Monday, May 30, 2011

Random Craft Post 2


This week's Random Craft extract comes from ANOTHER book which has been sitting on my shelf for a few years practically untouched.

Please welcome Elizabeth Benedict's ''The Joy Of
Writing Sex.''
I'm ashamed to admit this is ANOTHER book I haven't
read in its entirety. My decisions to read through my craft books generally end up a bit like New Year's Resolutions... they don't last. But Ivé heard plenty of people RAVE about this baby.

I randomly opened the book at page 59, which is all about making the sexual relationship between your h&H not explicit but SPECIFIC. This is not only for the physical side of their relationship but also character as a whole. Elizabeth writes, "The specific is what makes you fall in love with one person instead of another." She goes onto explain how to create specificity in character.

* DETAILS!!!!

Details in the differences between characters' dialogue, emotions, actions and the way they feel about the landscape around them.

When writing sex in a novel it has to be about your two SPECIFIC characters not a mere love scene that could be plucked out of one book and randomly replaced in another. The way to make sex scenes matter is to make them character specific.

Hope that makes sense... as usually I'm typing this when I'm totally brain dead after a long day.

Anyone read more of The Joy of Sex? Did you recall any other gems in there, you'd like to share?

8 comments:

beck nicholas said...

Great bit of craft Rach. Thanks for sharing.
I guess specific details in an intimate scne help take it above a docking procedure.

Lacey Devlin said...

It sounds interesting, Rach

Suzanne Brandyn Author said...

I've never read it. But, as individuals we all do it differently. :) :) lol

Rachael Johns said...

Too true Beck - no docking procedures allowed :)

The rest is probably good too Lacey - I MUST get around to reading it!

Too true Suz - hehe!

Jackie Ashenden said...

Docking procedure!! Lol!!! Excellent, Bec, excellent. Ahem, having tried to cut and paste a sex scene from one WIP into another - hey, I liked the scene and didn't want to lose it - I can tell you IT DOESN'T WORK. Because they are different people. And as Suzanne points out, we all do it differently. As do our characters. :-)

Anonymous said...

What a hoot . . . docking procedures. Well, you know something's wrong when that's how it feels when you're writing one. Or, especially when you're involved in one!!

Niruhan Viswarupan said...

Greeat reading

Niruhan Viswarupan said...

Nice blog thankss for posting