Finding Inspiration for Literal Sex

Thrusting Problems...

By Remittance Girl

In reply to…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The problem I’m having in writing sex scenes; is that inspirationally speaking, I find Sex more visual than mental.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“…I must admit that pretty well all porn makes me want to heave, so I don't get my inspiration from there. (I tend to just ask people if I can watch them fuck, instead. I kind of prefer the non-stagy noises to the movie ones and I don't get put off by the soundtrack.)

I have to disagree, about – sex - being more visual than mental. Besides the obvious – sex is - primarily physical. I find penetration to be a pretty overwhelming act mentally. I think that thinking metaphorically really helps here. (Although I'd probably piss on someone from a long height if they started writing sex in metaphor - hopefully we're passed that *grin*.)

From a female standpoint, this person is actually invading the integrity of your body... and using you for friction. (Damn...that sounds kind of nasty.)

OR this person is so intent on merging with you, that they are physically crawling inside you, possessing you, becoming one single entity... (That is more hippy-trippy than I can stand. Pass the LSD).

Okay... how about this, on a more proactive side: after a certain level of arousal, nothing, absolutely NOTHING, is going to feel as good as a big, pulsing, meaty cock filling you up and rocking your world.

From a male perspective...well there's a whole lot of engulfing going on, a drive towards the core of this wonderfully hot, wet thing...but I'll leave that part to a male.

In any case, I think one of the problems is that we tend to think of fucking - penetration - as the culmination and everything else as foreplay.

But Clinton was wrong, it's ALL sex.

Perhaps if you took the view that fucking was just another form of stimulation, you might get over your need to write reams and reams about it, (do forgive the pun).

Personally, I always think of orgasms as being the culmination - and however you get to them, there really isn't an order of priority. That way you can have a lot of fun getting your character's off in ways that don't generally classify as sex (by Mr. Clinton's standards)..."

A silliness for your delectation:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C) 2005 Remittance Girl
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Um... I don't...I don't...I don't think I want..."

He slipped his hand down between her thighs, cupping her crotch, pulling her back against his hips. His cock, nestled between her ass cheeks, was warm and hard. And utterly riveting.

Her protests stopped cold.

He coaxed his fingers into the furrow of her cunt. "But I think you do."

She shuddered involuntarily.

He put his lips to her ear. "Am I not correct?" He slid his fingers between her plump outer lips in long, steady strokes. "Am I not correct?" His voice was harsher this time. Abruptly, he released her and stepped back.

Her mind went into overdrive. Part of her had an overwhelming urge to rip his head off and the other part wanted his fingers back where they were before.

He slid the soap over her and resumed his attentions. His soapy fingers moved over the small of her back, her butt cheeks and between the cleft of her ass.

Opening her mouth, she found no words to tell him to stop. She stared at the grubby tiles.

He pressed against her again; the soap making their skin to skin contact slippery. He moved his hips and his cock slid between her butt cheeks. He bucked against her once, twice and then he pushed her hard to the wall, sliding his fingers up inside her.

The tile felt cool against her breasts and the skin of her face.

He panted hard into her ear. "Am I not correct, Sophie?" Using the palm on her crotch to hold her hips still, he ground himself against her ass. He dragged his hand over her clit and fucked her with his fingers.

She trembled. It felt as if she were going to melt and be sucked down the drain along with her reluctance. “Yes." It was a whimper, almost lost in the hiss of the water and the echoes of the room.

"Good girl," he whispered. His breath came harder and his hip-thrusts and fingers grew more insistent.

Her muscles began to contract everywhere, clamping down around the fingers inside her and squeezing his cock between her buttocks. She arched her back and moaned. Orgasm waited just below the surface.

His body stiffened and then shuddered against her. Lowering his lips onto her shoulder, he held her still and bit her, moaning into the skin.

The hot gush of his cum shot up along her back.

Her orgasm lunged and overtook her. Intense blooms of pleasure burst from between her legs, reaching out to shake her body in waves that robbed her of balance.

Successive sprays shot heat up her spine as he came against her.

He began to move again, sending tiny aftershocks of pleasure rippling through both their bodies.

Abruptly, he backed away from her.

