The Art of Smut Writing (or How Ray Kowalski Turned Me Into an Internet Pornographer)

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Hi. I'm here to talk to you about writing kissing and/or sex. I volunteered for this question because I write a lot of stories about kissing and/or sex; kissing and/or sex are some of my favourite things. I don't feel like I'm any kind of expert on the matter, though. This is not so much a compilation of Rules You Should Follow as it is a collection of things I think I do myself. You might not find this helpful at all, or maybe you'll like parts of it and completely disagree with me about other parts. That's cool. You will almost certainly have helpful hints of your own that aren't included here. In both cases, please feel free to add to this in the comments.


Start small

I usually start writing because there's one small, particular thing I want to see some character doing or saying--Ray K wrapping Ray Vecchio's fingers around a crossbar in their headboard, for example, then giving him a look that dares him to keep them there.* Then I try to figure out what the characters are feeling in that little scenelet, and then why they’re feeling like that, and then I build up the context and backstory from there. This means that my stories are generally pretty lacking in traditional A plot (like, crime stuff and action and whatnot) because I usually only add that stuff later, as a frame for the character interaction to hang out inside of. I’m okay with that, personally. YMMV.

(Sometimes my small, particular thing (SPT™) is not part of a story in which there is smut. Sometimes it doesn’t involve kissing, even. As distressing as this can be, I’ve found that the story I’m writing usually turns out better if I focus my attention on building it around whatever the SPT is and, if necessary, leave the smut out of the picture altogether. It is a sacrifice, but it is for ART, yo.)



Build the heat

Once I know what kind of story I'm going to be writing, I'll usually try to figure out, in a general sense, where it's going to end up. I'm kind of a traditionalist, so this is usually going to be with a first kiss or with an orgasm (or two); again, YMMV--maybe a mutual spanking with wooden spoons is your own personal money shot, and that is okay with me. Simply substitute your details where appropriate.

No matter where I decide I want the story to end up, though, I try to begin somewhere that's, say, ten degrees less hot and work my way up the scale, with several incrementally hotter stops en route**. So, like, if where I wanted to end up was a Fraser/Kowalski first kiss, I might want to start with Ray watching Fraser, thinking about what it'd be like to kiss him, then have him test the waters with a hand on Fraser's shoulder, maybe have Fraser give Ray one of those sharp, uncertain, Fraser-y looks. Everybody who's reading knows where the scene is going to end up, but they don't--Ray and Fraser don't--and without that not-knowing and that awesome, stomach-plummety tension, there isn't much of a story.

But on the other hand, if we go back to the Ray/Ray example from before, I'd probably start with the two of them making out, maybe already in bed. I think it's okay to jump in when the action's already started in that case, because where I want to end up is still a long way from there--I'm planning on some teasing, and maybe some more making out, and then a whole lot of explicit detail before I get to the orgasms, so there'll be lots of room for the heat to build.

Keep the viewpoint tight

A tight, third person POV is kind of my default mode for most things, but I find it's especially helpful when writing kissing and/or sex, both of which have a tendency to devolve into a mechanical choreography of hands and limbs if I'm not careful. So instead of worrying about making sure readers know where the characters' hands are at all times, I try to focus on what one of the characters feels under his palms (or fingertips, or tongue): The wood was slick, hard to hang onto; Ray tightened his grip instead of Ray was lying with his arms over his head, holding onto the wooden headboard. You might get a more complete picture of what's going on from example number two, but I think the first one is more immediate and invites a kind of empathetic participation in the scene. (By which I mean it is hotter, I guess.)

Be specific

Despite the inherent goofiness of sex in which you aren't personally involved, there are times when I can really appreciate straight up, traditional porn--filmed or written or however it might come. I have made my peace with the various philosophical arguments against its existence; I am basically All Right With Porn on a personal and political level. But that said, I actually don't think that explicit fanfiction is really the same thing as porn. It's a depiction of sex, sure, and it's usually written for titillation, but even the most WP-ish of PWP's happens inside a larger context; the characters are borrowed, not just from their creator(s), but from the whole of fandom. There are lots of places I could go to read about/look at a guy giving another guy a blowjob. When I'm reading fanfic, it's because I want the whole rest of it, too. I want Ray K (with his curious vulnerabilities and his smirk and his attitude and the soft sweaty hair at the back of his neck) giving Fraser (reluctant Fraser, cautious Fraser, secret-Kowalski-addict Fraser) a blowjob. I want to be able to draw all those invisible lines in my head, connect the dots, see, for instance, Ray's surrender to Fraser in Asylum answered, at least partly, by Fraser's finally giving it up for Ray.

And it's not so much that I need the writer to show me all that context and backstory explicitly every time. I've watched the show, I've read an unholy amount of dS fic--I'm okay, on occasion, to jump in at the good part. But this is where characterization becomes especially important. If I don't recognize the people in the story as the ones I know from that bigger collaborative picture, I'm not going to be able to make those connections I'm craving, and the story is going to miss the mark.

