Yesterday’s post about having too much gore in a story trigger an interesting question, “How much detail do you put into a love scene?” It depends on the genre you are writing in. The two most explicit forms are erotica and porn. Porn is simply detailing sex and in its various forms with nothing else. Erotica is generally sex between consenting adults with a minimum of passionate lovemaking. It is not as clinical as porn.
It depends on why you would include a sex scene in other fiction. Suppose you want to foreshadow the actions of an uncaring man that would destroy the relationship later. In that case, you might have him satisfied before she can fully enjoy it or perhaps even hurting her a bit. She might see it simply as his eagerness for her. I’m sure you can think of other ways an uncaring man might act.
If a woman is uninterested or doesn’t enjoy sex, she can express that in these words, “Are you done?” Or she might even suggest that he hurry up. If she’s bored by the whole thing, she might pick up her phone or use the remote to turn the TV on. If you also depict the man as trying everything he knows to entice her or give her pleasure, that will say much about the man and his feelings.
More generally, you will be writing about people in love with each other. You want to find ways to express that love. Instead of clinical details of the sex act, you can use dialogue to express their love. For example, a woman might say, “I love the feel of you inside of me,” or a man might say, “I love it when you’re on top because I can see you and your pleasure.” The idea is to avoid clinical detail, i.e., putting tab A in slot B. You are writing for adults, and they want to know the characters’ emotions in your story. They are already fully aware of the physical details of sex.
