How to Write Hot Sex:
Tips from Multi-Published
Erotic Romance Authors
Edited by
Shoshanna Evers
Copyright © 2011 Shoshanna Evers
Smashwords Edition
HOW TO WRITE HOT SEX:
TIPS FROM MULTI-PUBLISHED EROTIC ROMANCE AUTHORS
Edited by Shoshanna Evers
Copyright © 2011 Shoshanna Evers
All rights Reserved.
For complete article copyright information, please see the end of the book
Smashwords Edition
Cover art by Rob Sturtz http://www.digital-artist.com
Electronic book publication 2011
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.
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Praise for How to Write Hot Sex
5 stars! “Should be required reading for all romance
writers! Even non-erotic writers will benefit from the essays in this
book. There’s something for everyone.”
— Heather Thurmeier,
author, http://heatherthurmeier.com
5 stars! “If you are an erotic romance writer, or are
considering writing it, you *need* to read this book. It’s
jam-packed with information covering all different types of sex
scenes. You might want to have a tall glass of ice water handy, too,
because even these authors’ non-fiction is hot!”
— Cassandra
Carr, author, http://www.booksbycassandracarr.com
5 stars! “How to Write Hot Sex is like the Kama Sutra of
erotic romance writing, filled with tips and techniques for putting
passion and freshness into your sex scenes, whether you write sweet
romance or kinky erotica. This how-to book will give you all sorts of
“naughty” ideas for turning on your characters and tuning in your
readers (and maybe turning them on, too!). Well-known and rising-
star erotic romance authors share their personal secrets and tricks
of the trade to transform your sex scenes from ho-hum to orgasmic.”
—
Cara Bristol, author, http://carabristol.com
5 stars! “How to Write Hot Sex is a must-have for any
aspiring romance writer. The tips from the experienced pros are right
on target, along with the blush-worthy excerpts, which demonstrate
just how it should be done. Anyone who reads it is guaranteed to walk
away with something that will improve their sex scenes. These authors
pull no punches and take you from writing something sweet your
great-grandmother would approve of to the downright naughty, which
will make you blush. There’s something in it for everyone!”
—
Dee Carney, author, http://www.deecarney.com
5 Stars! “How to Write Hot Sex offers practical, smart,
nuts-and-bolts writing advice from some of the best erotic romance
authors in the business. It’s also a fun, sexy, cheeky
read—possibly the only sex-writing manual you’ll ever need.”
— Juniper Bell, author, http://juniperbell.com
Introduction
How to Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors features everything you need to know about adding sizzling sexual tension, scorching sex scenes, and emotional impact to your romance writing in twelve info-packed essays from bestselling and multi-published authors so you can get published and get paid.
Whether you’re writing sensual, steamy, or full-on explicit sex scenes, writers can learn from the authors who write and sell sexy books for a living. Do you want to write erotica? Or an erotic romance? Perhaps you just want to add some hot sexual tension to your romance novel.
You’ve come to the right place.
Here you’ll find essays on the art of writing smokin’ hot vanilla sex, gay sex, BDSM, kink, and ménage, as well as information on how to find paying markets and publishers for your books and short stories.
How to Write Hot Sex: Tips from Multi-Published Erotic Romance Authors gives you all the information you need to write sex well and get published! The authors are published with New York publishers, small presses, and e-publishers, including Berkley, Kensington, Ellora’s Cave, Harlequin, Carina Press, Samhain, The Wild Rose Press, Loose Id, Running Press, Flying Pen Press, eXcessiva Publishing, Xcite Books, Circlet Press, loveyoudevine Alterotica, Amber Quill Press, Beyond the Page Publishing, Cleis Press, Resplendence Publishing, Total-E-Bound, as well as becoming Amazon Erotica Bestsellers with successfully self-published books.
So what are these gals gonna teach you? We’ll start this book off with erotica extraordinaire Cara McKenna, who also writes for Harlequin Blaze as Meg Maguire. Her essay Real Ugly will show you how to craft realistic, gritty sex scenes that will raise your prose above “steamy” to “unforgettable.” Then we’ve got the award-winning, prolific Desiree Holt. How prolific? Desiree recently released her one-hundredth book. Now that’s what I call multi-published! She shows you how to use all five senses to bring your romance novel to life in Five Sexy Senses to Rev Up Scenes.
By now you’ve probably heard of the huge market for male/male erotic romance. Interestingly, the readership for these stories is mainly straight women. Christine D’Abo teaches you how to cash in on a hot sub-genre with Boys Will Be Boys: Writing Male/Male Romance. Then L.K. Below dissects sexual tension in The Law of Attraction. With her advice, you’ll learn how to make your character’s attraction to each other come alive off the page as the sparks fly.
