From NOW WRITE! Mysteries: How to Write a Sex Scene

If you want to learn how to do something well, you consult an expert. Shery Ellis and Laurie Lamson’s Now Write! series—which includes Now Write! Fiction, Now Write! Nonfiction and Now Write! Screenwriting—collects essays, tips and writing exercises from some of the bestselling and most respected authors of fiction, narrative nonfiction and screenwriting. The duo’s newest book, NOW WRITE! Mysteries, collects more than 80 bestselling authors—including winners of and nominees for the Edgar, Hugo, Agatha and Shamus awards—to create a definitive guide to writing mysteries, thrillers, and suspense stories.

Below is an excerpt in which noir author Vicki Hendricks (Miami Purity, Iguana Love and the Edgar Award finalist Cruel Poetry) examines literary sex scene scenes and the awkward fun you can have writing them. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll find links to two more great excerpts from the book.

I hope not to disappoint, but writing a sex scene is not as much fun as participating in one. You’d probably already guessed! A sex scene, whether in the crime genre or a mainstream novel, is basically the same as any scene, but generally with less dialogue. It requires specialized vocabulary, ranging from gutter to romantic to clinical, but must perform normal scene functions: developing character, moving plot, and cementing theme. There are usually just two characters, although your imagination is the only limit. (Warning: Same-sex partners wreak hell for pronoun usage.) The action can range from normal to eccentric, and the coitus doesn’t always have to be successful, and/or beautiful.

One of the most highly acclaimed sex scenes in the past twenty years can be found in Harry Crews’ novel Body, where an obese young virgin is seduced in her bathtub by an obsessive bodybuilder who claims to be a “skin technician.” I originally set out to mention this scene as an example of less than beautiful sex, but Crews’ ingenious humor and descriptive technique create a scene that, in the eye of this beholder, renders uncanny sexuality.

Developing character (see Jason Starr’s masturbation scene in Twisted City for a hilarious, character-revealing scene) and cementing theme probably come naturally into the sex scene when you’re in the midst of a novel or story, but in order to move plot, there must be an arc and a climax—maybe two climaxes! (but not necessarily)— that cause a change. Since there is often a lack of pithy dialogue, the subtext—underlying emotions, beliefs, motivations, and unspoken thoughts—becomes extremely important in building conflict to create the arc of the scene. Even if the conflict is mainly internal on the part of the protagonist, it should spill over into action.

Although writing a sex scene is no different from writing any scene, and a sex scene in a crime novel is similar to a sex scene in any mainstream novel, sometimes motives can relate to the crime or perhaps motives might develop that set up a crime. Think of James M. Cain’s sliver of a sex scene in The Postman Always Rings Twice, when Frank and Cora first meet. In Cain’s day, he couldn’t write much beyond a kiss—in this case a bite—but he creates enough passion in a few details to have us believe that these characters will be satisfied only by murdering Cora’s husband.

In another possible case, perhaps the protagonist wishes to manipulate the other character or to give up his or her own control. If the writer is particularly clever, the conflict can go so far as to be between the protagonist and an antagonist of the novel. An interesting sex scene that demonstrates this deliciously is in James W. Hall’s first novel, Under Cover of Daylight, where longtime adversaries overcome their motivations long enough to have believable, wonderful sex. Since connection and disconnection are an intricate part of any plot structure, a literal coupling of bodies can supply the dramatic action for change or development.

In my novel Miami Purity, the main character is a stripper obsessed with sex, so the many sex scenes bring out her character, as well as blind her to manipulation. In Cruel Poetry, the main character is a freelance prostitute, and her enticing sexuality in multiple scenes binds the other two narrators to her decadent and dangerous lifestyle.

It is especially important when creating a sex scene to build up enough subtext in advance, so that the reader can interpret the actions for full intrigue and emotional power. Once the clothes are off, there’s no time for explanation. My exercise will require you to put the emphasis on subtext, so that the scene has legitimate purpose and no one will label it gratuitous. For the best results, use two characters that you already know well.

 

EXERCISES

PART ONE: In column A, list the motivations, fears, hopes, beliefs, regrets, and emotions that you want to come into play in order for the protagonist to undergo a change or development that will move the plot. If you are in the midst of a story or novel, you’ll already know what is important. This could be a change in the relationship or a self-realization. It could go so far as to be a reversal, for a climactic scene. In column B, list bits of dialogue and actions of a sexual nature that would dramatize the items in column A.

PART TWO: Now put your columns away and go into your dream state. Imagine the scene: the location, the atmosphere, the surface, the bodies. Write it. Make your protagonist act and the other character react. Do not look back at the columns unless you get stuck.

 

Hungry for more mystery writing advice?

Click here for Reece Hirsch’s “The Most Common Mistakes in Plotting a Thriller”

Click here for Meg Gardiner’s “Ratcheting Up the Suspense”

Or purchase NOW WRITE! Mysteries on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Indiebound