I've written this before

KeithD said:

Location (and also location in a certain timeframe) ranks high in my story elements as well. I use it to bring something unique to the story and often to help set the mood/atmosphere. I use it to celebrate that I've managed to be in a lot of places too.

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It can also help to form an idea of how a character from that place might behave, general appearance, world view, etc. To use Vallecitos, New Mexico for example; Having been in that part of the country, as a reader the image the author (Not Wise) might paint for me would be embellished by my own ideas of what I know about New Mexico and the general culture,etc. This may be a limited understanding, but most folks would have some idea having seen movies or read books about it.

And yeah, it does bring back fond memories and even thankfulness to have experienced other places. I hadn't thought about that, that's probably part of the enjoyment in writing them.

KeithD said:

Location (and also location in a certain timeframe) ranks high in my story elements as well. I use it to bring something unique to the story and often to help set the mood/atmosphere. I use it to celebrate that I've managed to be in a lot of places too.

My coauthored Valentine's Day contest entry (related to my current avatar) is a case in point--celebrating an actual place, a villa I once rented, where Lawrence Durrell once lived and wrote segments of his Alexandria Quartet and Bitter Lemons, and where I wrote pen name novels myself. The story, one of a series, makes the location a major character in the story. There's a second such location in the story, given the same treatment, that is used in quite a few of my stories--the Tree of Idleness restaurant in the Bellapais, Cyprus, square--a real place.

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RE your edit to add; That sounds interesting, somewhat like the one awhile back set in Sydney (as I recall)? I'll be sure to read it.

NotWise said:

I wrote the first sex scene in my current story, got about half way through, and stopped. I read back through it and got the strong sense that I'd written very similar scenes recently.

Consensual, one-on-one heterosexual sex, without handicaps, kinks or bondage doesn't seem to offer a lot of variety. I won't say I'm tapped out, but I need to rethink the scene.

Is it just me? Is it important, or do the readers actually like to read the same sex again?

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i think you've isolated the problem i've been having for the last four months or so. i'm tired of writing sex scenes. i looked back at all of my half completed stories and i stalled out at the big sex scene.

yukonnights said:

It can also help to form an idea of how a character from that place might behave, general appearance, world view, etc. To use Vallecitos, New Mexico for example; Having been in that part of the country, as a reader the image the author (Not Wise) might paint for me would be embellished by my own ideas of what I know about New Mexico and the general culture,etc. This may be a limited understanding, but most folks would have some idea having seen movies or read books about it.

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Well, in that case I'm glad the maternal side of Claudia's family in "A Valentine's Day Mess" is from Vallecitos. It should help you understand Abuela Ortiz.

I use locations like Vallecitos to help fix the character in my mind without any expectation that a reader would recognize a remote, unincorporated place in the southern foothills of the San Juan Mountains.

rae121452 said:

i think you've isolated the problem i've been having for the last four months or so. i'm tired of writing sex scenes. i looked back at all of my half completed stories and i stalled out at the big sex scene.

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Maybe you should give some thoughts to Yukonnights idea:

This is just out of the blue, so take it or leave it; but my first thought in reading your lament was; Is there enough tension in the scene?

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In my case, I was over-emphasizing the physical act and not giving enough attention to the tension and emotion. I've restarted that scene, and it'll probably end up being quite different.

NotWise said:

I wrote the first sex scene in my current story, got about half way through, and stopped. I read back through it and got the strong sense that I'd written very similar scenes recently.

Consensual, one-on-one heterosexual sex, without handicaps, kinks or bondage doesn't seem to offer a lot of variety. I won't say I'm tapped out, but I need to rethink the scene.

Is it just me? Is it important, or do the readers actually like to read the same sex again?

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I so agree! I just posted about this last week in the feedback forum. Hetero sex scenes offer little variety. In romance especially it feels like to me.

rae121452 said:

i think you've isolated the problem i've been having for the last four months or so. i'm tired of writing sex scenes. i looked back at all of my half completed stories and i stalled out at the big sex scene.

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OMG YES! This is why it takes me so long to finish a chapter, I get hung up on the sex scene.

