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Joy of Writing Sex by Elizabeth Benedict Hardcover, 1st ed., 150pp.  ISBN: 1884910211 F & W Publications, Inc.

Contrary to what the title might suggest, this is not a book about writing pornography. Instead, it is intended for regular authors to help them write more successful sex scenes within their own novels and short stories. Her primary point is that just like the rest of the story, any good sex scene needs to be expressed through character, plot, and dialogue.

One of the way she differentiates sex scenes from pornography is that in pornography, everything drives towards the orgasm. There are usually no surprises. Good sex scenes often have surprises. For those also interested in writing pornography, this is not such bad advice either.

Besides her own advice, she also includes advice from well known mainstream authors such as John Updike, Robertson Davies, and Dorothy Allison. There are also a good number of examples, from the author and others. Many of them are pretty steamy and do a good job in getting the points across.

Entire chapters are devoted to dealing with sex in the age of AIDS, losing one's virginity, sex between husbands and wives, adulterous sex, recreational sex, illicit sex, and solo sex. In each chapter, she points out the potential dramatic elements of the situations and the circumstances specific to each.  The last sex offers several exersizes to try to help you develop your sex scene writing skills.

It is a fairly thin volume, but it offers plenty to think about. It is very literary in its approach, and the goal is to learn not how to write hot sex scenes, but how to write sex scenes that fit within the context of the story you are telling and move the story forward. While very useful and encouraging to mainstream writers, the advice here is also valuable to would be pornographers. A good story is a good story, even if it revolves around sex entirely and is very arousing for the reader. Flat characters, limited plot, stilted dialogue, and no dramatic tension make for a dull story, even if the characters are getting it on like minxes.

-JB

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