Sex in Fic Poll

[shipperx]

Okay, so I'm somewhere between half way and two-thirds finished with my (very, very rough) first draft of my Spuffy ficathon fic (which will have to be majorly re-written in second draft). Anyway, it struck me last night that, though I had always had in mind "work in a Spuffy love scene if you can", thinking about my plans for the last half(?)/third of the story, I'm seeing less and less chance that I can work in a love scene.

So, the question is, how important is a love scene? Is it something that I should work to incoporate into the fic? Surely there must be some way to do it. (I know there have been stories where I'm left feeling that I need consummation.) Should I focus on the organic story and if sex works, it works. If it doesn't work, that's the way the cookie crumbles? Is it okay to put it in the epilogue even though it might be superfluous to the focus of the fic? And, finally, today I floated the idea of simply writing the scene as a separate ficlet taking place at some point after the conclusion of the Spuffy fic.

Anyway, how important is it to have sex in your romance? And which might be the most preferable solution?

[Poll #1039389]

Comments

[rahirah]

I always figure that a love/sex scene is like any other scene: it has to serve a purpose in the story. So it has to either advance the plot or reveal something about the characters, preferably both. If it doesn't do either of those things, you probably don't need it.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

I have to say that I get a little bored with sex scenes that feel shoehorned into the story. I usually just skim them and go back to the plot.

I may be alone in feeling that way though!

[bluekaty.livejournal.com]

I like sex scenes only when you feel that the story had to go there at that point. Like the previous poster, I tend to skip sex if it bores me or is described using clichès. So I chose the second box in the poll. But I sometimes like reading the sex in the epilogue, for instance when there has been a very emotional, tense ending, it is good to relive the tension.

[quinara]

If it's a good story, it shouldn't need a sex scene to buoy it up. That said, I know the feeling you mean, where after acres of angst you get about three sentences of 'hey, let's be together now'... But in those instances, I always feel like the fic's been curtailed too quickly, so I would say some sort of scene (hell, it doesn't have to be sex, just something to counterbalance) would be organic.

I suppose I should also mention that I'm with the skipping of superfluousness. I'm rarely in the mood for it if the fic's otherwise tromping along quite nicely.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

If something has to be 'worked in', chances are it will detract rather than add. I'd rather do without the sex scene unless the story actually needs it.

[spikewriter]

An obviously inserted love scene just to have a love scene is one of my personal writing peeves, no matter the genre. It can also bring really nice narrative flow to a screeching halt. Do what's best for the story.

But, if you weren't trying to, you wouldn't be asking the question, would you? :)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The odd thing is, there actually is a sex scene in the fic right now, it's just not a Spuffy sex scene. It's a sex scene between two characters that I don't think most readers give a flip about whether they have sex, but that sex scene came about organically through the story and actually makes a point. It just feels odd to me that I have a X/Y sex scene in a Spuffy fic... but no Spuffy sex.

Still, the only time it would make pragmatic sense for Spuffy to have a love scene, the characters simply aren't to a place that I would buy it on an emotional level, and, throughout the rest of the fic, it feels like I would have to stop everything else that's happening to facilitate Spuffy getting it on. It just feels out of place.

I've been leaning toward a ficlet sequel that takes place after the end of this story when it would make sense, because I really don't see a spot in this fic where a Spuffy love scene feels both earned and appropriate within the plot.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Right now, it's the plot conundrum of when there is "time" in the story for me to work in a love scene, the characters are no where close to being in a place emotionally where it would make any sense at all. When I reach the point where emotionally it would make sense and work into character development, plot-wise I don't have "time". I'd have to bring everything else to a screeching halt to facilitate it... and that feels so wrong.

I'm leaning toward believing that it simply cannot be worked into this story, but then a voice in the back of my mind whispers that many people value their pron in fanfic.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think the two hold ups on having a sex scene are that I have a pretty definite idea of how I want the story to end and, while it's definitely hopeful and points to Spuffy togetherness, it isn't concrete (inasmuch as it's not grand declarations of love, the exchange of rings, or anything of that sort). The second hold-up for me is that the story was actually conceived as an action story and in the last half of the story there is just so much going on that it feels like to have a sex scene would require that they ignore a lot of very real danger, limited time, weather conditions, privacy issues, and requires the rest of the plot to call a time out and take a coffee break.

Basically the more the story has developed, the less room I have for Spike and Buffy to be taking carnal breaks.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

...which is why I have the icky sex scene not involving Spuffy that I mentioned to you before. It seems almost cruel of me to have that sex scene but no Spuffy, but the other one came about (without planning on my part) to make a story point/emotional point. So, even though it's not a scene I think anyone wants (including me, actually) I think that scene serves a purpose.

My problem with incorporating a Spuffy love scene is that as I've finally begun figuring out the point of the story (which somewhat loosely translates to: maybe love is the granting of second chances), it kind of sets my planned ending (which is intended to be hopeful but not 100% concrete.) The second problem is the one we've all received as a gift from Joss and Marti -- the AR. While it's not something I feel any need to hash out within the story (sooo much time will have passed for the characters that it in itself isn't the issue), I think the very fact that it's in the history of Spuffy sort of robs them of having purely frivolous sex (at least as a direct extension of where show canon left off, which is where I'm picking up.) With that background "just 'cause" doesn't work well.

Because of Season 6, emotionally, sex simply due to sexual attraction would be a step backward. We've had plenty of sex simply because they're hot for one another. It feels that to renew relations, they will have had to move forward. It feels like it would have to actually mean something -- not forever perhaps... but something. And that's where the story's point/theme seems to be holding me up. That point of realization comes at the end (which is why the only place that seems to have room for a love scene is an epilogue. But an epilogue in this case feels superfluous. I think that's why I've been leaning toward a sequel ficlet as a way to reach a love scene without inserting it into this fic).

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Well then, reading this and your other replies to comments, it seems as if you have your answer: it doesn't belong in this story, but perhaps in a sequel. You just seem reluctant to trust your own judgment. Don't be; it's that exercise of judgment that makes us better writers.

[quinara]

Well, presumably if they didn't have the time they wouldn't be doing it anyway. Unless you did take the route of a kindly magician popping up to stop time because a prophecy says they have to shag in the next four hours...

[thehepburn.livejournal.com]

I am so out of the loop; I had no idea you were doing a spuffy fanfic. Dont forget to post a link when you finish so that I can read it. You know I love your writing. . .

And yeah, dont shoehorn a love scene unless it's progresses organically. As I get older, I have less patience for the consummation scene happening one page before The End. Just end the bloody story already! (a recent example of this was Jo Beverley's LADY BEWARE and it just added to the unfocussed padded feeling of the second half of the book)