how Moondaisy does this (simple, elegant and powerful), and I loved a certain kiss in a certain Edith Prescott story.

Thanks for the recommendation and link to Drew’s story (who I didn’t know of before) and Laura’s work (which is already on my growing list of stories to check out). I’m sure there are more out there, that I hadn’t found yet.

I’m not a huge fan of romance novels. For other kinds of fiction, I like how Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes about longing. For fun and flirts, I like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels (don’t laugh).

[Stacy]

I'm reading a comment thread on Ruin right now with a lot of talk about sex.

Oh, just wanted to say, in case anyone was wondering - it's totally cool to talk about it here. And feel free to post stories with it - I took the erotica thing out of the rules because I felt like it might be stopping some people from posting their stories here. When I wrote it I had just been exposed to actual Sims porn and I was thinking more along those lines than stories with the occasional explicit steamy scenes.

I'm fairly comfortable with writing about love. Sex, though - my husband is the only person I've ever willingly kissed. And yeah - the word willingly there is a big part of why I'm not comfortable with it.

I think I'd be open to trying it one day if the story and the characters went that way. And one day might be closer than I think - not sure how things are going to go in 10.

I know I'd never be comfortable with writing it in certain ways - or at least at this point in my life I'm not over events in my past enough to write certain things. Objectification and power issues trigger me. Hard.

Haha, I wonder if that's why Seth is really an emo romantic guy at heart and would be tender and not quite so into BDSM as one might think.

I've always thought of this as his love song.

If I Were a Carpenter

It does have dominance in it - "following behind me" "answer me babe yes I would, I would put you above me", but at the same time it's tender and romantic.

Oh, sorry, stopping myself before I give you Seth's complete sexual psychological profile along with mine, lol. And ooh, I just had some interesting thoughts about Lilith and Sarah and Caitlyn too - and Jason...maybe I need to jump on the bandwagon and do profiles and the 10 facts meme (even though no one tagged me, sniff, goes to eat worms).

Okay, so...I think I can handle love and crushes. Got plenty of personal experience to draw on there and good happy non-threatening memories. Sex - depends. Haven't really tried it, but might soon. And when I do, there will be things about it that I avoid because of not-happy very threatening memories.

And I honestly don't know how to answer the last question. I think I experience other people's work in this really weird way. Plus I wouldn't be objective because of triggers - someone might write a particular scene beautifully but I would throw the book across the room when I read it because of my personal issues.

I can say that I've never been triggered by a Sims story and that all the ones I've read have been done well. I kind of think that's because they're all by women.

Gah, I really need to go back to work now. See you guys later.

[laura]

I hope you're all ready for a book on the topic, lol!

Lunar, I *swear* you were writing the steamy stuff before I was! But anyway, I think you write sex better than I do. You're braver with it than I am, I think. Your details are always perfect too, gritty and realistic, but not without emotion - just how I like it!

But anyway, thank you!

I'm certainly not uncomfortable writing about love. And these days, I don't really hesitate much before writing sex either, lol! But love is one of my favorite things to write about - and not just romantic love either. I like all kinds of love, romantic or platonic, between friends or family too. (ETA: but not romantic between family, eeew!!! lol!)

Romance though, like y'all said, I don't read straight-up romance stories, and I don't think I believe in it either. Or if I do believe in it, then it's something people put on for Valentine's day, because they feel like they have to, or something people put on when they want to get someone into bed. But that's not the same thing as love. Real, honest love I think comes from a place more genuine and complex and wonderful than romance could ever do.

Ruin was going to be my example of well-written love and sex But Lunar, really, you've been doing amazing love stories all the way back to Tierra de Legado.

And another writer - she's only just getting started now, but Blackcat's Richmond story is full of fantastic relationship dramas! Both romantic and platonic. One of her recent updates has one of the most complex and moving examples of honest love I've seen, and it's between a couple who are kind of breaking up, lol!

As far as published literature, I could probably spew off a thousand novels that do sex well, but modern literature can seem pretty hollow on the love sometimes. Literary writers seem almost anti-love - they're always so cynical about it, and timid with emotion. But at the same time, I don't find that romance writers do love very well either, for lack of realism. Maybe writing love between two characters in a way the reader can feel and experience is just very hard to do. It really involves a huge effort of character building.

