Does anybody know any good advice about writing sex scenes?

Few points of advice that work for me:

3. People should be anatomically correct and sexual positions physically possible. In cases such as these, research is your friend. (Or experience, but sometimes we can't experience what we're writing without certain sex-change operations.)

2. Unless the point is bad sex, your characters should be turned-on by each other. Shape of a wrist, turn of the head, noise in the back of the throat -- all those random, intimate things that make up sexual tension.

1. Make it visceral. Tactile. Smells, tastes, touches, sounds, the way things look.

When you've got all three of these, you should be able to write a sex scene that's hot without even being particularly explicit.

You awful, awful pushers. I seem to have myself a new fandom. I do not have time for this. And now I must find myself more Malfoy fic. I'm going to have to read Lust Over Pendle. I blame you all utterly. Especially you, FAy. Bastard.

Mwahahaha! t /smug

You're going to have to remind me about the hair thing that's bugging you - it may have gone right over my head. Hmm.

Re: Porny advice: Minotaur has lots of factual info on the, er, nitty gritty of Big Gay Lovin'. Not sure if that's what Dana had in mind, but it's always a good idea if you have any uncertainties about mechanics blah blah blah porncakes.

Re: writing the porn, though...hmm. I'm terrible terrible terrible at pwp - it's all about the emotions & state of mind & psychological goings on, rather than the bits rubbing against one another, or I'm not interested in writing it. Even if it reads as gratuitous, it has to be reasonable/feasible/logical to me. Um. If that makes any sense.

And I don't like sappy. I think tenderness & intimacy are better evoked through understatement/less-is-more type stuff, generally speaking. imho it's the little details that make something sexy - the breathless buildup where you're conscious of the other person's body even when they're on the other side of the room & you're making a point of not looking at them. Not being able to take your eyes off the nape of the neck of the stranger sitting in front of you on the bus. The warm, unchemical scent of somebody's skin. Being entranced by the improbable delicacy and flushed pinkness of someone's ear, which is exquisite and lickable and sticks out several degrees more than the bland ideals of Hollywood perfection suppose is desirable. I don't know - I fancy different people for different reasons and I guess what I find particularly sexy is seeing why character X finds character Y beautiful/ enigmatic/ irresistable. But then, I tend to write sex which is messy and angry and intimate without being sweet or meaningful - one night stand type sex.

considers

OK, I'm lying. My Smallville fiction is schmaltzy as you like, and I'm all over the OneTruePairing of Clark and Lex. Ignore me, for I talk shite.

Fay, I frequently go and re-read that bit you opened the Smallville fic thread with. There's something so delightful about Clark waking up all big-eyed happy with this neat new thing he's discovered.

beams

You do? Good lord. My ego may never be able to squeeze through the door again.

The fact that he and Lex become enemies (at least in the comics) just makes it all the more heartbreakingly wonderful.

The fact that he and Lex become enemies (at least in the comics) just makes it all the more heartbreakingly wonderful.

There we have it: the one-line explanation of why Clark/Lex owns my Rubensian ass.

I thought the preferred term for us was Reubensesque?

Huh. Reubensian. Reubensesque. Huh.

flummoxed.

Potato Potahto.

(Love the fact that I've gone with Rub as my typo, though. Go Team Freud.)

Or we could just be Rabelaisian, but I think there are side-effects to that I don't want to explore.

Just being artsy.

Doesn't Susie Bright have a "How to Write Dirty Stories" book out?