Pink Dandelion Quarterly_Fall 2019

13. | I GIVE YOU MY BODY: How I Write Sex Scenes Book Review by Amanda Hare

BOOK REVIEW

From her handy rule-of-three to learning what a good sex scene is about, this short, but dense, guide will help any writer who wants to include a sex scene of any kind to do it better.

If you've read any of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, you know that she is a master storyteller. However, unlike some books where sex scenes are just gratuitous eye candy, she writes a variety of sex scenes that have emotion and depth and help drive her plot forward. They add to her books, and in many cases the book wouldn't be the same without them.

But how does she do it? we all wail.

Thankfully, Ms. Gabaldon has taken pity on the rest of us, and written a masterclass about how she writes sex scenes. Whether your a seasoned writer or just starting out, if you have sex scenes of any type, this book can help make them better.

If you're short on time (aren't we all?), don't worry. It's a very short book that you can whip through in about an hour -- or less! In fact, she has taken such pity on her fellow writers that she's made a chapter that appears right at the beginning titled "Quick-start Five-minute Guide to Writing Sex Scenes" which you can rush through in the bathroom at work. Later, when you take lunch, you can get into the "One-hour Expanded Guide To Writing Sex Scenes with Vivid Detail, Striking Examples, and Entertaining Footnotes".

Does she deliver?

You better your bottom dollar she does.

Reading this book is like having a conversation with Ms. Gabaldon.This book is littered with gems of wisdom, her own insights, and experiences from her life about how to write a better sex scene (no, not those experiences, but, for example, where she learned how to write as a gay man when she is a hetero woman). She's also answered some burning questions readers may have had, and that she was asked by readers, like: Why the prison scenes? The answer may surprise you.

She uses lengthy examples from her own books throughout and sometimes picks apart the example in detail to highlight exactly how she has put her recommendations into practice. Several handy bullet-points of recommendations have also been included for quick review. If you want to really go in-depth, there is an appendix of all the sex scenes in her Outlander series so you can examine them all at your own leisurely pace.

You will find information to help you whether you want to write explicit sex scenes (she includes a handy list of slang terms for both male and female parts), low-description sex scenes, "nasty sex scenes" which include non-consensual sex but also just situations where people are using sex to hurt each other, non-sex sex scenes (say what? See Chapter 6) and the Invisible Sex Scene (again, say what? See Chapter 9).

She also tackles a situation that even seasoned writers can wrestle with: How to write sex scenes when all you can think of is facing your mom/grandmother/insert embarrassing person after they read that steamy scene. She explains the simple strategy that she uses to overcome this potentially crippling mental hurdle. Do all books need sex scenes? No. But if you want any in your books, but when you sit down to write all you can see is that person you need to ask to pass the potatoes at the next family dinner, then this chapter will help you to put them out of your mind and get the scene down.

In her books, Ms. Gabaldon takes a reader's hand and eases them along through sex scenes full of the entire gamut of human emotion. In this book, she teaches us how we can do the same. Along the way, however, she teaches us how to create a deeper character and a richer plot.

I Give You My Body  is available as a Kindle ebook or audiobook.

Author Bio: Amanda Hare a.k.a. sacredlilac is a Canadian expat dodging raindrops in the sunny climes of England's Midlands. By day she is Full-time Mom of two little ones, by night (and in any stolen moment, like waiting for the rice to cook!) she dons her superhero alter ego and becomes Writer Amanda. You'll find her popping up in different genres like ChickLit, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Romance and Microfiction. Her story 'Jungle Stakes' was shortlisted for the 2019 Open Novella Contest. She is currently querying agents with her second full-length romance novel.