So for published love:
- John Irving does love well, both romantic and platonic. Especially The Cider House Rules.
- The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter was great too! Fantastic and truly inspiring story about love from all kinds of different angles (good sex too, lol!)
- Amy Bloom does good love stories.
- Charles Dickens! Great Expectations has always been one of my favorites!
- Lorrie Moore does good relationship stories, though I find her views of love are pretty cynical most of the time, but her stories are not devoid of emotion. One of the best short stories you'll ever read is People Like That Are The Only People Here. Long title, lol! From her Birds of America collection. Heartbreaking and beautiful story!

And this is just normal love, lol! Let's not get started talking on some of the abnormal/stalkerish/criminal love stories out there, like Lolita, or The Virgin Suicides, lol! Equally fascinating though!

And Stacy, no worries! We all have our places we can't or won't go, and our different reasons. And for other reasons, we might have places we go too often. Like hell if I could ever write a story with characters who have living and well-adjusted parents, lol! But this is why we write though. We explore the workings of the world. And we let other writers explore the workings we can't or don't want to explore

[raquelaroden]

Aww, thanks, Tesseracta! I think you do a great job of realistically and elegantly describing the feelings of your characters, especially when it comes to romance.

This is a wonderful topic...but your questions are astonishingly difficult to answer.

I'm not all that comfortable or confident with writing about these subjects, but they're the subjects that tend to move me the most when I'm reading or even when I'm watching a movie. So...I guess I want these things in my story, because I like reading them myself.

I do read some romance novels (though I'm more a mystery-thriller or paranormal type than a straight on romance reader), and when I was prepping for the kiss in the Edith Prescott series I read through a few different authors that I liked to get an idea of how they describe such scenes. I wasn't really able to let myself really go as far as many of my favorite authors do because I'm always afraid that too much description makes it unrealistic, and at bottom I'm just...a prude who is generally embarrassed by all things sexual, lol.

I'll probably do a lot of description just before any sexual acts rather than describing the er..whole process straight out. I really want to read more of Laura's material (and I need to check out Illandrya's stuff too!), and as you just saw, LunarFox's scenes are pretty amazing. You describe Moondaisy's methods perfectly--very elegantly and powerfully done.

I love the Stephanie Plum series because it really is just so much fun! I also enjoy vintage Jude Devereaux (80s and 90s stuff mostly) and contemporary Karen Robards and Linda Howard. OH and Sandra Brown (I think her book Breath of Scandal is amazing, but that's probably because I just really love vengeance stories). For paranormal I read some really filthy things that I'm almost too embarrassed to name, but oh well: lately I've been reading some Sherrilyn Kenyon, but I got into the scene with J.R. Ward. I like Charlaine Harris as well, and I think she does a better job than most with the balance of romance and feelings and sexually explicit scenes (she won't describe every single sexual encounter, unlike J.R. Ward, for instance).

Err....my comments have been lengthy babblings of late! Sorry!

[laura]

If I might redirect you, I just remembered that I wrote about this very topic in my blog some time last year. Everything I linked to in that post is a MUST READ for writing about love and sex.

And one more link: this article on writing sex is hilarious! (Kind of forward, for the sensitive types.) But really great advice! Like:

7.) Real people do not talk in porn clichés. They do not say: "Yes, deeper, harder, deeper! Oh, baby, oh, Christ, yes!"

At least, they do not say these things to me.

Most of the time, real people say all kinds of weird, funny things during sex, such as, "I think I’m losing circulation" and "I’ve got a cramp in my foot" and "Oh, sorry!" and "Did you come already? Goddamn it!"

I reread this one sometimes just for the funny! ;D

[raquelaroden]

Laura: I've read that article before and it was just as hilarious the second time around. Thanks for bringing it back, and for the helpful articles you linked from your blog!

[dbloveshermac]

Note to self: include foot cramps in all future sex scenes. ;-)

I think the emotions that most scare us in real life are the ones that can be the scariest and hardest to write. For many of us, love is great and scary.

I like to read a romance (whether sweet or hot) that shows the characters' other caring relationships. Actually, the first example that comes to mind is from a movie (I know, bad me, but it's a classic!): An Affair to Remember. Seeing how he feels about his grandmother says a lot about his capacity for feeling and the level of sincerity or insincerity in his romantic relationships. Does that make sense?

[drew]

Jul 25, 2010 22:01:05 GMT -5 @illandrya said:

Comfortable and confident? Hardly. In fact I will avoid these themes altogether unless they are integral to the plot and the prose flows naturally and is a believable extension of the characters.