Bestselling Kensington author Kate Douglas (Wolf Tales) discusses Writing the Fine Line Between Erotica and Porn. By infusing your stories with emotional impact, you’ll always have a love story you can be proud of—no matter how explicit or graphic your sex scenes get. You’ll learn How to Write Convincing Fetish and Niche Market Sex from one of erotica’s bestselling LGBT authors, Giselle Renarde. Not sure what all those initials stand for? No worries—Giselle will walk you through the writing process she’s perfected over the years in the niche sex erotica market. You won’t believe some of the things that could get you on an editor or reader’s naughty list. At least you won’t be making those mistakes after reading her essay!
Then we get back to the basics with Amazon bestseller Charlotte Stein, who breaks down how to use varying sentence structure and wording to bring your Sexy Sentences from drab to fab. Even the hottest story idea won’t sell if it’s not written well, so heed Charlotte’s advice to take your writing to the next level—the level agents, editors, and readers need to see. You can also learn a lot about writing a good sex scene by studying the way fight scenes are written. That’s right, fight scenes, like sex scenes, can add levels of intensity and emotion to your stories. Award winning multi-published Isabo Kelly shows you how in her essay Fighting Sex.
BDSM erotica is hot—hot to read and hot to sell! Delphine Dryden asks So You Think You Can Kink? After reading her essay on Domination and submission in erotic romance, you’ll be answering hell yeah I can kink! Then we have New York Times bestselling author Jean Johnson, whose essay puts you directly in her classroom as she stands at the podium and plays sexy professor for us in Biology: The Good, The Bad, & the Sex Scene. Learning how our bodies physically and mentally become aroused will give you the tools you need to write hot sex with confidence.
But what if you’ve written a sex scene, and something’s just not right? Enter Fictionwise bestseller Cari Quinn and her Rx for a Sagging Sex Scene. You’ll be able to diagnose an ailing scene and make it exactly the way you need it to be after reading her essay. Lastly, I’ve contributed an essay on Getting Published. A year before this book you’re reading came out, Shoshanna Evers didn’t exist. In the space of one year I’ve had eleven books release with four different publishers (and my sixth Ellora’s Cave book is coming out soon) plus my own self-publishing. I became an Amazon Erotica Bestseller with my self-published work, in fact. In the span of one year I went from not existing to leaving my job as an RN to write full time. If it can happen to me, it can happen for you.
Many authors dream of signing with a literary agency but don’t know where to begin—so I decided to share the query letter that snagged my agent’s attention! Everything you need to know about the process of getting published is here. Whether you’re hoping to land an agent and multi-book contract with a big New York publisher, write for some of the fabulous electronic publishers, or self-publish and take control of your own publishing destiny, I’ll walk you through the steps.
Are you ready? Let’s learn How to Write Hot Sex! WOOT!
Real Ugly by Cara McKenna
About Cara McKenna:
Cara McKenna is a multi-published erotic romance author, and also writes steamy contemporary romance as Meg Maguire. She’s published with Ellora’s Cave, Harlequin Blaze, Samhain, and Loose-Id.
Reviewers call Cara “a writer to be contended with—humor, voice, style and heat.”
Before becoming a purveyor of red-hot romance and smart erotica, Cara was a record store bitch, a lousy barista, a decent designer, and an overly enthusiastic penguin handler. Cara now writes full-time and lives north of Boston with her extremely good-natured and permissive husband.
Real Ugly
Imagine a chocolate bar.
Pure, sweet milk chocolate. Pretty good, right? Smooth and rich and creamy…delightful. For a minute or two. Then your taste buds’ interest wanes with the even texture, the uniform taste.
Now imagine a chocolate bar you’d bother to tell your friends about. What makes it exceptional? Creaminess is good. But add some dynamism—crunchy toffee or airy nougat, nuts, fruit, or crazy things, like red pepper flakes or coffee beans or lavender. And make it 70% dark chocolate, stone ground for that fascinating, earthy feel. Now that’s a bar you’d tell a friend about. Not, “I had a chocolate bar. Oh you know, just plain chocolate but it was nice. Real easy to enjoy.” Nice and easy are nice and easy, but different is better. Different is worth recommending. “You wouldn’t believe the chocolate bar I just tried…”
Erotic romance and erotica, especially, are arguably all about the fantasy. They’re escapist genres, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They’re designed in part to titillate, and again, nothing wrong there. But make the fantasy sex too good, too perfect, too creamy-milk-chocolate, and your reader may set down the book satisfied, but will they remember what they read in a week’s time?