NotWise said:

Yukonnights actually hit my problem some time back. I was placing too much stress on the physical acts, and not giving enough attention to the tension and emotions at play.

It seems unrelated to repetitive sex scenes, but I don't think that actual locations do that much to build my characters. A few of my stories are set in unspecified midwestern locations. Most of the stories have specific locations; Florida, different parts of Arizona and New Mexico, El Salvador, Spain, two villages on the planet of Urta. One is almost entirely inside a theater; where the theater is shouldn't make much difference.

No-one is familiar with First Village, and few people are familiar with western New Mexico or northeastern Arizona (for instance). I'd expect those locations to tell most readers nothing at all about the characters. What kind of impression do you get of someone, knowing that they grew up in the Altura Park neighborhood of Albuquerque? Or in Vallecitos, New Mexico?

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It's not that the readers will know where those places are. They will have meaning to the characters who live there and by extension they have meaning to you as the writer. With that many of the readers will get something from it even if they never heard of the them before.

I feel like I know something about Albuquerque because it was the setting for Breaking Bad. (I haven't actually been there in more than forty years.) I've visited Reading, PA only because Updike wrote about it (as the city of Brewer).

Updike's main character says about his own hometown (Mount Judge / Mount Penn) that it's "a dull suburb of a third rate city." And yet, even though the area is an unremarkable part of eastern Pennsylvania, it's vividly described. When I was in Reading and Mount Penn I thought, "I feel like I've been here already," because in a sense that was true.

gunhilltrain said:

It's not that the readers will know where those places are. They will have meaning to the characters who live there and by extension they have meaning to you as the writer. With that many of the readers will get something from it even if they never heard of the them before.

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Specific locations are important in a few of my stories, but mostly I use them to let me build the character. Often, the location doesn't even get mentioned in the story -- it's just for my visualization. I don't expect the readers to connect with location, but I usually build long backstories behind my characters just so they are more authentic to me.

Where the locations aren't specific, a lot of times they are combinations of real locations. I'll take the physical layout of one neighborhood, and give it the climate from a different location. When I write a generic midwest location, I gather a lot of details from Peoria, Illinois.

The theater in "Love is Enough" is real, and legend has it that it's haunted. My visualization expanded the stage left area a little, but it's mostly accurate. The problem is that the actual theater was built in 1926 and opened in 1927. My dear Gabby recalls dancing in a review there, but Gabby and Hanna were murdered in 1926. Oh well.

I feel like I know something about Albuquerque because it was the setting for Breaking Bad. (I haven't actually been there in more than forty years.) I've visited Reading, PA only because Updike wrote about it (as the city of Brewer).

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I guess you wouldn't be far off. I don't watch much TV, so I've seen one or two episodes of BrBd. My wife has watched them all at least once, and she thinks the series is as much about Albuquerque as it is about Walter White/Heisenberg. Of course, it's not much about the better aspects of the city.

A lot of movies and TV shows are shot in Albuquerque. Netflix even bought the largest studio here with the intent of using it as the hub for most of their future projects. If you've watched many American-made TV series or movies in the last ten years then you've almost certainly seen Albuquerque, one way or another.

I passed three brand-new location signs coming and going from work today, and this is really just the beginning of the season.

CoffeeWithMonkeys said:

I so agree! I just posted about this last week in the feedback forum. Hetero sex scenes offer little variety. In romance especially it feels like to me.

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I'm getting near the point of literally writing, "Then they fucked" and going on to discussing what they had for breakfast the next morning.

Hypoxia said:

Shall we careen along this tangent? Most of my tales take place in specific locales, mostly real, often identified. I use setting as a character. Rather than writing the same sex scene too often, I describe the same places in many tales, and I try not to repeat myself TOO often. That was tricky in a series where each episode has a different narrator, all seeing and describing the same settings and players afresh.

Geometry is not destiny. Missionary fucks on the beach at Waikiki and in a Wichita hospital are not the same.

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I could have named my Mary and Alvin series, "Mary and Alvin and the state of Maine." For me, location is very important. It both informs and reflects who the characters are.