The water sprayed down onto her back -- icy cold. She screeched in shock.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Entire Post (C) 2005 Remittance Girl
(Posted with Permission)

WRESTLING with WRITING

Getting the Frikkin Story on PAPER!

Okay, you have your characters set up and, you have your plot outlined. It's time to put the words on paper.

ACTION!

All Actions MUST happen in Chronological order.
The only way to write down any event in your story is in Chronological order. Seriously.
- Like this:

1. Something happened.
2. The POV Character's immediate physical reaction. (jump, scream, flinch, duck, gasp)
3. What the POV Character sensed. (saw, heard, smelled, tasted, felt)
4. The POV Character's Emotional reaction / introspection. (happy, sad, pissed, horny)
5. How the POV Character responded. (dialogue, action)
6. What happened next.

In that specific order. Every single time. Every single sentence.  

You can skip steps - but you cannot change the order without muddying the visuals for the reader.

More on Action?
Go To: Writing SEX Action - Technique & Structure

POV = ATTITUDE + ACTION

When you are in tight POV, everything the character sees and experienced should be flavored with that character’s Attitude.

If Oscar the Grouch is looking at a bed of roses, what is going through his head is not going to resemble what would be going through Big Bird’s head. If you are in Oscar’s POV, the way you would write the description of those roses would reflect how he saw them.

Attitude Alone (AKA - Internal Narration):

Oscar could not believe that someone had the gall to drop his comfy garbage can in the middle of a disgustingly bright mound of flowers. At least they were roses. He could almost stand something that closely resembled a heaped snarl of barbed wire, if it weren’t for those eye-searing explosions of hideous pink. To make matters worse their stench was overwhelmingly sweet. He just knew that it was going to take a whole week to get the smell out of his can. He seriously considered heaving, just to have something more comforting to smell.

Boring. NOTHING is happening.

BUT – Oscar would not sit there and Contemplate the roses, he would curl his lip and say something snotty.

Attitude + ACTION:

Oscar the Grouch popped out of his trash can. Serrated green leaves waved among slender and barbed branches around the mouth of his home. He gasped in horror. “What is this disgusting mess?”

He leaned out and looked around in disbelief. "Oh ugh, I'm surrounded. Somebody put my trash can in a revolting pile of... What are these? Roses?” He could almost stand something that closely resembled a heaped snarl of barbed wire, if it weren’t for those eye-searing explosions of hideous color. He curled his lip. “Pink, I hate pink.”

To make matters worse their stench was overwhelmingly sweet. “Oh, eww…the smell!" He slapped a fuzzy green hand over his fuzzy green nose. "It’s gonna take me a week to get that out’ta my can!” He felt his gorge rising. “I think I’m going to be sick. At least it’ll smell better.”

Not quite so boring this time.


Add some DESCRIPTION please?!
Go To: I want to SEE the Story-Damn it! ~ a RANT!
Go To: What's the Difference between SHOWING & TELLING?"

GRAMMAR Details

Separate each character’s actions.
The actions and dialogue of one character DO NOT belong in the Same Paragraph as another character's actions and dialogue - EVER!
 

The actions and dialogue of one character Do Not Overlap the actions and dialogue of another character in the Same Paragraph or visuals become muddied. It may look choppy on the page, but the reader has absolutely no doubt as to who is doing what.

The Reader's perceptions are more important than whether or not your type looks tidy.

A character's Dialogue stays WITH their Actions
- in the Same Paragraph!
 

It’s a cold and lonely world. Your dialogue should always be in the same paragraph as its corresponding actions; it shouldn’t be abandoned. You make a new paragraph for the NEXT character’s actions and dialogue.

(Where did that "abandoned dialogue" idea come from anyway? Does anyone know?)

Dialogue Tags - SUCK.
When you have an action with a line of dialogue

 – you DO NOT NEED DIALOGUE TAGS - AT ALL!
 

You already know, through the action, who is speaking. Dialogue tags are only ever needed when you don’t have any other way of identifying the speaker. If you have no other way of knowing who is speaking than dialogue tags, then you have committed the heinous crime of:

DIALOGUE IN A VACUUM
- also known as “talking heads syndrome”.
 