Sure, they may. But the scenes I remember (and indeed reread, and re-reread, and sigh wistfully over) are usually chock full of The Ugly. Ugly emotions, imperfect unions, harsh thoughts and words coming from conflicted characters.
I love writing The Ugly. My stories and sex scenes have been called gritty, real, gut-wrenching, refreshing, and train-wreckish. Greater compliments to me than a mere steamy. I’m not afraid to let my characters’ sex be imperfect, because I feel the key to creating a compelling fantasy isn’t to make everything fantastically perfect. Your sex scenes need to resonate as real, because as lovely as escapism feels, a hint of realism heightens the fantasy from, “Wow, if only sex were really that good!” to “Fuck, that was hot. I wonder if that guy from apartment 8C is into shit like that…”
Put enough of the real into the fantasy, and you’ll give readers that sense of what-if, that connection that lets them relate to what’s happening on the page.
Who Needs Satin When You’ve Got Sandpaper
How to make sex real, though? You don’t need to go overboard. You don’t need to include undignified digestive noises, bad breath, ingrown down-there hairs, or spend half a page explaining the enema your character thoughtfully gave him- or herself before submitting to a bit of back-door shenanigans. You don’t have to respect biology enough to do the math and figure out when your heroine’s going to be getting her monthly visitor (though you could—who knows, it could be hot, if done right).
But do include “ugly” sensory details. Ugly wakes up the reader and keeps them just uncomfortable enough to take the sex from sigh-inducing fantasy to heart-pounding voyeurism (or vicarious exploration, depending on the story and the reader’s willingness to be the characters, versus watch the characters—both are completely valid, incidentally). The ugly—or if you prefer, discordant—elements are what excites the character, author, and reader alike. It wakes you up and roots you in a scene. Makes you read a sentence twice, in a good way. It cleans the Vaseline off the lens and brings it all into focus.
Here are some examples of ugly details. The taste or scent of latex or lubricant on a lover’s cock. Bodily fluids accurately (but flatteringly) described—sweat, saliva, come and pre-come, lady-juices, the sting of whiskey still clinging to a lover’s lips. The horrible realization that she wore her grodiest underwear and didn’t shave her legs, not having expected to get laid (starts with embarrassment, ends with abandon). The sting of a slap or a sweet-nothing that triggers a bad memory. The coolness and grit of a hardwood floor under her back, the friction of the cheap carpet burning his knees, the awkwardness and exposure of a backseat. The scrape of nails and teeth. The ache in the jaw and gag in the throat during oral. The challenges of pairing a tall character with the short one, a beautiful one with an insecure one. The intimidating sensation of large man’s weight, and your character’s fear they may not be able to handle his physicality, his cock, his words, his kinks, or his distance and indifference when the sun comes up the next morning. The gracelessness of a man as he goes beyond the bounds of coordination, self-control and perfection, giving way to the erratic, frantic slap of skin on skin as his cock calls the shots.
Don’t Be Afraid to Interrupt
Keeping with the imperfection of reality, a bump in the action adds the valley that makes the peaks surrounding it all the more exciting, spiking the longing and impatience in both the characters and reader.
However, it can’t be as generic as an arbitrary phone call. If the sex is so hot, why would the heroine bother answering it? But if it were her ex-lover’s personalized ringtone…hmmm. There’s an interesting reversal. Don’t interrupt every sex scene, obviously, but don’t hesitate to call a time-out and let reality intrude.
If you’re a brave author who doesn’t gloss over the issue of birth control and safe sex, don’t be afraid to let that damn condom slow things down. It feels like an unsexy moment, that annoying, obligatory formality hijacking the fantasy. But let it! Let lube-slick fingers fumble with the wrapper. Let the characters get frustrated. Let that moment show the heroine (or hero) that the guy cares, or let the hero see that the woman he’s with isn’t afraid to lay down the law and make demands. Let her carry her own damn condoms. Let them realize neither remembered protection and force them to get creative, saving penetration for next time. Oooh, next time.
Also, don’t forget to prep. As I said before, you don’t have to drag the reader along for the enema, if your character’s a thoughtful and hygienic anal recipient. But please—no ramming it up a character’s back-end without lubricant or at least spit, without the preparation of fingers or glacially-slow penetration. Don’t omit lube from a scene because you think your heroine’s pussy has to be enough, each and every time. Don’t shy from the real.
Don’t Be Afraid of Fail-Sex
So as we’ve covered, even fantasy sex should be imperfect. Imperfect is real, and real is resonant, accessible and compelling. Taking that idea a bit further still, don’t be afraid to let a sex act “fail”. Have you ever actually had sex using whipped cream or frosting or other food stuffs? It’s a mess. Sex on the beach? Good for you. Still finding sand where the sun don’t shine? Leave your characters laughing about their attempt to spice things up, then send them to the shower to redeem the evening.
