Let's Talk About Sex

Show of hands, who likes to bone? Bang? Go heels to Jesus? Intercourse? Everyone does. If you haven't raised your hand, you're either embarrassed to be reading this in a room full of people or you, yourself, are full of shit. Sex so thoroughly dominates our culture that I have, in the past, taken bets to see if someone could give me any aspect of society I couldn't resolve to sex. That isn't a bad thing. Biologically, we're programmed for sex. Tons of other things too, sure, but in a society where we no longer have to worry about hunting for food or building shelter or finding a watering hole where lions don't hang out, the only basic need that isn't, in essence, provided for us from the womb is the need to reproduce.

So sex is this natural thing, and its fantastic. Understandably there are people who refrain from the actual act for various reasons from religion to trauma, but sex has still impacted their lives in such a profound way that they abstain from it. I feel that novels are like that.

See, movies include sex. They, in fact, don't even usually make that big of a deal about it anymore. Paintings have depicted sexual acts for, oh, about a million years (citation needed). Poems can range from the unbelievably passionate to the unbelievably debaucherous (and that's just Walt Whitman). Hell, sculptures of people fucking have existed for centuries. So where's all the sex in novels? If they can film a sex scene for professional wrestling, why can't we have a little?

I know, Romance novels include tons of sex. And I've even seen the occasional thriller with a sex scene. You know who doesn't? Fantasy. Science fiction. Honestly, of all the books I've ever read, I recall two sex scenes (and both were very well done) in all of the annals of fantasy history. Both in the last fifteen years. The first was in Stephen King's Dark Tower series (there are actually a few clips in the entire series, but the scene that stands out is the Gunslinger giving it to a demon) and the second was in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.

I make no secret of my affinity for sex, both in life and in art. So my fiction tends to include quite a bit of it, but the difference between a well-written scene and a poorly written scene is the difference between tasteful nude photography and pictures of a girl getting gangbanged by a soccer team. Here's an example of sex:

The sprawling, four-posted bed boasted a canopy of black that gave it a sensuously dark appeal and the cherrywood furnishings were further testament to her richness of taste. The double doors clicked shut behind him and he watched as Kiena shrugged from her shoulders. The gown tumbled down the length of her body slowly, reluctantly leaving her skin and revealing the woman beneath. She turned her head, glancing over her shoulder at him and he reacted. He lunged for her like a caged thing, hungry with passion. His arms encircled her waist, turning her toward him and lifting her at the same time. His lips found hers and though the coiled tension in his body was sufficient to crush her in his grasp, his touch was gentle. His skin felt afire and the dull ache that had accompanied him through the long months of separation became a searing, unbearable need. She fumbled with his shirt and finally gave in and tore it off him. She cast the ruined cloth away and raked her fingernails down his broad chest. In the carnage his boots found their way free of his feet and he hardly heard them fall heavily to the floor while she worked on the rest of him.

She wrapped one hand, like hot silk, around him and tugged. She guided him toward her and he threw back his head when she enveloped him. They tensed together, soundless cries rising from their lips when he penetrated her. Hyleth toppled forward, bearing his lover down with him and they crashed onto the bed like two celestial dancers falling to earth. She panted, crying out his name as her fingers wound in his hair. He arched his back, the fine toned muscles conducting their own intricate dance beneath the thick cover of his flesh. Hyleth drove himself into her with an urgency like nothing he had felt before and she raised her hips to meet him. Snared, his eyes rolled back into his head for a moment and he was nearly overcome. The knight mastered himself and looked down into her fiery blue eyes. He brought his mouth to hers, silencing her outcries of pleasure with a single, gentle kiss. She shuddered and rode the violent, ecstatic wave of her climax. Kiena bit down on his lower lip, and Hyleth relinquished the last shred of control he had thus far maintained. His body tensed and relaxed spasmodically and he collapsed half beside her and half atop her.

This is a rough scene, from an early chapter of For Glory, but the point I want to make is that nowhere does this become what I'd call explicit. In fact, the word penis doesn't even appear (much less things like dong or spunk cannon). It remains descriptive without being gratuitous. On those merits alone, perhaps it shouldn't be included in a novel. Obviously superfluous words and scenes are things to be avoided. However, I think it does serve a purpose, which is why I'm inclined to leave it in the narration. This is a very descriptive, very physical way to show the reader that these two characters have feelings for one another. In this case, those feelings are translated through raw lust, and the scene needs some work to actually convey the emotion underneath, but it does exist.

Too often we're told two characters are attracted to one another. Or that they're in love. I want to see that for myself, I want my readers to see that for themselves. Dialogue is great, internal monologue is great. Action is better. Combining those three things, that is how a writer effectively conveys emotion.

Obviously, sex scenes aren't mandatory and they aren't a substitute for good storytelling. They are a tool, like anything else. There is absolutely a line between effective use and over saturation.  In fiction, they should be used sparingly but, if it fits in the context of the story, they should be used. That is up to your discretion as a writer. I'm just here to encourage. 

I've included two actual scenes in this novel, two scenes in hundreds of thousands of words. I've alluded to others, using the same tricks that fantasy writers have been using for decades, but I included two scenes written in all their glory. Both of them include different characters, different environments, and different circumstances. One is toward the beginning of the novel, in the first act (which is a trend I'm noticing in my writing) and the other is toward the end of the second act. One is meant to convey love, passion, a carelessness that introduces readers to the state of this world. The other is an act of lust, an infatuation, two people clinging to one another in a time of unimaginable darkness.

I've always felt that leaving sex out of a story, or intentionally stepping over it, somehow lessened the impact on those relationships. Maybe that's just me being a pervert, but I encourage you to try it. It may just be that it suits you, and  that, after all, is the whole point.

Deviantly Yours,

-S.R.