Writing about love, sex, and romance

[laura]

Speaking of Lunar, I was just rereading this one, from Ruin, "In the Dark". Textbook perfect blend of sexy sensory details and storytelling fusion! OMG, perfect! Now this is what I wish I could do!

ETA: and another thought... also, in that piece, the images she used were much less suggestive, which allows for the writing to flourish.

So in general, I think more suggestive images are appropriate when the writing is less sexually detailed. Less suggestive images when the writing is more detailed. I don't think it would work if both the writing and the images were equally as sexually detailed. One would detract from the other.

In other words, yes, Lunar has done it perfectly yet again, lol!

[thelunarfox]

Nov 19, 2010 23:49:19 GMT -5 infinitygoddess said:

I've only just started going wild with sex scenes for my stories, with mikhailachevmanor.soul-clutter.net/akim/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.

Your link doesn't work. I tried copying and pasting and it says that page doesn't exist.

Also, I'm all for adding sex to any genre. I don't believe that it makes a story become erotica (unless you really are just throwing sex in there for the sake of having some sex in there). But then I am a known perv, so of course I'd be all for sex in any genre.



I must say I'm loving where this thread is going-- filled with nice examples of sex.


Van- that first scene makes me cringe, but not really from the writing. It's the voice of the girl who seems so innocent I can't help thinking that she's going to get her heart broken. I think that has to be the most interesting way I've ever seen a girl's first time described.

Also *covers eyes at the next one* Oh man. Now I'm gonna wonder who that is.



Laura- I've always liked the way you write sex scenes too. I can see your point about the pictures. I think you've had some really interesting pictures with your smut. *coughcough* So the text and the pictures work together.

In my case, especially with Cheryl's piece, they're really only standing together hugging in a bathroom, and so to make the pictures do something more than look silly (or worse just leave people scratching their heads) I have to add a bit more detail and then the pictures look suggestive, lol. They are less suggestive because there isn't much that can be done with TS3 yet.

The second set of pictures in this post shows what I mean. (Scroll past the first bit of "how to do smut in TS3") Without a preface, the couple look to just be kissing, but with some added detail it becomes a little bit dirtier.

[infinitygoddess]

Nov 20, 2010 12:02:14 GMT -5 @thelunarfox said:

Nov 19, 2010 23:49:19 GMT -5 infinitygoddess said:

I've only just started going wild with sex scenes for my stories, with mikhailachevmanor.soul-clutter.net/akim/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.

Your link doesn't work. I tried copying and pasting and it says that page doesn't exist.

Also, I'm all for adding sex to any genre. I don't believe that it makes a story become erotica (unless you really are just throwing sex in there for the sake of having some sex in there). But then I am a known perv, so of course I'd be all for sex in any genre.

I tried getting to work, but it wouldn't for some reason. I had left out a bracket in the BBS code there originally, but it still didn't fix when I put it in there. The link is here: mikhailachevmanor.soul-clutter.net/akim/

It should work. I just updated that blog today.

The reason why that particular story is the most wild sexually (that I've written), is when you consider the characters. Akim, Anton, Sergei, and Sacha all love sex (I should note that Sergei and Sacha are both Romance Sims...naturally ) and lots of it.

[dinuriel]

Nov 20, 2010 8:40:27 GMT -5 @laura said:

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!

I'm the exact same way

Laura, both of your sex scenes are very well done. Are they both from Lakeside Heights? (LH is on my to-read list; I'll get to it soon, I promise!). They're emotional, not idealized, and they're about more than just the sex. They're not gratuitous--you can tell that the sex is actually integral to the story.

I agree with your point about the images too. I always find--and not just with the naughty bits--that my offline work is much more descriptive than my Sim stories, just because of the pictures. I will admit that they are my crutch So yes, if you have a picture of two Sims rolling around naked on a bed, you probably don't need to worry so much about detailed prose; if you have a picture of full-clothed Sims pressed against a bathroom stall, then you'd need to go a little deeper (heehee, deeper).

