Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

As always Jana has some accomplishments here. and she's the only one as I did not touch Splinters or Torn Sky this week (mostly because I was whipping through stuff I'm fairly sure is publishable and so far no one has interest in my non-M/M stuff).

Today I wanted to avoid cleaning house talk about sexual situations in YA. This came up on Queer SF a little while ago and I didn't do much with the topic because I was wondering just how much control the author actually had about this. After listening to Maggie Stiefvater I had my suspicions borne out: the publisher has more control. I got the impression that she wanted maybe to do a wee bit more with her YA's and Scholastic was like no.

And keep in mind here, I do mean YA as in the 16-18 age group not the what we're calling middle grade group (where Percy Jackson and Harry Potter started in, the 12-15 year old group). I'm sure the newest subgenre of 'new adult' 18+ will let you do whatever.

I can tell Holly Black's publisher (I think it's Simon or is it Signet...) allows more because in every book I've struggled (and usually failed) to get through there is sex (usually bored/angry/unwanted) and drug use.

I guess my question is, as it has been for a while now ironically, is sex necessary at all in fiction? I mean on-page sex. I'm not going to argue it doesn't need to be there at all in YA, the idea that teens have sex. We know this to be true. On the other hand I'm perfectly content with leaving that up to the imagination of the reader. If we know Dick and Jane are in a relationship do we need more if it doesn't directly relate to the story? I argue, no we don't. If the reader wants to think they're having sex, great. If not, fine.

Sometimes the story IS about sex (or rape or abuse etc) and needs to be shown more directly. This is where I am in Splinters. Killian has been sexually abused his entire life. There is no doubt that his guardians are raping him. Later in the story when he tries to start a more normal, healthy relationship with Taz, this will be an issue for him. They don't do more than kiss in book one. I DO plan a sequel (it might be this year's nano) and in it Taz might want more (being 17 and thinking she can handle it, is the last virgin in h.s etc). So I would need to be frank.

It's interesting in my writers group where at least two of the men reading are insistent I can't possibly put that in a YA. It's obvious they haven't read many (and maybe don't grasp there is now a subdivision between YA and Middle Grade). I keep pointing out Holly Black's stuff. Because also in my story with Makai there is sexual connotations and I'm like yes, I CAN get away with this stuff. Seriously.

How do you all feel about it?

My friend ES sent along her weekly mass of writing links as usual and I picked us a couple.

Don’t hate the query letter. Oh please, I'll always hate it BUT this is so important and this link has good tips. Because some places ask you to help with the blurbs and if you think blurbs aren't important, go to Goodreads giveaways and prove yourself wrong.

the magic of TK. I use this all the time without knowing it had a name. I usually use ZZZ or XXX because it makes global searches easier and as evil_little_dog will tell you, I don't always remember to go fix it!

Yearly word count -

30186 / 115000 words. 26% done!

Behind Blue eyes - I wrote over 2,500 words this week and I'm hosed. Seriously look where I'm at and I feel like this is only half way. It CAN'T be half way. If I made this a trilogy I wouldn't know where to break this story and start the next....

70057 / 100000 words. 70% done!

Splinters - Did diddly

SF short - did less than diddly

Comments

[scribesds.livejournal.com]

I guess my question is, as it has been for a while now ironically, is sex necessary at all in fiction?

Depends on the story, I suppose. A few need to have a graphic account of the goings-on, while others work better with a fade-to-black approach. In general, though, I'd say no. The majority of people seem to read a story for the sex, or for the story, and not many want both. The first bunch skip the plot to get to the good stuff, and the story lovers switch off with the erotica.... the question is, which do you want to write?

When we did Project Paranormal, I asked everyone to stick to a fifteen-age-rating, or thereabouts, because I wanted to see if we could come up with good storylines without relying on sex. And we did – I know the boundaries got pushed a fair bit, but we found that we didn't need sex to get readers – and a lot of people told me it was refreshing to find stories that didn't rely on it.

On the other hand I'm perfectly content with leaving that up to the imagination of the reader

This works well in dark stories, too. Nothing I can come up with will be worse than whatever they imagine as the worst (or sexiest) thing, and I think a lot of writers do underestimate the reader.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

You're right. It can't possibly be all things to all people. Personally I'd err on the side of mere suggestion or not using it at all in YA (Hell I'm thrilled in YAs to find ones without a love interest and just tells a good story).

You know, I didn't remember that restriction (and I didn't blame FFN for the restriction either give some of the laws on the books) but this: and we did – I know the boundaries got pushed a fair bit, but we found that we didn't need sex to get readers – and a lot of people told me it was refreshing to find stories that didn't rely on it.

THIS is what I'm hoping for and what I want to see. Ironically the series I like best in the m/m fiction world is one where there is NO sex at all. I love just having plot and not skimming over the sex scenes (because seriously I DO skim them because it's not that interesting to me). In fact the last short story I put in, it has no sex so let's see how that goes.

I'm also a little...uncomfortable with some of the readers of m/m fiction who are only there to see the sex. It's like that's their only interest (not all of course but some and they can be vocal). They want nothing but sex and no women anywhere. I find this very disturbing on many levels. Luckily there is a big segment that are there for more than that, want to do something with their fiction and are big on LGBT rights.

And authors DO underestimate readers.(well some readers. Some reviewers on Goodreads seem to have the IQ of jam)

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I originally had more sex in A Dying Tide, but toned it down to fit what I saw as the requirements of the genre (cozy mystery). I think the story works well without it--the details of the sex scenes didn't really add anything, and I don't miss them now they're gone.

I sometimes like books with graphic sex, but other times it's a distraction. It fits better if the book also has detailed graphic descriptions of other things, so that it doesn't change the pace so much. But the details of sex can reveal a lot about characters and relationships (I definitely think it doesn't work if it doesn't do some of that).

I sold one story ("Raven and Crow") to a publisher who specializes in erotica, Forbidden Fiction. The original version of the story had a very graphic ending, but that part was only about two paragraphs long. They really, really wanted more details, much longer and more graphic. I thought it hurt the story, but did it anyway. If that happened to me again, I think I'd leave the story the way I want it.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Yeah Cozys have very light hands on the sex scenes and for the most I've never missed them.

Romance probably asks for a longer sex scene.

And I've been turned down (Loose ID) for not having enough 'heat.' Rolls eyes. To me if I can pull out the sex scenes and you'll never miss them, then I've done the story right.

And in YA I'm not sure they're necessary at all.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

TK, must remember that. I was thinking, "Telekinesis...?"

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of it called that either