One area in particular I feel needs more failure is threesomes. What a powder keg that dynamic should be, especially if two of the lovers are committed or established! So often, one character wants it more than another. Oooh, that’s good. Go with that. I’ve written both angry three-ways, such as the ones in Shivaree and Ready and Willing, where at least one character consented under duress or out of fear (though they pretended they were fine with the idea—they weren’t cruelly coerced), and one ménage that plain old failed (Ruin Me) when the third decided he just wasn’t going there and walked out at the height of the festivities. I’ve also written three-ways that started out “Oh God, what am I doing?” and ended up mind-blowing. And three-ways that started as a favor to one character, and wound up instilling their indulgent partner with a profound sense of satisfaction from being the one who let that fantasy be realized (both Don’t Call Her Angel and Dirty Thirty). Fuck with the power dynamics. Oh, the power dynamics…
Rock that Boat
First and foremost, when writing hot sex, keep it edgy. And by “edgy” I don’t mean tossing in handcuffs or anal or spanking or any other kinky extra. Edgy means the reader and characters are on edge. Turned on, but perhaps not entirely comfortable with how turned on they are.
As examples of discomfort-as-spice, I’ve written stories about a heroine scared but curious about exploring her lover’s rape fantasy kink (Willing Victim), a married man finally indulging his need to have sex with another man (Dirty Thirty), more than one hesitant heroine finally letting a man get close to her (one a virgin, one a stranger to orgasm) and a militantly straight guy falling for another man for the first time in his life, thoroughly against his will (the entire Shivaree series). It’s all about that internal back-and-forth. “I don’t want to want this, but I do. But I can’t act on it, because acting on it would change how I see myself, and how this other person sees me. But crap, I really want to…” Tortured characters are a joy to write and read about, as long as you don’t manifest their torment as a never-ending swathe of lamenting introspection.
Ultimately, of course, curiosity will trump fear, but the conflict doesn’t end when consent is tendered.
When I write erotica, I don’t saddle myself with the burden of plot. A simple situation sets the stage (a single woman decides she wants to enlist men to help her conceive a baby the good old-fashioned way; young marrieds source a third for their first m/m/f threesome) and that’s all you need. A situation poses a question: what will happen if they go through with this? No bad guy to apprehend, no family business to save, merely an experience to explore.
Erotica is so sex-centric, plot dilutes a shorter story, as backward as that sounds. Make a book too much about a traditional plot, and the sex will feel crowbarred in, or vice versa. It’s a sex book, and that’s plenty. That’s legitimate. Sex is fascinating, and there’s no need to dress it up. Let sex drive the story, not some half-baked suspense yarn that gets tied up in a hurry after the fifth boinking session. It’s the emotions at play that constitute the conflict, both internal and between the various characters, in the absence of an external plot. Will they regret it? Who’s got the power? Is one person being indulged, the other under duress? Will it bring them closer or drive them apart?
I can’t think of any emotion more exciting than misgiving. Misgiving, be it fear, jealousy, shame, or doubt, means there’s something at stake, an imbalance in power, hopefully one that shifts in different scenarios. Think about it: a teeter-totter in motion in infinitely more exciting that a perfectly balanced one, or one permanently anchored on one end. As fun as power-play is, keeping it fluid and “fair” is important, too.
In Backwoods, (the first book in the series about the straight guy, Shane, who’s been seduced by another man, Gabriel) Shane feels as though he’s going out of his mind, finding himself drawn to do things he doesn’t want to want…but Gabriel is equally vulnerable, because his feelings are hurt by Shane’s need to hide what they’ve become. Shane’s ashamed—borderline disgusted—by what they do, while what they’ve become means everything to Gabriel. Ouch.
In a ménage I wrote where a woman gets permission from her boyfriend to sleep with a man she’s been obsessed with for years (Ruin Me), the heroine seems to have all the power. She’s getting what she wants, though it violates the bounds of her primary relationship. But her boyfriend has power, too—the power to offer her the freedom to do what she needs to, and also the power to dictate exactly how far that leash extends.
Similarly, in another ménage of mine, Don’t Call Her Angel, the wife seems on the outside to be the powerless one—her husband is brutish and rough, selfish and demanding in bed. But everything he does is actually a realization of his wife’s submissive kinks. And when he allows her to realize her fantasy of bringing another man into their bed, the power seems to be all hers. The husband is, after all, almost painfully conservative and controlling. But underneath her fantasy is his own—the desire to be the man with the power to grant her every wish.
