Boring smut
Nov. 11th, 2002 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonantBoring Sex Scene Warning #1: "Let's take this somewhere else."
"Not here." "Could we move this to the bedroom?"
This sort of thing is the reason that some writers do sex scene after sex scene and they're all exactly the same.
The scene leading up to sex might have some nice physical/logistical momentum. The guys might be delighted to find themselves slow-dancing in the living room, or having a deep emotional conversation while one of them stands in the kitchen and the other sits on the counter, or kissing while one of them sits in an armchair and the other one bends forward, one hand braced on each arm ...
... but the moment someone says, "Let's take this somewhere more comfortable, shall we?", then you know the next place they'll be is in a bed, side by side, heads on the pillow.
Why not just have some nice half-dressed frottage in the living room, while the CD player spins "Summertime, and the livin' is easy" again and again? Why not explore the possibilities inherent in having the standing guy precisely at mouth-to-nipple height to the sitting-on-the-counter guy? Why not leave sweaty handprints in the crushed velvet of the armchair and wipe up afterwards with the antimacassar? I mean, what else is an antimacassar good for?
"Not here." "Could we move this to the bedroom?"
This sort of thing is the reason that some writers do sex scene after sex scene and they're all exactly the same.
The scene leading up to sex might have some nice physical/logistical momentum. The guys might be delighted to find themselves slow-dancing in the living room, or having a deep emotional conversation while one of them stands in the kitchen and the other sits on the counter, or kissing while one of them sits in an armchair and the other one bends forward, one hand braced on each arm ...
... but the moment someone says, "Let's take this somewhere more comfortable, shall we?", then you know the next place they'll be is in a bed, side by side, heads on the pillow.
Why not just have some nice half-dressed frottage in the living room, while the CD player spins "Summertime, and the livin' is easy" again and again? Why not explore the possibilities inherent in having the standing guy precisely at mouth-to-nipple height to the sitting-on-the-counter guy? Why not leave sweaty handprints in the crushed velvet of the armchair and wipe up afterwards with the antimacassar? I mean, what else is an antimacassar good for?
(no subject)
Date: 11/13/02 01:04 pm (UTC)I do see what you mean, but surely the desire not to be cliched needs to be balanced against the fact that sex in real life is kind of cliched? People do end up in the bedroom a great deal of the time, and there are only so many ways to say, "He came."
Eh. I'm just being defensive. I do know exactly what you mean, but I'm starting to get so hemmed in by seeing things that I don't want to do (Okay, that thing there is out of character, and that's been done to death, and that's a little trite, and this over here seems like heterosexual projection...) that I'm worrying I'll never write anything again!
(no subject)
Date: 11/14/02 08:02 pm (UTC)It's partly because of the loss of spontaneity and urgency, but only partly. (I mean, you can't always be spontaneous, especially when you started making out in a bar or someplace else where you could get arrested for continuing.)
The main problem I have with it is precisely what you say: here are only so many ways to say, "He came." One of the ways you get some variety into your sex scenes is by following through with the physical logistics of the first kiss. But writers lose that when they call a halt to the action and drag the guys into the bedroom every time.
(Okay, that thing there is out of character, and that's been done to death, and that's a little trite, and this over here seems like heterosexual projection...)
So glad I'm not the only one subject to the Slash Spiral of Narrowing Possibilities!