Lunar, I think you do great work with your sex scenes too, especially since TS3 is more limited in terms of posing. You manage to write around that disadvantage and you definitely pull it off

Aaaand I'd say more, but I haven't been up very long and haven't had my coffee yet

[Stacy]

I'm proud of the pics in Fire.

Fire

Had to skip over the writing so as to not cringe with embarrassment and hate myself and delay 10.08 even more with a self-confidence crisis where I think I suck at writing, but yeah - I like the pics.

John's family was here while I was editing them, and I hid them whenever someone came into the dining room. I was all "I'm not writing Sims porn, promise!"

I mean, yeah - they're fully clothed and it's just the normal romantic interactions, but I think the angles and moments I chose get things across pretty well.

But then I'm all about subtlety and soft romance. I grew up reading the Brontes and Austen, and yeah - I might let my characters actually touch and sometimes kiss and make out, but I think with my personality and my issues - I mean, I'll admit I did write one hardcore piece once. But it was written specifically for John and he's the only person who ever gets to read it, sorry.

Speaking of romance and guys doing housework - John does everything around here. I just sit here and write, lol. I offer to help because I don't want him to get all resentful and feel used, but he says no, he has a specific way that he wants things done and it's better if he just does it all himself.

Plus after working at Arby's - I'm never doing dishes again.

And really - I do think I will write a fairly hardcore Sarah/Seth scene at some point in the future. But even that - I don't see myself getting really detailed about the bits. If it's from Seth's POV - dude lives entirely inside his head and is not very conscious of physical plane stuff. If it's from Sarah's - she's obviously not clinical and physical and is more emotional.

I'm imagining something like the scene in Buffy where she and Spike destroy a house. But with more feeling and metaphor. LOL.

[laura]

Van, thanks, yup, they're from LH. Oh, I know the images can be a crutch for me too! To the point I had to start making sure I'd written my whole update to completion before I'd insert the images. (I used to do it the other way around, take the pictures first then write the update around it.) But it was making my writing so lazy, because I wouldn't have to describe something like a facial expression, or body language, or any other number of things that were shown visually, so then when I went to work on my non-illustrated writing I'd forgotten that I needed to do those kind of things, or even how to do those things in an interesting and creative way.

So now I do the writing first, and insert the pictures as a final touch. Maybe my writing ends up being repetitive against the pictures, but ah well. I have to do it that way or my other writing suffers.

[dinuriel]

Hmmm. I could probably improve my Sims writing if I wrote before taking pictures, but I keep doing the pictures first for a couple of reasons. One is that if I didn't do the pictures first, I might eventually lose the motivation to do them at all. I like having pictures and everything, but sometimes I just don't feel like taking them

The other reason is that I like posting preview pics for most of my stuff, and since I'm ridiculously impatient, I have to post my updates pretty much the second I'm done, which wouldn't allow for the previews if I did the writing first.

And then I don't have any EPs, so my posing is a bit limited, and I like to know what I can and can't make my Sims do before I write it, so I know what can get pictured and what has to happen between the pictures.

That's just me, though I think most people these days write first, which is probably better for the writing itself, but I have my reasons.

[laura]

Oh, ha! I was SO unmotivated to take pictures last night for tonight's update! So unmotivated I seriously considered doing text-only for one scene, lol! I just needed three or four more shots, and I'd just finished doing a complicated two-Sims-cuddling-on-a-couch kind of scene, and was so tired, but I plugged ahead. They might be boring though, lol!

I know what you mean - I run into situations too where I can't possibly convey what I've written into pictures with Sims. So I'll just allow the shots to get vague and interpretive and let the writing carry it instead, lol!

[drew]

Nov 19, 2010 17:48:37 GMT -5 @celebkiriedhel said:

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.

Kiri, I'll join you, only I have two overflowing bookcases full of romance. And as I said before, I am new to this genre, shocking considering the amount of books I have read over the years.

I will now stand up and confess, "I am a romantic sap."

I really do embrace it. I can dig it if romance/sex/love scenes are not for everyone. But personally from a storytellers stand point, I LOVE it. The drama that can come from such scenes, the emotions.
Jealousy, resent, guilt, hate. Love, ecstasy, desire, contentment.

