It’s
Valentine’s Day. Well, almost. And any
good Valentine’s Day will boil down to either love or sex. Both, if you’re lucky.
That being
said, I thought I could use this time to talk about one of humanity’s favorite
pastimes and how I can use it as a good writer.
Apologize
up front if this is a bit coarse and/ or graphic for your personal tastes. Things may get a little NSFW this week. I’ll try to use polite terminology where
possible. And where it isn’t, well...
sorry.
I’d like to
ask you a question. You don’t have to
answer it here, but I’d like you to think about the answer in your mind. It relates to my point this week.
How many
people have you had sex with?
Lets take a
moment while we all think about this.
For some folks, this is a very quick, easy to answer question. For some others, there may be a small amount
of finger-counting involved. Maybe even
a list.
And I’m
betting a few of you may also be asking a common follow-up to this question,
and that actually ties more into what I wanted to talk about.
What are we
counting as sex?
Are we
strictly referring to intercourse, or are broader definitions at work
here? Does just being naked with someone
count? Only using your hands? Only using
your mouth?
Before you answer any of those, let
me toss out a few of those coarse moments I warned you about. Some
names/genders may have been changed or completely made up to protect the...
well, innocent’s not the best word to use here, is it? Let’s just say to protect the people involved.
I knew a
woman a few years back who’d been to bed a few times (and at least once on a
couch) with other women, but staunchly insisted she wasn’t bisexual. When I looked confused by this, she explained
that she had no problem with other women doing things to pleasure her,
she just didn’t like reciprocating.
Therefore, as she saw it, she wasn’t bi.
I also had
another friend who was married, but slept around a bit. Thing is, he honestly believed he wasn’t
cheating because he always, well, concluded things outside, to be polite. He never said it in quite so many words, but
after a while it became clear that was his definition of being faithful. And since he was kind of blatant about it, I
have to wonder if his wife agreed with that definition.
And then
there’s a whole school of thought in some more conservative areas of the U.S.
that... well, that sex involving a rear
entry (again, to be polite) doesn’t “count” as actual sex. Both parties can do
this a hundred times and, with no shame, call themselves virgins in the eyes of
the Lord.
No, I’m
dead serious. This is an actual
belief. Google “God’s loophole.” But you probably shouldn’t do it at work.
For some of
you, these views and beliefs might make perfect sense. Or maybe some do and some don’t. Or maybe you’re openly laughing at some of
the mental gymnastics these folks are doing to rationalize things.
So what’s
the point of all this, besides getting the ranty blog banned from a few dozen
work servers?
Let me
explain with an example.
There’s a pretty mediocre movie called What’s Your Number?
starring Anna Faris. Anna plays Ally, a
woman who sees nothing wrong with her sexual history until she reads a magazine
article that points out she’s had almost double the average number of lovers
for a woman her age before getting married.
At which point she becomes terrified that she may have already missed
“the one,” and vows to revisit past exes to figure out who said man (or woman)
is.
This is
barely fifteen minutes of the movie, but it’s told us a bunch of stuff about
Ally. It gives us a good sense of her views on sex--that she isn’t a prude, but
also isn’t exactly sex-crazed. We know
she’s a bit concerned with how other people may view her, and that she's a bit flexible about her orientation (or was, at one point).
We know she sometimes makes poor choices, like when she says she’s done
sleeping with random people and then almost immediately ends up in bed with her
ex-boss. We also know she’s a bit
impressionable—she feels fine about her sex life until a magazine article
implies she should feel otherwise.
So this
also confirms these magazines only make you feel bad about yourself.
Just like
all of us, how my characters define, describe, and sometimes rationalize sex
says something about them. It invades
their language, their behaviors, and the way they act and react to other characters. There was a very funny
moment on Orphan Black when suburban housewife Allison snidely tells her
caseworker “I don’t believe I’ve ever done ‘the nasty.’” And even if you’ve never seen the show that
one response tells you a few things about Allison.
Is it
sex? Making love? A quickie?
A nooner? Something a little more
graphic or coarse? There are still lots
of people who wait for marriage before having sex. Some folks only want to do it with people
they’re in a serious relationship with, while others are fine with jumping
someone on the first date. And then
there’s one night stands, friends with benefits, and a bunch of other situations that all boil down to sex. Plus,
views change over time and depending on the situation, too.
And any one
of these things will tell a reader something about a character.
Now, here’s
one last thing to keep in mind. Just because I know Wakko never sleeps with
anyone on the first date doesn’t mean I need to show a second date. Or even a first one. I’m not saying every short story, novel, or
screenplay should have a sex scene so I can develop the characters more. But, as I mentioned above, if I know how my character would react to such things, there’s a good chance it’s going
to give me a better sense of how they’ll speak and act.
So go forth
this weekend and have fun. And take
notes. For writing purposes.
And now,
after all the fun sexy talk, here comes the big let down. As usual.
Probably
going to miss next week because I have a deadline coming up and I really want
to get this draft done so I have time to do one, possibly two, more before this
book’s due. So next week is all focus.
In the
meantime, if there’s a particular topic I could blab on about that interests
you, please mention it in the comments below.
I like taking requests. Makes me
feel like I’m helping.
If not, two
weeks from now I’ll probably end up talking about spelling again.
Until then, go write.
I have an idea for a topic and hopeful it isn't too basic a topic. How do you go about writing a story outline? Are there good rules of thumb for charting the story you'd like to share, what info to put in the outline vs stuff that too detailed or minute? I ask as I've never had to make an outline and I've not had much luck with Google searches.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm... that's not a bad idea. I'll add that to my list.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Donald. :)