The Ins and Outs of Writing Sex

Face it, there's only so many ways to write about the physical act of fucking. If you want to keep it interesting, you need to take your erotic stories to another level. You need to get creative.

Writing a good sex scene is challenging. Too many writers feel they can sit down, whip up something steamy, and sell it to the first adult publication they find. This isn't the case. Writing a good sex story entails much more than stringing together a bunch of sex scenes. A good sex story needs to include all the basics of any good story. It must include character, plot, and setting if you want it to work.

Before I go any further, let's examine the age-old question concerning pornography and erotica. Is there a difference? The answer is yes, there is a difference. The difficulty is in defining that difference.

Some writers feel it's in the choice of words. There are writers who go to extremes to avoid using crude language. They use metaphors, symbolism, and flowery language, believing that these elements give sex a level of class. This approach, to me, is nauseating at best.

Other writers go the complete opposite direction. They write scenes that come off like gynecological examinations. Body parts slipping in and out of other body parts doesn't constitute a good erotic story.

I write raw. I don't pull punches with language, I don't dance around with the metaphors and symbols. Sex is sex: hot, sweaty, and passionate. It's action. That's the way I write it. There's nothing wrong with that. The presence of good hardcore sex isn't what ruins an erotic tale. It's the absence of other story elements.

And this brings us to character, plot, and setting. These elements are as essential to a good sex story as they are to any story. Without them, your story will be nothing more than a series of mechanical sexual descriptions.

First, populate your stories with real people. What I mean by that is, don't make all of the women in your stories perfect all-American blondes with big tits, don't make all your men muscle-bound studs with big cocks. That ain't real life. Some women are not skinny air-brushed bimbos, but they still have sex. Likewise, guys with little dicks have sex too. Use real people in your stories. Sure, you can use stereotypical characters, but use them sparingly. Real people have flaws.

Make your characters three dimensional. Give them emotions, hopes and dreams, fears, and lives outside of the sex act. There's nothing worse than a story full of characters who simply mate. Wild animals mate, and while human beings sometimes do that too, it's far more interesting to read about people who have more on their minds than humping twenty-four seven.

Plot is another factor. Make sure you have a cohesive storyline. One sex scene linked to another is nothing more than a series of sex scenes. That doesn't mean a story can't consist of only a sex scene. What goes on before or after that scene may not be part of the story. That's bound to happen now and then, but in cases like that, the sex scene itself should be well plotted and preferably contain a thread that holds the scene together.

Pay attention to setting. Be creative. Not all sex takes place in a bedroom. Vary the location of your sex scenes, and be sure to describe locations, not in great detail, but in enough detail to add life to the scene. It's much more arousing for the reader if they feel a part of the event. Another thing, when you can do it without forcing it, make use of the setting by featuring it in the sex act itself. Are there objects at the location that your characters can incorporate into the sex act? Does the setting itself affect the way your characters feel about what they are doing?

One final piece of advice I can't stress enough: individualize your sex scenes. Not all couples do everything every time. Sex doesn't always start with kissing, progress to oral sex (guy does girl, then girl does guy), and move on to intercourse. All women do not give head and all men do not go down on women. Not all women are so wet a man can slide in without some type of lubrication. Not all women swallow, not many men get hard again and again indefinitely, and not all lesbians are beautiful covergirl models.

It's simple. Treat your sex stories with the same respect you'd treat any story. Keep it believable, avoid stereotypes and cliches, and always aim to arouse.