Do you ever write their sex scenes to learn how they do it? I’m writing one now that won’t make it into my book, but I want to know how they move together…their animal push and pull.
I think sex is the expression of characters’ needs and wants (physical and psychological) at a given moment and in given circumstances. If you ask yourself what those are, and what happens when X’s desires at that moment meet Y’s desires at that moment, you have some clue as to the physical character of the sex.
:: The many readers of E.L. James's novel, I'd argue, aren't so much harbouring fantasies of being sadistically toyed with by investment bankers (although I'm sure that's a thing), as reconciling their own inner Christian Greys and Anastasia Steeles.::
Huh. You just wrote the first believable defense of the FIFTY SHADES books (which as both somebody in The Scene, and as a writer myself, consider badly-written, morally-repugnant trash!) that I've read.
I'd wondered why E.L. James FIFTY SHADES OF SEXUAL ABUSE sold so well, when far better novels about the BDSM scene like Sindra van Yssl's BONDAGE RANCH, Brynley Blake's BLACK BROTHERS, or Lexi Blake's MASTERS AND MERCENARIES series, while they're successful enough to have multiple books written in them, didn't set the world on fire the way James did. I've also been...surprised by the large number of books written, and sold, about Wealthy Mafia Princes and Russian Mobsters who kidnap and make innocent women into their eager sex slaves.
I haven’t read 50SOG, but I chose it precisely because its success has occurred independently of its critical trashing. Stripped down, it’s the story of a woman and an emotionally unavailable man. Classic hook. Classic Romance. It’s not my kind of thing AT ALL, and my post is absolutely not a ‘defence’ of the book, but if something is that commercially successful (125m readers at a recent count) it must be doing something right. And I’m interested to know what that is.
I didn't mean "defense" as in "I liked it", I meant "defense" as in "I see something that speaks to a lot of people that most detractors don't".
Yes, it's a classic romance trope, and it's one that the TWILIGHT series (which 50 SHADES ripped off shamelessly) used just as effectively, only without any premarital sex at all! (As Rachel Maddow put it on her show, "There's sure a lot of hot...'not having sex' in the TWILIGHT books!") It's the BDSM element that's the most offensive, because it presents itself as "Safe, Sane, Consensual" when it's clearly not—and there's far too much kink-shaming going on in American society as is!
Well, that and the writing, which is...straight out of fanfic, which is what it originally was. Fanfic is a lot like vaudeville, "a place for kids to be bad" as George Burns said—so to have THIS Turkey Day Gobbler rise above the rest and become a 125M books sold and three movies hit? Is mystifying to me.
This is so helpful!
Thanks, Luke. This was a clear explanation of the reasons to have sex scenes.
I appreciate your pointing out the “dueling selves” in romance duos. I now have to pretty much examine every figure in literature and film now!
duelling selves is an elegant way of putting it
Do you ever write their sex scenes to learn how they do it? I’m writing one now that won’t make it into my book, but I want to know how they move together…their animal push and pull.
I think sex is the expression of characters’ needs and wants (physical and psychological) at a given moment and in given circumstances. If you ask yourself what those are, and what happens when X’s desires at that moment meet Y’s desires at that moment, you have some clue as to the physical character of the sex.
:: The many readers of E.L. James's novel, I'd argue, aren't so much harbouring fantasies of being sadistically toyed with by investment bankers (although I'm sure that's a thing), as reconciling their own inner Christian Greys and Anastasia Steeles.::
Huh. You just wrote the first believable defense of the FIFTY SHADES books (which as both somebody in The Scene, and as a writer myself, consider badly-written, morally-repugnant trash!) that I've read.
I'd wondered why E.L. James FIFTY SHADES OF SEXUAL ABUSE sold so well, when far better novels about the BDSM scene like Sindra van Yssl's BONDAGE RANCH, Brynley Blake's BLACK BROTHERS, or Lexi Blake's MASTERS AND MERCENARIES series, while they're successful enough to have multiple books written in them, didn't set the world on fire the way James did. I've also been...surprised by the large number of books written, and sold, about Wealthy Mafia Princes and Russian Mobsters who kidnap and make innocent women into their eager sex slaves.
And I reiterate.... Huh. 🤔
I haven’t read 50SOG, but I chose it precisely because its success has occurred independently of its critical trashing. Stripped down, it’s the story of a woman and an emotionally unavailable man. Classic hook. Classic Romance. It’s not my kind of thing AT ALL, and my post is absolutely not a ‘defence’ of the book, but if something is that commercially successful (125m readers at a recent count) it must be doing something right. And I’m interested to know what that is.
I didn't mean "defense" as in "I liked it", I meant "defense" as in "I see something that speaks to a lot of people that most detractors don't".
Yes, it's a classic romance trope, and it's one that the TWILIGHT series (which 50 SHADES ripped off shamelessly) used just as effectively, only without any premarital sex at all! (As Rachel Maddow put it on her show, "There's sure a lot of hot...'not having sex' in the TWILIGHT books!") It's the BDSM element that's the most offensive, because it presents itself as "Safe, Sane, Consensual" when it's clearly not—and there's far too much kink-shaming going on in American society as is!
Well, that and the writing, which is...straight out of fanfic, which is what it originally was. Fanfic is a lot like vaudeville, "a place for kids to be bad" as George Burns said—so to have THIS Turkey Day Gobbler rise above the rest and become a 125M books sold and three movies hit? Is mystifying to me.
This!!!
Thanks for sharing this. Happy Friday