So when I'm the one writing the explicit scene in question, I think a lot about voice--not just dialogue-wise, although that's important too, but also POV-wise. If I'm telling the story from Vecchio's head, I'm going to try to make sure that narratively, I'm only using words and phrases I can actually hear canon-Vecchio saying. This is all kinds of personal, in that every writer's going to have a slightly different version of canon-Vecchio (or Ray K, or Fraser, or whatever) in her head; I think a little variance is a good thing, but I think it's also smart to get a good beta or two and trust them to let you know if you're veering too far away from recognizable. sageness has written a bunch of excellent tips for getting the voice right over here--I suggest you read that, if you haven't already.

I also try to make the sensory details I'm adding specific to the characters I'm writing about. That can mean stuff like letting the shirt Ray K's taking off Vecchio be a button-down hand-tailored remnant from the Languistini days, or having Vecchio spend a little time sucking on Ray K's tattoo. I think it's better, though, if you can include things for which you have a personal fondness, no matter how strange and particular they might be. I, for example, have a thing for the back of Ray K's neck. I know not why, and I do not question--I just pause episodes at nape-featuring moments and sigh over them in a pathetic way. But all that sighing means I have a nicely vivid mental image to draw upon when I'm writing, and I think that makes the scene I've written feel more vivid to people who are reading. Also, those things are the kind of things people notice about the real-life objects of their crushes, so having one character observe them in another is going to make your characterization stronger all around.



Okay! The end! That's all the rambling I'm up to tonight. It's your turn, now--tell me what you do to make your kissing scenes more kissingful or your sex scenes sexier. What's your trick?




*pearl_os and other Ray/Ray oppositionists may mentally add a Fraser to this example; he can be on the other side of the bed, watching.

**The author is sleepy and therefore takes no responsibility for any mixed or unusual metaphors; continue reading at your own risk.

Comments

[sage]

Yay! This is lovely, and I love the idea of a temperature gauge spanning from beginning to end.

Also, I'm such a sucker for specific detail -- it's such an excellent way to show what different characters notice about each other. Like both Rays are going to notice different things about Frannie than Fraser would, and RayK might be more aware of the rhythm of Fraser's movement, while Vecchio might be more aware of the texture of the serge under his hands and the contrast of the bright red fabric against Fraser's skin. Fraser wouldn't notice technical details about their cars, but the Rays would -- and they would because they really care about that sort of thing.

Something I worry about in my fic is how to make kissing resonate. Like, I know what I don't like. I don't like tonsil hockey or dueling tongues. I don't like characters chewing on each other's faces or bleeding lips (hi, kissing with a split lip HURTS, and not in a good way!). I don't like characters not knowing how to kiss and breathe through their noses, like most people figure out how to do by the time they're seventeen. (And yet, it's still hot sometimes when characters have to stop for breath, when it's MORE than breath they're stopping for -- when it's like a break for 'holy shit, this is happening'.)

But kissing words are hard for me. I get stuck repeating "he kissed him" or "he brushed a kiss over his lips" or "he pressed a kiss to his mouth", but I melt into a puddle when I read a story where the author really nails a kissing scene. Where it's emotional and physically hot, too.

I can't think of examples right now, but I know there have been stories where the kissing was as hot as the sex. I think part of it is due to the accumulated yearning (like in resonant8's Make Me Yearn essays on writing fantastic smut), but I feel like maybe I'm missing something of how to SHOW what their mouths are doing and how it's making them feel.

I mean, fucking mouths with tongues and sucking a tongue in desperation is awesome, but I'm never sure about how to work that sort of specific detail into the context of the scene.

Any thoughts, anybody?

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Hm, yeah--sustained kissing scenes are tough to write really well, it's true. I guess it seems like such a narrow field of activity, only so many words you can use before you just enter the realm of the bizarre (a la dueling tongues). *g*

I went looking for DS stories with examples of kissing scenes I love and, off the top of my head, came up with I love you without knowing how (http://www.stonesoup.co.nz/chinashop/fic/withoutknowing.html) and The Long Way Home (http://community.livejournal.com/ds_flashfiction/315853.html) (both of which were for the excellent Necking Challenge at DS Flashfic). Reading through them, I noticed that it isn't so much that BLG and Chinashop are using a bunch of creative similes for kissing--they mostly just say "kissed", it seems, although they modify that with some descriptors: soft, wet, deep, heavy, slow. But they both spend a lot of time on the stuff that's happening during and between each kiss--where the hands are, what they're touching, how it feels to Fraser to have Ray's body on top of his, to have Ray's breath on his neck or against his ear, etc. And in both of those stories, there's a lot of attention paid to sustaining the emotional component as well as the physical stuff. Ray and Fraser want each other so much, and the palpability of that is at least as hot as the physical stuff they're doing to each other.

So I guess widening the focus a bit, thinking about the whole making out experience, as opposed to the mouth action alone? Maybe?

