Ahem. Hm. Blush.
So my current novel has only one almost-sex scene in it, a scene that is rudely interrupted by an action sequence. I read somewhere once that in every movie or book prior to 1990, any gay or bi characters in the piece wind up dead by the end. This definitely upset me, because my main character is bi-sexual, and while she doesn’t end up dead at the end of the book, her love interests do not turn out well. I decided that the second book should be sort of an action-suspense book with some real romance thrown in for poor Ian. Let her actually get the girl at the end of this one.
Here’s the trouble: I am a feminist and I am comfortable with sex. I think euphemisms for sex and sexual body parts are stupid and I don’t use them. Breasts, penis, clitoris or clit, vagina or vag, vulva, testicles, etc. Not exactly beautiful descriptors. But trying to come up with another way to say any of these things makes me sound like I’m ashamed to call them by their right names. At the same time, trying to use direct descriptions of any of these body parts makes it feel way too graphic and in-your-face. Why is it okay to describe a tongue and lips and teeth in a kissing scene, but really graphic to describe a penis or vulva in a sex scene? Hm.
It doesn’t help that most of the books I read either use the”black curtain” descriptions of sex: “They kissed, clothes came off, they fell into bed and were busy until the next scene” or the “indirect descriptors” method: “Her soft valley, his hardness, swelling fullness, throbbing flesh.” Oh, or my new least favorite type of sex scene, the “it’s always a quicky” scene: “They kissed, he got hard, they screwed, they were done, it was good for both of them.” The sci-fi/fantasy books that do have more thorough sex descriptions always seem to be more romance based, much less action/adventure based, and frankly pretty boring to me.
I want this book to be action-filled, suspenseful, emotional and include some romance but not be dominated by romance.
So, anyone have any suggestions about how to tackle this?
