Sunday Break Day: Sex Interludes in Books

 This picture explains it all for me but Ill do some other bullet points.

Anita Blake's later books exemplify this adage. Less is more with INTIMATE setups.

Here's an example from Uplift Protocol.

Implied setup. See? No squick factor involved. I do the same for other characters. Like King Elias and his wife. They woke up, in the nude but it was implied, not directly stated.

You can use a light brush on "Well Bang! OK?!" Which more "ADULT" oriented stuff would get this. There are very few people that can tackle the Insert P into P setups with any kinda nuance or class. So that's why I avoid direct on page setups. 

The Big Points:

• Unless its a BIG ROMANCE PRIMARY OR EROTICA! the bumping uglies setup doesn't move the plot forward in the least. 
• Most ways people implement sex in books is cringe at best. Meme worthy. If lucky. Or Adventures in Awful: (Om King anyone?) Here or Bit chute: Here
• No matter the medium: Most X rated setups feel tacked on. 
• The few decent ones I can recall? Movie wise that is: Terminator 1, Somewhere in Time

I find as I get older: I want more classy setups. All of this is just one FL woman's preferences and opinions.

Links: Why I Broke Up with Anita Blake

Because why not? This is still a good summary on why. Here

Mr. Finn on Sex in Books: Here

More Space Fun Just Because!

Starport Lounge Anthology: Here

Derailment: 360 Degree Character Changes

What should a character's goals be? To support the hero or heroine? Go on their own adventures?

 

•  Here

 Rawle is on point:

In summary, modern mainstream creatives prefer villains to heroes because villains have fewer constraints on their behavior, allowing them to take whatever actions they want, irrespective of whether such actions are moral. By contrast, heroes are constrained by their virtues and have to take action while maintaining virtue, for if they break those virtues, they can easily slide into self-indulgence, and ultimately, villainy. While there’s substantially more in the video, this is the most important point he makes.

But what do superheroes and supervillains have to do with romance? Everything.

Just as modern creatives shun the hero and embrace the villain because the villain is more free, they shun the devoted wife or girlfriend for similar reasons. If the female must emotionally satisfy her boyfriend, this limits her behavior; she is not free to do whatever she pleases, since like the hero and his virtue, she has her own virtue to uphold, which she values more than total freedom. Not for nothing is the female protagonist of a romance called the “heroine.”

 

With modern storytelling, to use Anita Blake once more, a  character is looked down upon if they have ethics and morals so they get ran through the grinder and go from Urban Fantasy to Erotica, totally derailing characters and settings in the process. 

The "In Love with the Freedom of the Villain" POV has diluted books. Imho. We have to fight cynicism.

Far too many people still look at the dirt and that's all they see.

If there's to be more intimate scenes I prefer a more sensual build up rather than IKEA "ON the Page" Porn. Older romances had that. You didn't have to go into tons of detail. Plus they had more characters that were monogamous then.

Do we need Superman type Aspirational Heroes? Yes, we most certainly do. It's easy to deconstruct and pull people through the mud. Take another path. Make Aspirational Great Again 2020.

I'm no Stephen King or JK Rowling but I want to leave a legacy of Aspirational Superhero Space Opera behind and that's what I'm gonna do. All I have to do is be me. I don't have to be anything else.

Dramatic Readings: IKEA Porn Anita Blake

My greatest axe to throw to the heavens: Anita Blake. 

Wherein I go through some samples. Try not to dwell on the fact that this series used to be entertaining popcorn fun.

Honestly, if you even are morbidly curious, just flip through  these books at a dead tree store. Or from the library. They aren't worth buying, UF Worth a Buy:

• Bite Back
  
• Dresden
• St. Tommy 
• SuperNatural Streets
  

YA and Erotica Tropes

 I have to get this out of me. Plus stuff linked below that I enjoyed.

 

With YA: 

• Love Triangles
• Self Insert "For the Reader to Take its Place" Protagonists
• Not Like Other Girls. GTFO, just make a character dammit. But it gets molded by levels of wish fulfillment, power fantasy, which turns into Sue/Stu mashups if not handled properly. 

