The Sex Scene: Build It And They Will...Come?

[Jude Hardin]

How do you guys feel about sex scenes in crime fiction? Honestly, I avoid them because, well, I don't feel I'm very good at them. Most of the sex scenes I come across in published books aren't very good either, IMHO.

Are there any authors out there who write good ones? Is there any such thing as a good one?

Let's see examples!

[I. J. Parker]

All right. To take this seriously: I write sex scenes. I read sex scenes. These days I read them critically. (Not so much fun). I also read action scenes critically. I've become convinced that men and women write sex differently. Male authors like their female characters to be accommodating and flattering to the male protagonist's ego. Female authors like to show the male as a sensitive, considerate, and very grateful partner. Occasionally, the tough female protagonist comes across as a "user" who has to prove that she is still feminine enough to attract men.
My guess is that a lot of that sort of thing is influenced by the author's view of how things should be. (Hence the heavy emphasis on romantic foreplay in women's fiction).

But not all sex scenes are that way, and in any case it is good to stay in one's chosen POV. Some sex scenes are there because plot, characterization, or theme necessitates them.

I should add that one of the best reviewers of ISLAND OF EXILES was mildly disturbed by the fact that the married protagonist had an affair while away from his wife. Of course, in his world, that sort of thing was not only accepted but routine. So sometimes the historical context may also prompt a sex scene.

[John McFetridge]

Yes, often the sex scenes are conspicuous by their absence. Same thing with things like drug use. For some reason vioence and torture have become mainstream. Oh well.

For me, for the characters I write about, sex is an important part of their lives and therefore the stories. It has led to the point that my wife describes my books as, "Sex and violence and filthy language." At a reading someone said, "could be more sex," so now there's even more.

I tell myself the sex scenes always reveal more abaouth the characters - how selfish they are or how confident - and this is inportant, but really, I just like it.

[Jude Hardin]

Sex and violence and filthy language.

I think you should negotiate for larger advances, John!

;)

[John McFetridge]

Ha ha. Let's wait and see. July 21st, two books come out in the US. I'm a little... apprehensive.

[Jude Hardin]

Good points, I.J.

I wrote a sex scene from a female character's POV once. Not easy at all. I guess the most famous case of a man writing from a woman's perspective is the last chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses. Not a sex scene per se, but Molly does mention using a banana. I've always wondered: Do women really have those kinds of feelings toward fruits and vegetables? ;)

[Jessica]

I know I don't!

[Donna Moore]

"Female authors like to show the male as a sensitive, considerate, and very grateful partner. ...
My guess is that a lot of that sort of thing is influenced by the author's view of how things should be. (Hence the heavy emphasis on romantic foreplay in women's fiction)."

Well, as a female reader, I would prefer to read the male version. I guess it's why I don't like romance novels. I prefer my sex sweaty and down to earth :o)

And I agree with Eric further down in this thread. I'd rather have the sex than the food descriptions. But all these things only work if it fits with the book. I don't like gratuitous ANYTHING - sex, food,embroidery...

[Eric Stone]

I would have to agree with not liking gratuitous. On the other hand, I have a fairly liberal concept of what is, and isn't, gratuitous. I don't, for instance, think that every element in a book needs to push the plot forward. Especially in a series book, where you need to take into consideration the coming episodes, characater development is essential, even when it doesn't have anything in particular to do with the plot of that individual book.

Then again, the "hero" in my books is an expatriate American male in Asia, and from my own and others' experience as such, sex figures significantly into the milieu I am writing about.

Not to mention my longstanding ambition to write a highly regarded "literary" one-hander. Moby Dick with hot steamy sex scenes.

[Eric Stone]

A good, explicit, honest sex scene can certainly tell you as much about a character as all those lavish descriptions of meals that we get. No one ever seems to make a fuss if the action stops in a book so that a character can cook dinner and we practically get a recipe. Why is sex any less important than that? A character's reaction to sex, how it makes them feel, even just the plain old details of how they do it and what their relationship is to the person they're doing it with, can tell you a lot about a character. And, character development is a significant part of plot development - especially in a series. I like writing explicit sex scenes. They are part of making my readers better understand - intimately understand, so to speak - my characters.

[Patricia Abbott]

It's often getting there that's the most fun. I mean, let's face it, the actual act is pretty well-known to most adults and variation sometimes prove to be off-putting, clunky or hysterical. But what brings two people to the bed, the anticipation and what they take away from it can be pretty thrilling, revealing and sexy.

[Naomi Johnson]

Once upon a youth full of hormones I read romance books almost exclusively for the sex scenes. Now in the twilight of my years, I need story and characters and skilled writing. It's rare that I find an author who can combine all three of those things but when I do, the sex won't bother me whether it's there or it isn't. If I don't see some of those things, all the sex in the world won't keep me reading.

[Lisa Logan]

Hmm, there haven't been a whole ton of women in on this...go figure. ;)

I think sex scenes are absolutely ESSENTIAL...that is, if they're essential. They aren't, in a great many crime books. Still, if things are headed "that way" in a particular story, sex scenes can serve a very unique and, well, intimate tool for examing a character's personality, motives, and feelings, as well as yes, a good old plot device as well.

All of my full length work *to date* involves sex to some degree, including my murder mysteries. This wasn't deliberate to exploit the "sex sells" angle; it's just something that happens in the course of telling my character's stories. Granted, my background in romance/red hot writing and editing probably has something to do with this, as well as not being skittish about writing these scenes at all levels of heat. Still, it took practice to do so effectively, just as it does to craft a good suspense or "climactic" scene. I took workshops and read books and articles and, well, wrote a lot of sex scenes, some quite forgettable.

Is that learning curve necessary for a crime author who may only rarely see a need to explore bedroom gymnastics? Perhaps not. But neither would it hurt to expand horizons. Even the dreaded poetry class I was dead set against taking wound up improving my prose more than I could have ever guessed. So it doesn't hurt to gain the skill, because you never know what your next protag will get themselves into!