"The main difference between erotica and pornography is lighting." Gloria Leonard
Erotic scenes and sexually-charged portrayals are ubiquitous in our sex-drenched culture--in advertising, film, and TV. An ad for a handbag often looks like a scene from an HBO movie. No one would deny that sex is an important aspect of life. A fiction writer often finds it appropriate to depict characters engaged in a romantic or even a raunchy sexual encounter. This can be a way to portray the character's attitude toward the opposite (or same) sex, a particular member of the opposite (or same) sex, and to reveal other nuances of character and/or develop the plot.But how does one find the right balance? How much to depict and how much to suggest? How to create the scene without becoming clinical, pornographic, or worse, ridiculous? (The Literary Review hands out a yearly award to the author who has written the worst sex scene.)
Seeking some guidance on the best way to portray a romantic encounter in one of my novels, I picked up a book called "The Good Parts," excerpts of the most explicit scenes from various famous and not-so-famous novels. What I discovered was that isolated sex scenes, without the context of the rest of the novel, tended to be quite boring. If you don't have a background of the characters or their situation or relationship to one another, it becomes merely a recitation of "tab went into tab b".
To me, writing a sex scene has a great deal in common with writing a scene of violence--less is more. Context is important. Characters and relationship trump action. Unless you're writing for a porn magazine, I suggest, keep the lighting low.WRITE ON!
Well, the true is that these scenes can tell us a lot about the characters. Mikael Blomkvist from Millenium, for example... I wouldn't have been able to imagine him without his relationships with women and how Stieg Larsson describes them. Interesting post, Joanne :)
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