Erotica:

• Dont turn an Urban Fantasy like Early Anita Blake into an STD fuck fest.
• If people make fun of men writing about boobs and butts Ill make fun of women going all super sized dick member monsters ala Anita Blake. No one's dick is over a foot in length. Not possible. 
• More people should fade to black. I know I will with Uplift Protocol
• Most Erotica by Women focus mostly on IKEA level Sex. Its not alluring whatsoever.
• At least the Harem Erotica to Men have some sort of plot attached.
  

 As long as a story has likable protagonists, an interesting setting, even with some aspects I don't personally agree with, then I'll give it a look. 

Unless its pedo shit, nuke that from orbit. Nuke Anita Blake from Orbit as well. Anita of Book 1-4 would be horrified at what her later self would become. If you want to make a smut series, do that from the onset.

Being sensual is different from IKEA junk. So if you have a character being a femme fatal to get things, that I can understand. The Pulps had that plenty of times. Even stuff like Basic Instinct. I can understand. Because even Total Recall had that with the women in spades. Thing is, those movies knew what deadly women really were and a woman vs woman fight is more fair. They are each in the same weight class. 

Sci fi can negate some physical issues of men vs women but sometimes its just more satisfying to see the good woman vs the evil one and good fucking bitch-slaps the evil out of the other.

 

Links:

• SoulBound
• Twilight Templar (Plays up Harem for Humor but does it with respect.)
  
• Advancing Peril  
• Honor Harrington 
•  Night Terror  

Edit: OMG, the lesbo romance series was written by a guy and I loved it to bits. Turns out Mia Archer is his pen name. Nice. See? Men can write women just fine.  CJ writes awesome women too. In fact all the stuff listed above does well. Go tip them coffees.  

Twitter Thread: Here

 

Anita Blake and Character Derailment

Here's my other post on it: 

Here

Ishi and Kat's stream got me thinking about it.

Sunday Stream

So I wanted to throw more into why Anita Blake is a disappointment.

 

Genre Blenders.

Or why I find myself scrolling past anything that says "Harem" on the cover. It all started with a series called "Anita Blake." It went from a popcorn entertainment level mystery urban fantasy w/ some romance elements to IKEA manual "Please Insert Anita over X body part here" plotlines paranormal Pornmance. It's not even actually erotic. Its a train wreak.

When that character went to Florida in some of the later books, based on the blurb, I kept hoping some Super Gator would have eaten everyone. But what caused everything to sour so much? What drove away the original fan base that supported the first few books? Lots of things.

• There's no actual emotion to it. Insert Y. Begin. Please remove M. It's even more flat and comical then that Mass Effect joke of "We'll bang ok?!"  
• https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DearNegativeReader
• http://fantasy-faction.com/2011/anita-blake
• If you want to change what you are writing that drastically, create a new series, or end the one you are doing then go full hog on a different set of characters. It has the hallmark of "Lets subvert expectations." But we all know how that goes. 
• My personal tastes: Just fade to black in most cases. If I wanted a "Complete and Total" bodice ripper I wouldn't be reading sci fi or fantasy. I'd be going for the Harlequin Romances.

Example: Of tastefully done romance. You write characters like this and Ill be a fan for life.

• Because it showcases the characters have genuine chemistry
• Caring
• Empathy
• Not just physical

Once you put something out there, the reader and writer end up as a team of sorts, sure write what you want but do your best to remain true to the books you are writing. If it started off as a Urban Fantasy/Detective type setup, don't change it up midway through the series to Paranormal Erotica. Just my 2 cents that is.

I suppose a good contrast to this would be:

Plus, depending on what you are looking for, she does this very well with other types of couples too.

It's exactly what it says on the tin. She uses the tropes very well. You can have a book with many different genre elements that develop over time. You just have to put it in gradually. Not pull the genre rug from out from under people.

So yes, have your space opera mega romance or military sci fi detective mystery. Just be up front about what your book will contain. Ill be doing that for my series blurb too. Once its finished. 

Guess it mostly comes down to personal tastes. I just wish books would list themselves properly in genre categories.