Quickly before I go back to work...

[shadowkat]

1. The death rate from the Iraq War is staggering. It's well over 104,780.
(shudder). Violence never helps.

2. Sex scenes in fiction? Honestly, don't write from experience. Your characters are not you, well unless you are writing about yourself - and that's obviously different. Everyone experiences sex differently. And it probably goes without saying that a superpowered being and a vampire aren't going to be the same as two normal humans. Or astronaut whose been stuck on board a spaceship with a hot female alien warrior who looks at sex as recreation an no big. I've read more bad sex scenes in fanfic in which people are obviously writing from experience than I care to mention. Also, note - if they two characters clearly had sex before in the series you are basing your fic on, and spent time in each other's bodies during a body-switch, they clearly aren't going to be "shy" or awkward the next time they have it. Just saying.

3. It's hot out, was out long enough (ten-fifteen minute walk to a meeting in another building) to realize did not want to go out again.

4. Hmmm, from what I've read, the Lynch Spike comic actually looks more interesting than the Whedon Buffy comic. Maybe because it's being teased better? Or issue 34-35 more or less killed all interest I have in Buffy, Angel and their journey forever. If Whedon killed those characters off at this point? I'd applaud. Not even all that curious what happens to the others. I'll probably buy the Lynch one and pass on Whedon's, but we shall see.

Back to work.

Comments

[gingerwall.livejournal.com]

1. Absolutely yes. But I thought we passed 100,000 years ago? Like in the first two or three years of the war. I remember seeing a pile of shoes at the Eyes Wide Open memorial, but maybe that was for Afghanistan too.

2. I've read more bad sex scenes in fanfic in which people are obviously writing from experience than I care to mention.

I'm curious as to what gives it away that people are writing from personal experience. I assume what makes it "bad" is poor writing and that you don't buy the sexual experience coming from the characters, but how do you guess that the reason it is bad is influence from personal experience?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

1. Some statistics in the paper and someone on my flist looked up online. The stat's are a moving target, they keep changing.

2. I'm curious as to what gives it away that people are writing from personal experience. I assume what makes it "bad" is poor writing and that you don't buy the sexual experience coming from the characters, but how do you guess that the reason it is bad is influence from personal experience?

Well, there's three ways:

* People tell you. Seriously, the writer will actually state - this is based on what I know.
Or tell you how much sex they've had and hello, expert!
("eyeroll")

* The scene reads like a user's manual - as if they took notes the night before or sat down the next morning and wrote everything they did, exactly as it happened, then just shifted stuff around. (Like someone writing the script on how to use a T-Mobile phone after playing with one for a week.)

*They feel the need to put down all the awkward, difficult, funny, fumbling moments - in graphic detail.
Common mistake of amateur writers - they think it makes it more real if they write down how it "actually"
happened - with gory details intact. Of course this could also be the result of someone researching the topic and feeling the need to include "everything" they've learned. (bored now or absurdly funny).

Sex scenes aren't that hard to write actually - people complicate them by getting far too detailed/graphic and screw up in the process. Less is in this instance, is definitely more.

[gingerwall.livejournal.com]

1. I did some more research after I commented I think the difference in numbers has to do with counting "civilian violent deaths from warfare" (only recently reached 100,000) versus "any death that can be attributed to the invasion" (which reached 100,000 much earlier). The latter includes things like death from lack of access to clean water, increased incidence of communicable diseases, collapse of the healthcare system, death from extreme heat when there is no electricity to power fans, etc. that the former does not.

2. So it seems like basically comes down to too much information. I never really thought about it much, but there have been a couple times when a sex scene was just a little too much. But I don't read very widely, just stick with a few authors, so that's not usually a problem of mine.

On one hand, I do get a little annoyed by how perfect some sex scenes seem - like I can't even imagine fictional characters getting it that right (*cough* *cough* space sex). But maybe the answer to that isn't to graphically describe your own experiences.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

1. Thanks for the info on that! And doing the research.


2. When it comes to reading, I'm a bit like a kid in a candy store - I want to sample EVERYTHING. Also incredibly adventurous when it comes to cultural pursuits. I will literally try any tv show, film, book, play or music at least once. Assuming of course I can find it, it is accessible to me,
and I know it exists. I'll rank on I hate it, or blather incessantly if I adore it. If I'm ambivalent? You'll never know I saw or sampled it.

On one hand, I do get a little annoyed by how perfect some sex scenes seem - like I can't even imagine fictional characters getting it that right (*cough* *cough* space sex).

Yes. Ugh. Less is more in these cases.

I want to tell people - look you don't have to show or describe everything, just suggest it, let my imagination do the work.
Same deal with horror films - sometimes it's more frightening if you don't show the monster. The scariest films rarely show the monster or very little of it. Same deal with erotic films and books - the suggestion is often enough. There's a scene in North by Northwest - where he just kisses her neck that is more erotic than the entire sex scene in True Blood. Or the Buffy/Spike sex scene in Smashed - where they are fully clothed?
The sex is alluded to. We see it but we don't.

Another example? Buffy and Angel - the flashback sequence of Angel's tatoo, Buffy's arm, that was shown in Innocence - very
erotic - compare to the comic which was just blah.

If you suggest...you let the audience or reader fill in the gaps, and they often come up with better things than the writer could. If you write it all out in graphic detail..doesn't work.

There are exceptions of course - herself_nyc does graphic sex scenes - but she often does them with the intent to show a specific character trait or problem. Sometimes the writer wants to show us that sex isn't working and why. In those rare instances, I think it works. Another example of this being done- is John Updike in his Rabbit books. But it takes a skilled writer to pull it off.