Can virgins write accurate sex scenes?
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Oh, you better believe that virgins can write explicit and accurate sex scenes. Just ask the Bronte sisters, three women, it was rumored, who never had the chance, but wrote the hottest, most controversial best selling books, with sex scenes, in the mid 1800s. Wuthering Heights comes to mind, and I forget the others.
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Can't remember Wuthrering Heights having any explicit sex scenes. Jane Eyre certainly doesn't have as much as a kiss!
The thing about Charlotte Bronte - I know far less about Emily and - is that she is able to create an incredible frisson without any actual action. The lack of sex actually makes the love story stronger.
The thing about Charlotte Bronte - I know far less about Emily and - is that she is able to create an incredible frisson without any actual action. The lack of sex actually makes the love story stronger.
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I think anybody can write anything, with the right combination of experience, research, and imagination. For instance, I bet most virgins know what an orgasm feels like, so they can draw on that. They can do research by reading other writers' erotic scenes and sex manuals, and talking to their sexually-experienced friends. And then use their imagination to give it all emotion and texture.
Given that many of them will be more preoccupied with sex than the rest of us, they might end up producing something even better.
Given that many of them will be more preoccupied with sex than the rest of us, they might end up producing something even better.
Industry insiders state that 2/3rd of published hard-core pornography is written by women. No conjectures are made as to whether or not some percentage of those women are virgins, but most certainly quite a few of them write sex scenes from a male point of view that not only are physically impossible but would be damn painful to attempt.
But virgins writing of a sexual experience? Why not. Clive Cussler wrote of an airplane being piloted at "165 knots per hour". And Sebastian Junger wrote of the anxious crew cleaning the spark plugs of the ill-fated fishing vessel's diesel engine in his novel "The Perfect Storm".
But virgins writing of a sexual experience? Why not. Clive Cussler wrote of an airplane being piloted at "165 knots per hour". And Sebastian Junger wrote of the anxious crew cleaning the spark plugs of the ill-fated fishing vessel's diesel engine in his novel "The Perfect Storm".
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Quiller
Yeh. I come across stuff like what you cite. I recently read a Vietnam War memoir where the author says he was drafted into the army at the Moronia By The Bay Induction Center. There never was an induction center here. And he cited some restaurants that never existed, either. BS
Yeh. I come across stuff like what you cite. I recently read a Vietnam War memoir where the author says he was drafted into the army at the Moronia By The Bay Induction Center. There never was an induction center here. And he cited some restaurants that never existed, either. BS
Aruna
If I write about what happens after you shoot someone in the heart with a shotgun, the details will be real. If I write about getting a fractured skull and a mouth full of broken teeth, the details will be real.
If I write about what happens after you shoot someone in the heart with a shotgun, the details will be real. If I write about getting a fractured skull and a mouth full of broken teeth, the details will be real.
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there is no reason to my mind as to why virgins can't write accurate sex scenes.
obviously, it wouldn't be accurate to real life for them, as they have no real life 'sex' to reflect it to, but that doesn't mean it can't be accurate for anyone who has had sex.
i'm not sure if accurate is that important when it comes to these kind of scenes. i mean, people know how 'it' happens (eg, the specifc parts involved - assuming its a heterosexual encounter). there is an awful lot of freedom as to how the lovers might be using those parts - as a result i'd say that your accuracy in a sex scene depends not on your experience of sex but on your ability to relate the characters without greatly contradicting what the reader has been told to expect from these characters thus far.
then it seems realistic for the characters, and they are the ones having the sex after all.
obviously, it wouldn't be accurate to real life for them, as they have no real life 'sex' to reflect it to, but that doesn't mean it can't be accurate for anyone who has had sex.
i'm not sure if accurate is that important when it comes to these kind of scenes. i mean, people know how 'it' happens (eg, the specifc parts involved - assuming its a heterosexual encounter). there is an awful lot of freedom as to how the lovers might be using those parts - as a result i'd say that your accuracy in a sex scene depends not on your experience of sex but on your ability to relate the characters without greatly contradicting what the reader has been told to expect from these characters thus far.
then it seems realistic for the characters, and they are the ones having the sex after all.
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if you want to be more accurate - research it. you don't have to do it. you coul read an erotic book or two. you could ask jeeves what sex is. search google etc.