MelissaBaby said:

I'm getting near the point of literally writing, "Then they fucked" and going on to discussing what they had for breakfast the next morning.

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My stories have a lot of different patterns, but I tend to write fairly detailed sex in the first encounter, and glossing over it as the relationship goes on. I mean, you can just assume that they're doing it off the story line.

In "Love is Enough," the last intimate encounter amounted entirely to TJ (the guy) reading "The Gift of the Magi" to Gabby and Hanna.

MelissaBaby said:

I could have named my Mary and Alvin series, "Mary and Alvin and the state of Maine." For me, location is very important. It both informs and reflects who the characters are.

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I'm the same, I try to give my stories a strong sense of place. Even if I don't spell out details, there's always a geography in my mind, which I suspect leaks through in tiny details - like which way the shadow falls in the afternoon through a lounge window. I tend to vague up my cities to some extent, although in Oz there aren't many to choose from.

How to make sex scenes different: I recall a pr0n photo looking down at a threesome in a bed. Beside them on the bed, a cat is sleeping. Insert a pet into your sex scene; avoid squashing them.

How to sketch locations: I recall Paul Theroux praised for writing-off a city as having an ugly skyline, and moving on. See the locale through your eyes, and paint a picture, as long or brief as needed. Sights, scents, sounds, excitement, weariness -- all contribute.

Maybe the same fuck or the same locale SHOULD be described the same way, over and over. Make that a signature.

MelissaBaby said:

I'm getting near the point of literally writing, "Then they fucked" and going on to discussing what they had for breakfast the next morning.

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Actually this minimalist strategy can be a good one at times. As per Production Code era movies, say Double Indemnity: you don't have to see Walter and Phyllis in bed to understand the attraction and tension between then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKdcYnlkhx8

NotWise said:

My stories have a lot of different patterns, but I tend to write fairly detailed sex in the first encounter, and glossing over it as the relationship goes on. I mean, you can just assume that they're doing it off the story line.

In "Love is Enough," the last intimate encounter amounted entirely to TJ (the guy) reading "The Gift of the Magi" to Gabby and Hanna.

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In my stories (all incest), the early intimate scenes are easy for me to write because they are advancing the story. Then they declare their love and have a celebratory fuck, and that's the sex scene that's hard for me to write. I've done so many of those scenes now, it's hard to motivate myself to write one more. What I've been doing is find a porn video with a sex scene similar to what I'm imagining, and then basically transcribe the action from that.

As for story locations, it depends on the story. To me, if you're going to specify a location, then the location needs to be an important part of the story, that important plot points hinge on the story being in that location. I've set my stories in specific locations (Madison, WI; Houston, TX, Cork, Ireland) and I've set my stories in very general locations (a small town, a lake house at a rural lake, a suburb).

MelissaBaby said:

I'm getting near the point of literally writing, "Then they fucked" and going on to discussing what they had for breakfast the next morning.

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I've taken that approach, although more often as an after-sex-scene segue: "[They did this and that.] Then they fucked again."

8letters said:

...Then they declare their love and have a celebratory fuck, and that's the sex scene that's hard for me to write. I've done so many of those scenes now, it's hard to motivate myself to write one more. What I've been doing is find a porn video with a sex scene similar to what I'm imagining, and then basically transcribe the action from that.

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I have leafed through explicit still and moving images and found scenes that can readily be inserted into a story. Inspiration, not plagiarism.

As for story locations, it depends on the story. To me, if you're going to specify a location, then the location needs to be an important part of the story, that important plot points hinge on the story being in that location. I've set my stories in specific locations (Madison, WI; Houston, TX, Cork, Ireland) and I've set my stories in very general locations (a small town, a lake house at a rural lake, a suburb).

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Some of my stories and episodes depend highly on being in specific, named places. Some settings are college towns, ports, or suburbs I may hint at but not directly identify. And a few are generic or mashups. Specific set-pieces need repeated write-ups if they re-appear in many episodes. How many times does Travis McGee describe his boat?

