Poll

How graphic do you like to write sex and violence?

My imagination likes to leave a lot to the imagination.....
My mind works on a PG level.....
I draw the line at penetration....bloody or otherwise.....
My brain wallows in hormonal carbonation....

Author Topic: How graphic do you like yours?  (Read 10007 times)

Offline Murphy's Stunt Double

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #15 on: March 02, 2008, 02:04:05 AM »
ok, I'll bite... why did it make you shudder? Because it's graphic or because it's cheesy?
If you are up to no good, please do no good for me too, okay?   ;D

JamiSings

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #16 on: March 02, 2008, 02:13:08 AM »
Um, the prose there made me shudder.


Well, I couldn't exactly say the real thing, could I? Besides, I wrote it cheesy romance novel style.

What did you want me to say? Something about being rammed?

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #17 on: March 02, 2008, 06:41:23 AM »
Well, I couldn't exactly say the real thing, could I? Besides, I wrote it cheesy romance novel style.

I know. You got the style down well; the style itself makes me shudder.

I don't have a solution here, because the options the language actually has in it for the descriptions here are childish words, rude words, clinical words or a fairly predictable set of metaphors.  And the sort of moods I'm most often interested in writing to, none of those really fit.

Being rammed is a thing that happens, in my books, to doors, when half a dozen hefty chaps carrying a sizable log between them get a running start. Not to people.  Though mind you, I've done a relationship or two best described as "two ships crashing in the night", and "rammed" is not an inappropriate adjective in that situation.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2008, 07:02:36 AM by neurovore »
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Offline Murphy's Stunt Double

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #18 on: March 02, 2008, 06:54:29 AM »
Yes, I must admit, that's the biggest challenge I face when I write smut scenes... the descriptive options leave much to be desired... no pun intended.
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Offline LizW65

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #19 on: March 02, 2008, 05:43:08 PM »
For some hilariously bad sex writing (all from published sources) click here:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,331379643-99819,00.html
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Offline Murphy's Stunt Double

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #20 on: March 02, 2008, 06:02:30 PM »
Alll righty then.... I will no plonger presume I am the worst writer on the planet. I have been duly proven wrong. In black and white.  :o
If you are up to no good, please do no good for me too, okay?   ;D

Offline meg_evonne

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #21 on: March 02, 2008, 06:11:34 PM »
"It was exhilarating, to be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space." OMG the whole page was RFLMAO...

Tried to find that beautiful passage from the Prioress tale from Canterbury as a comparision but couldn't find it. my olde english isn't up to being able to find it..  :)
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JamiSings

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #22 on: March 02, 2008, 06:15:02 PM »
I know. You got the style down well; the style itself makes me shudder.


Sex scenes are really hard to write properly if you ask me. Not that I'm a professional writer but I've written some fetish stuff from time to time. No matter how you try it always comes out either as gross out porn or cheesy as the worse cheap romance novel. It's easier to write bloody violence.

Offline Cyclone Jack

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #23 on: March 02, 2008, 07:38:29 PM »
"It was exhilarating, to be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space." OMG the whole page was RFLMAO...

So long as you realize that phrase is a direct steal from Hamlet and is being used in an entirely inappropriate manner.  :P
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Offline meg_evonne

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #24 on: March 02, 2008, 08:13:11 PM »
Got me.  "Words, words, words."   must be taken in perspective.

Still--he was referring to the mind.  Yes, I did have to go look it up in my Penguin guide.   ::)

"Hamlet: I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams."

Somehow, it seems a world apart.  Then again, he wrote Falstaff for humor.  Not so the quote in Hamlet.
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Offline Yeratel

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #25 on: March 02, 2008, 10:25:48 PM »
"Do you enjoy Kipling, young lady?"
"I'm sure I don't know, sir," she blushed, "I've never kippled."
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #26 on: March 03, 2008, 05:07:07 PM »
"Do you enjoy Kipling, young lady?"
"I'm sure I don't know, sir," she blushed, "I've never kippled."

"But, my man, have you done your chores ?"
"What chores ?"
"Thanks, I'll have a pint of Strongbow."
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

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

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Offline THETA

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #27 on: March 19, 2008, 09:15:57 PM »
Uhh, i prefer classy graphic.  Richelle Mead is a pretty good example.  The sex is definitely there, but the description is a little vaguer.  Instead of "I felt his cock" it turns into "I felt him."  You know, small stuff like that make the difference between a harlequin and an actual literary novel.
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Offline Blaidd

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Re: How graphic do you like yours?
« Reply #28 on: March 19, 2008, 10:02:23 PM »
I'm with Theta on stuff like:

Quote
Instead of "I felt his cock" it turns into "I felt him."

However I write a lot of what could be considered fetish (not porn, not even sex) and that does involve a lot of where the rope goes and how deep it cuts and an awful lot of synonyms for 'flesh'. Some would say it is graphic because it's descriptive. I could say 'he tied her up' but there are just so many ways of doing that to a person. Can she reach the phone? Can she scratch that really irritating itch on the end of her nose?

When I want her to feel fear, I don't want to tell you she's scared, I want you to just know, simply from her reaction. Make your own mind up how she feels. I don't write in the first person so I can't asy for sure myself.

Rather, I go by the rule of: could I possibly persuade one of my workmates (ok maybe one of my more imaginative workmates) to read this without cringing, or would it simply look better sat next to Deep Throat?