Thankfully, the few times I have wanted to include intense scenes my muse has been quite cooperative and the words have flowed relatively easily from the end of my pen - I find I can't do this sort of writing on the computer, it has to be pen and paper.

Correction - most of the time. I have just had to tackle the love/romance thing in my Veronika Storm series after the two main characters kissed for the first time. As background, the male has been in love with the female "forever" but she is completely oblivious to the fact until after the kiss. She had just using it as a cover for why they were in a darkened garden (they're spies). Writing the aftermath of that kiss is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to write and I wrestled with it for weeks until I was comfortable with the way they reacted. I really had to crawl inside their heads and approach it from their point of view. Having never been in that situation myself it wasn't easy!

Drew (Crime Story, Blood Brotherhood) seems to be able to deliver these three themes tastefully and believably and I am envious of her talent!

I know this is old, sorry to push an older thread, but I was on vacation. Just wanted to say thanks Illandyra for the shout out, and wanted to say how fascinating a topic this is!

From someone who used to twitch uncontrollably when I had to describe even the sims kissing, I have come a long way.
I am no spring chicken, and only started to read romance novels in the last three years, so they have definitely had an influence on my Sim romance scenes.
I have my own personal line I will not cross (like showing full frontal of a male sim with his downloadable dangly bits for example) Nor use that porn type slang, I try to be tasteful, but, its all subjective I suppose. Some like little or no romance, some gobble it up.

I say do what feels comfortable for you, and not try and worry what other people think.

I should drop in more, sorry about that. Not much of a forum person, believe it not, I can be shy.

~Cheers~

[thelunarfox]

I thought I would add this link to this thread. Sex in our literature? It just can't be!

I love how most of the article talks about men writing literature with sex scenes.

Beckman agrees with Dyer that it is "less ostentatious" sex that is the most effective. "The best sex scenes are the ones that are quite clinical and precise."

D: Ew.

They do concede that the best sex scenes in recent years come from lesbian and gay writers, but other than that they don't feel it's necessary. I think there are a few of us that could show them differently.

[celebkiriedhel]

I have a guilty secret... I have two rows of books in one of my bookshelves of romance books.

I read quite a few mills and boons when I was younger - and I've kept 2 of them. One was about a blind sculptor, the other was about dancer who had gone off with the gypsies because of using someone else's passport. All of the others are pretty much trash. So is Barbara Cartland. Mills and Boon books are very much written to a formula - as specified on the Mills and Boon site. And they are real sticklers to that formula too.

But give me Georgette Heyer, Catherine Gaskin, Elizabeth Goudge - and I'll re-read to high heavens. Not much sex, some romance and some love, and a thwacking good read.

OK... I will now go blush in a corner.

Personally though - I think romance was done way better in the old days - Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, they're all books where the boy gets the girl, (or doesn't as the case may be) after a bit of a chase.

They tell more with their subtleties than modern books do with their explicit and clinical. Or maybe that's my taste.

[laura]

Damn prudes ;D

The most interesting thing to me is always the subtext of the sex. I mean, sex is not just sex. It never is. It's like a conversation, two people (or more, lol!) with their own wants, their own desires, their own agendas. Sex, and all the ways it can come about, is fascinating!

I agree that straightforward descriptions are better than flowery metaphors! I don't know about clinical and precise though, lol! There's a happy medium I think. Really, there's no reason to name names when talking certain body parts. The reader can usually guess what's going on. I usually only use a proper word when I don't intend the scene to be actually sexy, but humorous instead.

I've never read much genre romance before. I had a short Danielle Steel stint (OMG, you all take that to the grave!) when I was like, fifteen, lol! But really, literary fiction has a ton of sex in it! Usually weird and kinky sex that is more interesting than arousing - and there's a place for that too! Not all sex has to be arousing. Sex can be all kinds of things. But almost all of my favorite literary writers don't shy much away from the sex. So I'm not really sure why these dudes think sex shouldn't exist in literature, because everybody's doing it!

Doing it, lol!

(OMG, I'm such a teenage boy sometimes!)

But seriously, sex is as natural a part of a healthy adult life as anything, so why not make it a part of our stories? To me, a healthy adult character who doesn't have sex (even if it's only with herself!) would be like one who doesn't eat, sleep, or drink water. People have sex. People like to have sex. People like to read about sex.

