If a character challenges your "sex writing"

[warmAmber]

Hi, I'm amber and I've not posted here before and I've not been published on Lit. I'm working hard on a story and my character wants to go where I'm not sure I have the ability to describe (a seductive strip scene).

If your character takes you down a path that seems necessary but challenges your "sex writing".. how do you cope with it?

Thank you for any advice - amber

 

[Lauren Hynde]

If my character wants to do something I don't, I'll set up an appointment with my doctor, because there's something wrong. I'm the writer, I tell the character what to do. Not the other way around. If it appears like the story is veering into a direction I hadn't planned, then it means I planned it poorly and I'm getting what I deserve. I'll stop, delete what I have written, and go back to the drafting board. If the path taken challenges my writing, excellent. If it didn't challenge it, what would be the point in the first place?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Unless space aliens took over my body, my characters are me in some form or another. Sometimes their ideas are better than mine.

 

[TxRad]

Hi, I'm amber and I've not posted here before and I've not been published on Lit. I'm working hard on a story and my character wants to go where I'm not sure I have the ability to describe (a seductive strip scene).

If your character takes you down a path that seems necessary but challenges your "sex writing".. how do you cope with it?

Thank you for any advice - amber

That's the fun part, seeing if you can meet the challenge. Some people pre-plan everything in a story and others just throw a character out there and let them fly. If it's the latter than lots of luck. Herding Characters is about as easy as herding turtles and almost as boring. Give them their heads and they take you interesting and sometime bewildering directions as in, where the hell did that idea come from?

Break the strip down step by step and don't worry about the seduction to start. once you have the strip down, go back and add the sexy, sensuousness to it. The seduction will be there with a little more fill in. Then go back and smooth the edges.

Just like making a cake.

 

[Lalah]

Hi, I'm amber and I've not posted here before and I've not been published on Lit. I'm working hard on a story and my character wants to go where I'm not sure I have the ability to describe (a seductive strip scene).

If your character takes you down a path that seems necessary but challenges your "sex writing".. how do you cope with it?

Thank you for any advice - amber

Yes, it's hard when you have to describe a situation you have never experienced yourself. Luckily there's plenty of stories and erotic movies that can help you in your researches. You can also drop in the "How to..." section and get some advices from people who have experienced this before. (In this case stripping. I'm sure it shouldn't be too hard to find.)

 

[rgraham666]

Can't add anything useful. Welcome to the AH, Amber.

 

[evanslily]

Go with it hon

I'm with Tx on this one. Though Lauren's right to suggest that with good planning it doesn't happen, sometimes it can be a lot more fun to just see where something goes, especially when you're first setting out to write. And I have to admit, the characters I've created tend to take on lives of their own after a bit, just like our children do, LOL.

So you're looking at writing a challenging scene? Hey--just try it. You might be stunned to discover you can pull it off. And let's face it, pushing your boundaries is one of the ways you can improve at something. Think of it as exercising your writing muscles. This site is great for letting you do just that.

Remember, there are always people around here who are willing to take a look at what you've written and offer constructive criticism if you're worried about offering something for public consumption.

Give it a go. See what happens...

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Hi, I'm amber and I've not posted here before and I've not been published on Lit. I'm working hard on a story and my character wants to go where I'm not sure I have the ability to describe (a seductive strip scene).

If your character takes you down a path that seems necessary but challenges your "sex writing".. how do you cope with it?

Thank you for any advice - amber

If your character wants to do it so badly, maybe you really have a secret desire to do so yourself?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I write whodunits, and my characters are much better than me at solving problems. And they come up with some remarkable stuff. I'm reading a book about the CIA on the trail of Osama. Be damned if they dont use some of the same tricks to flush the game out of the bushes when they dont know who they wanna catch.

 

[Guest]

That's the fun part, seeing if you can meet the challenge. Some people pre-plan everything in a story and others just throw a character out there and let them fly. If it's the latter than lots of luck. Herding Characters is about as easy as herding turtles and almost as boring. Give them their heads and they take you interesting and sometime bewildering directions as in, where the hell did that idea come from?

Break the strip down step by step and don't worry about the seduction to start. once you have the strip down, go back and add the sexy, sensuousness to it. The seduction will be there with a little more fill in. Then go back and smooth the edges.

Just like making a cake.

Excellent advice from the Texan, and everyone.

Welcome, Amber.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

That's the fun part, seeing if you can meet the challenge. Some people pre-plan everything in a story and others just throw a character out there and let them fly. If it's the latter than lots of luck. Herding Characters is about as easy as herding turtles and almost as boring. Give them their heads and they take you interesting and sometime bewildering directions as in, where the hell did that idea come from?

Break the strip down step by step and don't worry about the seduction to start. once you have the strip down, go back and add the sexy, sensuousness to it. The seduction will be there with a little more fill in. Then go back and smooth the edges.

Just like making a cake.

Now I want cake...

 

[Liar]

First of all, my writing experience is the same as Lauren's - characters don't have free wills and don't run amok. They want what I write they want and feel what I write they feel. So I can't help you there.

But if you do happen to need an element in your story that you are not used to writing, for whatever reason, see it not as an obstacle but as a challenge. Do a little research, Google whatever it is and get basic inspiration, read a few scenes like it and plagarize what works, write an attempt at it and share with friends for pointers...

Isn't that what the writing process should be about? If you only stay in your comfort zone, you ain't going to evolve your abilities.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Liar

I assume my characters are better at creativity because consciousness is very restrictive by necessity. Consciousness allows contemplation and thought, but the other assembles experience into coherent packages, however it can make things fit in the box.

