Bad Sex In Fiction Awards

[Carol Rose]

http://www.theguardian.com/books/20...-winner-shortlist-haruki-murakami-kirsty-wark

Have to admit I laughed my head off reading this.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Yes.

Poor fairy penguin and the breasts are funny.

I recall a conversation with a parent...
...anxiously saying, there's not going to be any gratuitous sex in your book IS there? No fluids or anything distasteful. In fact, why does any of that need to be in there at all. You won't let anyone pressure you into it, will you?

Me. Sigh. Nothing gratuitous, but he's 26 and he's not a manslaaaagggg but he's not a monk, you know...

Parent *sniff* well, I don't like it. I don't want to be turned into a peeping Tom. They made Frederick Forsyth put that in later, you know, in 'The Day Of The Jackal' about shagging the baroness.... you don't want to get one of those Bad Sex awards

Me, well I can't be expected to ask your permission what to put in my book. But there will be no bodily fluids, I can promise that much. Apart from a pee now and then, or a bit of sick.

 

[Carol Rose]

*SNORT* Well… I write erotic romance. Some people say it's all gratuitous. I say it's there because my characters want it to be there. But at least none of it reads like the examples in this article. Good golly Miss Molly, those are some interesting…um yes…interesting descriptions.

 

[1408]

I think it shows my naivety with the genre in that after skim reading through the “trench” extract I wondered why he was kissing her coat. ...

I haven’t read erotic fiction (I did have a flick through 50 shades in a bookshop once) and I don’t think I’d be any good at writing it. That being said I’m guessing it’s the kind of area that shouldn’t be too overwrought and needs to cool it with the metaphors. So why did the penguin have to die? Poor penguin, it was probably only having a quick look. I do agree that they should have a “Good Sex in Fiction” award though!

 

[Carol Rose]

It's like anything else. If you're going to write it, make sure you read it first - a lot - so you understand what readers are looking for. And you have to be VERY comfortable calling a body part by its actual name. If I wrote metaphors like that, or used purple prose, I'd never sell another book, and my readers would be asking me when I was getting the CT scan of my brain. LOL!!

That being said, I do believe it's more than possible for any author to write an erotic or sensual sex scene without using ridiculous prose. I've seen plenty of mainstream romance writers do it, and even authors who don't write romance have written sex into their books without sounding like they've never had it, or don't know what to do in the sack.

 

[1408]

Haha, I think that would be my biggest problem, I'd be awful at just calling it what it is and being done with it! I think, although I can't remember completely, there was a good scene in Robin Hobb's "Farseer" trilogy where the characters have sex, or maybe what is written describes what happens just before... either way, it was written in a playful way and I think I liked it because of that.

 

[Carol Rose]

Absolutely! It should be fun. I always try to put some humor into my sex scenes.