Author Topic: Boingy boingy boingy  (Read 8039 times)

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #15 on: September 04, 2009, 06:59:07 PM »
It's not an easy one, because the way people generally talk about sex in English wants to fall into one of three options, depending which words you use; crude vernacular; anatomically clinical; or somewhere lost in the forests of overblown metaphor.  Steering between these is difficult indeed.

A lot depends on what you are actually trying to do, too.  I'm of the opinion that a sex scene, like any other scene, should be there for a specific purpose; ideally more than one.  And, well, if what you are trying to write is "A works for B, and B suspects A's loyalties are flagging, and B is sleeping with A thinking it will bind them more closely, and A's loyalties actually were not flagging but A is kind of insulted by B thinking this will help and so B is achieving the exact opposite of what B is aiming to do", so much of making that work is focused inside people's heads and on what they say that the "insert body part X in orifice Y" is not really the foreground of the scene. (I have nothing against sex writing that exists to titillate the reader, I just rarely find it works well with characters whose in-world motivations I am connected to.)

Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline LizW65

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2093
  • Better Red than dead...
    • View Profile
    • elizabethkwadsworth.com
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #16 on: September 07, 2009, 09:17:48 PM »
A lot depends on what you are actually trying to do, too.  I'm of the opinion that a sex scene, like any other scene, should be there for a specific purpose; ideally more than one.  And, well, if what you are trying to write is "A works for B, and B suspects A's loyalties are flagging, and B is sleeping with A thinking it will bind them more closely, and A's loyalties actually were not flagging but A is kind of insulted by B thinking this will help and so B is achieving the exact opposite of what B is aiming to do", so much of making that work is focused inside people's heads and on what they say that the "insert body part X in orifice Y" is not really the foreground of the scene. (I have nothing against sex writing that exists to titillate the reader, I just rarely find it works well with characters whose in-world motivations I am connected to.)

In an instance such as this I would stick with motivations and leave the explicit eroticism for another story, as what matters is that sex between A and B happens and why, not that both or one experience earth-shattering climax, blah, blah, blah.  The problem I have with many sex scenes is that they're usually poorly written (and often physically impossible) and all sound alike after a while, or worse, the author tries to be creative and comes up with bizarre metaphors that have nothing to do with sex and leave you wondering about his/her psychological state at the time of writing.
"Make good art." -Neil Gaiman
"Or failing that, entertaining trash." -Me
http://www.elizabethkwadsworth.com

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2009, 02:23:43 PM »
In an instance such as this I would stick with motivations and leave the explicit eroticism for another story, as what matters is that sex between A and B happens and why, not that both or one experience earth-shattering climax, blah, blah, blah.  The problem I have with many sex scenes is that they're usually poorly written (and often physically impossible) and all sound alike after a while, or worse, the author tries to be creative and comes up with bizarre metaphors that have nothing to do with sex and leave you wondering about his/her psychological state at the time of writing.

I must admit, when I have had a sex scene to write, I have kind of enjoyed doing something that looks on the surface like an odd metaphor and is in fact a clue to one of the participants not being entirely human.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Noey

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 3555
  • Life On Planet Pink.
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #18 on: September 08, 2009, 02:43:20 PM »
I must admit, when I have had a sex scene to write, I have kind of enjoyed doing something that looks on the surface like an odd metaphor and is in fact a clue to one of the participants not being entirely human.

Things like this are the way I think sex scenes should be used, like any other scene. It's a well constructed story that has scenes which always in some way forward the plot, and so in my own writing, I only include a sex scene if I can do something relevant with it. The way two characters relate to each other can be shown by the way they are during sex, in the things they do, say, etc. Things can happen during sex that move the plot along. Life doesn't always happen with one's clothes on, you know? So, I don't necessarily skip sex scenes altogether, but at the same time there are times when I'm reading, and I get the image of Meryl Streep in She-Devil in my head questing for a euphemism and coming up with a phrase that still makes me snortgiggle, love button. So, I'll read or write a love scene, but I avoid love button scenes like the plague. Unless, of course, I'm feeling goofy.  :D
You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me. - C.S. Lewis

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #19 on: September 08, 2009, 04:35:31 PM »
Things like this are the way I think sex scenes should be used, like any other scene. It's a well constructed story that has scenes which always in some way forward the plot, and so in my own writing, I only include a sex scene if I can do something relevant with it.

Agreed absolutely.

Quote
Life doesn't always happen with one's clothes on, you know?

No; there's the whole span between June and September where it's too hot for clothes, frex.

Quote
Unless, of course, I'm feeling goofy.  :D

Making a Disney gag here would be superfluous, wouldn't it ?
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Noey

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 3555
  • Life On Planet Pink.
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #20 on: September 08, 2009, 05:16:33 PM »
Only if you can't find the relevant link to Disney slashfic with BDSM tags.

...

Oh, look. My ride to hell's here!
You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me. - C.S. Lewis

Offline Aludra

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2980
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #21 on: September 08, 2009, 05:21:36 PM »
Only if you can't find the relevant link to Disney slashfic with BDSM tags.

...

Oh, look. My ride to hell's here!

Tell me it's a handbasket!
I knew him when he was just an IBM
John Scalzi, Android's Dream


DV Aludra v1.2 YR2 FR1.5 BK+ RP JB TH(!TH) ?WG ?CL SW+ BC- MC---- SH[Murphy-, Molly--, Lara+]

Offline Noey

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 3555
  • Life On Planet Pink.
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #22 on: September 08, 2009, 07:09:54 PM »
With bigass wheels and gingham restraints. :D
You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me. - C.S. Lewis

comprex

  • Guest
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #23 on: September 09, 2009, 01:49:09 PM »
With bigass wheels and gingham restraints. :D

Please. 

Everyone knows that -that- ride is properly a sleighride.

Offline Darwinist

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 215
    • View Profile
    • Socially Transmitted Disease
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #24 on: September 09, 2009, 01:57:24 PM »
I must admit, I am quite impressed. You'd think a sleigh ride to hell wouldn't be so comfortable. Cup holders, plush leather seating, multiple air conditioning vents, surround sound radio and HD televisions... wait a second... air bags? WTH?

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 39098
  • Riding eternal, shiny and Firefox
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #25 on: September 09, 2009, 02:38:40 PM »
Please. 

Everyone knows that -that- ride is properly a sleighride.

Santa is after all only an anagram.
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline meg_evonne

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5264
  • With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #26 on: September 09, 2009, 04:23:23 PM »
Tell me it's a handbasket!
With bigass wheels and gingham restraints. :D

That is just so wrong.  Have I told you today that I love you guys!?  Thanks for the laughter!
"Calypso was offerin' Odysseus immortality, darlin'. Penelope offered him endurin' love. I myself just wanted some company." John Henry (Doc) Holliday from "Doc" by Mary Dorla Russell
Photo from Avatar.com by the Domestic Goddess

Offline shades of grey

  • O. M. G.
  • ***
  • Posts: 31772
  • Cardboard wings and knicker elastic.
    • View Profile
Re: Boingy boingy boingy
« Reply #27 on: September 30, 2009, 08:28:11 PM »
just read sailor jim...




....and actually cried laughing.