To Smut or not to Smut
To Smut or not to Smut, that is the question…
Ah, the good old NC-17 fics. I love them, and if you are reading this post you probably love them too. However, if you aren’t of legal age in whatever state/country/principality you live in, you should probably just click the X in the browser now, because we don’t want your parents getting mad at us for not posting a disclaimer. If you are old enough to read, the on with the jump.
I remember very clearly the day I discovered my first lemon in Twilight fanfic. It was truly a revelation and wow did it give me happies! I know we have all gone through the same revelation at some point, to the extent that we probably only read things with an NC-17 rating.
But what about writing? I know there is a lot of pressure out there for new writers to include smut in their multi-chapter stories. It’s an undeniable fact that stories with lemons get more reads and reviews than stories without lemons. However, that doesn’t always mean that a story HAS to have a lemon for it to be good.
There are some amazing stories out there that don’t contain a single lemon. The Cold War, by Gleena and An Introduction to Swirl & Daisy, by m81170 are a couple.
There are some amazing stories that feature excellent citrus action. A Silver Tongue by il_bel_mondo, In Pursuit of Normalcy by KariAnn are some examples.
There are also fics in which lemons are needed in the story or else the story wouldn’t exist, including but not limited to fics like The Submissive by TaraSueMe and Fallen Princess by bforqueen.
Then there’s the stuff that is pure guilty pleasure. The fics that you read when you are in the mood to get right to the point. My personal favorites are Family Secrets by Sirenastarot and Tre by Megsly.
When it comes to lemons, there is always something for everyone. But there is one important thing to remember: unless you are writing strictly PWP (porn-without-plot), the lemons must fit into the story in some way or another. It shouldn’t be haphazardly thrown in for the simple sake of characters having sex. A story doesn’t have to have lemons just to be good, and at the same time a story isn’t always going to be good just because it has lemons.
As a writer, I don’t do well with lemons. Don’t get me wrong, I love to read them and I have a dirty mind, but when it comes to writing it out, I don’t enjoy it. Also, my story does not have that kind of “feel” to it. The characters are very much in love, but if I were to throw in a sex scene for no other reason than to get more reads, not only would it be awkward and painstakingly obvious, but it would ruin the story as well. On the flip side, I have several friends in the fandom who write some very good lemons. I talked to them about this topic and they all said the same thing: writing lemons is not only very easy for them, but they enjoy it as well. They also find it a very natural progression in the story as it pertains to the wait they write the characters.
So, the question remains: to smut or not to smut? After talking to my fellow authors and friends, the line of thinking was the same. As long as it furthers the storyline and isn’t thrown in for the sake of gratuitous sex (PWP being the exception, of course), a lemon is a wonderful thing. If it doesn’t help the story along and it isn’t something the author is comfortable with, then it should be avoided. There is a niche for everyone; for some it’s lemons, for some it’s PG-13. All of my friends fall into the former, while I fall into the latter. If you are like me and you like to read lemons but can’t write them, come sit by me!
Speaking of an author who writes good lemons, we have a new Wicked Wednesday contribution today! Please welcome Achelle131, author of the Em/Rose goodness otherwise known as Vanity & Patience. I had the chance to ask her a few questions, and here’s what she had to say:
1) How did you discover the Twilight fandom?
I haven’t read a book since college (when i read because I had to, and not because I wanted to). Twilight was the first time in a long time that I wanted to read! It was after I’d inhaled all four books and was hankering for more. I think I’d picked up a copy of Vanity Fair with Rob on the cover, and when I read his interview, I was intrigued by the idea of him reading Twilight Fan fiction. It was just too funny to me. And I’ve heard the term thrown around in passing before, but I’d never been part of a fandom like this. Fan Fiction as a whole was a new concept to me. I googled it and found twilighted.com. I became a junkie. The rest is history.
2) What inspired you to write Twilight fan fiction?
After reading a few stories, I felt I had to have a voice in the fandom. I felt like I could write something that people could hopefully enjoy. Everyone seemed to write a lot of ExB. That made me nervous to try because they’re so well established, so I wanted to play it safe. I figured I’d write about a secondary couple and expand on their love story. I looked for one with a twist and a possible conflict that I can center the story around. It was the idea behind the vain, narcissistic Rosalie and a distracted, newborn Emmett that eventually inspired me. Hence Vanity and Patience.
