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louiselux ([personal profile] louiselux) wrote2008-05-27 12:38 pm
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Answers to questions on writing

Here are some answers to the questions people asked in March - these are for [livejournal.com profile] anenko and [livejournal.com profile] daegaer

Your stories include sexual elements quite often, and they're all awesome and unique. How do you tackle the issue of sex in your fiction, and keep things fresh both for yourself and your readers?

Thank you, first of all! Most of the sex I write is created for purposes of titillation, but not just physical. Often there is a strong emotional element, which is a key part of the excitement for me, and I think for women in general. I want to push the characters and to find out when happens when they are exposed emotionally, or when they're confronted with a desire they have to admit to, or when the sex is an expression of love or an expression of need. Or an expression of a fucked up situation. Thinking about this now, it occurs to me I like my characters to be in a mess emotionally and this fuels the intensity of any sex that happens. That's what I like to write about, and it's possible that I put a lot of myself into my stories. A lot of the sex I write is outside my experience (obviously) but I do love to extrapolate. Also, I read a lot, other stories but also about sex, about kinks and what different types of people do with each other. Research, I suppose, because I do love to find things out. Maybe that helps or maybe it's just a way of wasting time on the internets, I don't know.

Often, I approach a sex scene by thinking in some detail about the emotional investment each character will have in the sex, and this might be the thing that keeps things fresh. There's always a new angle to look at things from. Or, you know, put them in a different setting because lord knows I love an AU. But I think that the quality of sex scenes rests on understanding your characters and writing them well in the first place. If you get them right initially, the sex should fall into place.

The one thing I try very hard not to do when writing sex scenes is to make it all about the physical action, because it bores me rigid when I read a scene where the sex goes: they did this, then they did that, then this. Instead, I want to know how the sex is changing them.

I read some very good advice on writing erotic sex scenes by [livejournal.com profile] resonant8 How to write a sex scene . It taught me a lot. The one single most useful thing I learnt was her advice to 'pick one zing and stick with it', which to me means: what is the single most important thing that this sex scene is telling you? What is the defining hot thing? Often, at least in my case and in slash generally, this is tied to emotional developments in the story and the characters.


I'd be really interested in your thoughts about co-writing with someone. I found Cupidity to be seamless - did you find that your style and emungere's matched easily, or did there have to be a lot of editing?

My thoughts, let me show you them. Generally we've had a good reaction to the things we've written together. When someone else asked us how the process worked, [livejournal.com profile] emungere put it down to sparkly magic.

Sparkly magic is actually a good way of thinking about it. It's hard to say how we keep the joint writing process smooth, but it's a combination of practice, very frequent communication and both of us having similar styles and approaches to writing already. I think if we had vastly different styles it might not work. We write a lot of random ideas in IM, passing them back and forth, and that is really a good low pressure way to start writing with someone.

I think finding a good writing partner depends partly on luck. Before I met [livejournal.com profile] emungere I only knew her as someone I distantly fangirled and then we talked, and wrote something short, and kept on writing and now I fangirl her from close up instead. Honestly, I do. From my perspective, possibly the most important thing to do is to work with someone whose writing you admire. [livejournal.com profile] emungere can do things I can't do and I try and learn from that. I hope it makes me a better writer.

We don't set any ground rules, but that's probably because we talk often on IM, so anything that crops up in the writing is discussed straight away. We plot in IM, but also we feel quite free to introduce new ideas and events. I think the good communication is a big part of the writing working so well.

We've been betaing each others sections, but also getting others to read it too. I think it's probably best to get at least one outside view. Editing is the hardest part and needs honesty and patience and tact. [livejournal.com profile] emungere almost never shouts at me for my comma abuse, for example. I think you have to have a lot of trust in your co writer, but I think if you've been writing together for some time, this should come naturally as the writing relationship grows stronger.

For Cupidity, we collaborated on each chapter. I noticed that it often worked out that one of us would write the end of one chapter and the beginning of another, say about 1.5k words. So then the other would pick it up and write the end of that chapter and the beginning of the next. Sometimes one of us wrote nearly a whole chapter each in one go, but not often. We’ve done that in the past, on other stories, and found it much slower and harder. And maybe collaborating on chapters means the writing is more seamless? We talked each day about the plot and what was going to happen, so we mostly knew what we had to write. However, this is time consuming. If you wanted to do something less insane, you could write a few chapters each and pass it back and forth.

