Best literary sex scenes: writers' favourites | Books | The Guardian

I realised something after I read a post by Edmund White in The Guardian. In literature, well written sex combines the sublime with the grossly physical.

People are conflicted about sex. There's this basic hormonal drive - but also a desire for it to be something more. People fantasize about having sex that's a 'religious' experience. They want sex to transcend the boring, the ordinary.

Erotica doesn't work if it leans too far into poetry - the writing can lack passion and raw energy. The reader can become detached. Same problem if it's just the usual 'docking procedure' you can find in any porn book. 

Something else I've realised. Pornography is just about the sex act. Erotica is mainly about fetishism. The sex act is still there, inside the erotica, but the sex is also transferred onto objects - onto what's going on outside the sex act.

Edmund White

I think the sexiest passages are those about Luc in Alan Hollinghurst'sThe Folding Star. The 33-year-old Edward Manners leaves England for Belgium and a job as the tutor to the 17-year-old Luc. After mooning over the boy for months, astonishingly he falls into Edward's arms. As he sleeps after sex Edward studies his handsome face: "While he slept I kept watch over him - a smooth shoulder, the little pool of his clavicle, his neck, his extraordinary face, his hair muddled and pushed back." This is the romantic postlude. The sex act itself is much more strenuous: "I was up on the chair, fucking him like a squaddy doing push-ups, ten, twenty, fifty ... His chest, his face, were smeared with sweat but it was mine: the water poured off me like a boxer, my soaked hair fell forward and stung my eyes." This sex-writing is convincing because it mixes the sublime with the carnal, the grossly physical with the spiritual – and all of it experienced as a shock, the longed-for consummation that one can't believe is really happening.

Best literary sex scenes: writers' favourites | Books | The Guardian:

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Storytelling with Ian McCaig: wants, needs, and burning bridges » Inkpunks

Storytelling with Ian McCaig: wants, needs, and burning bridges » Inkpunks:

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Start with character - not the plot

My favorite prompt is making a bullet list of all my characters’ likes and dislikes. I was a little apprehensive of wasting good writing time, but when I suddenly knew how, my character reacted to anything he encountered; it became one of my pre-writing commandments.


Cathy Colborn - flashfiction.net - 10/7/12




When I started out trying to write, I came across some good advice for beginner writers. When you want to create a story, DON'T think about possible scenes or events -  the action, the plot. Start off by focusing totally on character. Build a character and story ideas, the events will begin to flow out.


But for some reason, even though I saw the truth of that advice, I've been going round and round in circles trying to string bits of action together. 


WHY ? It hasn't been working for me. 


So - this weeks prompt in the writing group is a story about some-one needing an allowance. I had the idea of a henchman /minion timidly asking his evil overlord for a small allowance.  But as usual, got stuck on WHAT HAPPENS. So tonight I'll make a list of this character's likes and dislikes - and see if that gives me an idea for a story.

'YES-BUT Method of Deepening The Plot - posted by Veronica Sicoe

The YES-BUT Method of Deepening The Plot — Building Character:

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Novel Writing Ideas

Novel Writing Ideas:

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The 22 rules of storytelling, according to Pixar

A good list to revisit - 


The 22 rules of storytelling, according to Pixar:

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Flash—"Dedication" by Stephen Graham Jones—April 30, 2012

I read this piece during lunch today and it blew me away.  An example of a 'simple' outpour of emotion that builds up into something powerful and moving.


Interestingly, I didn't have any problem with the lack of paragraph breaks, with the density of the writing. I loved the way I was carried along in a rush of emotion. 


The last two sentences are perfect.


I'm going to experiment using this kind of emotional outpour as a way of finding the elements for a story.  Not stopping for paragraph breaks, just letting stuff pour out in one rush should help me turn off the inner editor when drafting something up. 

SmokeLong Weekly—"Dedication" by Stephen Graham Jones—April 30, 2012:

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