Tasteful Lesbian Sex Scene

[Mhorashty]

I'm sure this topic has been covered a million times, and will be covered a million more after me.. but I've never written a Lesbian Sex Scene before. I'm working on one for a story and I just have no idea where to even start...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-=Mhorashty=-

PS: I realize it would probably be helpful if I posted some information about the characters and the story... but I'm not really up for that right now. It's been a bad day, and a rough week.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I'm sure this topic has been covered a million times, and will be covered a million more after me.. but I've never written a Lesbian Sex Scene before. I'm working on one for a story and I just have no idea where to even start...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-=Mhorashty=-

PS: I realize it would probably be helpful if I posted some information about the characters and the story... but I'm not really up for that right now. It's been a bad day, and a rough week.

Go to your local Borders or Barnes and Noble and spend some time in the Lesbian Erotica section. Try the "Best Of 2007" etc... collections.

 

[Samandiriel]

Its not so much that the sex should be hot, but you should think about how women touch, the sensuality, how they connect with each other. Are they fucking or making Love?

 

[mejau71]

One thing I would try to keep at the forefront while you write...

A woman wants to be wanted, and needs to be needed.

If you keep that in mind when you write, you'll be fine...

Best of luck,

~Mimi

 

[Mhorashty]

Go to your local Borders or Barnes and Noble and spend some time in the Lesbian Erotica section. Try the "Best Of 2007" etc... collections.

I've paged through it before.. I may just go do that tomorrow.

 

[Mhorashty]

Its not so much that the sex should be hot, but you should think about how women touch, the sensuality, how they connect with each other. Are they fucking or making Love?

Is it possible that one of them is trying to make love, and the other one is trying to fuck?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Its not so much that the sex should be hot, but you should think about how women touch, the sensuality, how they connect with each other. Are they fucking or making Love?

Fucking, or making love-- the sex should be hot, nevertheless.

ETA; I like that, Mimi! It's not always true, but always very romantic. And "needing to be needed could be the turningpoint of a very good episode!

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I've paged through it before.. I may just go do that tomorrow.

There's more than one, and not all the "Best of..." collections are published by the same company. Take some time and browse through them. Some plots are more enigmatic than others, but there are plenty of sex scenes and most are well written.

Just remember, whatever you call it (erotica, porn, etc.), people are going to look for something they can get off to.

 

[Samandiriel]

Is it possible that one of them is trying to make love, and the other one is trying to fuck?

Depends on the relationship of the characters, is one more dominant and one more submissive? are they emotionally involved or is it a one time thing?

 

[Samandiriel]

Fucking, or making love-- the sex should be hot, nevertheless.

ETA; I like that, Mimi! It's not always true, but always very romantic. And "needing to be needed could be the turningpoint of a very good episode!

I knew you would show up

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Is it possible that one of them is trying to make love, and the other one is trying to fuck?

It's definitely possible. A whole list of possible scenarios for something like that just popped into my head.

Very hot. Run with it.

 

[TE999]

You might try perusing the Lesbian Sex story category here on Lit.

Stories by such authors as Colleen Thomas, Evil Alpaca, Alex The Cat, Matriarch, Tawny T, Rogue Writer and Maggie Red Rose come to mind as excellent examples.

Plus in the How-To section, Colleen Thomas contributed "How To Write A Lesbian Sex Scene".

Happy researching.

 

[S-Des]

Its not so much that the sex should be hot, but you should think about how women touch, the sensuality, how they connect with each other. Are they fucking or making Love?

And keep in mind that this is a story, so making it 'as realistic as possible' doesn't do much if you don't connect with your readers. Women are very different, so what will be 'real' or sexy for one will seem forced and lukewarm to the next. I've never been with two women who liked exactly the same thing, so would never assume I could write one story that would encompass the female sexual experience (you can't even do it with guys, and we're truly simple creatures ). Just have your characters be true to themselves (the way you've constructed them) and it will flow. I've seen authors make scenes erotic with all types of different female characters, so don't try to follow any roadmap but your own.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I'm sure this topic has been covered a million times, and will be covered a million more after me.. but I've never written a Lesbian Sex Scene before. I'm working on one for a story and I just have no idea where to even start...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-=Mhorashty=-

PS: I realize it would probably be helpful if I posted some information about the characters and the story... but I'm not really up for that right now. It's been a bad day, and a rough week.

The topic has been covered before, but maybe not a million times. Here is some advice from one of the best.
http://www.literotica.com:81/stories/showstory.php?id=146282

 

[Arafura]

I agree with S-Des about making the scene natural to your characters.

One criticism I have about many lesbian scenes is that they seemed ripped straight from porn, and thus come off as more about a performance for hetero-males than about pleasure between the two women.

I'm not denying that this could be a sexy scene - it all depends on what you're trying to portray - merely saying keep it mind how things feel as well as how hot they may look.

 

[S-Des]

One criticism I have about many lesbian scenes is that they seemed ripped straight from porn, and thus come off as more about a performance for hetero-males than about pleasure between the two women.

My favorite scene between two women is from North Shore, by MY-Erotica. She asked me to look it over when she was considering placing it in LW, before deciding on EC (trust me, I had nothing to do with it other than that . . . it's far beyond my meager abilities). It's a story written about a woman seeking her first lesbian experience, with approval from her husband. It is a magnificently written scene, but that's not what made it so good (to me) . . . it was the depth of emotion (trepidation, excitement, etc...) coming from the main character that drew me in and made me want her to have the most amazing sex ever. She wasn't writing for men like me, as far as I know she was writing from the perspective of her fantasy (just a guess), but it was such a beautiful, erotic fantasy that I couldn't help but be swept up in it's wake. You could read the story for ideas, but it's not as simple as "Sex by the numbers". Make your characters really good first. Give them a reason to have beautiful/fevered/slow/whatever sex. Then don't let yourself get in the way.

