A Body Position Description Question

[Rumple Foreskin]

Another day, another writing question.

I'm working on a (classic, timeless, cliche') love scene set in front of a fireplace. Imagine the gal on her back watching as the guy approaches.

What's giving me trouble is describing the position of her legs. One might be flat on the floor, but odds are the other would bent slightly, with the knee raised--somewhat like the left leg of the model in the Vargas painting below.

In my humble opinion, the obvious answer, "left leg raised" while undoubtedly simple, could give some literal minded readers the mistaken impression the young lady was in the midst of her daily exercises and had just elevated her entire left leg.

(added notes: It can be either leg and the POV can be either person or an omniscient narrator. I'm using third person.)

Therefore I'm now turning to this august, okay April, Author's Hangout brain trust for assistance in my search for a simple, accurate, yet graceful way of discribing a position similar to that of the model's left leg.

Rumple Foreskin


http://home.c2i.net/insolvent/bilder/alberto_vargas/av38.jpg

ps: You're right, it did take an extensive search to find just the right pose to illustrate the position in question. Work, work, work. RF

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Not sure whether or not you'd be willing to include angles and I know they're not sexy, but that's an option.

Her left knee, bent at a 45 degree angle, her left foot flat on the floor near her right knee, creating a sexy triangle through which the leaping flames of the fire could be seen...(flowerdy wording and other such stuff)

yeah, I don't like that one much either....NEXT

His first glimpse of her revealed her lean body laid out flat along the hearth, but his mouth went dry when their eyes met and he watched helplessly as she seductively slid her left foot up the inside of her right leg, stopping just beside her right calf. The effects of the firelight glowing within the triangle created by her bent leg...

okay Rumple, it's 2:40 a.m. I'll think on it and try again tomorrow.

~lucky

 

[damppanties]

ummm... the left leg slightly raised at the knee with the sole flat on the ground beside her other leg?

 

[snooper]

Now if it were the other leg ...

As she lay gazing up at him adoringly, her right knee was raised slightly, emphasising the soft curves of her belly and somehow seeming to offer the triangle below it for his approbation.

As it is, the reason the left leg is raised is that the picture is for a milieu where the pubic regions must be out of sight.

 

[Alex De Kok]

Why not just something like, "she lay back, her left leg bent..."

Your readers will have their own image. As long as you've sketched the approximation, detail is virtually irrelevant.

Alex

My Earth Day story, The Gathering Shadows, still needs a couple of votes to be sure of qualifying. Please?

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Hey Rumple

I run into this a lot with Femme superior, strapon scenes. I want the butch's legs raised, but not up in the air. Rather I want them bent like your models. I have found the best way for me is to start with "Her foot resting flat on the floor, legs raised... etc.

By placing the foor solidly on the ground any posiblility of the yoga master leg raises is eliminated and I don't have to get into angles or break the flow.

Hope this helps.

-Colly

 

[SensualCealy]

Her body lay nestled in front of the hearth, seductively she slides her foot along her left calf exposing her thigh but concealing her inner desire.

Hows that one?
Cealy

 

[CharleyH]

Her body lay nestled in front of the hearth, seductively she slides her foot along her left calf exposing her thigh but concealing her inner desire.

Hows that one?
Cealy

I thought a similar thing because it involves movement, and I always find movement seductively sexy. To just lie there, she would appear dead (saw this in Mulholland Drive recently, and it was amusing to me) To merely have her leg bent when she is nude, unless as in a portrait, would appear disinterested.

Whether be her foot, toes, or whether it be the bent knee swaying teasingly, revealing and hiding her pussy - I think the best bet is action and movement.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I think I used something like that once, and referred to it as "the classic naked Maja pose" after the famous painting (Goya?). Geez, that's really poor, now that I think about it. But then her position wasn;t really vital to understanding the scene.

I might say something about her lying on her back, her knee up, her left foot sensuously caressing her right calf.