3) Who are your favorite characters and/or pairings?
Well that’s easy: Rosalie Hale and Emmett Cullen
I can’t say I was always like that. When I joined the fandom, I was the biggest Edward/Bella fan. Team Edward all the way. But like I said, they were so well established that the idea of writing them makes me a little intimidated. I didn’t want reviews telling me what I was doing wrong, and I wanted some creative freedom with it.
It’ll shock some V&P readers to learn I wasn’t a fan of Rosalie, and I didn’t care much for her until after I wrote my first chapter of V&P. I find her to be a complex character. Though she was just a one dimensional cold bitch in the books, I found I could break that down into layers once you dive into why she is the way she is. After a while, she ended up being the strongest character to me.
And as I had to study images of Kellan Lutz and Emmett’s Characterization to understand what she was feeling, I eventually fell in love. He’s funny, he’s laid back, he sees the best (and the fight) in every situation. And not to mention he’s HOT. Emmett makes my naughty parts tingle.
4) What are some of your favorite fanfics?
There are too many. I will admit that I only have time lately to keep up with three fics. All others have kind of been put off for the moment while I plan my wedding (this Sept 18).
Vampire fics I keep up to date with: In Pursuit of Normalcy by KariAnn, Fractured Hearts by cfmom, and Defying Destiny by MsShayB
Vampire fics I will catch up on soon: Seducing Miss Swan by Rialle, You’ve Kept Me Waiting by Mandy1, No Longer Alone by EliseShaw
All Human I will catch up on soon: Subject: Edward Cullen aka The Womanizer, Never Sleep in a Strange Man’s Bed
All human out of syndication: The Office and Frenemies.
5) Besides Twilight, are there any other books/tv/movies that you like in the vampire and paranormal genre? If so, what are they?
I watch Vampire Diaries. I didn’t think I’d like it, because I thought it was a rip off of Twilight. However, I saw that the books are older than twilight books, so that’s not true, haha. I was surprised to find I’m actually into it. I’m totally Team Damon. He’s a bad boy, which was my weakness in my younger years. And he’s hot. Boy is he hot!
Watched Bram Stoker’s Dracula (big Wynona/Keanu fan), Interview with a Vampire, and an episode or two of True Blood. They were enjoyable but didn’t really stick with me like Twilight did.
I plan to read Black Dagger Brotherhood once my wedding is over. Everyone keeps talking about it and I basically avert my eyes from reviews b/c I don’t want any spoilers. I’ll have to wait till late September for that, I guess!
6) This question is an Wicked Wednesday tradition: Choose your three all time favorite male vampires.
Of those three vampires, who would a)screw b)marry and c) kill?
Edward Cullen, Emmett Cullen, Damon Salvatore
A) Screw: Damon, because I have to have him, even if it’s just once.
B) Marry: Emmett, because I have to have his sexiness and dimples forever.
C) Kill: Edward, because he overreacts, and it can get on my nerves.
7) Can you tell us a little bit about your WW o/s and what inspired you to write these characters?
Teach You A Lesson is an Edward/Rosalie one shot! Yes, I know, I committed a canon felony with this! However, I felt that I could present it in a way that might be acceptable. Its decades before Bella is born. Rosalie hadn’t found Emmett mauled by a bear. It’s a one shot for now but I’ll probably make it a 3-part story later.
I would think that finding out that Carlisle intended Rose for Edward would make her at least consider it. In my o/s, she reacts like a little brat to Carlisle, so angry at the fact that he’d hidden his intentions for close to two years. After exhibiting disrespectful behavior in her anger, she storms out of the house and runs for miles and miles. Edward follows her into the forest to give her a piece of his mind… but with the new concept of them as a couple so fresh… he finds his mind isn’t exactly the “piece” that he gives her. LOL!
If you can stomach the idea of Edward and Rosalie, give it a shot! I hope you all enjoy it!
Read on for a little teaser from Teach You a Lesson, by Achelle131
He sighed as she mentally hurled insult after insult at him. He could never find her attractive this way, and Carlisle was truly misguided when he thought her a good match for him. However, there was an insane drive for him to make his point, and he felt he couldn’t do it without getting her attention. An idea came to mind, and he hesitated for a moment as he considered it. He knew it was on her mind, just for a blink of a second, before she’d blocked that very idea.