[sage]

Oooh, I'd forgotten about the Necking challenge. That's something I should go reread. :D

Ray and Fraser want each other so much, and the palpability of that is at least as hot as the physical stuff they're doing to each other.

exactly. I want to feel that as a reader. They're defying so many social conditions and endangering Ray's career and possibly both their lives to do this, so I want to feel the weight of that -- that they're so crazy about each other that the risk seems like an entirely reasonable choice.

[eledhwenlin]

I ♥ this essay. I always have problems with my sex scenes - they sound pretty mechanic a lot of the time. I like the trick with concentrating on the details. :)

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Yay, glad you found it helpful! :)

thanks

[revbiscuit.livejournal.com]

Hello. I just wanted to say thank you, really. I started toying with the idea of writing a few months ago, and whilst I currently have nothing I am prepared to show in public, I am finding these posts invaluably helpful. Sorry I have nothing useful to contribute, I just wanted to show some appreciation for the trouble you have all been taking in doing this, so far.

Re: thanks

[sprat.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're finding it helpful! I'm never sure if I'm making any kind of sense when I'm rambling on, so that's really good to hear. :)

And yeah, this series has been excellent so far. sageness is a rockstar for having brought it about.

[becky-h.livejournal.com]

Don't lose who you're writing to what you're writing. Sex is an intimate and telling act - it can tell you a lot about a character and a relationship.

It's more than characterization - though that's important, too. No one wants pasted on character heads.

There's always something to be said in a sex scene. There's always something that's happening between the physical act and there's always a point beyond the orgasm.

I'm not saying that it has to all be great romance or power and I hate purple prose with a passion, but there's always a mood, or a theme or a character trait that the sex scene captures.

Hold onto that thread.

[sprat.livejournal.com]

there's always a mood, or a theme or a character trait that the sex scene captures.

Yes, exactly. Sometimes the mood I'm hoping to convey is nothing especially profound--I think I've written several stories in which that prevailing emotion was basically Fraser's overwhelming desire for Ray K *g*--but it has to be there. When I read back on my own fic, the ones that fall flat in retrospect are the ones that lacked that piece.

Thanks for this!

[vienna-waits.livejournal.com]

Wow, this will be a tough act to follow.:-) This comes at a good time, as I am struggling to write a het story for a challenge prompt. Thanks for the great tips.

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool, I'm glad it was helpful! And man, I can't wait to read your piece. Exposition is the bane of my existence. *g*

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

[here via metafandom] I really like your idea about having a Small Particular Thing and working the story up to that. I often have a particular moment/scene I want, and it feels self-indulgent and/or forced to write a whole fic just to get to that fantasy place, but the way you talk about it in this entry makes it sound not just valid but solid -- and gives me a way of approaching it that'll make my fic stronger. So thanks for posting this.

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Fanfiction, especially when there's a pairing in it, is all about scratching self-indulgent itches, for me. I mean, I've read some incredibly beautiful and profound things in fanfiction, and often been amazed at the quality of the writing--but ultimately, those things aren't the things I go hunting for when I'm looking for fic to read. And I'd never get off my ass and actually write something if it weren't for those particular itches that haven't been scratched someplace else. It's selfish, but at least it's honest, and I think that's a good place for any fiction to start. *g*

I'm so glad you found this helpful. Thank you, for letting me know.

[jad.livejournal.com]

I'm not part of the fandom (I write HP for the most part), but I still found this essay interesting. I agree with a lot of your points, and use a lot of the same methods. Though, you put The wood was slick, hard to hang onto; Ray tightened his grip instead of Ray was lying with his arms over his head, holding onto the wooden headboard tip into a perspective I hadn't considered before, and think I'll benefit from. So I just wanted to say thank you for that ^_^

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool, I'm glad you found that helpful! :)

[kill-claudio.livejournal.com]

You? Are a goddess. Just sayin'.

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Hee, yay! Glad you enjoyed. :)

[china_shop]

I love this essay so much, and a part of it is you practising what you preach: you don't just list some rules for good sex scenes, you describe (in a delightfully tight first person POV *g*) how you get there, why you want to go there. It's a beautifully textured piece on writing. *gives you flowers and chocolates*

Also, as I said in email, I read this on the way to work, and my head went all NSFW! ♥

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Aw, yay. Thanks, you! It was harder to write than I thought it'd be--making it personal was the only way it seemed to want to work. :)

[china_shop]

Hi! I just re-read this, and it's as relevant and useful now as it was 4 years ago. <3 <3 <3

(FOUR YEARS!!!!)

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Awwww! Thank you!! I'd forgotten about this. It's awesome you still found stuff you could use in there. <333333333

(Four years! That's...I don't even know what that is. UNPOSSIBLE.)

(HI!)

[ride-4ever.livejournal.com]

This workshop guidance : eternally valuable! This month is my one-year "fanniversary" and a half-year of writing fic, so even though you posted this years ago, it's here-and-now valuable to ME. TYK!!