Lilly slipped sensuously out of her long-johns...
Every now and then writers should branch outside of their comfort zone. Work on the areas we're weak in. My stories all contain some humour, a dog and are usually aimed at the kids - YA market. Last year during NaNoWriMo, I wrote the first draft of DIGGING UP DEATH, a paranormal mystery. I surprised myself when my protagonist, being in her early 20s, jumped into bed with a hottie from her dinosaur dig site (who may or may not turn out to be a murderer). Woah. I don't write sex... do I?
I don't know if I do or not. This story might get scaled back to YA level in the edits. What I do know is I don't write romance well, which affects my ability to write passion, which dictates how well I could write a sex scene.
When I saw the ACT Writers group was hosting a workshop called 'Turn up the heat' - I knew I had to take the opportunity to try it out.
Well, you think you know things.... The workshop leader, Nicole Murphy opened my eyes to some important elements and techniques of writing about getting hot and sweaty.
One key piece of advice applies to all types of writing - READ lots of the style of writing you want to write. Find great examples to imitate and find woeful ones to learn from someone else's mistakes (I made quite a few mistakes you could learn from in my writing exercises today, e.g. 'pungent' not a great word for exploring the scent sense in lurve making).
Nicole Murphy also tells us to consider the emotional intensity in any sex scene - how much do your characters have invested in this, does that show (to the reader, if not to the other character)?
There was lots more advice and exercises (which I am hiding well under a stack of literary books so my kids don't find them, partly because they're raunchy, but mostly because they're BAD). If you want some reading to give you some saucy examples, check out Nicole Murphy's paranormal romance novel:
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