Is it good for you?

Sex scenes. We’ve read them at least a few hundred times. Some of us have done it at least a few thousand times. Lori Devoti said in Tuesday’s blog when she’s reading a book she sometimes skips over them. Michelle gave some great examples in her blog yesterday. The shapeshifters that Liz posted about come with natural advantages we unshifting animals don’t have.

So if our hero and heroine come with skin instead of fur, what are we going to do to make our sex scenes fresh? Different? Let’s face it, all males and females come with the same anatomy, more or less. And by different I don’t mean different positions. If that’s what readers care about, all our heroes and heroines would be contortionists. And different places isn’t what I mean either. Doing it in a closet isn’t much sexier than doing it in a bed. Nor does kinky mean sexy. Not in my books, anyway.

Let’s take a look at one of my writing idols, Jennifer Crusie. In WELCOME TO TEMPTATION the heroine doesn’t enjoy sex with the hero–until they do it in a place where they’re in danger of being discovered. Then she’s turned on. One problem with this is the hero’s occupation. He’s the town mayor.

Crusie is evil. No wonder I love her books.

In FAKING IT, with a plot revolving fake paintings, the heroine fakes orgasms. It’s not until she admits her forgeries to her lover that she can let herself go. And, boy, does she!

These scenes are fresh. These scenes are honest. And, in true Crusie style, they’re funny.:mrgreen: How many sex scenes do you read that aren’t fabulous? That are actually duds? What’s so great about this is it’s happened to all of us. (And if it hasn’t, I don’t want to hear about it.) Crusie’s sex scenes challenge the characters–and the readers. These sex scenes show the change in the characters, their growth.

We can’t all be as brilliant as Jennifer Crusie, but we can try. In my last book my cynical hero can’t have sex with the heroine because he’s investigating her and it would be unethical. My heroine, who wants to celebrate life after being miraculously healed of a debilitating disease, strips in front of a window in a building across from him and touches herself. Her way of making love to him and not taking no for an answer. (One of my CPs has since read a window-sex scene, so I’m not the only one with this idea. But I didn’t know this when I wrote it, so it’s fresh to me.)

What sex scenes do you recall that surprised you with their freshness and their honesty? What do you do to make your sex scenes fresh? In your writing, of course.

One more thing before I go. Our guest blogger next Tuesday is psychologist Dr. Cheryl Smith. If you have a question about character motivation or behavior under a certain circumstance, you can email it to Michelle at michelledienerATgmail.com and she’ll give it to Dr. Smith to answer.