Posted: Oct 25, 07 3:12pm
To name the body parts, or euphemize them? If part of a larger piece how to synch the sex with the surrounding content? How graphic - like an instructional manual or more suggestive? How much to leave unwritten for the reader's imagination to supply? Employ sounds, smells, tactile qualities - or rely only on what can be seen?
Writing sex is kind of like having sex - we (the writer) know what we know, we know what we like and so find that easiest to portray. But how to make a sex scene that compels the reader? Our reader... an unknown person with his or her own tastes, complexities, preferences, peccadilloes.
For reasons I won't elaborate on here I've written more than my fair share of sex. In most cases the scenes were very graphic and not part of a larger context (novel, short story, essay). They succeeded or didn't on their own. Although the passages were highly explicit my approach was always to use inventive, imaginative language rather than rely on worn cliches, to focus on sensual detail, to be finite in my details, to try and engage all of the reader's senses - taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing.
Have you written sex?