Mark Haddon wrote a book a few years ago about an autistic boy. Now, he wasn't an autistic boy but he researched and came away with great realism from it, according to some authorities on the subject.
Mark Haddon wrote a book a few years ago about an autistic boy. Now, he wasn't an autistic boy but he researched and came away with great realism from it, according to some authorities on the subject.
At the risk of being TMI...
I certainly have never had a complaint about erotic scenes I've written...
I certainly have never had a complaint about erotic scenes I've written...
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Mayor of Moronia said:
I'm assuming with "real" you mean you know it first hand. But that doesn't mean you can necessarily write those scenes better than a writer who only imagines them. It all depends, like I said, on imagination and writing skill. A good writer makes it real - for the reader.
Aruna
Too much of the imagination crap will break the spell for the reader, unless the reader is also virginal and has no idea which way 'up' is. You can get away with it doing Sci-Fi and some Horror because no one has any experiences living on Mars or being a cannibal; but most readers have played Hokey Pokey, and they know a little about shaking things all about. Writers who rely on imagination lose rapport with their readers, because the readers are thinking "this is BS."
Too much of the imagination crap will break the spell for the reader, unless the reader is also virginal and has no idea which way 'up' is. You can get away with it doing Sci-Fi and some Horror because no one has any experiences living on Mars or being a cannibal; but most readers have played Hokey Pokey, and they know a little about shaking things all about. Writers who rely on imagination lose rapport with their readers, because the readers are thinking "this is BS."
Given the number of non-virgins who get sex hopeless anatomically wrong, I don't think this is a major worry.
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Medievalist said:
I can't tell you the number of ridiculous sex scenes I've read that totally and completely threw me out - written by non-virgins. Whereas the virginal, never-been-kissed Charlotte Bronte has managed to beguile readers for centuries with her ewonderful love stpries.
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If you believe me to be any judge of 'accurate' (I assure you I have some experience of the real thing) the answer is clearly a resounding yes. I have read some very hot stuff from virgins but won't name names here 
I don't think any writer necessarily wants their sex life bandied about forums.
For a start, virgins have bodies and don't need a partner to use them. So they can easily write POV for their own gender. As a follow up most of you will know I write male/male material and am not male--I have some of the parts and not others. I had no way to be totally sure my imagination was sufficient (hell, I even have dreams where I am a man having sex) until I corresponded with gay male readers--and they had no complaints at all. In fact they seemed bemused that I was concerned about the issue.
I don't think any writer necessarily wants their sex life bandied about forums.For a start, virgins have bodies and don't need a partner to use them. So they can easily write POV for their own gender. As a follow up most of you will know I write male/male material and am not male--I have some of the parts and not others. I had no way to be totally sure my imagination was sufficient (hell, I even have dreams where I am a man having sex) until I corresponded with gay male readers--and they had no complaints at all. In fact they seemed bemused that I was concerned about the issue.
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I don't think any writer (other than maybe Ted Mark) has ever written an accurate sex scene. Accurate sex scenes are what we live, not what we write. A reader wants perfect sex scenes, where everything fits perfectly and there's never a fumble or a slip--a story where every climax is simultaneous.
Sex between two people requires a certain amount of practice and repetition to acheive a shadow of perfection. I think that is the reason that we as a species tend to court each other and "pair off" rather than breed by instinct where propagation is the only issue.
Regards,
Scott
Sex between two people requires a certain amount of practice and repetition to acheive a shadow of perfection. I think that is the reason that we as a species tend to court each other and "pair off" rather than breed by instinct where propagation is the only issue.
Regards,
Scott
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At risk of being too graphic:
Ted Mark wrote an oral sex scene where the young woman had lost her real teeth to illness. The dentures lock in mid act.
Now that's a real sex scene, pre-dating Something about Mary by decades.
Regards,
Scott
Ted Mark wrote an oral sex scene where the young woman had lost her real teeth to illness. The dentures lock in mid act.
Now that's a real sex scene, pre-dating Something about Mary by decades.
Regards,
Scott
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I started to say no, but I guess it's yes.
I'm not interested in reading either, though.
I've lived it, don't need to read it.
I'm not interested in reading either, though.
I've lived it, don't need to read it.