Also, the times when we got stuck always seemed to be a good time to pass it over to the other.

I hope this has been useful. If there's anything I haven't answered, please do feel free to ask more.

[identity profile] gen50.livejournal.com 2008-05-27 11:52 am (UTC)(link)
i've read a lot of your works (i dont remember how i discovered you now) but i found great enjoyment in your work.

(same thing for your partner, hence i recognize her work). both of you write mostly hakkai/gojyo but not exclusively.

interesting thoughts you have there.
to me it boils down to the fact that you 2 have become friends, both have talents, and have honesty between you - in your writing, i mean.
(because honesty goes without saying between friends)

you didnt write this for me, but it was very illuminating. thanks for sharing your thoughts.

edited: because i saw some errors...
Edited 2008-05-27 11:53 (UTC)

[identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I realised I didn't have you friended, after all this time enjoying your thoughtful comments, so I just did!

I think you are very right about the honesty - It's important. Writing can take you places that perhaps you wouldn't normally go with people and that's a very interesting experience for me.

[identity profile] eyesofshinigami.livejournal.com 2008-05-27 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I have to say that I totally agree with you on the sex scene thing! I think that it's true that emotional ties and such make a sex scene hotter. *whispers* That's why most of my PWPs involve a couple already established. The occasional "hey let's fuck for the hell of it!" fic is all right, but I prefer there to be some kind of connection and emotion behind it.

As for collaborations...again, I am in agreement with you. :) Recently, [livejournal.com profile] a_mael and I (I'm visiting her) collaborated on a cracked out piece of WTFery story, and it was great fun. Our writing styles are vastly different, but somehow we managed to make it work. And it was fun!

You and [livejournal.com profile] emungere write gorgeous collaborations, and it's really nifty to hear the behind the scenes stuff. :)

Thanks for sharing this with us!

[identity profile] i-am-zan.livejournal.com 2008-05-27 04:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for sharing ...

At the moment I am writing a collab. fic too. [Outside of Saiyuki.] How we met was similar too. We admired each other's writing and decided to write a very short piece together and that experimental one went fine. We did one earlier that did not quite work out but I think we trusted each other enough to admit.

[IM is a godsend with collab fic.]

We are now into 10 chapters and it is really the most I have ever written having only ever attempted one-shots before. We did a mix of the

1) "it often worked out that one of us would write the end of one chapter and the beginning of another, say about 1.5k words. So then the other would pick it up and write the end of that chapter and the beginning of the next." and also

2) How we'd each write one chapter .... also finding it that it helped that if we got stuck it was fine to take a step back and let the other take over. I think trust is a huge part of the equation too.

and yes getting a third eye has been useful.

The fic is almost done and I don't know about sparkly magic..but I hope for at least some of our readers that they enjoy reading it! (So far so good, although of course the self critic in me is convinced that they are only there because they see her name on the fic. Hee!)

I did find the first part helpful too but the first stumbling block I have to get over is being comfortable with me writing it! I've written before both het and m/m sex. I did struggle and I was uncertain of myself I think. So I guess faith in oneself is a help. *wry smile*

ANyway I uhh... mmmm ramble and spam your journal space. I apologise.

Thank you dear for sharing these insights with us.

Edited for some mistakes sorry
Edited 2008-05-27 16:58 (UTC)
scribblemoose: image of moose with pen and paper (Default)

[personal profile] scribblemoose 2008-05-27 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Very interesting stuff.

I think that the quality of sex scenes rests on understanding your characters and writing them well in the first place. If you get them right initially, the sex should fall into place.

Yes, exactly. Absolutely.

And yay for sparkly magic. I know just what you mean. ^_^
Edited 2008-05-27 18:04 (UTC)

[identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Sparkly magic is important!

*sparkles*

[identity profile] anenko.livejournal.com 2008-05-27 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Thinking about this now, it occurs to me I like my characters to be in a mess emotionally and this fuels the intensity of any sex that happens.

