The Reason I Avoid Writing Sex Scenes

[dr_pretentious]

What amazes me about having written 3053 words today is that I had several 3K days last November. How on earth did I do it?

Only 7684 words to go. How that will fit into two more days, I have no idea.

42,316 / 50,000 (84.6%)

For the first time, I have written a sex scene that is more than one sentence long. I'm too tired to reopen the file and count, but I would guess that the sex scene in question takes up maybe five or six sentences.

As a matter of general principle, I think one sentence is about the right length for a sex scene, since no writer can titillate the reader's mind as perfectly as the reader can titillate it for herself. If readers didn't prefer to imagine sex scenes for themselves, entirely unfettered by whatever the author has put on the page, there wouldn't be so very much fanfic out there.

Comments

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

You're going to finish this year. 2K per night for 2 nights is doable.

I met a woman in Seattle who cranks out an 80K novel every month. She's selling them, too, and you can find them on the shelves of the big chain bookstores around my town. I don't know if they're any good, but I know I wouldn't want to write that fast.

One novel a year is perfectly respectable by anyone's standard. One novel in two years is quite reasonable. You're going to finish this one, and if the fragments you sent me the first time around are any indication, the finished product will be loads of fun. Any novel with formerly vegan vampires struggling to uphold as undead the principles they ascribed to in life is a novel that knows how to laugh at its genre conventions.

The moment I have a complete working draft, I'll be shipping it out to you, warts and all. Shall we exchange prisoners? Because I want to see what Alys gets up to.

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Well, Alys isn't in this one. It seems that Violet's story doesn't want to be finished yet, but this one is, I think, set in the same city around the same time. I have a sneaking feeling that when I've done this one, Violet will turn up. She might even turn up as one of the background characters in this. So we'll see how that plays out.

I will definitely exchange my raw 50000 for yours :D

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

When you say raw 50K, do you mean you want to see it entirely as is, complete with my bracketed fix-this notes [WHICH ARE OFTEN IN ALL CAPS SO I CAN SEE THEM, WITH THE RESULT THAT IT LOOKS LIKE I'M SHOUTING AT MYSELF][or else they're all in lower-case, because i got sick of looking like i was shouting at myself, and they kind of ramble, like the time i got distracted because renee had made her word count at the table right next to mine, so congratulating her snuck into what i was typing...]

I'll send you the raw 50K if you really can't wait, but a person has a right to know what she's getting into. Raw is raw.