And I love writing and reading the whole spectrum. To implied love scenes to the raw stuff. What am I working on outside of Sim stories right now?
An Erotica. *gasp* I didn't think I could write this, turns out, yep, I can.
This from someone who could barely write about 2 sims kissing at one time.
I've come a long way, baby.

[rad]

Oh, I still find this tricky. So far, we've got Naomi and Chase's stuff in Taken and some teenage crush/romance stuff too but I'm not good/confident at romance/love/sex.

In the new hood and probably in some parts of Taken these things are inevitably going to be a part of it, though, so I'm going to have to be braver!

[laura]

Nov 23, 2010 13:42:27 GMT -5 @illandrya said:

Rad ... I've found it's kind of like real sex - the first time is awkward because you're a little unsure and not really confident that you know what you're doing, but as you practise it gets a little easier and you can start to have some serious fun with it (although sometimes the fun becomes a little too much and you have to either edit it or put a XXX rating on it ... oops)

OMG, this is TOTALLY true, lol! ;D

[heredoncove]

I'm fine with writing about love and romance even though I seem to focus on the dysfunction of love a lot. I wouldn't say I'm confident about it because my anxiety level increases when I'm not sure I'm doing it write.

So far I've only written one sex scene so far - no wait two- and I glossed over the action both times. The second was a bit more detailed than the first but not to the level Lunar and Laura does them.

Maybe I'll get there one day.

[themctavishams]

Okay... I wasn't going to respond because I feel like.. idk i need to earn my wings or something lol. But hey... I'm a Romantic.. and I just couldn't pass up the chance to talk about this, because I seriously struggle with it every day.

Writing about love, romance and sex.. they're all very different, aren't they? Love can be between family members, it can be platonic between friends, it can be passionate between two polar opposites. Romance can be sensual, it can be flirty, it can be light, it can be dark. Sex is where it's hard to toe the line between the two genres of Romance and Erotica. Both are hugely popular... but two entirely different approaches.

I, personally, try to keep as much detail in my writing as I can without being vulgar. I think I've succeeded, but then again it all depends on the reader, too. Sometimes my sex scenes can take anywhere from twenty minutes to write, to several days of going back and tweaking it more, and re-reading, and changing it again. I think I am more confident about the finished product on my own than I am when I am forced to share it or post it. I get incredibly insecure when I post a love scene (especially with pictures! OMG that's so hard for me), and even reading the scene aloud to my husband makes me blush.

Isn't that horrible? I want to be a Romance novelist... and here I am blushing about the sex!!!

What I use for inspiration... is just years and years of reading Romance novels... like those of Samantha James and Cathy Maxwell. It's weird, because all I've ever read were historical romances, but I tend to write contemporary... :shrug:

Here is an example like dinuriel has provided; the first was written almost a year ago (approx.) for me, and is definitely more POV, also more idealized.

The room was beginning to spin in earnest now, and she felt dizzy with the desire she could feel thrumming all through her. She raised herself up on her elbows to watch as he entered her. He groaned deeply when he was entirely encompassed inside her; the sound sent her blood to boiling.

Their bodies met again and again, faster with every heartbeat. He drew her arms up beside her head, threading his fingers through hers as he levered himself over her. His pace slowed as he looked down at her. She let her head fall back, her neck arching sensually and he kissed her there as he moved slowly over her.

He rolled them so that she sat astride him; he lifted her, balanced her, brought her down again. She had never seen the world shatter before. She had never seen it rain in color. She had never felt her soul fly apart as it did just then, barely contained by her fevered skin binding it together…

But when he brought her down upon him again, all of these things happened at once.

For [character name], it was a night not easily forgotten.

So, definitely flowery, and almost like.. skies opening up, seas parting sort of scenario. But for this character, and her particular journey, this act of sex was really what opens her eyes to the fact that hey.. sex CAN be great. And she hadn't been given much of that before now.