In another story I paired a virgin heroine with a male prostitute hero (Curio). Now there’s a funky match. A sexual know-nothing versus a man who fucks for money. But she’s the one paying and calling all the shots, which again ushers in that pleasantly rickety power balance.
Keep the control in constant flux and ride that delightful edge of discomfort, and also surprise your readers by letting your characters’ internal identities contradict their shells here and there. If one character seems from the outside to hold all the obvious power, make sure that a few layers beneath that, they may actually be the desperate one. Conversely, make sure the vulnerable one is holding some cards of his or her own, and let the balance shift, keeping everyone on edge. Comfort is the enemy of excitement. Don’t give it a foothold.
DIY Bondage
I just wanted to include this final section for fun. Hot on the heels of all that talk of power dynamics, let’s touch on BDSM.
Some people would say I write BDSM—my characters frequently have rough sex and my heroes often skew bossy and domineering. Those are BDSM themes, but I wouldn’t claim to write true BDSM. BDSM is a set of sexual conventions (no matter how unconventional), some might say an organized subculture, with quite a lot of social protocol underpinning it all. I’m not an expert on the scene in any way, but it brings to mind for me the “dungeon” tableau, costumes of the latex and leather varieties, the uttering of “Sir” and “Mistress” and “slave”, elaborate role playing, and the fetishization of power to the nth degree. It’s an extremely popular and utterly valid sub-sub-genre of erotic romance, but I’m not drawn to that incarnation of BDSM. Too much pomp and circumstance, too much scene-setting for my authorly and readerly taste. I’ll leave that to the folks who do it well and know what they’re talking about.
But I frequently write what I like to call “DIY (do-it-yourself) bondage”. Accessible, even spontaneous instances of power-play kink that you could imagine happening to everyday people.
My characters aren’t the types to have cuffs and Velcro safety restraints lying around. When they get kinky, it’s not planned and accessorized. They tie each other down with belts and pantyhose and folded-over duct tape. They may have safe words, because that’s just a responsible portrayal of respectfully orchestrated Dom/sub type sex, but there’s no “yes, Master” uttered in my books. No floggers, no ball-gags, no hot wax drippage, no collars.
If you’re like me and you love to explore power dynamics but don’t care for the hardcore bondage accoutrements, rest assured you can write filthy-nasty-awesome D/s sex without a single BDSM prop. Your character isn’t the type to own a fuck-swing, you say? Well does he have a bathroom counter of roughly hip-height? Can’t see him leading her around on a leash? How about a mean fist tangled in her hair as he steers her toward the bed? Who needs leather straps, when there’s nothing sexier than being held down by a strong man’s bare hands? In short, get creative, go minimalist. It all feeds back to that point about the spice of realism.
And of Course…
Write what turns you on. That doesn’t mean it’s anything you’d ever want to try out yourself, and you can’t paralyze yourself, fretting if people will think your erotic novella about Smurf-kink is autobiographical. They say write what you know, but in erotica, imagination is just as important as experience. I mean, I’ve never established my own harem, or had sex with a boxer, a lumberjack, or a Parisian man-whore, but it sure as hell didn’t stop me from writing those stories.
Do what so many articles and books advise, and don’t worry about your mom or kid or pastor reading your work. You aren’t your characters, and even if others may not realize that, you can’t let it inhibit you. Don’t hold back. Readers can sense self-conscious and self-censored sex-writing as easily as they can spot a typo.
Happy readers are never guaranteed, with one exception: you can write a book that absolutely and utterly turns you on. So there’s one satisfied reader, and I promise you, if you give it everything you have and reduce your own legs to jelly, others will feel it, too. But here’s another guarantee: water down the words and scenes you fear are too racy, too kinky, too out-there, and you may merely be the first of many readers who feel cheated, or bored, or meh.
Always remember: it’s far better to inspire a debate than a nap. So get your ass on the chair and your fingers on the keyboard, and keep yourself on edge.
Cara McKenna wants you to stay in touch!
Website: http://www.caramckenna.com
Blog: http://megmaguire.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/caramckenna
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/caramckenna
Email: cara@caramckenna.com
Books on Amazon: http://amzn.to/qqIgZJ
Books on B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/cara-mckenna
Five Sexy Senses to Rev Up Scenes by Desiree Holt
About Desiree Holt
Desiree Holt is an award-winning multi-published erotic romance author. She’s been published with Ellora’s Cave, Total-E-bound, The Wild Rose Press, Samhain Publishing, Decadent Publishing and Resplendence Publishing.
She is twice a finalist for an EPIC E-Book Award, a nominee for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, winner of the first 5 Heart Sweetheart of the Year Award at The Romance Studio as well as twice a CAPA Award for best BDSM book of the year, and winner of two Holt Medallion Awards of Merit.
