- Joined
- Feb 2, 2013
- Messages
- 96
- Reaction score
- 9
- Location
- New England, USA
- Website
- www.sophiebolsen.com
My sister and I have been "discussing" [arguing] about sex scenes in non-erotica, and I was wondering where others stand on this. Though I've written short erotic fiction, my "real" focus is contemporary lit and my sister thinks a couple of my sex scenes are too graphic. (Ironic, since she writes actual erotica!) In her opinion, including erotic interludes in non-erotic fiction "changes your intended audience", and is "jarring" (at least that one wasn't about one of mine!)
Needless to say... I disagree.
While I agree that the scene has to "fit" tone, theme, story, and voice, I don't think writing detailed sex scenes automatically takes a book out of any particular category. I agree with Stacia Kane that you can't suddenly throw a bunch of anatomical terms in there without ever having mentioned sex before, but I think that when the sex is a relevant part of the MC's story, suddenly cutting to soft-focus flowers is cheating. Then I would have to come back and TELL the reader why the interlude had an impact on the MC...
To me there's a happy middle ground possible between alluding to sex and describing every drop of body fluid with terms I'd use at work (I'm a nurse).
If the story were more focused on the sex, and it took longer to work those issues out, I'd be happy to change the category, but I don't think two clearly described sex scenes, consistent in tone and language with the rest of the book, are "jarring", unless you pick up the book thinking I was writing about convent life!
I'm posting here instead of under novels, etcetera, because I think it's a subject that writers of erotica have spent more time considering.
Needless to say... I disagree.
While I agree that the scene has to "fit" tone, theme, story, and voice, I don't think writing detailed sex scenes automatically takes a book out of any particular category. I agree with Stacia Kane that you can't suddenly throw a bunch of anatomical terms in there without ever having mentioned sex before, but I think that when the sex is a relevant part of the MC's story, suddenly cutting to soft-focus flowers is cheating. Then I would have to come back and TELL the reader why the interlude had an impact on the MC...
To me there's a happy middle ground possible between alluding to sex and describing every drop of body fluid with terms I'd use at work (I'm a nurse).
If the story were more focused on the sex, and it took longer to work those issues out, I'd be happy to change the category, but I don't think two clearly described sex scenes, consistent in tone and language with the rest of the book, are "jarring", unless you pick up the book thinking I was writing about convent life!
I'm posting here instead of under novels, etcetera, because I think it's a subject that writers of erotica have spent more time considering.