Compared to one that was written about a week ago:

He whispered against the shell of her ear. “Mine.” His palms flattened against the carpet, pushing himself up so he could look at her. He pulled himself out slowly, paused, then pressed back in, thrusting. Pulled back out, pushed back in. Pulled out, pushed…

“Ohmigod, ohmigod,” she chanted over and over, her breath catching, her eyes glazed. One hand twisted ardently in his discarded shirt on the floor while the other braced and clawed at the back of the sofa. She gasped, tipping her head back. She came all around him then, her inner muscles contracting again and again in rhythmic ripples, pulling him deeper.

God, she was beautiful when she came. He remembered that from before; the absolute freedom and wonder she seemed to partake in it. With her cheeks flushed, her hair feathered around her, her nails biting into the upholstery… She was exquisite.

Lust – heavy, red and demanding – settled over him, and his breath left him in a rush. He levered himself at a better angle, abandoning the slow, seductive rhythm he’d been treating her to, and began to thrust and grind faster. She slid a leg up over his shoulder and his hand followed it down to her hips where he gripped her, digging the pads of his fingers into her sweet curves.

Moisture beaded across his forehead. “Yes…” he gasped, pulling out rapidly and thrusting against the quivering silk of her stomach. Wave after wave of lust and desire pulsed recklessly, ribboning and sliding between them.

This one was a lot grittier... a lot more detailed. It's harder for me to press submit than it is to write it though .. lol.

Anyways, tl;dr... I hope this was helpful, even a little!!

[thelunarfox]

Nov 23, 2010 23:05:20 GMT -5 @themctavishams said:

Okay... I wasn't going to respond because I feel like.. idk i need to earn my wings or something lol.

Earn your wings... *pervy snort*

Hell-- you read scenes like that aloud to your husband? Do you get any work done after that?

Those are both amazing in different ways. Thanks for adding your examples to the thread.

The second was a bit more detailed than the first but not to the level Lunar and Laura does them.

I always blame Laura for starting it, but if I keep doing that she might dig up the actual dates of our originally posted sex scenes, so I'll just politely blush here.

[themctavishams]

Nov 23, 2010 23:17:38 GMT -5 @thelunarfox said:

Nov 23, 2010 23:05:20 GMT -5 @themctavishams said:

Okay... I wasn't going to respond because I feel like.. idk i need to earn my wings or something lol.

Earn your wings... *pervy snort*

Hell-- you read scenes like that aloud to your husband? Do you get any work done after that?

Those are both amazing in different ways. Thanks for adding your examples to the thread.

HAH! Yes, I do actually read them to him... He hears everything before I post it. As to the work getting done... he's gotten better at separating when I'm serious and when I'm not But.. well, you know.. some of the best writing is stuff you never have to make up...

PS, thank you for not making me feel like a big pink pervy elephant lol I was scared to post that!!

[celebkiriedhel]

You may worry about being a big pink pervy elephant... But we are ALL Big Pink Pervy Elephants (oh well - I am) so you're among friends!

And your sex scenes - very nice.

[Stacy]

Okay, so John made me a new mix CD to listen to while I'm driving around at work. This one is named "Teh Epic Experience!" And yes, "teh" is on purpose.

So this song is the second song on the CD, and I was listening to it today and remembering the video. And the song and the video both make me think of this thread.

Trying to decide if I should link it or embed it....going with embedding.



Also I totally see the point of simselves and forum stories now! All day I was imagining a story with all of us where we set off across a burning desert in search of truth. And some pointy boots. And maybe a few snack crackers. And, of course, hilarity and hot men ensue.

[thelunarfox]

We probably should share our sim selves and throw them in a house together, lol.

I've actually been thinking about that and what would be the best way so that anyone can participate no matter TS2 or TS3. (Though, uhm, a sim of myself? LOL!)

[celebkiriedhel]

I already have a sims2 sims-self. But it's the idealised me. We're ok with that? (I have an idealised-ish Sims3 sims-self too).

[thelunarfox]

Hey, I'm okay with that! Does this mean you'll start the thread?