Or at least people like me do

[celebkiriedhel]

The thing I like about your writing Laura, is that it isn't sex for sex' sake. Like everything else you write it's grounded in the story, what is happening.

It's not: Dangly bit A goes into hole B, and jiggles it about a bit. OK now everybody gets their jollies. Next scene Dangly bit C goes into hole D and jiggles it about a bit.

Or for that matter, you don't do Love for love's sake, or romance for it's sake - it's all subservient to the story. I think that's truly the difference between writing sex scenes, and writing porn. (Which I did as an exercise once - and boy was it fun!).

And by the way - for someone who isn't into romance - you seem to have a very healthy dose of it in Lakeside Heights. Not the mills and boon variety - for sure. But the poem about the freckle, was definitely romantic. And it's not the only thing that has been. True romance, is about expressing thoughtfulness towards the significant other in a way that they understand, not just giving chocolates and flowers on Valentines day.

My Mum used to say, that the romantic thing my Dad ever did - was let her sleep in on a Saturday, and bring her breakfast in bed while he did the washing. For a working mum with 4 kids, it was way more romantic than any other gift could be.

OK - maybe I have a different view of romance to the rest of the world. I don't care. It's my ideal! Someone who's romantic enough to do the dishes without asking!

[laura]

Nov 19, 2010 19:51:09 GMT -5 @celebkiriedhel said:

It's not: Dangly bit A goes into hole B, and jiggles it about a bit. OK now everybody gets their jollies. Next scene Dangly bit C goes into hole D and jiggles it about a bit.

OMG, LOL!!! Thank you! That is the best thing I've read all night!!!

Oh yes, thoughtfulness is the best kind of romance. That's true love right there! Oh and when my honey does the dishes, it melts my heart! Y'all should have seen him last week when I was sick, doing the dishes, cooking dinner, cleaning the house, taking care of the kid, making me tea! I should get sick more often, lol! Better than flowers any day!

[thelunarfox]

Nov 19, 2010 18:55:51 GMT -5 @laura said:

I agree that straightforward descriptions are better than flowery metaphors! I don't know about clinical and precise though, lol! There's a happy medium I think. Really, there's no reason to name names when talking certain body parts. The reader can usually guess what's going on. I usually only use a proper word when I don't intend the scene to be actually sexy, but humorous instead.

Oh I 'm there with you. It was really the "clinical" and "precise" part that made me laugh. It read to me like they'd only found a couple ways to put sex in stories and they couldn't conceive of the possibility that there could be more ways. Clearly they're not reading the right stories.



Kiri, Seriously.

[infinitygoddess]

I've only just started going wild with sex scenes for my stories, with The House of Akim being the most sexually charged and pretty much entering the realm of erotica.

And I'm more of a sci-fi gal myself.

[dinuriel]

Hmmm... interesting topic. I used to freak out and stress over sex scenes, but nowadays, I just try to write them like I would anything else.

It is kind of easy to fall into the metaphor trap, though, especially if you're a person who gets just as much emotional fulfillment from sex as physical fulfillment--of course, that's merely speculation on my part, since I mainly just get physical fulfillment (I'm pretty much the least romantic person ever).

But that ties into another thing--POV. Sometimes you're writing from the perspective of a very sensitive, sensual, emotional person who just gets swept away by the act and all the feelings it invokes and you kind of have to get a little "flowery" in order to provoke the right response. Other times, your POV character just wants to get their rocks off and the narrative ends up being largely action-based.

Here's a bit from the only full-out sex scene I've ever posted for an online work. It's definitely flowery, and it makes me cringe nowadays, but bear in mind that I wrote this like a year ago:

He took her in his strong arms and laid her gently on the mattress; his touch was both soft and warm, like a summer’s breeze in the countryside. His mouth engulfed her bottom lip, and then, without breaking the kiss, he entered her.

At first, it hurt. She felt as though somewhere inside her, something was crumbling to pieces, penetrated by some unstoppable force. However, the pain did not stay long, or if it did, she did not notice. Soon, it was masked by a feeling that could only be described as indescribable. It was as if he was placing his very soul within her, every thought that had ever crossed his mind, every feeling that had ever touched his heart. Slowly, the sensation began to spread, to her hips, her legs, her entire body. Never before had she known such a terrible bliss, tasted so delicious a forbidden fruit. She was a new person entirely, twice as strong as the girl she had been, if not more so. There was magic in the world, she now knew; there was magic within her, and within him. She could feel him diffusing throughout every last corner of her, not a single cell of her untouched by his strange sorcery of the flesh. One day, she would repay him; one day, she was give him magic of her own.