Yes! That's what draws me to pairings in general (not that the characters need to be in angst and despair overload, but they should definitely teetering on the edge of *something.*)

[identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Teetering on the edge, yes. That's just exactly what I wanted to say. I wonder why - maybe because confusion seems to be a natural human state? Or am I just being terribly pessimistic? It is fascinating though, to wind characters up and them watch what happens.
ext_67435: (Default)

[identity profile] despina-moon.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
This was fascinating, we got to take a peek in your head! Thank you for taking the time to share with us.

[identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Heee! You're very welcome. I'm glad the view was interesting. :D
chomiji: Mibu no Shinrei (from Samurai Deeper Kyo by Akimine Kamijyo) as a child, grinning, with the caption Thank You (Shinrei-chan-thanks)

[personal profile] chomiji 2008-05-28 02:49 am (UTC)(link)

Added to Memories, especially for the sex scene tips ... I think this will turn out to be really valuable advice, and I'm glad to have the link to the resonant8 article as well.

The business about the cataloging steps in sexual techniques and how it's boring is so true, and it's easy for me to get bogged down in details. (That's why saiyuki_time is doing me a lot of good I think.)

ext_12512: Hinoe from Natsume Yuujinchou, elegant and smirky (Saiyuki Gaiden: sakura of doom)

[identity profile] smillaraaq.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
It's worth exploring the rest of Resonant's site, too -- she's got some wonderful Due South ficcage!

[identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, she has! She's an amazing writer. Now I'm tempted to go back and splurge on DS fic. It's my warm fuzzy place. Mmmmm.
ext_12512: Hinoe from Natsume Yuujinchou, elegant and smirky (585 embrace your demons)

[identity profile] smillaraaq.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 11:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I went on a major binge with her stuff earlier this month, my net connection was getting seriously spotty and for some odd reason of plot, her page was one of the few I could still manage to load without timing out! All that yummy ficcage made the mostly-offline time much much less of a headache.

And I am endlessly amused at how many 585 fans also go for the DS love. In my head at least, Fraser and Ray K. are just another oddbal AU/reincarnation series for the boys...

[identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 07:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm so incredibly glad you found this useful. I honestly never know if I'm getting my points across effectively, although emungere does tell me I am very coherent and a good explainer. Writing is such a dark art though... I do recommend resonant's article, it's got some of the best how to write sex tips I've read anywhere.

Also, yay, saiyuki time! I'm very very pleased to hear that. Writing to a time limit has taught me such a lot and it's just great practise.

[identity profile] lauand.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 11:00 am (UTC)(link)
That was a very interesting post. I've always wondered how you and Emungere managed to write together and obtain such stunningly good results, so I'm glad you covered that part.

The explanation about the sex scenes was fascinating, too. For me (as for most women, as you mentioned), the emotional component is vital. Even in kinky sex, where the kink is nearly enough to make the sex worthwhile, it's always better when I can see some glimpses of emotion, because actions in themselves get boring. There are a limited number of sex positions and we get to a point where we have read them all. But with you and Emungere's writing I never get bored, there's always a compulsion to read more, a need to read more. Because your sex scenes are more than hot, they are hooking. And the very best part (at least for me), is that it never falls into sap. There are feelings, emotions, sensations and relationship balances/unbalances, but it doen't become too sugary even if it sometimes become too intense emotionally speaking. I think that's real talent, as I've already mentioned to you and/or Emungere.

I'll be sure to take a look to that "tutorial" you gave us a link of. I've got quite the complex when writing sex, so any help is welcome.

All in all, thanks for this post, it was most interesting.

[identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, thanks! That's a really great compliment, that the sex scenes hook you.

When I read books, I'm always looking for the part where I get hooked completely into the story. It's like a magic trick and I love it when it happens. I'm glad that we can replicate it. Also, I am naturally averse to sap myself, I just don't get a kick from really mushy stuff. I do like sweet and gentle stories too though, done well they are wonderful and warming.

[identity profile] daegaer.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Both of these answers are really interesting and informative! I like the fact that your writing overlapped the chapters rather than being L-E-L-E-L and so on, that does seem like it would make it easier to go from one writer to the other (as well as your Giant Timeline, of course)! It also seems like IM is a godsend for that type of writing.

[identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com 2008-05-28 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
It is a godsend. I forgot the most important point for co writing, which is that it also has to be fun and has to delight you. Otherwise there's not much point, I suppose. Hey, I'm happy you found this interesting, I'm never sure how relevant these sorts of things are for other people.