Cassie Cox - Intimate Details: Beyond the Style Manual, #5

Beyond the Style Manual

Intimate Details: Elements of a Sex Scene

A Red Adept Publishing Book

Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.

First Kindle Edition: February 2016

Red Adept Publishing, LLC

104 Bugenfield Court

Garner, NC 27529

http://RedAdeptPublishing.com/

Cover and Formatting: Streetlight Graphics

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I am an editor, and the overwhelming majority of the books I work on are romances. Ive found romance readers to be the largest, most vocal, and most loyal group of online book enthusiasts. Readers discuss their book boyfriends as if theyre real people, and they flock to signing events. Its unsurprising, then, that many new authors start with that genre and many established authors, at one point or another, choose to dip their toes into the pool of romance and romantic erotica. What I initially found surprising was that the majority of authors I worked with were more anxious about their sex scenes than any other aspect of novel writing. If love is the meat and potatoes of romance, sex is the wine. Choose the wrong kind, and you may ruin the flavor of the food. Choose the right kind, and you create a sensual delight to remember.

My hope is that this style guide will help new romance writers identify the elements of a romance sex scene, including the formulas readers expect, as well as give them some suggestions on how to get started writing a sex scene.

Because the majority of romance novels involve sex scenes with one man and one woman, that will be my focus in this guide. If you want to write about threesomesor more-somesor other LGBT pairings, you are not alone. Ive read some wonderful alternative sex and romance scenes, but that is more of a niche market. Youll probably still find some good information in this guide, but I cant speak as well to the formulas in your market. Additionally, this style guide will refer to the female as the protagonist and the male as the male lead. You may switch them in your book, or you may show both points of view, but a female protagonist paired with a male lead is, at the time of this writing, the most common setup.

Chapter 1:
Know Your Market

While I dont claim to be a marketing expert, I can tell you this: know your market. The majority of romance readers are women between twenty-five and forty-five years old. There are always exceptions to the rule, of course, but that is your base demographic as a romance author, and it should affect how you write. If youre trying to write a book that everyone will love, you will fail.

Within the genre of romance are almost unlimited subgenres: curvy protagonists, kinky couples, Christian fiction, military romances, African-American couples, paranormal, and many others. Many books fit into more than one subgenre, but you should determine which market youre aiming for and keep that in mind as you write. BDSM readers dont want to read vanilla sex, readers who prefer curvy protagonists dont want to read about a protagonist who works out five hours a day to fit into size-zero clothing, and readers who prefer all-human couples dont want to read dinosaur erotica. The good news is no matter what story you want to tell, theres a market for ityes, even dinosaur erotica.

So know your audience. Are you writing for teens? Young adults? Older women? Do you expect your readers to have some basic knowledge of the world youre crafting, or do you expect to have to introduce them to concepts that they may not know? All of those answers, and the answers to a hundred other questions, will affect how you craft your novel.

Once you have established the target audience for your romance novel, read other books aimed at that audience. Pay attention to the ages of the characters, the way they speak, their jobs, and their values. Are the sex scenes graphic? Read readers reviews of these books so you can get an idea of what your potential readers like and dislike. Romance readers love to talk about books, and their opinions about other books can give you invaluable feedback about what to include in your own.

Types of Sex

In romance novels, there are three kinds of sexual encounters, which Ill call fade to black (FTB), suggestive, and erotica. FTB and suggestive are the most common types of sex scenes in romance, and theyre popular with many different demographics of readers. Again, know your audience. Erotica is frequently its own genre, but Ive seen more crossover between erotica and romance, thanks to the popularity of a certain trilogy that I wont name. Youll have to decide which kind of sex scenes you want in your book.

In FTB sex scenes, the reader never sees any kind of sexual encounter beyond kissing and caressing. The couple in the book usually spends time discussing their feelings and kissing. The kissing often progresses to fondling and the removal of one or two articles of clothingthe mans shirt is a safe betbefore the couple decides to go to their bedroom. They shut the door, and the scene ends. The next scene may pick up an hour or so later, showing the happy couple satiated and in postcoital bliss, or it may pick up on an entirely different day. Either way, the reader knows that the characters had sex and is left to imagine it however they want. FTB works especially well in romances with a heavy religious component.

Suggestive sex scenes will often begin in the same way as FTB, but instead of shutting the reader out of the bedroom, they draw the reader inside. Suggestive requires the author to show all of a couples sexual acts, from removing clothing to postcoital pillow talk. Suggestive scenes show details about the sex acts, but they use more suggestive language. For example, instead of, He slid his penis into her vagina, youll see, He slid himself into her. Suggestive sex scenes put the reader inside the protagonistsand sometimes the male leadsmind and heart as the couple bonds.

The line between suggestive and erotica is fuzzy, and various people, booksellers, and outlets will disagree about which category a scene might fall into. However, the focus of the suggestive scene is subtly different from erotica. In suggestive, the sex scene focuses on emotions and connection; in erotica, the sex scene focuses on the acts themselves with feelings as a secondary concern. Erotica couples are seeking physical release and emotional catharsis through orgasm. As such, erotica usually uses more direct and sensual words, and youre more likely to see elements of kink. Successful erotica engages the readers senses, detailing what the couple is tasting, hearing, seeing, and feeling. You can detail scents as well, but tread carefully, as many readers dont like to think about the smells people create during sex.