So... the thing about this sex scene--apart from its nauseating over-prosetry--is largely POV. The character is a seventeen-year-old virgin from a socially conservative culture who is incredibly sheltered, but has a secret, fascinated curiosity about all things sexual and wants to learn more. As a result, she gets this almost trance-like high and everything just becomes emotion and imagery--if she's thinking at all, she's not thinking in words.

But compare this quasi-recent Naroni snippet:

He slammed the door behind them, then proceeded to her laces as she undid the buttons on his tunic. Watching as her naked form settled on the bed, he slipped off the rest of his clothing and locked himself between her thighs. As her legs snapped around his waist, he began to thrust. He would fuck her all night if he had to; he might even fuck her well into the morning if he cared. He'd explore her cunt with his mouth and he would take her from behind. He would do whatever it took to follow through; he would do any and every disgusting thing she was willing to do.

But damned if he took this woman in [dead wife]'s bed.

Very different scenario. The POV character is a thirty-something male with considerable sexual experience who mainly just wants to a) take his mind off his recently deceased wife for a while and b) get the woman here to leave him alone. So, as a result, we get profanity and a brief, blunt, action-based description instead of an abundance of metaphors

Also, it might be worth noting that with the first instance, the sexual encounter spanned pretty much the whole post; with the second, most of the post was a heated conversation and the guy's mounting anger and his belief that the woman is "taunting" him. That and the sex in the second bit isn't at all premeditated--both characters come from the same inbred network of noble families, which happens to have a high incidence of hypersexuality, so the fact that they ended up hitting the sack is largely reflexive on both their parts.

Hmmm... it feels kind of ostentatious to ramble on for so long without even having a point, so I have to say something conclusive I guess I'll just restate my point about it being at least partly POV-dependent? Also mood-dependent? There's sex and there's sex. And then there's sex. Also, there's sex... and sex.

But yeah, give me "clinical" over "flowery" any day--and a happy medium is good too

[laura]

Hmmm, reviewing some of my own sex scenes... And I discovered that I rarely ever talk about the actual bumping and grinding, lol!

But then, since this is an illustrated story, I guess I've felt more comfortable letting the pictures tell the logistics of the sex, and instead I'll dig into the characters heads a bit while they're, you know, bumping and grinding. At least in LH, I've very rarely ever gone as far as to give the play by play, from the point of penetration to the big O - though I DO actually have a story that does such a thing, and that's coming up a few months down the storyline, lol! Most of my scenes are quite detailed in the foreplay, but then gloss over the actual sex in favor of story development. Often I'll focus on the moments before, or after, as well. Maybe I'm more scared to write sex than I thought? Or maybe I just haven't felt it was called for yet?

Van, yes, I get the POV thing. I think that's natural and appropriate, that the first scene is filled with wonder and fascination, and the second is filled with aggression and angst. I think those are perfectly well done. I especially like the anger in the second one!

My sex scenes are always highly infused with what's going on in the story at the moment and the emotions of the POV character and the scene.

Let's all dissect our sex scenes, shall we?

First, this was written over a year ago. This is kind of a new discovery for me, look at the way I gloss right over the sex, lol! Hardly a mention in the text about the deed itself, though the pictures that went with this were highly suggestive. To stand on its own, I would have had to include some more details of the sex, otherwise it would hardly be clear what was going on.

I love to write about sex, and my characters love to have sex, and even my characters love to talk about sex, but I never realized how infrequently I actually write the screwing part, lol!

(Sorry, these are super-long excerpts...)

(Tyler, newly single, age 19):

She's a grown woman with her own house, no parents, no roommates. And this happens the way these things usually happen - after alcohol and some dancing, except he is stone sober and he barely danced a minute until right now. Her music is soft, some jazz song he doesn't know - he doesn't listen to that type of music, but it's good for dancing, for moving with her in a dimly lit living room.

Her name is irrelevant, though she had actually told him at one point, Hannah, Heather, Helen? Did it even matter? He doesn't really know how these things work, the casual way, but she takes control of everything. She showed him just what to do, and just what is allowed. He takes note, and follows her lead.

