The Truth about Why I don't Often Write PWP

[lls_mutant]

The truth? The honest-to-God truth?

I suck at it.

Okay, so yeah, I also feel guilty and especially knowing I have some non-HP friends now watching my list it makes me feel a little odd, but the truth is I suck at writing sex scenes. This is one of those times when the expository style I tend towards is BAD, and I really am better off leaving everything implied. Oh, sure, it works if I have something to say during a scene- if it's really part of the plot. But even that takes me a lot more effort than getting Remus and Regulus out of the Soviet Union or putting Sirius and James into a bar fight. I just don't enjoy writing this sort of scene for the most part, even though there are times when it is necessary because it's somehow pivotal to the plot (like now).

Sex scenes suck. :P

Comments

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

Sex scenes suck

Sex scenes are one of the few occasions where sucking is good though, right? ;D

Writing sex is just as difficult as writing any other kind of fic (I hate the implication in some parts of fandom that writing, say, angst is harder and therefore 'better' than sex or comedy), it's just it's own type of hard. No-one can be good at everything. Much as I've always tried to think of myself as a porny writer, I'm not so good at the actual sex (build up? Yes. Foreplay? Delight. But when it comes time to stop dillydallying and actually get to it, I always falter. Pah.)

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

Hee. Our icons sort of match.

Writing comedy is hard. I give major props to any fic writer who can make me laugh.

In fact, what I like best of the HP series is the comic element. That's Rowling's forte.

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

In fact, what I like best of the HP series is the comic element. That's Rowling's forte.

Oh, I agree. The Twins alone make the entire series worth reading. ("Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through," was probably the first line that got me really hooked.)

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

For me it was the troll bogeys in PS/SS. I was used to Susan Cooper's and C.S. Lewis's angelic children, and here were Harry and Ron making snot jokes. Fabulous.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

totally agree. At times, it can be harder. After all, there's only so many ways you can write it, y'know? Angst and comedy, it's easier to come up with new situations. Sex... it gets old after a while. (To write about, anyway.)

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

*nodnod*

I am very much a fan of the implied sex scene, or even the non-explicit sex scene, e.g. During sex, Remus thought...yadda yadda. I just don't have much fun writing them, not because they're hard but because...most of the time, I'm just not interested. I'd rather focus on the dialogue and the emotions and what it all means, rather than whose penis is in whose mouth or whatever.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I don't often write them for that reason. Plus, I write long, plotty stuff. Frankly, sex scenes take the reader out of the story unless something important is happening during the scene.

That's actually what's killing me here. The scene HAS to be explicit enough because there's something important going on in the sex itself. That doesn't happen often, but when it does, you sort of have to bite the bullet, I guess!

[medicinal-mirth.livejournal.com]

When I really think about the things people do during sex, it's all kinda ridiculous. Oh so much fun, too! But ridiculous. Then to try and write about it without making it sound ridiculous? Nearly impossible, and that's what makes it hard for me to write. I do have a bit of a fondness for sex-scenes-gone-wrong, with awkwardness and all of that, because it's a lot more realistic.

I do like PWPs on occasion, but it's much better if there's some emotional content that leads up to the sex, something that makes me understand the characters. But then does it count as a PWP?

Eh, I'm confusing myself. Nevermind.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Heh- that's exactly it. That's also why I can't write dirty talk too well. It sounds great spoken, but written down? It just sounds stupid.

And no- I've seen sex stories that don't count as PWP because yeah, the story isn't about the sex, it's about the dynamics that are coming through because of the sex. Sex IS a part of life, and a complicated one, and sometimes the stories reflect that.

And sometimes they don't :)

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes, they do. :-P

But you know, implied sex is just as brilliant for 99.9% of all fanfic needs. I'd rather see a good writer back away from writing graphic sex scenes if she's uncomfortable with them, because sex is one of those areas where if the writer is uncomfortable writing it, it shows.

I mean, it took me a year to get over my reluctance at writing certain words in sex scenes. I wonder what that says about me now I can use those words with near-impunity. *g*

(And oh I hear you about the non-HP friends reading the list. That's why my non-fandom friends are over at my "real life" LJ. That way they don't have to read my fandom stuff. If it really bothers you, you can set up specific filters.)

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I've been tempted to set up a "real life" journal, but this one seems to veer all over the place, so... hey. It works. I cut, anyway.

I normally do go the implied sex route. It's just that maybe 1 out of 20 sex scenes do have something important to the plot, and in this case, it does. Thus the reason I'm writing it :)

[snorkackcatcher]

Well, I don't even try to write them, so you're doing better than me. :) Seriously, most writers (and I include published authors in that, not just fanfic writers) seem to suck at writing them. It's possibly made worse because a lot of people seem to write sex scenes that are just bolted on to the story for the sake of having a sex scene there, rather than because they develop naturally from the way the story's going. When they do develop like that, it can be very effective, but the judicious fade is often an excellent idea!

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I'm very fond of the judicious fade, or the vague implication of what's going on. In my favorite of all my sex scenes I've written, it's pretty clear EXACTLY what's going on, but the sex takes up less than a paragraph or so. But the dynamics of that scene were terribly important.

[piyer.livejournal.com]

Seriously, most writers (and I include published authors in that, not just fanfic writers) seem to suck at writing them.

That's because most serious writers are so busy honing their craft that they do not have a sex life, and what sex life they have had in the past is so far back in time that they cannot remember it well enough to even fake a sex scene in their current writings.