Reviewers call Desiree "a force to be reckoned with in the erotic romance department!" and "the most amazing erotic romance author of our time."
Desiree has a weakness for hot cowboys and men on motorcycles. She’s also an obsessed football addict.
Five Sexy Senses to Rev Up Scenes
Okay, the hero and heroine have met. They’ve had that first electric moment. They’ve teased each other and stroked each other, all the while knowing that at any moment they were going to have sex!
Of course the anticipation is half of it. Light nibbling kisses followed by deep ones with tongues gliding against each other. Erotic words murmured in low voices. Touching each other here and there. Until holding back becomes unbearable.
So how do you get into it without looking like you’re just following a direction that says “Insert sex here?”
For one thing, you have to get in the mood. Don’t write sex when the kids are squabbling or you’re in between loads of laundry or making a list of errands. Lots of things can get you in the mood. A glass of wine. Soft music. A satin sleep shirt (not kidding here!). But most of all you have to use your imagination.
Think yourself into the scene. Why is the heroine in bed with the hero? What drew them together? What is their connection? In Once Upon a Wedding my heroine wanted one last fling before getting married and on a sunset beach she found Joe, who knew all the secret ways to please a woman. It’s as much what he says as what he does.
***
“Your mouth tastes like a rare wine, Rainie.” He whispered his words into her open lips. “I’ll bet your cunt tastes even better.”
Moisture flooded her panties at his words. She swallowed her hesitation and asked, “Are you going to find out?”
“Oh, yes. You bet your sweet ass I am. In more ways than you can count.” He stepped back from her. His hand came up and traced the outline of her jaw, the shell of her ear, the slender column of her neck. “The minute I saw you sitting on that beach I wanted to rip your clothes off and fuck you senseless.”
Her mouth formed a small O.
***
So you have to think about what you’d like the hero to say if it was you in that bed with him.
You also need to focus on the best tools for sex. No, not toys! The five senses.
You get there by using the five senses: touch, see, hear, smell and taste. In every scene there are things that each of these responds to. Oh, and don’t forget to use adjectives that evoke images in the reader’s mind.
Touch.
Him: her small hands were nearly swallowed up by his large ones as he reached for her breasts. Her skin was the softest silk, smooth beneath his fingers. Her: She could feel the roughness of his hands, the callouses from hard work just slightly abrading her skin and sending shivers along her spine.
See.
Him: He looked at her standing there, backlit by the fire blazing in the fireplace, her hair a burnished gold in the reflected light. He could see every dip and swell of her body. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. Her: He looked like a Norse warrior towering over her with his thick head of golden hair, his fierce blue eyes, his broad back and his sculptured muscles. His swollen cock pressing against the zipper of his jeans.
Hear.
Him: His name on her lips was like sweet music, her laugh the sound of wind chimes. It made his balls tingle and his dick want to push itself inside her. Her: His voice was low and deep, a sound that rumbled through her as he spoke her name like a caress.
Smell.
Him: As he bent his head toward hers he inhaled her scent, a heady mixture of jasmine and fresh rain. Her: She caught the scent of his soap and aftershave, a combination of spice and earth and musk. The pulse in her pussy throbbed with a hungry need to feel him inside her.
Taste.
Him: Her lips were so soft beneath his and when they opened for him his tongue swept inside. She tasted like chocolate and fine wine, a taste that went straight to his groin and fired every nerve in his body. Her: When his tongue tangled with hers she was reminded of the taste of cinnamon and whiskey, a very masculine combination that made her body soften and her pulses throb.
Notice that I’m also not afraid to give explicit names to various parts of the anatomy. Don’t be afraid of them. Just the sound of them is titillating to the reader. And describing how they each appear to the other hooks the reader into what’s happening and makes the actual sex vividly emotional.
Some scenes need a setup and that’s where the combination of physical and emotional comes in. Like in this scene from Down and Dirty:
***
His hands came up to cup her face as his head bent and his mouth covered hers. His hands set up tingles in the skin of her cheeks and the touch of his lips sent sparks of sensation showering through her. Her breasts suddenly felt full and moisture flooded the crotch of her thong. He nibbled at her lower lip, teasing at it, tugging it between his teeth. Krista clutched his wrists, unable to do more than hang on and hope she didn’t fall. When she opened her mouth on a sigh, his tongue moved inside without hesitation, brushing every interior surface, the tip of his tongue tracing lines against the roof of her mouth.
His body moved fractionally against her, enough that his legs bracketed her and the hardness of his cock pushed at her through his jeans. Heat consumed her, the walls of her pussy vibrated and she couldn’t have pushed him away to save herself.