I indeed use some settings to make major plot points -- a tale MUST occur in San Francisco or Antigua Guatemala. Others are more for flavor. A story MUST occur in an emblematic real place. Exactly which real place isn't as important as its ambiance. I see and feel it, and try to write that, clearly.

After 240 stories and or chapters, there isn't much I haven't written more than once.

I tend to use the 'sex scenes' to take the reader more into the inner world of the characters. I get more comments thanking me for making them cry than I have thanking me for...you know There's the obvious needed descriptions of the physical that's happening, but the physical primarily serves and supports the mystical/emotional. In doing this, it can easily advance the growth of the relationship.

I've read enough stories here in the last decade or so to know that many readers need/demand the physical description spelled out in fine detail. But, my eyes glaze over and my mind drifts at most of those kind of stories. There really are only so many ways to describe it.

At it's most basic; one could write the exact same sex scene but use different thoughts and emotions for each one.

A simple example of this could be; John mounted Lisa and... (sex scene in the exact same way that he did four years ago). As John performed his act, Lisa's thoughts drifted back to that first time when she had felt that her very soul was entwined with his...sadly, this night her soul was far away and her mind was wondering if she had remembered to take a package of bacon out of the freezer for breakfast tomorrow.

Or; John mounted Lisa and...(same sex scene). As they made love, Lisa's thoughts took a quick glance back to that first time...she had been so inexperienced and actually a little afraid. But that was then, he had always know just how to push all the right buttons...and touch all the right places, and those touches quickly pulled her thoughts back to this night...this moment and her only thoughts were of thankfulness that he had come into her life.

yukonnights said:

At it's most basic; one could write the exact same sex scene but use different thoughts and emotions for each one.

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I get your point, I think, but when I rewrote my scene to flesh out the tensions and emotional content, the sex changed, too. The lovers became more breathless,uncertain and out of control, and so did the sex.

NotWise said:

I get your point, I think, but when I rewrote my scene to flesh out the tensions and emotional content, the sex changed, too. The lovers became more breathless,uncertain and out of control, and so did the sex.

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. That tends to happen to me too once I start exploring their passion and emotions...that's good, yes?

yukonnights said:

. That tends to happen to me too once I start exploring their passion and emotions...that's good, yes?

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It was good for me. Was it good for you?

I'm suspicious that some readers would have preferred the first version, but I wasn't writing for them.

I've struggled with a term, and maybe y'all can help me out. Pornography is what we call stories giving an explicit description of sex. What do we call a story that gives explicit descriptions of emotions?

I feel like the emotional expression is 'dirtier' than most pornography. It's hard to write.

yukonnights said:

. That tends to happen to me too once I start exploring their passion and emotions...that's good, yes?

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Hey, now, I love writing about the emotional side of sex. It’s more enjoyable to me than the act itself. But that’s just me. I can’t speak for others. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s hard; but, in the end, it brings me the most joy. Sadly, some of my most emotional stories fail to achieve what I hope for from the readers. It’s all good, though. Kant

NotWise said:

It was good for me. Was it good for you?

I'm suspicious that some readers would have preferred the first version, but I wasn't writing for them.

I've struggled with a term, and maybe y'all can help me out. Pornography is what we call stories giving an explicit description of sex. What do we call a story that gives explicit descriptions of emotions?

I feel like the emotional expression is 'dirtier' than most pornography. It's hard to write.

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This is the best I can come up with...but I cheated and looked in my thesaurus

emotive, emotional
These two words share similarities but are not interchangeable. Emotive is used to mean ‘arousing intense feeling,’ while emotional tends to mean ‘characterized by intense feeling.’ Thus an emotive issue is one likely to arouse people's passions, while an emotional response is one that is itself full of passion. In sentences such as we made our emotive farewells, the word emotive has been used where emotional would have been the appropriate choice.

emotive
adjective
1 a highly emotive book.
2 an emotive issue: controversial, contentious, inflammatory; sensitive, delicate, difficult, problematic, touchy, awkward, prickly, ticklish.

They feel intensely, or not.

They do something sexual, or not.

The rest is explication.