![[Logo]](/images/101ReasonsLogo.png "101 Reasons to Stop Writing")
I’m about to tell you a secret so shocking, it might blow your mind. Yes, cranial fellation is a possibility. Are you ready?
All sex scenes are gratuitous.
There used to be something of a point to sex scenes in novels. Back in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The average semi-literate shopkeeper, who learned everything he knew about sexuality from bawdy limericks, and could count his sexual conquests by the number of different genital rashes that appeared in a calendar month, loved to read racy novels written in French and printed on parchment soaked in vinegar to rinse off the ink from Napoleon: I’ll Be Back. It was exciting, back then, to read about having sex on sheets, and to indulge the fantasy of raping the scullery maid without the “comeuppance” of being castrated by her scythe-wielding boyfriend.
By the 20th Century, most people had at least heard of sex, and fictional portrayals began to move on to exotic locales and positions, and introduced the revolutionary concept of having extramarital intercourse without a slow descent into Hell afterwards. In the last quarter-century, the average teenager’s sexual experiences were beginning to outstrip the inventive capacity of wallflower future authors who were in the library salivating over the one dog-eared copy of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Capricorn when their classmates were exploring the seductive powers of pre-mixed vodka and orange.
Now, of course, anyone with Internet access can have any sexual question answered, and any fetish satiated, in 0.13 seconds. So, the only sexual frontier left for fiction to explore is what it might be like if Galadriel, Lois Lane and Ally McBeal gang-banged Professor Snape and the fat guy from Lost.
Every sex scene is gratuitous.
For every sexual sequence in a novel that imparts some insight into the characters, let alone the human condition, there are thousands which exist solely because the author got to page 180 and realised the main characters hadn’t fscked yet. Almost all of them could be edited down to “And then they did it,” without losing anything original.
I’m all for sex in novels, and on novels. I’m being prudent here, not prudish. If I wanted to get an erection on the bus ride to work, I’d bring my PSP and a 1 gig memory card loaded with eroticism of a more visual nature.
Like every other page of your crappy book, the sex scenes should tell me something about the characters that I couldn’t figure out from “And then they did it.”
If not, stop writing. Or at least just admit that you’re writing porn.
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Heh. So, so guilty here. I was near the end of my NaNo, and needed word count. So…sex scene.
In my defense, it does expand your understanding of the characters, and takes the plot in an exciting new direction…
OK. I’ll stop writing now.
And thus, by extension, the entire romance novel industry is useless and gratuitous.
Better ask Mrs. 101Reasons if she agrees with that assessment….
Oh, I know Mrs 101 Reasons. I’m willing to bet she agrees, and uses ruder words to do so
Mrs 101 Reasons rocks. she should have her own blog so you can hear what the Reasons family sounds like when they have the gloves off
Mike, when Ms. 101 Reasons read your comment, her response was “I’d rather slit my wrists for pleasure than read romance.” She can also tell you what actual case any Law & Order episode is based on, within five minutes.
What’s even scarier is the combination of bad sex and bad science fiction, apparently with the idea that the book will snag the dweebs who alternate between masturbating over the latest Victoria’s Secret catalog and the latest CompUSA flyer. I can think of several “hard SF” writers who are notorious for throwing in really bad sex scenes along with their really bad concepts, presumably with the hope of “If I add a couple of extra extraneous and unnecessary humping scenes, people might be willing to slog through the technobabble and finish the damn thing.”
Sex is a motif through which to depict character, but it is no more than a motif — that is, a device that’s occasionally thematically or characterologically useful. Since the whole point of fiction is to evoke emotion, a fictional sex act had better have some other point than lust. If not, it reduces the work it “adorns” to porn.
The most depressing thing about the use of sex in contemporary fiction is the frequency with which it’s deployed to cover up what would otherwise be all too evident: that the author has nothing to say.
Sex has to be done well, or not done at all. However, I disagree with you on this: not everyone who wants to get horny likes to look at “graphic” erotica/porn. As long as you know to what anatomical parts of your audience you’re pandering to, and as long as you’re cool with that, sex is fine
Everything I learned about sex I learned from Pubrty Blues. And doing It.
I couldn’t agree more. Too much gratuitous sex, as you put it. Same old same old.
For those who need an example of how sex can be both gratuitous and crucial to a story, read anything written by Anne Rice under a name other than Anne Rice. Exit to Eden, for example, uses sex to tell quite a bit about the characters, although some sex scenes are there just for the fun of it.
For those who need an example of a romance story that moves along just fine without any sex scenes, pick up an old Barbara Cartland novel. Characters kiss, there’s a gap in type, and they’re getting dressed. You know they did it, but you don’t have to wade through the details to get on with the story.
Thanks, Sean, for pointing out that there are actually right and wrong ways to include sex in a story.
What’s so bad about writing porn?
hahaha Petronius I’m right there with you. Some people like erotica, some people like romance. And shockingly we aren’t all illiterate morons who can barely hold a pencil without twitching. Romance is like the redheaded stepchild of the publishing industry, but a lot of women are secretly reading it. Most of them probably of above average intelligence. Shudder, gasp. I don’t think “not reading romance” is the litmus test of your quality as a person, good breeding, intellect, or ability to function in society. Same goes for erotica. Lots of book snobs out there. For everyone who hates Romance, there’s someone who thinks horror or ANY commercial fiction is the lamest of the lame. And who cares? Its far lamer to pick your preferences based on what you think makes you look smart than to follow what you genuinely like. If someone genuinely hates romance, fine. But it’s not a banner of respectability, it’s just an indication of personal preference.