When he lifted his head, she was dazed and breathless, her eyes held captive by those unusual silver ones, now darkening to a stormy grey. His tongue swiped lightly across her mouth.
“I think we need to take this somewhere a little more private, don’t you?”
***
But once you take it “somewhere a little more private,” don’t be afraid to be explicit. Again, rely on the five senses. What does each of them feel? Taste? See? And so on.
Sometimes in a book I jump right into the sex but only because there is a specific reason for it. In Jungle Inferno, my hero Mark is a prisoner of terrorists in the Peruvian jungle while Faith, the woman he loves, is a continent away for most of the book. I mean, the guy’s got an impressive cock but it doesn’t reach across thousands of miles, right? So how to get them together? How to show the reader their intense physical connection in a way that’s not jarring? I solved it by opening with a hot sex scene. Mark is in a tent, wounded and filthy and in pain and the only thing keeping him sane is his fantasies about Faith.
***
It was raining, a steady thrumming on the broad leaves of the trees and plants that formed a thick canopy over the jungle floor. By the time it reached the thick carpet of dead plants and rotting wood it was more like a mist, a thick curtain of steam that sat heavily on the skin.
Mark Halloran inhaled deeply, the sweet scent of vanilla and sarsaparilla plants mingling with that of the wild orchids. The dense rainforest of the Peruvian jungle held a wild mixture of flora whose perfume teased at the senses and conjured up images. Beneath the heavier perfume of these and other plants like cinchona and cedar, was the vague hint of the abundance of orchids growing in wild profusion.
But none so arousing as the scent of the woman in his arms. Light jasmine drifted from the silken fall of her hair and mingled with the sweetness of her body. And the musk of her arousal. He ran his hand over the satiny surface of her skin, feeling every dip and hollow with the tips of his fingers. The indentation of her navel. The crease where hip and thigh joined. The soft bush of the curls covering her cunt.
Bending his head he pulled a dusky nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue around it before pressing it flat against the roof of his mouth. He was rewarded with a soft moan and an arching of Faith’s body that pushed the nipple deeper into his mouth. His hand molded the full swell of her breast, loving the feel of its weight in his palm.
His cock had been hard enough to drive nails from the moment they’d entered the tent that had been pitched for them. A jungle vacation with as many amenities as the rainforest had to offer. They’d nearly ripped their clothes in the urgency to get rid of them, to feel naked skin against naked skin. So many months had passed since they’d been together that he was afraid he’d come before they even got started.
You’re Special Ops, asshole. You have legendary control. Use it now.
So he’d gritted his teeth and dialed it back as much as he could, willing himself to take the time to do this properly.
But just looking at her was enough to ramp up his simmering arousal. Her naked body was a work of art, lush hips and breasts, long legs and at the juncture of her thighs the soft nest of curls that hid the mysteries of her sex—the sweetest cunt he’d ever tasted or fucked. A wet heat that scorched him, drowned him with the liquid of her passion. His only conflict was whether to fuck her first with his mouth or his cock. He’d barely contained himself enough to urge her down to the mat with him, so great was the need to take her where they stood.
He moved his mouth to the other nipple, poking at him so temptingly, and trailed his hand down her body over the soft swell of her tummy to the wet slit of her pussy. God, she was always so wet for him so quickly. How was he supposed to hold back?
Faith opened her thighs to his touch and his thumb easily found the hot nub of her clitoris. As he pulled deeply on her taut nipple his thumb brushed back and forth against the tiny bundle of nerves, drawing the little cries of pleasure from her that turned him on so much.
He lifted his head to brush his lips against hers, gently licking the seam of her lips, teasing at the corners, nipping lightly on the full lower one. He’d always been fascinated by the sensuous swell of those lips, loved kissing them and tasting them. Nipping on them. He thought he could spend hours just making love to her mouth.
When she opened them he slipped his tongue inside, scraping over the edge of her teeth to find the hot slickness of the skin inside. The touch of her small tongue against his sent arrows of heat jolting through him, straight to his throbbing cock and his aching balls.
Slow, asshole. Slow. Show her how much you appreciate her. How you feel about her.
He danced with her tongue, darting back and forth over its surface while his thumb continued to work her clit in a slow, steady motion. Faith moaned again, the tight little sound echoing into his own mouth. Her hands pressed against his back, pulling him down closer to her.
When she bent her legs, planting her feet firmly on the woven mat, a silent invitation to explore farther, he moved his hand until he could slide two fingers into the hot well of her cunt.
Oh, god. Hot! Hot, hot, hot!
She was so very wet, the walls of her pussy slippery with her juices, her flesh pulsing against his fingers.
