This is where I have trouble pretending to be a 'writer'.
I don't agree with all these freaking rules.
Excuse me while I rant!
I'm sort of old but not completely old yet.
I have been reading romance novels since I was an early teen. (Back then they were the kind with the heaving bosoms and the throbbing members.)
But this, as my husband would say, chaps my ass.
I keep reading these statements: Don't add a sex scene to your book unless it changes things or moves things along in the story. There must be a reason for the sex.
So, here is my take...sometimes people, especially when they are getting to know each other or falling in love, have sex.
FOR. NO. REASON.
Certainly not just to move the plot along!
Sometimes they just can't keep their hands off each other.
Sometimes they can say more with sex than they can with words.
Sometimes they just want to have sex!
Gratuitous sex scenes wouldn't cause me to stop reading someone's story.
I can't imagine saying to myself, "Sex again? Really? Why would that be in a romance novel?"
Doesn't seem as if they have the same rules in films....gratuitous sex ALL the time there. Perhaps you should be a screenwriter (which, btw, Andrew wants to do as a career).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100%!
well I do agree in a way, but I think what they are trying to say is everytime people have sex something changes, does it make them want to do it again, ashamed, never see that person again? either ways I think even gratuitous sex especially in a book when readers have to really use their imagination can move the plot along too :)
ReplyDeleteIt bothers me because it's not realistic that people will only have sex to move a plot along. I'm not a person who will tear my clothes off and have sex for no reason, but I'm also not a character in a novel that thousands of people are watching with bated breath trying to find meaning in their every move.
ReplyDeleteNow, I love me some erotica. And you can bet sex scenes will often pop up unexpectedly and with no real bearing on the plot. Guess it depends what publisher and line you're writing for, but in softer romances, the act of sex is supposed to be a physical manifestation of a hero and heroine's emotional bond.
A half-assed attempt to explain the BS rules out there that I'm still trying to wrap my own head around.
Anon - I love that Andrew wants to be a screenwriter but so far all I've heard him do is bitch about other people's movies. Tell him to write one so we can bitch about his already!
ReplyDeleteJoanna - Rules just piss me off. Writing is so personal for each of us. Can't see how there can be rules that fit us all.
Renee - I agree. It's not realistic at all. And as soon as someone tells me its a rule I really don't want to do it anymore.
I'm such a rebel.
Eff the rules, anyway. ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't see much of a difference between what you are saying and the rules. Having sex because the characters can't keep their hands off each other does move the plot forward especially if they fall in love. Sex shows characterization, motives, inner changes. There is never NO reason for having sex.
ReplyDeleteL.A. - One of the blogs that I was reading said if you could remove a sex scene from your story and it wouldn't change the story, leave it out. It wasn't necessary.
ReplyDeleteI guess I couldn't equate that with anything that I wrote but I don't know if all my scenes were necessary to move the story along. I didn't write them with that intent.