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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 40
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Not to rob the title of the song, but it's come up a couple of times now the interesting or amusing ways writers describe sex or parts. I recently read a scene that I swear was taken from a horticulturist's handbook - everything was described in terms of flowers. It was a little weird after a while. I think someone else mentioned seeing it too. I fail to get all flowery and wax poetic, even when I want to, but there are only so many times you can say 'breasts' before it starts to get a wee bit repetitive.
End my input on this, a lizard is staring at me. Really. A lizard, he's a reptile.
Let's discuss.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 49
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Personally, I hate euphemisms and metaphors in sex scenes. Cutesy pet names should only be used if you're writing comedy. They're doing it, tell us they're doing it.
To me, if you're getting to the point where the words you're using are getting too repetitive, you (and this is the global "you", not anyone in particular) may be focusing too much on the physical aspects of the scene and not enough on the emotional/mental aspects that are generally where the real action (as in the action important to the plot) of the scene takes place.
We don't need a technical manual. What we need is to know how this sex scene is affecting our POV character mentally and emotionally. That's what drives the story forward in most cases, not the physical stuff going on.
*Disregard a lot of what I said above if writing erotica. That's where more physicality is necessary, though the emotional element is still important, too.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 40
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I did write a sweet romance where the male lead admitted near the end to naming his cock/balls Jack & the magic beans when he went through that phase of adolescence, it tied into a running joke earlier in the story, but that wasn't what I was referring to. I hate reading a scene that's repetative, but it's almost worse when a writer's so desperate not to say cock twenty times in one page that they start sacrificing the scene. I critiqued a short story once where he jabbed her with his needle. Kid you not. I pointed out that it didn't exactly bring to my mind an image of the impressive equipment she described earlier, didn't sound much like lovemaking, and just made me cringe. Needle thing is another story for me.
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Joined: 6/3/2011
Posts: 9
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Honestly you only have to mention it maybe four times in all.
When you first see it
when he puts it in ^_-
What he does with it
and the end (bingo!)
So the whole repetitive descriptions are really just over emphasizing the act and not telling the reader about the repercussions of it. It's more stimulating to hear how it feels then what is happening sometimes.
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Joined: 10/8/2011
Posts: 15
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I don't like to use clinical names for genitalia. I sometimes make them up. Sometimes it even makes me laugh! Not what I'm going for in a sensual scene... I try to be creative without being creepy, or silly. On another site we started a thread where everyone listed what word they used...quite hilarious!
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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I just read a fantasy novel by a writer I genuinely admire, but I was completely turned off during his sex scenes because he kept referring to a penis as a "prick", which sounds like something a 12-year old boy would say. LOL!
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Apropos of nothing o er than that this thread reminded me of it, I know of a writer who was making money writing for the sleezy porn magazines. As he reports it, one day he mistyped, and when he read back and came to the part where his protagonist reached for the man's "throbbing sock," he started laughing and couldn't stop. That, he said, ruined him for writing porn forever after.
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Euphemisms for sexual organs reflect a reluctance to write about the subject. Why is it a nose a nose and lips are lips but a penis is a pulsating member and a vulva a golden purse? Since intimate discussion of sexual intercourse turns the reader into a voyeur, why discuss it at all? Sex is too personal a matter to promulgate, sort of like relating all the bombastic details of a bowel movement. Some things should remain personal. We're all adults here. No one has to explain what happens behind the closed bedroom door.
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Joined: 4/25/2013
Posts: 17
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One too many notions of the male genitalia are literal slap in the face ... possibly one too many times. I write romance - or attempt it - and I find if you're writing a true love scene, the more graphic words jump out. Having said that, if I were to refer to it as "pepper", it would be more of a comedy then a romance. 
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Joined: 11/1/2014
Posts: 11
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Hi Tori:
I just had to smile reading this post.
Henrietta and Henry were two pet names for genitalia my wife and I used.
Raymond
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