I guess it would help to know just why this position is so important to the story. Body positions are often descriptive of the person's mood, and maybe you'd be better off talking about the mood than trying to describe the exact position of knees and feet.
"She posed seductively." "She brought her left knee up, allowing her ankle to rub sensually against her other leg, as if showing him how she wanted to be touched..."

Or you could just say she rubbed her legs together like a cricket.

---dr.M.

 

[cookiejar]

I think I used something like that once, and referred to it as "the classic naked Maja pose" after the famous painting (Goya?). Geez, that's really poor, now that I think about it. But then her position wasn;t really vital to understanding the scene.

I might say something about her lying on her back, her knee up, her left foot sensuously caressing her right calf.

I guess it would help to know just why this position is so important to the story. Body positions are often descriptive of the person's mood, and maybe you'd be better off talking about the mood than trying to describe the exact position of knees and feet.
"She posed seductively." "She brought her left knee up, allowing her ankle to rub sensually against her other leg, as if showing him how she wanted to be touched..."

Or you could just say she rubbed her legs together like a cricket.




---dr.M.

Now that was funny, thanks for the laugh dr_m.

 

[A7inchPhildo]

Another day, another writing question.

I'm working on a (classic, timeless, cliche') love scene set in front of a fireplace. Imagine the gal on her back watching as the guy approaches.

What's giving me trouble is describing the position of her legs. One might be flat on the floor, but odds are the other would bent slightly, with the knee raised--somewhat like the left leg of the model in the Vargas painting below.


(added notes: It can be either leg and the POV can be either person or an omniscient narrator. I'm using third person.)

Therefore I'm now turning to this august, okay April, Author's Hangout brain trust for assistance in my search for a simple, accurate, yet graceful way of discribing a position similar to that of the model's left leg.

RF

The woman was stretched out on the floor in front of the hearth on a throw carpet of white fur. Her beautiful eyes gazed upon my position. Her figure was glowing in the shadows from the fire light dancing about her skin. Her leg closest to the fire remained strait as the closer leg curled at her ass, making a fine display of her tightly fitted buttocks muscles from the side. The image on the floor was that of a nicely outlined triangle as the light shimmered through the opening of her bent leg, and her toes adorned the plush carpet...


Phildo

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Re: Re: A Body Position Description Question

...as the closer leg curled at her ass...

No, Phil. You're going to have to draw me a picture for that one.

Who wants a girl with curly legs?

---dr.M.

 

[gauchecritic]

Can you remember math(s) from school? Can you remember plane geometry? Flat figures? Squares, circles, rectangles? Can you remember the name of that guy who invented a triangle with two equal sides sitting on a base line? Isoceles, that's the name. Mr Isoceles, the greek bloke.

Do you know the story of how he invented that and worked out all the formulae and stuff? That two sides are congruent and that the base angles are congruent? AB is congruent to AC and Angle B is congruent to Angle C? And that this therefore means that the base angles of an Isocoles triangle are congruent.

Do you know what he called those sides that reach from the base to the apex (A)? They're called the legs of the triangle. Want to know why? Because when he walked in to the room and saw her there with her knee raised just so and her other leg flat out on the floor, the first thing he thought of was geometry.

This triangle had curved sides, calf and fleshy thigh were congruent. The angle where her heel touched the floor(b) was equal to, congruent with, where her ass made a round and florid angle(c) across the same base. The angle subtended from her knee he termed A. It wasn't the last thing he thought of. Nor me.

Gauche

 

[Guest]

Gauche, that was brilliant. Were you the geometry professor my h.s. nuns dismissed under mysterious circumstances?

Perdita

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I swear, that Gauche talks prettier than a two dollar New Orleans hooker. And to think all I picked up in Geometry class was the old tried and true formula about the angle of the dangle equalling the mass of the ass plus the heat of the meat, etc..

