Comments on: Using The 12 Stages of Physical Intimacy To Build Tension In Your Fiction https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/ A Blog On Writing Wed, 15 Jan 2025 06:57:13 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Luna Saint Claire (@Compelled_Books) https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-134194 Mon, 04 Jun 2018 19:24:57 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-134194 I love this post! Especially to help with the book I am currently writing which is less explicit than the first. I really enjoyed (cough cough) writing the sexually explicit scenes in The Sleeping Serpent. And I am delighted that I got good reviews! The slow steps and descriptions... the gaze from across the room describing mannerisms and attire. The intimate hand on thigh, and the way he teases his prey... yes prey. And he is a master. The tension worked. Now I am at a difficult place. I don't want the next book to be as sexually explicit because the first book was not a romance (HEA) - it was about Nico being a narcissistic sociopath and it was Luna's journey to reclaim her life. Second book is about Nico on his journey. Do I need to reissue the first book and tone down the sex scenes? The sexually explicit scenes really helped me get more widely read, and get reviews in the "romance" arena - with only a few complaints that there was no HEA as exactly required for romance genre.

]]> By: Top Picks Thursday! For Writers and Readers 05-24-2018 | The Author Chronicles https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-133948 Thu, 24 May 2018 17:11:38 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-133948 […] There’s no story without conflict. Stavros Halvatzis examines how to manage rising conflict in stories, and Jenny Hansen advocates using the 12 stages of physical intimacy to build tension in your fiction. […]

]]> By: Sally Ember, Ed.D. https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-133797 Fri, 18 May 2018 18:16:35 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-133797 In reply to littlemissw.

It's sex, nonetheless, naked (for at least the guy), which = "intimacy," albeit not emotionally; and, yes it skips almost all the so-called 'steps" to start with oral sex.

]]> By: Elf Ahearn https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-133705 Wed, 16 May 2018 20:09:24 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-133705 This is seriously useful stuff, Jenny. Thank you and thank you too, Linda Howard.

]]> By: Amy Woods Butler https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-133680 Tue, 15 May 2018 15:11:41 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-133680 Great article, Jenny! The topic is one that doesn't get a lot of coverage, or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places? I was so happy to discover Elizabeth Benedict's The Joy of Writing Sex. I had stopped by a Half-Price Books on my walk to a first date (Match.com, ugh...). He ended up driving me home and I forgot my bag in the car. The date did NOT go well but I really wanted my book back, so I swallowed my embarrassment and texted him. Of course he had seen the title! It made for an uncomfortable second (brief!) meeting, but it was worth it. The book is really good!

Also, one more point--even if you don't write romance or sex, it's a fun practice to write a short erotica story. It's a playful way to get the writing juices going :).

]]> By: jamesr403 https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-133677 Tue, 15 May 2018 04:53:29 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-133677 Great post, Jenny! Notice that the comments expand to include real-life behavior not only stories -- the mark of a thought-provoking post. And I hope littlemissw is right and the intervening steps are still present. Otherwise people are missing a lot. IMHO (the last initialism is to prove that I'm still With It.)

]]> By: Sandra Hutchison https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-133676 Tue, 15 May 2018 02:09:28 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-133676 🙂 A good run-down. I would add 11A or maybe 13) Mouth to genitals, 14) The awkward fumbling over birth control, 15) Coping with embarrassing noise(s), 16) Paranoid fears about one's performance, 17) Post-coital cuddling, or failure thereof, and (my very favorite), 17) Trying to decide what the hell just happened. I also have a number of church friends who read my books. What freaked me out most recently, though, was a grandson slyly announcing he'd seen one of my books. "You're too young for that book!" I told him. I then added "And you'd think it was really boring" just in case he reacted to that message the way I usually did when I was younger!

]]> By: Debbie Herbert https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-133675 Tue, 15 May 2018 01:58:57 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-133675 I'd never thought before about hand to head. You're right - it is very intimate and . . . tender. Thanks, Jenny!

]]> By: littlemissw https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-133674 Mon, 14 May 2018 23:22:04 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-133674 I struggle with sex-scenes because I always think, "What if my mum reads this!" I've been pregnant twice so I assume she knows that I know what sex is...but still! 🙂

]]> By: littlemissw https://writersinthestormblog.com/2018/05/using-the-12-stages-of-physical-intimacy-to-build-tension-in-your-fiction/#comment-133673 Mon, 14 May 2018 23:20:13 +0000 https://writersinthestormblog.com/?p=33883#comment-133673 In reply to Sally Ember, Ed.D..

I don't agree. I guess I'm no longer considered young (I'm 34), but even in one-night-stands couples go through a similar process. It might be quick, and by necessity we slow this down when we write, but the steps are all there. Where there is mutual attraction and consent, no one can jump the other person without prior communication, even if it's brief.

I do know that when I was a teenager, and then a high school teacher, some girls would perform oral sex for boys without any intervening steps (not something I ever did) but I would argue that that's not about intimacy. I don't know what label you'd put on that though.

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