I’m re-sharing a popular blog post from 2016 about writing sex scenes in The Shade Ring Trilogy. The Shade Ring, Albedo Effect, and Aerosol Sky are set a hundred years in the future in a time of runaway global warming, when oceans have risen fifteen feet. I made a decision to include sex scenes, although they’re not as explicit as the sex scenes in many romance novels.
Read on:
To each her own. Some readers like their sex scenes hot and steamy. Others want the details left up to their imagination. I fall into the second category. Although, I admit, I’ve read a few sex scenes that were, well… pretty romantic. I’ve also read sex scenes that were downright awkward – about as sexy as watching Miley Cyrus twerking. I obligated myself to read a romance last year that included some explicit sex scenes, and I have to admit, I skimmed over them to get to the other side because they were so unpleasant, and UNSEXY. I guess I just don’t want an anatomy lesson when I’m reading a novel.
This is an important issue to me right now because I’m smack dab in the middle of writing book 2 of The Shade Ring Trilogy. I’m crafting a love scene that I hope will be on the pleasant side – NOT the awkward side – of sexy.
One thing I know for sure: I could never write erotica. I can just imagine my sons and my grandkids reading it and freaking out that I might know anything about lovemaking. LOL I can also imagine winning “The Bad Sex in Fiction” award. No kidding – that’s an actual award given out for really tacky sex scenes. Definitely not a plaque I want hanging on my wall.
2021 Post script: I backed off the sex scenes in my more recent novels, preferring to let readers use their imaginations.