But as for your suggested description of the young lady's leg,

The angle where her heel touched the floor(b) was equal to, congruent with, where her ass made a round and florid angle(c) across the same base.

maybe it's just me, but while few would question its geometric accuracy, in my humble opinion it falls just a tad short in the erotic simplisity department.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[gauchecritic]

Simplicity? I don't do simplicity, I like making people work when they read.

Gauche

 

[CharleyH]

Simplicity? I don't do simplicity, I like making people work when they read.

Gauche

So do I. but few 'get it'

 

[Guest]

So do I. but few 'get it'

Well, you need to work harder (or faster, or have more footnotes, or something).

 

[Svenskaflicka]

She slowly drew her foot along the calf of her other leg, and that little shadow on her round, shimmering thigh hinted how the muscles tightened inside of it. It made him want to part those thighs, lift them up and wrap them around his waist...

Oh, sorry, this is RF's story! I got a bit carried away.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

She slowly drew her foot along the calf of her other leg, and that little shadow on her round, shimmering thigh hinted how the muscles tightened inside of it. It made him want to part those thighs, lift them up and wrap them around his waist...

Oh, sorry, this is RF's story! I got a bit carried away.

Run with it, lady. You do a fine job of getting carried away. And as I said in the opening post, original this scene ain't.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[CharleyH]

Well, you need to work harder (or faster, or have more footnotes, or something).

Ahh - but do I care P? LOL - I dont give a fuck what others think about me, and well . . . thats why I lay A LOT

SEE waht you do to me P? DIVERT!!! damn you!!! You are part of it and don't even know

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Greetings,

My wife unit came up with a suggestion this evening. The crux of it being the word, "flexed."

"She lay on her back, relaxed and inticing, watching him approach. In the flickering light from the fireplace, he could see one long leg was flexed and raised at the knee. The fingertips sliding down her smooth thigh seemed to pull his gaze toward...."

Well, you get the idea.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Instead of: "flexed and raised at the knee" could it work to say, "In the flickering light from the fireplace, he could see one long leg slightly raised and bent at the knee, allowing her foot to rest flat on the floor." or even without the foot part... "In the flickering light from the fireplace, he could see one long leg slightly raised and bent at the knee."

~lucky

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Instead of: "flexed and raised at the knee" could it work to say, "In the flickering light from the fireplace, he could see one long leg slightly raised and bent at the knee, allowing her foot to rest flat on the floor." or even without the foot part... "In the flickering light from the fireplace, he could see one long leg slightly raised and bent at the knee."

~lucky

Lucky,

It would work, but if you lead with "one long leg slightly raised," odds are some readers will get an initial image of a leg being lifted completely off the floor, from hip to toe, before the writer has a chance to set the record straight with "and bent at the knee." As a general rule, anything that makes folks re-read or re-think is bad.

Alex de Kok's suggestion of letting the reader's imagination take over is sound. And I have a hunch that's what happens about 99% of the time when discribing this setting. But I was just wondering if there was a way it could be done non-clinically.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Lucky,

It would work, but if you lead with "one long leg slightly raised," odds are some readers will get an initial image of a leg being lifted completely off the floor, from hip to toe, before the writer has a chance to set the record straight with "and bent at the knee." As a general rule, anything that makes folks re-read or re-think is bad.

Alex de Kok's suggestion of letting the reader's imagination take over is sound. And I have a hunch that's what happens about 99% of the time when discribing this setting. But I was just wondering if there was a way it could be done non-clinically.

Rumple Foreskin

I see the dilemma and have been thinking about it since you initially posted this thread. All I can do is speak for myself, but the position you have in mind is one I keep 'at the ready' in my mind and find myself wanting to see. (very sexy) And through all of the different ideas here, I've imagined it very close to the photograph each time. I suppose I'm just different there because I'd immediately rule out the idea of her leg levetating as it's unnatural and a bit of work to keep a long limb raised in the literal sense. If the overall mood is relaxed, my own first thought would not be flexed abs and a hovering leg...but I do recognize that I'm not normal.

Good luck, though.

~lucky