#EroticMusings 2026.05.25 — Week 51 (May 17-23) Craft What kind(s) of intimacy do you find hardest to show in your work? How are you trying to improve?
[Note: This is a discussion about how to include sex in a story. —RS]
Well, there was a time where a friend reading a draft of a novel said, I love the story but I don't believe these people ever have sex. They fade to black.
Well, I was still writing my stories as if they were YA, and I was the type of shy person that was quite okay with tell not show in certain areas of life, and could be quite "appropriate" about hinting at chemistry in bed with intimacy outside of bed.
These last few stories have been a culmination of wanting to write more spicy stories, of trying to show don't tell tastefully yet naturally for the character, to make sex integral to the plot of the story by proving it a raison d'être. It is hard†, no pun intended, for me to do as my censorious mind objects and balks and tries to stop me from writing.
My solutions have been to never use the common, crass, or anatomical words associated with sex in the English language, to always address the event from the racing heart and senses of the first person narrator, what she sees, feels, smells, tastes, hears, or worries about—her assessments, enjoyment and what captures her attention—not what someone standing in the room or looking at a movie expects to see to fulfill their interest. No demonstration sex—what the narrator reports was for her benefit not yours, though once you get into the flow… However, the phrase "being demonstrative" does have a special meaning in the right context. I'm not above using innuendo, double entendre, unusual phrasing, or misusing meanings of words to get the point across!
So far, it seems to be working.
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† Okay, sorry, the pun was intentional.
[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
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