Maybe she knows exactly what's going on here even before he does. His love for Summer Phoenix is tattooed painfully across his forehead, and she reads it. She knows this young man has loved before, and he's loved deep, he's loved hard. So she can make this so easy for him, knowing that even if he's young, surely he won't be inexperienced. These are the best kind, she thinks. The ones who would be off-limits except for this one night of weakness. This one night where she'll help him in ways nobody else can.

There is something very important happening here, and he slowly begins to realize that. This is more than just discovering what her skin feels like underneath that little blue dress, but every piece of clothing removed, every touch, every surely placed kiss, this becomes a process of dismantlement.

He wants this, not her so precisely. He wants this because it's something to be done, it's a movement, it's a direction. She's beautiful, and that helps, but she could be anyone. He's using her, even before he knows it, just as she's taking something from him. He's using her to dissect his love for Summer.

This is an attempt to break things down. Summer and Tyler, Tyler and Summer. He breaks them apart to their very bones. Broken down, disassembled. In pieces, in shards, maybe even beyond repair.

[*then leaving the woman's house here*]
But even broken, even in shards, scattered like glass on pavement, there is still love, underneath it all as if burrowed into his skin. So he brings it to her, this disassembled love. He brings her the pieces.

This was written about a year ago though, and had I been braver then, I might have included a few more sensory details of the actual act. Just a few though. Because I think in the end, the story isn't really about the sex, but why he's doing it and what it gives him.

Next...

The most direct love scene I think I've ever written actually ends up being with one of my most reserved characters, Mariah, lol! This is from her husband, Micah, after they're getting over an epic detachment from each other.

(Micah, married, age 25)

She gets a nightgown from the dresser and comes to sit on the bed, the fabric clutched in her hands. On the baby monitor, Quinn breathes in sharp, but deep, exhaling in a slow staccato. It's on his mind still, the flop meeting, the deflation. He said he was just trying it out, but to be honest, he had been hoping something would come of it.

And no, his week did not go fine. No, it was actually pretty shitty. He wants her to know this – his wife, his best friend – she should know this, but at the same time this lousy career move feels so insignificant compared to whatever is missing here in this room.

Her touch at his arm is tentative, but she leaves her fingers there on his skin.

“I miss you,” he tells her.

She nods, taking his face in her hand, rubbing her thumb over his unshaven cheek. “I know,” she says. "I'm sorry."

She leans in to kiss him. In her lips, he feels the tremble of a stunted cry. He takes her into his hands and they lay back across the bed.

When they make love, it's like they'd been drowning, like they're gasping for air. When he touches her, she holds his hands to her skin. When he leans down to kiss her neck, she smiles and tilts her head back so he can kiss her more. When he moves over her, she locks her legs around him so they move together. When she comes, she holds him pressed firm to her body, and she doesn't let him go.

And then they don't move. And the air is still. And Quinn's breaths on the monitor are soft then, slowly in, slowly out. And the tossed sheets tangle around their legs, and their legs wrap around each other, and their lungs, pressed chest to chest, are timed in perfect compliments, so that they can't tell who breathes in or who breathes out.

And they were meant to be more than the aftermath of all these things left unsaid and the wrong turns they've taken. They were meant to be so much more.

Though the actual love-making is talked about here, I still only gave it one paragraph of the whole scene.

But what I was trying to do here (not sure if it was effective, lol!), is instead of going into metaphors in the sex, I infused their tension and desperation and sadness into the scene instead. I put tangle in their sheets and static on the baby monitor. We actually talked about this technique once before... *goes to find the thread* <-- couldn't actually find that. Does anyone know when/where we were talking about that, about using the whole scene to convey emotion?

But anyway - hmmm, glossing over the details of the sex in favor of story. Do you think it's cheap or appropriate? Do you think, considering the illustrations, less detail is needed in the text? Or should it still be told in text, what exactly is going on between the characters?

[raquelaroden]

Laura, I love how you write a sex scene--even though I don't have all the graphic details, I have something else from it that is pretty amazing. I wish I could do what you do in those scenes.

But I also love the more graphic stuff, too. Sometimes I want to know those things, etc., even if it's done in shocking, gritty terms. Like Van said, the context of the piece should determine the way it's written, and I think both ways are valid, satisfying approaches as long as they don't seem outlandish given the character, the context. I think the most important thing is probably to write it with conviction (isn't Lunar often quoting something to that effect?).