Intense scenes, maybe aftercare

I don't mean to be stupid--it's entirely natural. What, exactly, do you mean by 'aftercare'?

Maryn, still able to learn if you dumb stuff down sufficiently

A dom(me) tending to any injuries incurred by the sub as a result of 'play'.

Oh, okay. That's called aftercare regardless of how the injuries occurred, if I'm not mistaken.

Maryn, learning something new every day

I think injuries is a little too simplistic. It's not JUST about marks that might be left behind though that is certainly part of it. Depending on the specific type of relationship some scenes can be emotionally traumatic and some can be just downright intense...in a mindblowingly (is that a word?) great way.

There's still that period of "let down" if you will. For some subs/bottoms it can be sort of like a mild case of shock...shivering, teeth chattering, extreme sensitivity to touch, light, or sound (especially if sensory deprivation was utilized).

It's all part of bringing the submissive back to the here and now that is part of aftercare. You can't just leave them hanging (no pun intended).

Ruth2 said:

When you write scenes that involve aftercare, and both the sexual/play/whatever parts of the scene and the aftercare are extremely intense, do you find yourself 1) becoming emotionally involved in the scene and 2) having to write the whole thing in very short spurts? (No pun intended)

I'm working on an intense aftercare scene, and even though it was all in the head and not physical, the aftermath is hard to stay with for more than a sentence at a time. Am I weird or is this normal?

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I don't think it's abnormal per se. I think it depends on how invested you get into your story and how much you related to the characters on either side of the issue. I still have a hard time sharing my work with anyone. It's the main reason I haven't sent anything off just yet. I'm too emotionally invested in the work so it's all personal to me.

I won't say that I've had to write in short sports. Usually when I'm writing an intense scene or chapter it just pours out. If, for any reason, I stop in the middle though the magic is gone and I have to scrap the whole thing. I'm never really able to recapture the moment. So maybe I'm the strange one.

That's normal. I have a novel I started and haven't moved much further on because the MC makes me crazy.

And writing that rape scene in the novella took a hell of a lot out of me. Although I was able to write it mostly in one take. But afterward it took me several days to feel comfortable working on that story again.

Back to the OP for me:

Ruth2 said:

When you write scenes that involve aftercare, and both the sexual/play/whatever parts of the scene and the aftercare are extremely intense, do you find yourself 1) becoming emotionally involved in the scene and 2) having to write the whole thing in very short spurts? (No pun intended)

I'm working on an intense aftercare scene, and even though it was all in the head and not physical, the aftermath is hard to stay with for more than a sentence at a time. Am I weird or is this normal?

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I should bloody hope this applies to all aspects of novel-writing.

Whether it be intensity, love, hate, desire, fear, humour...I want to feel all that as I write otherwise I have no right to expect the reader to experience those emotions.

(I'm in the middle of a very interesting conversation with aadams73 by email about laughing at our own work...I wrote a chapter the other night and had to keep stopping to wipe tears of laughter away. We'll see if she feels the same when she reads it).

It should apply across the board I think - whatever emotion we want our characters to feel, we should feel. And whatever we feel, should be something our readers do, too.