It feels like a poll day

[mickeym]

The other day I posted that I hate writing sex, which isn't exactly, completely accurate. What IS accurate is that I get frustrated trying to make each scene a little bit different than the last (and y'all, I have written a LOT of stories with a lot of sex in them. If you don't believe me, go check out Infinite Passions. Or hell, this story *g*). As nopseud so astutely pointed out, she and I probably used up our lifetime supply just writing Absinthe Makes. Joke. Mostly.

So, because I am infinitely curious, a poll about Writing Sex. Please to be filling it out, expanding in comments if/as needed, thank you :) (And feel free to point your friends this way, because I really am curious!)



[Poll #1108537]

Comments

[azephirin.livejournal.com]

Writing sex has gotten much easier for me over the years, both b/c of general improvement in my writing as a whole, and also because I've gotten much more comfortable with my own sexuality (esp. in the past 5 years or so). I'm a survivor of sexual assault, and when I read some of my writing from ~10 years ago (original fiction and fanfic), it's very clear that I was writing based on vague ideas of how I wanted sex to be (and based on my own syncresis of how other people, esp. slashfic and MSR writers, depicted it). It's difficult to portray something as pleasurable when it's something that one, at heart, views as painful and frightening. It's only been within the past 3–4 years that I've gotten away from that, and I think the way I write sex strongly reflects it.

Um, even more TMI, but I find it difficult to write certain sex acts I've never tried. I'm working on something right now—a gift fic for a friend—that I'm 85% done with except for ONE SCENE, and I'm putting off that one stupid scene because I'm having trouble imagining what this particular experience is like for the character in question. My imagination's good, no lie, but it's no substitute for actually having been in a physical body (in this case, a man's) and done that particular thing.

I actually really enjoy writing sex now (which is probably why I had such a blast with technosage's Porn-Paragraph-a-Thon last weekend!). I'm having a great time with Cracked Stars Shining (http://azephirin.livejournal.com/16314.html#cutid1). There's a lot of sex in it, but also a lot of other stuff, and while I don't know that I'd go so far as to say that the sex furthers the plot, I think it does help give a fuller picture of the relationship in question.