BTW, I don't see any difference between writing straight or lesbian sex. The characters may or may not react differently, but the same suggestions should apply. While the reader's expectations may differ, everyone's definition of good sex is not the same. Drawing in the reader with good characters and situations will always trump a well-written sex scene (otherwise it would be really easy for everyone to do).

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I'm sure this topic has been covered a million times, and will be covered a million more after me.. but I've never written a Lesbian Sex Scene before. I'm working on one for a story and I just have no idea where to even start...

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-=Mhorashty=-

PS: I realize it would probably be helpful if I posted some information about the characters and the story... but I'm not really up for that right now. It's been a bad day, and a rough week.

I might be the minority in this, but I tend to write solely around character dynamics. So long as I have each character and their 'particulars' down pat, the story's twists and turns remain plausible and relatively consistent.

I (speaking as one that writes only lesbian erotica) do not believe a sex scene is the same whether you plug in a male or female in any one character slot. Sex scenes between two women are quite different and as such should be written differently than het sex scenes. There are a totally different set of dynamics to be dealt with. Where many things between M/F partners are implicit, such details require definition when dealing with same sex scenes.

I could probably ramble on here ad nauseum, but if you'd like any specific questions answered just shoot me a PM. I love talking about lesbian erotica.

~lucky

 

[cloudy]

If Lucky will help you, take advantage of her offer - she knows the biz.

Another good resource is this, by Colleen Thomas: How To Write Lesbian Sex Scenes

 

[FatDino]

If Lucky will help you, take advantage of her offer - she knows the biz.

Another good resource is this, by Colleen Thomas: How To Write Lesbian Sex Scenes

Funny, I thought of the same entry.

 

[rgraham666]

Funny, I thought of the same entry.

I thought of Colleen the instant I saw the thread title.

Damn, I miss her.

 

[FatDino]

I thought of Colleen the instant I saw the thread title.

Damn, I miss her.

Yep, no one writes like her. And this will never change.

 

[Oblimo]

Another good resource is this, by Colleen Thomas: How To Write Lesbian Sex Scenes

Colleen's advice in that article transcends the specific act of writing a lesbian sex scene and should be taken to heed in any sex scene, or any scene, for that matter. Well, the strap-on advice section is pretty specific.

I missed the opportunity to get to know her other than through her writing.

 

[xssve]

I agree with S-Des about making the scene natural to your characters.

One criticism I have about many lesbian scenes is that they seemed ripped straight from porn, and thus come off as more about a performance for hetero-males than about pleasure between the two women.

I'm not denying that this could be a sexy scene - it all depends on what you're trying to portray - merely saying keep it mind how things feel as well as how hot they may look.

Depends on what audience you're writing for - women tend to prefer character driven stories, men tend to go for plot and action.

Either way, graphic description seems to be a line of some sort for a lot of people: sex does involve physical hydraulics, but it's also a social encounter on an often highly emotional level, one exposes vulnerabilities, body and psychologicla issues one normally keeps hidden behind clothing and social roles - so one school tahnd to emphasize the former, often characterized as porn, the other emphasizes the latter, more often characterized as erotica - myself, I tend to go for a more balanced approach, emotional subtlety can be contrasted with crude mechanics, which itself can often be a springboard for humor, which often emerges from vulnerability which expressed in purely psychological/emotional terms, can end up being overwrought and backfire, abstracting your characters and diminishing sympathy/empathy - depending of course, once again, on your audience.

Anyway, by "tasteful", you are presumably refering to this imaginary, subjective line between erotica and porn, which more of a pshychological line between your psychological types in the Jungian sense: Intellectual, intutitive, somatic, etc.

The best working definition I've heard, is that porn makes you want to jack (or jill) off, wheras erotica inspires you want to go find the real thing - and this has nothing to do with tastefulness or degree of graphical description per se, it's more of a question of tension, although in this sense, the dynamic between "reveal or conceal" is a valid approach.

Which brings me around to the final point, which is the aspect of sex writing I consider to be the most important, which is rythm - this involves all the above things, balance, tension, even graphic description - there is a rythm to good writing, so think of it in terms of beats: you build tension, then release it, and this establishes the rythm, and the variations are endless, big tension, big release, gradual tension with a series of small releases, etc.

The entire goal here is not to see how "tasteful" you can be, it's to cast a glamour, to seduce the reader into your world and take them on a ride, harder to do if you're so tasteful that it's nothing but fluff.

It's generally a good idea, IMO to think more in terms of character than action, action is the expression of motive, and all stories are technically character driven, and one dimensional charcters tend to make for one dimensional stories, however clever the plot. In lifght of that, I believe that sex scenes should further your character development, in fact, it's a splendid opportunity to reveal hidden sides of a given character - even fatal flaws.

In order to determine how "tasteful" it is, you'll have to get some feed back on the thing itself, for a general quesitons like this, I prefer to describe the general principles, and trust you to use your instincts w/respect to the options presented, as opposed to trying to write it for you.

In the end, you should write it for your primary audience, yourself, rather than pandering to what you think the reader might like - everytime I hear "people like this" or "people like that" I consider it a prelude to failure.

Art should challenge the audience a little - how much is up to you.

 

[xssve]

Sorry, Picked up "Tales of the City" yesterday, and read it cover to cover - didn't give me a single Woody, but it was a hell of a good story.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I always wince a little when I hear "Tasteful" and "Lesbian Sex Scene" in the same sentence... Makes me worry that we'll cut to curtains blowing in the breeze at the crucial moment. "tasteful" too often means gentle sighs and silken touches. I don't know about anyone else here-- but I'd end up frustrated and non-orgasmic...