By Suzanne Carré

So far in the construction of a sex scene, I have looked at defining the characters and choosing a narrative style, either first or third person. Now you have to decide who will tell the love story. Will your erotic tale be from a male or female point of view? Will you have both male and female narrators, and how do you keep them distinct?

He said, She said

It doesn’t matter if the erotic affair is male-female, female-female, or male-male, or a mixture of these, the basic rules apply, only the tone and style of sex changes. It is important to remember who is speaking, so the details are true to both the character, and the tone reflective of their gender.

Bad Boys

The male tone tends to be direct, and very matter of fact. I believe this is probably a result of men not having social approval to express their feelings, especially for an emotional subject like sex. In the first person voice, the narration from the male point of view tends to concentrate on immediate senses, specifics of body image, and sensual gratification. Details important to the man are recognizably different to the woman. If you make your male character highly observant, it’s probably best to focus on non-romantic detail (to distinguish him from a female lover).

The frankness assumed “male” in a writing style doesn’t discount the effective use of memories and fantasies. Men can write, and historically have written, in a sensuous style, but when they do, it’s often from the female point of view to make the tone believable.

Good Girls

From the female point of view, the tone is more personal, not only because women have long had the sanction by society to say how they feel, but women practice the art of discussing their feelings in general conversation. Women concentrate on their emotions. In the physical sense, it’s important how they look, where dress and accessories are prime fixes to any problem in love. Particularly important to women is the romance of atmosphere, like candle-light, and subtle details of scented oils, and flowers. Women tends to see things often disregarded by men, while missing items regarded important by men.

These gender differences help in separating lovers on a page. A stylistic device to determine gender is the use of short sentences for the male point of view contrasting directly with longer, more descriptive feminine phrases.

In my novel, I use the first person feminine viewpoint and have my hero in dialogue. This gives two direct voices without the complications of sections. Because my hero is a vampire, his tone is intentionally different from a man, but his attitude to sex sets him apart from all the other characters. In their conversations of love and sex, my main characters discuss what sex is, both human and vampire. With my heroine, I am able to explore sex from a very detailed and personal point of view, but also her liberation from sex, in the vampire style, until she prepares for her transition into the preternatural domain.

Working the scene

The first sex scene is always the most difficult because you have two newly created characters, and by necessity of the romance, you have thrown them in a bed together. If writing the physical descriptions proves a daunting task, then describe the whole process by the feelings the experience evokes. The woman’s point of view is the more sensuous and thus the easiest.

It doesn’t matter if this scene will be the first in the book, or one of the many pleasure romps you plan for your lovers, but the described emotions connect the two characters in a behavior reserved only for each other. The relationship established in the primary lovemaking scene remains consistent, no matter how their love develops, because in a romance their affection defines their love affair.

Second and later sex scenes

Now you have the sex scene, how does it work with other sex scenes and the rest of the story? Importantly, how do you keep the sex different in each scene to prevent repetition?

  • Don’t do everything humanly possible in the first sex scene, otherwise the next sex scene has to get unbelievably more daring, racy, involving better positions, and super-human pleasure. This is doomed to fail because it leans to the ridiculous rather than the sublime.
  • Break the sex up. There are no rules stating a scene must be continuous, and a sex scene is no different. A love scene goes further if broken into a few parts and these are dealt with separately because of the similar details they involve, or the point of view (his or hers or even both).
  • A sex scene doesn’t have to represent what is happening “now” in the story. The emotions involved with sex can be retold or evoked by memories. The actual sex described can also occur in a dream or a fantasy played out in the mind of a character, so it’s not real now and may not even take place.
  • Stay true to the character’s “person,” as you defined them. If they aren’t both needy, because one starts cautious, then balancing the fire of their affections requires certain physical interactions. This will cue what sex they share and under what conditions. Keep the sex meaningful to the lovers and their love affair.
  • Decide on how the sexual experience makes your characters feel about each other. Follow this with an appropriate meeting for another sex encounter, either for his or her sake, or where both are desirous. This process continues until you resolve the plot.
  • Maintain the heat of the romance. Sex, if isolated, looks like it was artificially placed into the story. For erotica, the sex is integral to the story, that is the affair lacks definition without it. By keeping the lovers in situations where the next time they see each other drives them, then the sexual ideas (and planning of future sex) extends beyond the bedroom. This not only creates continuity, but means the sex doesn’t stop, it just changes gear.
  • Remember sex is a funny word. If you ask a group of friends to smile for the camera, saying “sex” will light up their faces more effectively than saying “cheese.” Don’t forget to keep a certain sense of humor, when describing sex (especially in first person point of view), so your audience doesn’t laugh at you but with you.

Placement in the story

I found it easier to construct most of the sex scenes first and then fill in the details of the story later. I had the plot outline, in that I worked a plan for what my characters do, but their physical relationship defined their motive to be together. For the first part involving a “private” love affair, the sex scenes then reflected the way they realized their physical love, and the recollections and feelings of my heroine welded the scenes together.

But my erotic romance involves vampires, not only the hero of my story, but also a collective of female vampires who represent the greater threat to the love affair. The sex scenes start recognizable but quickly change to vampire behavior. My vampires are sexual compatible with humans, but not identical, so their anatomy dictates what sex they prefer.

I have the advantage of three types of sex—human, vampire, and sets of instruction where the vampires teach my main character what sex really means. Some sex is physically described in detail, especially the vampire sex, because it is so very different to our own. By linking sexual details with the thoughts and feelings of my heroine, dialogue discussing sex, and a mixture of reflections and erotic dreams, there are few parts of the novel containing no sex.

But it is not just the techniques involved with constructing erotica, there are the reasons for writing sex. Next time, I want to examine the why we write about sex and what this means for the sexy novel.

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