Quote:
Originally Posted by ScalyFreak
There are far too many poorly written sex scenes in books today... and not enough of the very well written ones.
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Agreed... but that can be said, truly, about a lot of scene types... dialogue... action... suspense... war. A lot of writing is bad, but it is overlooked or ignored, or the fact that it isn't good is simply said and left there.
I think the real difference here is the stigma placed on sex in writing--and every other media--by those who are afraid of letting it out into the light. That stigma forces writers to second-guess their efforts, to avoid "going too far," upsetting readers (or critics) and unfairly branding them as undesirable. No other type of scene, except, perhaps, "torture-porn" has that stigma... the fact that "porn" is added to the word "torture" is a clear indicator of that.
Then, the writing, good or bad, is tarred with the "smut" brush almost immediately.
When I was working, I was a lot more worried about the stigma than whether or not I could write a good sex scene. In fact, I had to come to grips with the stigma first, deciding that I was not going to worry about it. Once I did that, I was able to write the scene with the same level of competence that I'd write any other scene.
Which begs the question: Do I write a good sex scene? As always, it's up to readers to decide that competence.