Without another thought, he crashed his lips onto hers, surprised at the soft warmth of them.
She immediately became rigid, a sense of shock crashing through her as she unwillingly accepted his mouth as it pressed against her own. Her eyes were wide with astonishment before she registered what was happening to her. Before she realized that she even wanted it, her lids grew heavy and she felt herself lean into the kiss.
He pulled away suddenly, his eyes wide.
Rosalie stared back, mirroring his expression. She shoved his chest away from her. “What the hell was that?” Her eyes were sparkling with fury, but the topaz eyes that stared back at her made her weak in the knees. Her eyes flew back to his kissable lips. And like that, the fury was gone, and one thought hung in the air.
Edward had just kissed her.
And that concludes today’s Wicked Wednesday. Trust me when I tell say you won’t regret reading this o/s! Make sure to review and don’t forget to check out Achelle131‘s other fics in the MVF Dungeon.
I have to agree with Meesh re: waiting for marriage.
Pre-marital sex is nothing new. It was around in Biblical times, it’s around now, and every era in between. But like Meesh pointed out, people don’t feel the need to hide it now. There are still many people who chose to wait (and they should be commended because WOW, what a challenge), but there are just as many who don’t. In the 30′s people just didn’t talk about it. That’s the only difference.
Just a few things – one, “good writers” is kind of a great qualifier, but I think the best lemons are written by the best writers. A lemon written by a bad writer does not improve the quality of a story. It is true that the best writers are able to convey the emotions without sex, but I see the sex as an exclamation point at the end of a sentence. Often overused, but when used appropriately, they say a lot.
As for people waiting for marriage to have sex in the 30s, nonsense. Premarital sex is not a new thing. It’s just way more out in the open now. But there has always been illicit sex, even in the Victorian era. People were just much better at hiding it back then. Today, we really have no need to hide. People who truly believe there is a “good old days” are kind of delusional. There is no such thing. No time of innocence, no time of purity. Humans are humans and we’ve always been pulled by our instincts and sex is as strong an instinct as the need for food.
Thanks so much for letting me participate this week! I think the definition of a lemon kind of blurs, which is why we have a disagreement here. KariAnn believes that lemons are anything explicit, while others, such as myself, believe that a lemon is anything of a sexual nature. I think if we made that distinction and solidified what a Lemon really means in our eyes, then maybe we’d be more on the same page.
I got a lot a crap writing lemons into V&P b/c people apparently “waited” in 1930s till after marriage for sex. I’m sure thats what they would’ve wanted you to think, but let’s be real here! and then i got criticized once for it being a “smut parade” where i had buried the plot, which is funny because i think out of 27 chapters, i seriously only have 7 that contain sexual/semi-sexual scenarios. I’d like to think that i didn’t throw sex in just for the hell of it.
I do agree with points of both sides. You can certainly imply sex without getting into the porn-like details while still conveying emotion. I’ve had to do that with my version on FFn. However, i think you would still need that sort of “love scene” if you will to convey people’s emotions, explicit or implied. It helps portray an emotional bond that two people share.
@Gleena – The only person reading my fics are my fiance. No one else in my family reads it. I do have some real life friends who do, and a coworker. I could only imagine how horrifying it would be to have someone read my smut! ah!
@Susan – thanks so much for the interview, as well as a great article on smut. I think it fits well since in my A/N for Teach You, I actually mention that i cant write PWP. All my smutshots end up having a little something extra to it.
@Saluki & @Jules – hope you guys enjoy the fics!
To smut or not to smut? Well, I have not…yet. Since I have had a least one experience where my pastor’s wife reduced me to a blushing stammering mess, I’m not sure my brain was built for writing smut! (But I don’t have any trouble conceptualizing torture?) Apparently I’m fun to tease since I turn very red and become incoherent. Even after close to 20 (happy!) years of marriage.
I am nothing but relieved that when my mother found my stories and then figured out it was me writing it (!!!) that I hadn’t written anything explicit. Even if I could, which I’m not sure about.
At this point, if I chose to try the higher ratings, I’d have to find a new fic identity and hide it better than my first one. (Is anyone else’s mother, father, sister, and brother reading their stuff? It’s quite frightening, actually.)
Ladies, you all make excellent points! :)
If it fits into the story, I maintain that there’s nothing wrong with a good lemon for the sake of entertainment. ;) Susan – I didn’t mean throw in lemons if they don’t fit into the context of the story.
