Sex and the Writer- Part Five of Five

Climax.

The big moment.

The heart pounding build-up where the tension is almost unbearable.

This is what they’re paying you for—to turn that unbearable tension into a successful climax.

If a writer can’t deliver, there’s no sense for a reader to climb into their reading bed.

If sexuality can teach a writer anything, it’s that a writer isn't worth reading unless they can deliver a climax that literally leaves their readers gasping.  It really is what they’re paying us for.

Are you up to it?

Are you committed to it?  Do you lust after it, are you obsessed with it, will you make the moves you know the reader needs and wants?

Or are you just writing for yourself?  If you are, why do you string them along?  They won’t be happy if you promise and don’t deliver.

You must always, always keep your partner in mind.

Who is your partner in this creative consummation?

Your reader.

If you forget them while you’re writing, you’re really just dancing in the dark.

And that’s only half as much fun.

Sex and the Writer- Part Four of Five

Obsession.

As in can't get enough.

As in can't be put back into the bottle.

As in the opposite of methodical planning.

As in the opposite of sterile writer workshops group  and group critiques.

Look around at the people in your writers group.  Are they obsessed with your story?  Has it taken them over so completely they can't sleep at night knowing it must be told but still isn't finished?  Or are their comments just playing to the "group dynamics?"  Take it a step further- are you obsessed with your story?  Because if you aren't, no one else will be either.

You might object that obsession can be unhealthy.  Over-focus to the point of counter-productive.  Sure that can happen.  It does happen.

But when darkness pushes daylight over the edge of the world, we can still see because Thomas Edison was obsessed with giving us the electric light.  When common people lived in misery during the Depression, John Steinbeck obsessed about their plight.  Because of that obsession, he went and worked  as a migrant laborer to personally experience their suffering.  This magnificent obsession gave us "The Grapes of Wrath."

The great world builders of literature like J.R.R. Tolkein and H.K. Rowling obsessed over their stories, their characters and their themes and now we have "The Lord of the Rings" and Harry Potter.

Obsession is the total focusing of all our energy and desire on one goal.

Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" was a product of her personal obsession with finding a man who would love her like no woman had ever been loved before.

So take another lesson from sexuality.  

Write a story worth obsessing over.

If your story isn't worth obsessing over, write a story that is.

Sex and the Writer- Part Three of Five

Five's the big number.

Sight, smell, hearing, feel and taste.

I see her picture.  I can smell her and it is the insistent awareness of a tigress concealed by the fragrance of cherry blossoms.  Her whispers make my blood roar.  I can feel the royal velvet luxury of her skin.  I can taste the salty moistness in the hollow of her throat.

All that from the picture.

Does your writing have that power?

Does your writing engage your readers' senses?


I've talked to them and their answer is no.  You try.  They know you're trying.  They appreciate it, really they do.  

But you're so focused on he said she said that you forget they (your readers) have five sense, not one.

And you're so focused on he did she did that you forget that they (again, your readers) appreciate the visual plot sequence you've constructed, but, again, they have five senses, not one.

As a writer, you tend to think of only one thing at a time.  Dialogue (hearing).  Who did what (visual).  More dialogue (hearing) and more visual (sight)?

Why?  What happened to the other senses?  Why did you forget to include them in your last story?

Because you ignore sex while you're writing.

Sex jams every sense you have into high gear.  We know them all and they are euphorically overwhelming.  We feel, we see, we hear, we taste and we drink in the smell of our lover.

Sex engages all your senses.


Why doesn't your writing?

Sex and the Writer- Part Two of Five

You have to have it if you want to write.

It's hard to find because it's hiding somewhere between cliche and moral blindness.  But you have to have it.  You really have to want something.  You have to lust after someone or something in order for people to want to read what you write.  It's that simple.

Lust puts us in motion.  We have to move to get want we want.  We have to move to be interesting.

Lust keeps us focused.  

Really, you can only lust after one thing at a time.  Multi-tasking is a myth for writers.  A writer can "what if" their story to death.  What if this, what if that?  What if we just stay on point and tell the story?  But writers are creative.  After all, we're just making this stuff up.  So how do we keep the story on track?

Lust takes care of that.

Lust prioritizes.

Have you ever videotaped yourself while you're writing?  Do you  seem consumed with passion when you type?  Does your intensity threaten to melt your keyboard?

Or do you look boring?  Maybe you are bored.  Maybe you're writing the way you do when you you're having sex while watching television over your partner's shoulder.

Maybe you don't really love your story.  Maybe you aren't really obsessed with bringing your characters to life.  Maybe they aren't really your friends and lovers or enemies.

You could use a little lust in your writing life.

Your story could, too.

Sex and the Writer- Part One of Five

Our sexuality empowers our writing.  


Family members hate to hear writers discuss such things.  Ever see a child recoil at the thought of their parents having sex?  So if you're going to read this series of posts, please don't tell your family.

Our readers don't like to think about it, either.  It's okay if our characters are sexually attractive or charismatic, but not you and I.  We're the storytellers.  We're supposed to be the trusted narrators of their stories, not vicarious participants.  

"I wish they'd take writer's pictures off of their books," one reader told me.  "It spoils my image of their characters."

Now that's odd, I thought.  We write the stories, but they don't like to think of us in the stories.  That's especially true when it comes to sex.  We'll take a closer look at this phenomena in the next post.

After that, we'll explore the complex relationship between sexuality and creativity.  I won't look at sterile, stilted surveys and studies, but I will be exploring why only sexually driven writers can create intensely engaging fiction.  I'm not talking about creating sex scenes, I'm talking about the ability to create powerful fiction.

What about the great social fiction that has nothing to do with sex?

It might be a great topic, but it's not our topic.  But to deal with the question tangentially, I believe only writers who are intensely sexual can create powerful social fiction.  Our creative power comes from our sexuality.  Social tensions, if you really examine, are strongly rooted in out sexuality.

It's a complex topic, but let me start you off with something to think about- when you write your story, have you ever considered the image your reader has of you, the writer?  Are you good looking- as a narrator?  Are you a man or a woman? Are you powerful?  Are you ruthless?  Are you lonely?  Remember, I'm talking about the way you come across to your readers, not your characters.

Think about it- who are you (as a narrator) to your readers?  Who do they imagine you to be?