Tips For Writing Sex Scenes

Based on a very small sample of anecdotal evidence (and by evidence I mean gut feeling based on Chapter likes) gifs which give an idea of what is happening (i.e a brunette in doggy style) in the action of a pure smut chapter seem to get a more positive response than an introductory description of a character combined with an image.

Meaning, I get the impression that readers don't really like being told that the sexy brunette you've described in the first Chapter literally looks like Leah Gotti because you've posted a picture of her.

However 10 chapters in when same sexy brunette is having sex, posting a gif or image of Leah Gotti (or any other brunette) in the same position as described will get a far more positive response.

My guess is that I think early on an image can disrupt the imagination while later on during the sex scenes any additional relevant images of sex are helpful. I also suspect there's something primal about the rhythmic loop of a gif when it comes to sex/porn.

My take away has been to be more careful with images early in a story or introducing a character and be more free and easy with gifs later on during sex scenes. That said so far I've mainly been writing smut rather than anything more artisic (though I've been pretty pleased with how my more recent stuff has been going).

 

The problem is, chapter depth is a huge draw for many people, so just from a "gaming the system" perspective,
I find it helps to split chapters up. Plus, sex scenes allow for lots of easy, consequence-free branching in terms
of sex acts and positions...

 

Really? I've found it easier to just put in one chapter, though my own story is more story focused. I suppose your way might work if it's one of them stories that just focuses on smut.

 

I would avoid imagery in your chapters altogether. Your writing should speak for itself. There is a certain story style associated with frequent use of pictures, but in that case, the types and ways you use visuals is strongly dependent on how you want to communicate the story.

 

Personally I would take the view of not avoiding anything when it comes to creating art but use whatever is necessary/works to tell the story or elicit the feelings you want to elict.

Or to put it another way why have music in films? Why have comic books altogether?

I would agree that images in literature are actually often distracting or superfluous (and thus exceedingly rare these days) but then again there are examples of older classics with woodcut drawings interspaced which are often quite evocative.

 

There's nothing wrong with pictures in your stories... as long as they aren't a crutch. If you choose to use both, then the text and imagery should complement each other. Using either to hide flaws in the other won't actually work.

 

Any tips for writing sex scenes for a characters first time. Personally I feel like I have to write it and then tone it back some so it doesn't feel like the characters suddenly leveled up from virgin to a sex god of bedchambers. I also include some silly banter as the characters are trying to cut the tension.

 

First off, decide what the narrative purpose of the sex scene is. Is it just to be hot, or is it meant to introduce how far a character has to go in leveling up their sex game, or is it necessary to show that the prince was seduced by their hunky orc guard to explain why they ran away together, or what?

The decide tone. You've already decided sex is going to happen and why it needs to happen, but there are any manner of approaches as to how to depict it. Is it silly? Is it horrifying? Is it cringeworthy or confusing? There's a world of difference between a 30-year-old never-been-kissed princess throwing her virginity at a dragon's cock in a mad, desperate effort to conceive an heir and an 18-year-old prince that has spent months jerking it to his favorite OrkBoiPussy pillowbook and now it's the chance for him to live out his fantasy.

Then lean into the emotions as well as the physical sensations - this is all new to at least one of them. Are they doing it based on what they've heard and seen, or are they completely ignorant of sex? Is one of the participants more knowledgeable - if so, do they guide the other, or take advantage of their ignorance?

Finally, the aftermath. How did it go? How did it make them feel? Are they satisfied, amazed, addicted, horrified, disappointed, or just not sure (if so, better do it again!)?

 

If both are first timers, it can be shy, awkward, and not especially satisfying, leaving them confused what the big deal is about, or else backing it up a bit, to find out what each has learned to do for theirself. That kind of scene is almost more a collusion to crack a code or solve a puzzle, than a straightforward sex scene, and is useful for establishing other characteristics, traits, et cetera as the reader sees how they learn.

A more experienced partner coaching a virgin can be hot, though, too, with the partner taking the time to discover what the neophyte responds to or enjoys, since they don't know yet and can't really initiate. Again, this puts character on display. What is the dynamic? Is there a trust, there? Or does it start with reservations, but trust is established?

 

This is really helpful, thanks!

 

I think some sex scenes tend to survive cutting into chapters better than others, but I think it can be fun to do that if it's just foreplay before the main event. All the teasing, prodding and excitement slowly building up, so reader gets excited along with the characters. It can be fun to see brat acting all aloof and resistant but you just know they are going to end up getting pounded into the floor.

Only thing I hate are" two sentence sex scenes".

• No build up
• No foreplay
• No fun action to follow along
• Too short to even get you aroused
• There is no fun wind-down afterwards, even no "and then they railed each other for the rest of the night", fade to black kinda thing.

 

One more piece of advice: Don't get lost in the sauce. Keep sex scenes a reasonable length.

I have run into the problem that my scenes are way too long (going for up to four or five long-ish chapters),
which are difficult to finish in one go and which end up feeling like the fucking Namek-arc to write.
I haven't tried this before, but maybe it'd be a good idea to write the start, write the end (or ends) and then
fill out the middle in such a way that you could reasonably hit publish at any point

 

@Friedman Since we have a Writing Tips & Advice subforum now, maybe this thread would be better there?

 

Thank you for the suggestion! I've moved the thread to the new forum.

 

I generally don't like musicals because I don't like when they keep singing for no damn reason. Then again, there are some great musicals where the music enhances the story. (Often bad musicals are musicals where the story was created just to give the singers and dancers a chance to show off).

The same can be said for pictures in stories. I don't care for stories where they just throw a bunch of pictures in for no damn reason. But if the pictures enhance the story, that is wunderbar.

 

I would say that the sex scene itself should be just one chapter but we can break up the lead up to the sex scene into several chapters or save the follow up from the sex scene for a separate chapter.

Part of why I checked out this discussion though is because I often have trouble writing THE sex scene itself. I can easily write all the lead up to the sex and I can easily write the follow up after the sex but the sex scene itself often becomes "insert tab A into slot B and repeat several times." No, I'm not that mechanical but it is hard to think of sex as not mechanical when most porn is that mechanical.

 

It generally helps to add an emotional dimension to it - not just what tab is being inserted into what slot and how, but the why of it, the who of it. Sex can be fun, but there's a difference between make-up sex after a bad fight and banging a stranger you picked up in a bar after a bad fight, even if mechanically they're much the same. The enthusiasm, the sensations, should ideally blend together and shade one another.

Which can be tricky to do.

The best advice I can give is to find sex scenes you like and try and figure out how and why they work. Write, experiment, practice.

 

That's part of the problem. I can't find any sex scenes I like. They all get too mechanical.

 

Can you recommend some good sex scenes so I can read some examples of what my writing should be like?

 

That's going to be fairly subjective; personally, I tend to need a lot of narrative build-up and one or two of my favorite kinks - and what I find sexy you might find overly mechanical. One of my more popular sex scene chapters, for example, is buried eight chapters deep in a story and without that plot driving it might not do anything for you.

So it's really about trying to find something you think is sexy, not necessarily what I think is a good example of sex writing. You need to find your own voice.