A book with nothing but reams of dialogue marked only by dialogue tags means that there is no action going on, there is no Picture. NOTHING IS HAPPENING. The mental movie has stopped and only the sound-track is playing in a vacuum, like a Radio Show with no sound effects. I don’t know about you, but when I go to read a book, I want to SEE what I'm reading like a movie, not listen to a radio show.

Action and body-language tags on dialogue are NOT just there for decoration.
 

Action tags keep the mental Movie rolling and the MEANING of what is being said crystal clear. A small simple action can tell you right away what's going through the speaker's head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. “I love you too.”
She dropped her chin and pouted. “I love you too.”
She glared straight at him. “I love you too.”
“I love you too.” She turned away and wiped the tear from her cheek.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dead give-away that dialogue is happening in a vacuum?
Look for dialogue tags, the word: SAID or any of its cousins: Spoke, Asked, Stated...etc.

Dialogue tags are a pet peeve of mine. I don’t use them. Ever.
Go To: Don't Need No Stinking "SAID" - a RANT!

Making Story HAPPEN

The fastest way to Start a story is...
– NOT at the Beginning.
 

Start your story within one page of Boy meets Girl (or Hero meets Trouble), with the story already in progress.

Don't bother with Back-story, also known as Info-Dumping. Use Dialogue to slip in clues to the characters' back-story and hints of what's going on in the world around them -- in the middle of all the action. This forces the reader to become an eavesdropper who MUST read on to find out: "What the heck is Really going on?"

The less you tell the readers, the more they'll want to read further to find out what's really happening. Make the reader WORK to discover why this vampire hunted this particular girl down, and why she isn’t running in screaming terror. Don’t give away the goodies until the reader is committed to your characters.

The saggy Middle...
- Is where the story’s REVERSAL goes.
 

Once you get to the middle, it's time for the Worst Case Scenario! The Middle is where Everything goes Terribly Wrong and the characters scramble to fix it, making everything WORSE.

Then comes the lowest point of the book, where they can’t possibly go any further. “We’re dead, we’re dead, we’re dead!” And then the Hero tries one last desperate thing…

Keep your Plot a SECRET until the bitter End!
- NEVER reveal ANYTHING until the Last Possible Moment!
 

The Easiest way to hide your plot -- and all your other shocking secrets, is by staying in ONE Point Of View (POV), rather than hopping from head to head.

When the main character - the POV character - is the ONLY character telling their thoughts to the reader, it's really easy to make the reader think one thing when in fact it's another!

(I don't care what other authors do, if you want to keep your plot a secret, you Don't put your readers in the heads of the characters plotting against your main POV character.)

The Final Battle!
- Shouldn’t be a total Win or a total Lose.
 

Winning should come with a cost, and Losing should come with an unexpected bonus. For some odd and unexplainable reason, a total triumph seems to be just as unsatisfying to the modern day reader as a total: “He dies, she dies, everybody dies…” Bittersweet seems to be the preferred flavor for an ending.

(I have no idea WHY the majority of my readers seem to prefer a balance of good and bad, but I do have the hate-mail to prove it.)

Where to End it?
- Where you began – back at square one.
 

Make the story a nice tidy loop. This tells the reader: “The next story is about to begin!”

• Sam Spade always ends up back in his office, ready to begin his next job.
• Alice comes back out of her rabbit hole – of course she’s being chased, but hey…!
• King Arthur sailed off in a tiny ship on the lake where he gained Excalibur, and his career as King began -- but he wasn’t dead. He could have come back. (Okay, so he didn’t come back -- but He COULD Have!)
• Even the classic Romances that end with a wedding party imply a new beginning.

What Don't I need in a Story?
- Only put in as much work as you Need To.
 

Think: SLACKER. 

 

The trick to knowing what to include in a story is whether or not you intend to actively USE it. If the character trait or object does not matter to the plot – skip it. If it doesn’t actively MOVE the Plot, (even a teeny bit,) you don’t need to use it -- or describe it.

The shorter the story the LESS room you have to work with, so the only details you need are what actually Changes the Plot. The same goes for character details. If the fact that your Hero's brother likes soccer a whole lot has no bearing on the plot, you don’t need to mention it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's the Quick and Dirty version of how to Write a Story. If you want more details, I want begging and pleading. And make it GOOD.

