{"id":2128,"date":"2019-10-29T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/?p=2128"},"modified":"2019-11-11T22:53:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T03:53:15","slug":"how-to-write-a-good-fight-sex-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/how-to-write-a-good-fight-sex-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write a Good Fight\/Sex Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[This blog was originally published in Night Owl Reviews<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ladies, did you know I’m also a billionaire? It’s true! Sure, I inherited my billions from my father, who started with millions he inherited from his father and so on for several generations, but thanks to our system of tax breaks for the rich and rampant wealth distribution inequality, I grew those millions into billions! I am truly a self-made man. Have you seen my washboard abs? I mean, REALLY seen them?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s be\nhonest\u2014the vast majority of fight\/sex scenes in Hollywood and literature only\nexist to titillate. Most could be replaced by a sign or sentence that says \u201cAnd\nthen they have sex,\u201d or \u201cAnd then they fight.\u201d I lump sex scenes and fight\nscenes together because the mechanics and purposes of both are very similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how do\nyou write a good one? Let\u2019s pretend like I\u2019m qualified to give advice on this,\nand no one has recognized my genius yet because I\u2019ve been cursed by an evil\nwitch who lives next door and is mad that I was rude to her cat one time. Here\nare my handy-dandy tips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

– Don\u2019t be\na prude.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it\ngoes without saying, but don\u2019t write a sex scene unless you\u2019re willing to\nvisualize every aspect of hot, steamy sex. Ditto for a fight scene\u2014if you\u2019re not\nwilling to look into your dark heart and imagine really hurting someone, don\u2019t\nbother. It\u2019ll never sound genuine. Sex and fight scenes don\u2019t need to be\ngraphic, but you should start graphic and work your way back to whatever level\nis appropriate for your story. If your mind won\u2019t let you go there\u2026 Well, maybe\nreassess whether you really want to be a writer, because being a writer\ninvolves a lot of discomfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Okay, Nicole Kidman, I’ll buy a ticket. JUST THIS ONCE.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

– Make it\ncritical to the story.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask\nyourself what would happen if you took the fight\/sex scene out, or replaced the\nscene with the sentence, \u201cAnd then they have sex\/fight.\u201d Would your story be\nsignificantly different? The best sex scenes have far-reaching consequences and\ngive us insight into the characters; not just that they had sex, but how they\nhad sex. Ditto for fight scenes. What might we learn about a man who rips a\nwoman\u2019s clothes off in the heat of passion while she just lays there? Does she\nlike that he\u2019s in charge? Is she barely tolerating him? Is it consensual? Or a\nfight scene where one woman bites another\u2019s earring off. Does she usually fight\ndirty? Is she desperate? Did those used to be her earrings that her ex gave to\nhis new fling? The best fight\/sex scenes do more than excite; they add character\ndepth and advance the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Focus on\nkey, vivid details.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is\ntrue throughout all writing, but especially true for fight and sex scenes. For\nsex scenes, writers are often tempted to go all metaphysical to describe what\u2019s\ngoing on, like, \u201cTheir hearts merged as one and the heavens sang,\u201d or some such\nridiculousness. Or, \u201cHer skin was like a rose.\u201d How like a rose? Like touching\na rose? Roses have thorns. Write the scenes so the reader can clearly imagine\nthe sensations for themselves. Imagine this\u2014the sound of skin slapping during\nsex. A very simple description most everyone can viscerally imagine. The taste\nof vodka on your partner\u2019s lips. The crooked angle of a dislocated finger. The\nswollen feel of your numb face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As with porn, fight scenes are all about getting the right angles.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Those are the biggies, as I understand them. As with everything, practice makes perfect. So get writing, pervs! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This blog was originally published in Night Owl Reviews] Let\u2019s be honest\u2014the vast majority of fight\/sex scenes in Hollywood and literature only exist to titillate. Most could be replaced by a sign or sentence that says \u201cAnd then they have sex,\u201d or \u201cAnd then they fight.\u201d I lump sex scenes and fight scenes together because … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “How to Write a Good Fight\/Sex Scene”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[495,502],"tags":[470,78,77],"class_list":["post-2128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction","category-scene-construction","tag-nicole-kidman-on-the-sex-train","tag-writing-fight-scenes","tag-writing-sex-scenes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Vyi8-yk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2131,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2128\/revisions\/2131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}