 

[sr71plt]

Hi, I'm amber and I've not posted here before and I've not been published on Lit. I'm working hard on a story and my character wants to go where I'm not sure I have the ability to describe (a seductive strip scene).

If your character takes you down a path that seems necessary but challenges your "sex writing".. how do you cope with it?

Thank you for any advice - amber

Although your character's wants do flow out of your subconscious, your subconscious is frequently more creative, less restrictive, and freer than your conscious. My characters almost always go off on their own tangents--and they almost always have a better time and in a freer, more natural writing style than I had planned for them.

You have three choices--all legitimate, I think: Keep the story bound by the sensibilities of your consciousness; let the characters go where they want to (you can always reign them in in review if you want); and, a variation on this, do both. Let your characters run with the story from your subconscious and then write the story as bound by your conscious--and determine where you want to go from there.

 

[christabelll]

I'm with letting your characters go where they will... however, in the editing process is where I, the writer exercise my will... I have lited out plots and descriptions etc.... but found that when I I plan so much of it, the inspiration evaporates... so I leave it and see what comes later

Try it both ways as was suggested earlier... but mostly just do what feels right...

 

[tickledkitty]

I would let the character do what she needs to do. My characters usually go off in their own directions as well. When I try to reign them in, I usually get stuck. They always surprise me, and the story is better for it in the end.

I agree with Liar that you should look at it as a challenge. I've found with each story I've written, I've overcome some challenge that I didn't think was possible. You'll be so pleased with yourself when you finish it, and that is one of the best feelings in the world.

Good luck with it and welcome.

 

[Belegon]

Everyone has different ways they write... take all our advice and try it if you like, but remember that your process will eventually be exactly that... your process. We can tell you what works for us.

For example, I have a lot of respect for Lauren. But if I wrote, or rather tried to write, with as much structure as I believe she uses? I would have never finished a single story that I liked. It's all individual. On the one hand, of course my characters don't do anything I didn't tell them to do... they don't exist outside my imagination. They have no free will. But on the other hand, if my imagination is communicating with me by using the characters as a conduit? Personally, I try to listen.

The Craft of writing is, IMHO, learned through experience. You can study, but only doing the work helps me find my best methods.

I find tangents to be annoying, but sometimes inspired. I chase them. Others don't. Neither way is either right or wrong.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

BELGON is correct.

Whatever you learn to do, you do it your own way.

 

[Liar]

For example, I have a lot of respect for Lauren. But if I wrote, or rather tried to write, with as much structure as I believe she uses? I would have never finished a single story that I liked.

Bel, I don't think the question here is really about structure. My writing process is a swirling, chaotic mess, wheras Lauren's by her own testimony is as meticulously planned as architecture. And still we're on the same page here. It's really only in one aspect that I think Lauren and I are alike in our writing: control. My characters don't have their own will and run about without my say so. They don't develop a sudden craving for ice-cream unless I think "now it's time for Gertrude to get the munchies for some Ben&Jerrys". And personally, I can't even fathom how a thing like that could be possible, unless I had voices in my head.

But that's a topic for another thread, I think. And by golly, I'm gonna go start it right now.

 

[sr71plt]

Bel, I don't think the question here is really about structure. My writing process is a swirling, chaotic mess, wheras Lauren's by her own testimony is as meticulously planned as architecture. And still we're on the same page here. It's really only in one aspect that I think Lauren and I are alike in our writing: control. My characters don't have their own will and run about without my say so. They don't develop a sudden craving for ice-cream unless I think "now it's time for Gertrude to get the munchies for some Ben&Jerrys". And personally, I can't even fathom how a thing like that could be possible, unless I had voices in my head.

But that's a topic for another thread, I think. And by golly, I'm gonna go start it right now.

I don't usually let my characters do a whole lot on the side that isn't going to be central to the story, but to some extent (since I write mysteries mainly), I have to let my characters do things that provide false clues. One of the things I've really found interesting, though, is that later in the story I often find the false clue isn't really a false clue and fits perfectly with a nuance of the story. If I hadn't given the characters some lattitude--especially while the work is being drafted--I don't think my works would be nearly as intricate and inventive.

I write nonfiction to a preestablished, rather rigid outline. If I wrote fiction that way, it wouldn't be very much fun--and wouldn't, I think, turn out nearly as well as when I don't fit it into a rigid box--especially in the drafting stage.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Hi, I'm amber and I've not posted here before and I've not been published on Lit. I'm working hard on a story and my character wants to go where I'm not sure I have the ability to describe (a seductive strip scene).

If your character takes you down a path that seems necessary but challenges your "sex writing".. how do you cope with it?

Thank you for any advice - amber

I notice that you say it seems necessary!

In that case, and if you can handle the digression, I'd stop and do my research. If you're more like me and can't allow yourself to stop, I'd fake in the scene, finish my story, and then get my research in order and re-write the fake-o bits. If your writing is like mine, it's not the technical aspect that's important in the scene, but the emotional reactions that carry the story forward, so I concentrate on getting those things right first...


And your research is pretty easy in this case, as so many other people have mentioned!

 

[hmmnmm]

I'll imagine it would depend on if the direction is familiar or unfamiliar to the person going that way. If familiar, you'd want to take care to get that across. If it is unfamiliar, maybe the person feels as much hesitation or uncertainty doing it as you feel in expressing it in written words. Such a matching infusion may produce a powerful result.

Of course, other aspects play into this, but that's a good start.