Morgan Hawke
www.dakerotica.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is a META For?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

If You Can't Take an Edit, Stay Out of the Publishing House

The Editor is Your Friend
Or
If You Can't Take an Edit,
- Stay Out of the Publishing House

Stefani V. Kelsey
Editor-in-chief of eXtasy Books

Back in the day...
...in order to see a book in print, you were forced to do it the old-fashioned way: submit to a major publishing house and use the rejection slips to dab your tears. Repeat the process until you either buried your dreams--and your manuscript--in the bottom of a trunk, or by God and by Golly...Hit the Big Time!

Now, the world is your publishing house.
If Doubleday is foolish enough not to recognize your genius, you can hit small press, or POD, or ebook, or even do it yourself, whether by paying someone to do it for you, or truly making it your own. With so many options, finding the right fit is worth taking the time.

A huge factor in the decision-making process is that of the most feared facet of the publishing world: The Editor.

One misapprehension that the editor is out to hack, twist, trash, or otherwise fold, spindle, and mutilate your work. The true job of an editor is to take what you have and make it the best it can be, not to rewrite it in their own image and likeness. Spelling, grammar and sentence structure are standard, as is consistency.

You may get a manuscript back marked with enough red to illustrate the St. Valentine's Massacre, and still find not all that much is changed, as far as the true heart of your work: the story.

An editor doesn't bake the cake, just decorates it.

Unfortunately, not all editors know their role.
Some want to rewrite a story in a way they like, regardless of author's voice. Others fail to understand the author's world building, and end up literally destroying the carefully wrought storyline. Still more take on the role with a minimum of training and experience, and end up putting in more mistakes than they take out.

Usually because of a bad experience such as this, the author goes into the publishing world mistrusting the editor, and the relationship is doomed from the start.

The trick is knowing the difference between a professional edit, and the evil alternative.

Editing can seem traumatic...
You just handed over your baby, and when you get that book back, you feel like you've been attacked. Sentences you labored over have been hash-marked. The quaint turn of phrase you spent a good amount of time getting just so has been designated "too passive", and there is a detailed note attached asking you all sorts of inane questions you thought were made perfectly clear in line 18 of page four.

What would bring an otherwise kind person to perform such brutality?

Oddly enough, they're doing it to help you.
If a publisher signs you, they think you have a good bit of writing that the public may enjoy. So their goal is to put out a book that people will want to spend money on.

Now, no matter how good you and your crit group are, things will be missed.
That's the editor's job.

What seems perfectly clear and right to you after fifty readings may not be so to a reader during their first. A certain turn of phrase may read as offensive, or it may just not fit the image the house wants to project.

And of course, two words to strike fear in any wordsmith's heart:
House Style.

Every publisher has their own style, terminology, and formatting methods. Which, in most cases, is nothing like yours.

But the end result is not intended to send you into a fit of weeping and bosom-rending, but merely to create a marketable product.

If it's not about the money, or you think your misspellings are creative, and should be left in for emphasis, or you truly fear the evil editor, don't go to a publisher.

Insane advice?
No, self-preservation.
You're better off going to a vanity press, or simply doing it yourself, because all it will result in is bad blood between you and the publisher.

If you sign their contract, you are in essence agreeing to do it their way. If you don't like their way, don't sign the contract.

And yes, an ebook publisher is a real publisher.

And a contract is a contract.

Going to an ebook publisher is not a "last resort."
It also does not mean you get the right to do or say whatever you like. An epublisher commands the same respect as any other.

If Doubleday signed you:

• Would you argue with and/or insult the editor?
• Would you ask the publisher after they spent hours editing and putting your book up for sale to dissolve your contract because you want to go to another publisher?
• More important, would they?

Straight up answer is no, on all counts. You wouldn't do it, and they wouldn't take it. So keep that in mind when you make your decision.

© 2005 Stefani V. Kelsey,
Executive Managing Editor, eXtasy Books
Also writing as Eppie Finalist and CAPA Nominee Rian Monaire Article Featured in Xodtica Magazine March 2005

Posted with Permission

Erotica without Sex?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Being Clear as MUD - Showing & Telling

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.