Using All 5 Senses In Erotica (Or Sexy Scenes In General)

Source: Stock Exchange

Recently a post popped up in Kindle Boards about tips for using all five senses when writing erotica, or just erotic scenes. I ended up writing a fairly detailed reply, and thought I'd bring it over to my blog and expand on it for everyone else out there!

First off, if you're somebody looking for advice in this section, I want you to think about the #1 sense you associate with sex. (Or flirtation, if it's buildup.) For a lot of people, it'll be a different answer. But I'll bet you're thinking either "sight," or "touch." If you're writing scenes focusing on only two (or less) senses, however, you may find that readers aren't connecting as much to these physically and emotionally charged scenes as you want - and in erotica, that's not good!

So how does one try to work in every sense into sensual scenes? Whether harmless flirtation, or wall-bangin' fun, here are my top tips I hope will help and will ultimately tell you what a perv I am. (Please note that this is a bit more graphic than my post over at KB. Fair warning!)

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Sight - What do the characters look like both clothed and unclothed? How do their bodies visually react to stimuli? How sweaty is it getting, and how does that affect make-up, hair, and clothing? What parts of the body do your POV characters love the most and therefore focus on? Do your characters have body mods or birth marks that can only be seen when they're nude?

Touch - Seems like a given, but some things seem to get forgotten besides the, uh, mechanical feelings. What tickles? What's cold? What's hot? If you're going for realism, sometimes things might (unintentionally) hurt. Or, if you're going for hurt, what makes it so attractive? How do people feel compared to one another? Nails? Teeth?!!? 

Sound - Even if you have the quietest couple (or solo, or more) vocally, there's still gonna be sounds. Physics kinda demands it. Do you have a moaner? A squeaker? A screamer? Are the characters worried about people hearing them? Think of how the erotic acts are affecting the environment. Things falling off? Furniture adding itself to the chorus? Also, skin makes sound when slapping into other skin. (And don't forget the funny sounds if that's what you're after.)

Taste - Besides the obvious*, don't forget how outside factors may affect the taste of things. Diet and body chemistry affect everyone's "flavor" differently. No two people taste the exact same. Also, if you're not looking to get into THAT much detail, there may be other ways to approach this sense. Maybe it's time to bust our the chocolate strawberries.

*Wait, you don't know the obvious? Uh, just read this link. (NSFW, textually.)

Smell - This one seems the most forgotten anywhere that isn't dead bodies or Thanksgiving dinner. And I think in erotic scenes there's a fear, sometimes, of grossing people out with smell. But like taste, everyone has a different diet and chemistry that will contribute to smell. But I also think you can get away with really vague descriptions here, because most readers will have their own scent-related memories they can call up. Scent is one of the most powerful memories so I think it's important to play with. (If you need some ideas, try calling up environmental smells that may set the mood, such as candles, flowers, soap, shampoo, perfume/cologne, and yes, even the smell of sweat in these circumstances can be sexy!)

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A total package offering all five senses on your sensual platter is a great way to involve your readers in ways they may have never been expecting. Try a sense you often forget the next time you're writing and see where it takes you and your audience!

Are you particular to any particular sense when writing, whether a sexy scene or not? Would you add any other tips to this list?

Weekly Writing Check-In: To Smut, Or Not to Smut

I dig me some lesbian koalas.

"Smut", is, of course, my affectionate term for "sex scenes" in my own writing. Usually, in my main series, I'm not shy about including graphic sex scenes (I'm writing for damn adults, after all) so long as it's related to the overall plot, whether by something that happens during the scene or how it affects the fornicatin' characters. It's pretty easy for me to go "lol that smut was fun to write, too bad it's gettin' cut even before the second draft happens lolol". But that's when I'm writing my science-fiction/fantasy.

I've been editing my romance novella this week, and I think I've mentioned here before that me and a few CPs/general friends have been discussing how I should market it. Should I market it just as a romance with a couple graphic scenes, or as an erotic romance? To me, marketing it as an erotic romance means there's smutsmutsmut all over the place, and if that's what you're looking for, you may be disappointed to see the first ~smut~ doesn't pop up until halfway through the novella. Here's the thing: there are two very good places I could insert some good ol' lady x lady smut earlier on in the novella, but I didn't because it wasn't really plot related. I'm thinking I may write them anyway after I finish this edit just to see how I feel about them in the overall story. But I wouldn't have thought of it at all if it weren't me thinking ahead towards marketing. I don't know. I'm talking in circles now.

But yes, smut has been on the brain all week. Ain't being (lonely, sad) 25 grand.

Weekly Writing Check-In: Those Silly Editing Items. And Sex.

When you've been editing your own work for any length of time, you begin to notice certain things that may be unique to your own writing style that you have to batter away with a leaf blower just to have a salvageable draft. I'm not talking about "passive voice", "adverbs", "dialogue tags", or the dozens of little things we're cautioned to watch out for when editing our own or others' works. I'm talking about the writing quirks, the crutches, the things that if anybody caught you repeatedly doing it they would never let you live it down. In my craze this month to edit as much as I can of CROSS//Rebirth to get it off to beta, I've noticed some certain things I've had to CTRL+F for to search and destroy until only one or two remain in a chapter (I usually have long chapters, so one or two is usually find imo.)

- "sigh". All my characters are always sighing, and of course it's usually not necessary. This is a habit I picked up years and years ago as a crutch to display dissatisfaction, eventual fatigue, or as a way to change a character's thoughts or switch POV. I've finally stopped actually writing it so much, but it still abounds in older drafts.

- "realize". This is a new for me in this particular draft. Characters are always having these little epiphanies, apparently. This is trickier to get rid of than "sigh" because it's not a simple delete, but usually requires rearranging entire sentences to get the same idea across without making everyone look like Plato.

- "glance". One of my big things that is pretty much just a style of mine is that I focus on characters' facial expressions, particularly eyes, because this is what I do in real life. Characters' eyes usually convey their inner feelings for me. (And this carries on to others' works...sometimes i don't pick up the inner cues as well unless a character's eyes are described.) But I've been noticing a large amount of "glancing" going on in this draft. Not looking, not glaring, not peering, glancing. Well, it is a pretty word. But I have no need for so much of it. This is a word that's just driving me nuts at this  point because it's EVERYWHERE. Sometimes I just swap out for another word so my "glance" rage doesn't explode, but usually I just drop the whole part or reword it if it's really important.

Aside from that, it's just the usual. First thing I control+F after reading through the whole chapter is "that", because extraneous "that"s are my new kryptonite.

Of course, I type all of this now as I'm staring down the chapter with the super-awkward-heterosexual-generational-difference-sex-scene from hell. (Not because it's awful or doesn't belong, but because it's just so awkward,man, which is good! Because that's what I'm going for.) My brain is going to be caught between "would a reader LAUGH at this description when they're not supposed to" and "oh. oh dude what are you doing with that?! I totally forgot about this!" while I know I'm supposed to be looking for these smaller things. I've read and edited this scene dozens of times now and it's pretty much where it needs to be, but this whole "tightening sentences" doesn't work when you're giggling over the word "tight" hee hee hee!

Sigh. I realize now that I should glance through it.

I'm going in.