Passion in sex scenes

[UnknownH]

Yeah I'm kind of lost on that too.

[Nate Hunter]

OFF TOPIC:

A culture I made for my fantasy world. They aren't a real group of people, but significant portions of their culture reflect my thoughts and feelings in some fashion or another. In particular this section on love... which I thought heavily over for several weeks this past winter.

More about them will be in some of my original stories, particularly "The Flame of Youth" as I further develop Jason's history from the background summary presently in that thread into a longer more detailed version... I am too accustomed to writing short stories, and need to adapt and change some of my skills to make this the novel I intend it to be.

I try not to overintroduce or overuse words from the Adin, or my other concultures (con is short for "constructed" in that word), whether in my stories or in my discussions, but this was a point where the part of me that identifies most with the Adin said "This is my way to make my stance here clear." English is too vague with only one word for so many different things, while many other languages break it down into different levels of relationship, affection and compassion. So I illustrated how I "break down" love within myself, and how I have had the Adin culture do as well.

Think of it as if Tolkien were making these points about the elves of middle earth, or the hobbits, before publishing any of the books related to them...

[UnknownH]

Ok so it's not an actual religous type thing.

[Anonmon]

Since when is English vague? It has a dozen subtly different words for every single concept!

You want a vague language? Try one in which one preposition means on, for or about depending on context. That's vague.

[Nate Hunter]

Tell me these twelve subtly different, yet distinct, words for "love" and I'll concede defeat. Just because we are overly redundant in some areas of our language does not mean we aren't vague in any others. Most of our words that are synonymous with love relate to the interpersonal relationship; one is even the title of one of my stores. What I see in my dictionary is that we have three meanigns for "love", with another 7 divisions between two of the three primary meanings.

Does my thesaurus show other synonyms? Yes, but that doesn't mean the word isn't overly vague in and of itself.

Look at this list of synonyms for just one context of love:

deep affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, intimacy, attachment, endearment; devotion, adoration, doting, idolization, worship; passion, ardor, desire, lust, yearning, infatuation, besottedness

The above is the list for what one might classify as "romantic love." Several are beyond the ken of most speakers of the language today and they would say "who talks like that?" if you were to say they were 'besotted' or that they 'yearned' for someone. Do we have thew words? Theoretically by potential, yes. Do we use the words? Generally, not most of them. DO we distinguish with conceptually different words? Not really.

[Cel]

I know this is an ancient dinosaur of a thread, but I couldn't help but give my thoughts on two of the subjects that have been brought up here.

Since when is English vague? It has a dozen subtly different words for every single concept!

English has always been vague. It was vague in the time of Caedmon, when everyone else laughed at it's dullness and simplicity. It still is. How many serious English operas have you seen? None. Because the opera requires accuracy and precision in language. It needs to be able to equate music with a word that will evoke the same emotion in the listener. English just can't do that.

Name a language with more irregular verbs and exceptions than any other language in existence. As Nate so eloquently put, it's not vague for a lack of options, It is vague because there are far too many of them.

In his example...there are enough meanings of 'love' that I can't just say 'love' and my reader understand what I am trying to portray.

E.g, I love Jeff.

Do I have a deep, romantic attachment to Jeff? Is my love a sexual love? Brotherly love? Fatherly love? Or do I just adore Jeff, an adoring, detached kind of love? You can't tell, for the singular reason that the language we use in every day life is far too vague to describe it.


But, there are other things to adress as well.


As for the original post of the thread, I have exactly the opposite problem, which I have no doubt you will notice once I complete the series I'm working on. My descriptions of sex are fairly abstract, more within the context of what they're feeling to be with one another in this way than within the context of their physical actions.

So, I don't really think I'm the one to help you, since I have struggled to do exactly the opposite--describe sex. However...I'll try.

First...forget you're writing a lemon. The focus of a 'real lemon' is...sex. Don't focus on the sex. If you do that, you'll probably just end up with another few paragraphs about some people / digimon / whatever having sex.

Second...Question yourself Question your work. Question your characters. Why are they having sex? What do they feel about each other? What do they feel like, having sex with someone that they love? Is it culturally acceptable, what they're doing? Do they care? Is it their first time? How long have they known each other? What were their first impressions of one another? These questions, with a little bit of work, are all answerable within the context of sex--and at least in my opinion, they greatly enhance its description.

Third...Don't start with them having sex. Start with them doing something, and lead into the sex. Otherwise it just becomes meaningless sex. And, obviously, meaningless sex does not include real passion. Start with something else. It doesn't necessarily have to be related to sex. In the wonderful word of fantasy and fiction, dates are not always prerequisite for sex. Maybe they were involved in a battle, and the first of the two was near death. The second risks their life to save the first. Watching in their near-death state, the first person witnessed this incredible act on their behalf, realizing just how much the second person cared about them.

Roleplay/cyber the scenery with a person.

This is also something I would try, To be brutally honest, I had never cybered at all until this month when I came here...which, when you think about it, is really sad. But I digress.

If the other person is intelligent, is familiar with the character, and you make clear what you wish to make clear in your written work, then I believe you could use the material you get to create a more interesting backdrop and atmosphere for the scene.