He tore his mouth away from her.
“I can’t wait any longer.” His voice was so hoarse he didn’t even recognize it.
“Then don’t,” she urged. “It’s been so long. I’m ready for you. Now.”
Mark reached for the foil packet he’d dropped beside them, ripped it open with his teeth and extracted the latex sheath. Levering himself to his knees he deftly rolled it on with one hand, ready for action.
But the sight of her wet, welcoming, pink pussy was so tempting, so mouth-watering, that first he had to have a taste. He lowered his head, spread her labia wide with his thumbs and lapped the length of her slit.
“Ohhhhh.”
The long exhalation of pleasure sent another surge of heat through him. God, he loved those sounds. So he did it again. And again. Until he wasn’t sure exactly who he was teasing. Licking the sweet-tart taste of her from his lips, he positioned himself, pressing the head of his cock at the opening of her vagina and with one hard roll of his hips he entered her wet heat.
Oh, Jesus!
The walls of her cunt clamped around him and it was like being burned alive with the sweetest heat. He gritted his teeth, every muscle in his body tightening with the need for release, but he held himself still, giving himself time to enjoy the feel of her like a hot glove around him.
***
This is an example of a scene that uses the senses—everything Mark is feeling. What goes through his mind and how his body reacts as he sees every part of her. I put the reader in Mark’s mind and pulled her into the scene. Using the five senses. Remember that if you remember nothing else. THE FIVE SENSES.
These are just a few examples of how to fit hot sex into a book without it being editorial and how to make it come alive for your readers. Remember. Think it. Feel it. Describe it. Don’t be afraid of it. Call up your most secret fantasies. Who is the man of your dreams? If you were alone with him—naked—what would you want him to do to you? With you? Take another sip of that wine and let your imagination run wild.
And the scenes you write will singe your computer.
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Boys Will Be Boys: Writing Male/Male Romance by Christine D’Abo
About Christine d’Abo:
Christine d’Abo is a multi-published erotic romance author. She’s been published with Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, Carina Press, Cleis Press and Berkley/Jove.
Reviewers have called Christine’s writing, “…more passionate than the one before and will leave you breathless in the end. Ms. d’Abo definitely knows her stuff!”
Christine started writing m/m romance when she got annoyed when her favorite TV show didn’t give her the happily ever after she wanted to see. When Christine isn’t writing, she’s watching sci-fi shows or exercising in her basement.
Boys Will Be Boys: Writing Male/Male Romance
In The Beginning
A few years ago when I penned the final line on my book No Quarter, my husband asked if I needed him to proofread it for me. He has always been one of my biggest supporters and loves to help when and where he can. I turned and gave him a look. I know this because he gave me his answering look, rolled his eyes and asked, “What the hell did you write this time?”
“Umm, a male/male space opera.”
“Why?”
“Because the hero I had in mind turned out to be gay?” I may have shrugged. I believe there was eye-rolling on the part of my husband.
It was odd, but I hadn’t considered giving my hero Gar a female counterpoint at any stage in the writing of the story. For me the decision to enter the area of m/m romance wasn’t something I’d strategically planned out. I went where my characters took me—in this case, Gar led me to Faolan.
If you are considering trying your hand at writing gay romance, then you need to pick a few of the top names and read. Pick different styles, genres, stories written by gay men and straight women. Explore all you are able to find, and try to discover what elements you enjoy as a reader.
In general, I feel the biggest mistake new writers to erotic romance make (regardless of whether it’s hetero- or homosexual), is the focus they initially place on sex. Yes, the sex is a necessary component and if written poorly, it detracts from an otherwise enjoyable story. But it’s not the heart of what’s happening. Like traditional romance, erotic romance focuses on the journey of two (or more) people (aliens/werewolves/vampires/whatever) while they figure out who they are in life and how their heart factors into these events.
Sex is the mechanism by which the writer shows these characters at their best and worst in their journey. Each sex scene needs to be treated as a connected character development ladder, running parallel to the plot points driving your hero to change. A successful erotic writer builds on each sexual encounter, using the growing closeness and the stripped emotional state of the characters to expose their weaknesses. Once this is done, you are ready to shove them into the pit of their black moment where they must confront their fears or die.
Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be about male/male romance?
It is!
One of the things I’ve often noticed as a reader is how sometimes, in a story I’m reading, the sex feels like it has been added as an afterthought, like the writer made a footnote in their draft that stated, “Add sex here.” I’ve particularly noticed this in many male/male romances. I’m not sure if this has to do with the uncertainty some authors have in the execution of the actual sex act on paper, or if it’s a matter of style. I suspect it might be a bit of both.