I still don’t know if I agree that lemons are sometimes necessary to convey deep emotions. After all, a good writer can convey the emotions and deep connections of making love without actually describing explicit details. (Edward thrust his raging, pulsing manhood into Bella’s slick vajayjay.) The explicit details are, from what I understand, what makes a lemon a lemon.
Actually, the difference between a “lemon” and a tastefully written sex scene would be an interesting blog post. Since so many stories are being booted off FFn for being too explicit, authors who wish to tame down their fics but want to leave in the sex scenes might be interested in such an article. Just to throw that out there. ;)
Everyone – Go read Mari’s “Teach You a Lesson,” because it’s uber-hot, & then go read V&P!
-Kari
Okay, Vanity & Patience is SOOOOOO going on the list. I must read ASAP.
And yes, I love Damon too!
I think that there are lemons that further the plot or storyline and while I agree that details may not have to be so graphic, there are stories where a missing lemon would be a huge missing moment.
Case in point: Lost and Found and its companion story Blessed Are the Patient by Ms. Saluki has what I call a “goodbye” lemon. It’s so moving and you feel what both parties are feeling as they reluctantly let each other go. IMHO the story wouldn’t have had near the impact it did without it.
I don’t want to be argumentative either, I just think that it’s not a black and white situation with the lemon thing.
GAH – I love Wicked Wednesdays!
I can tell when smut is integral to the story and the character. If I’m reading a good fic and when they get to the sex, I feel like a voyeur, as if I’m witnessing a true intimate moment I shouldn’t be, there is way more to it than just the sex. I’ve actually blushed while reading some lemons, because I felt like I was watching two people in love express their feelings for one another. That is not sex just for the sake of sex, and very few ways to portray those kinds of very deep feelings without love making. If I read a lemon and don’t get the least bit uncomfortable about *watching* the characters have sex in my head, the sex is probably gratuitous.
I don’t mind good sex scenes. Even good gratuitous sex scenes. But I agree with Sue. There are damn good reasons for having a lemon in a story that aren’t just “let’s get more readers” or to throw in a romping throw down for entertainment’s sake.
Excellent article, Sue, and a great discussion point. I appreciate reading both sides of this topic.
Honestly, the point of my blog was that the smut should feel like a natural progression to the way the characters are written. There are fics I’ve read where it just seems right that the characters would have some physically intense scenes. it doesn’t feel forced or like it’s just thrown in there. When the lemon is well written in comparison to the way the characters are written in the story, it flows and feels like it’s necssary to the story.
Now, if Edward & Bella go on their second date in chapter 4 and then have crazy raunchy dirty sex in chapter 5, that doesn’t feel right, nor does it feel believable.
I was once told by an author: the only difference between writing fiction and non-fiction is that fiction has to be believable. *lol* So, there you go. =)
Thanks for the comments, ladies.
I have to say that I disagree with you, Kari. I have definitely read fics where smut is vital to the plot progression. Sometimes a simple “fade to black” or “toned down” scene isn’t enough to communicate the emotions the author is trying to convey. The description of the action can relay so much more than words in a fic, in the same way that we communicate physically in our real lives. I agree with Susan that it has to “fit” with the story and the characters the author has created to be effective, because I do know that there are people who throw smut in their story just to get reads, and it just feels wrong. And, I don’t think a story has to have smut to be a powerful, interesting read. I just think that there are times when smut makes all the difference in communicating the emotion of the scene. I can say that I don’t think either of my multi-chapter fics would have been complete without the smut scenes. To me, they were way more than Edward and Bella having sex and writing them in a toned down way just wouldn’t have communicated the full force of what was happening in the story.
Anyway, that’s just my 2 cents on the matter. Great column Sus – I think it’s one every author should read! Great interview as well – I can’t wait to read Achelle’s entry!
First of all, thanks for the shout-out – from both Mari & Susan! You ladies are awesome – & 2 of my favorite people in the fandom, no less. :)
For those who might be hesitant to try out Mari’s one-shot – Before I gave Mari’s writing a try, an Ed/Ro fic wouldn’t have appealed to me AT ALL, but now she’s made me totally open to the possibility! Read it & then go read Vanity & Patience, because Mari is a true writer to the very core. She blows me away with her awesomeness!
Susan – In regard to your article, you know I love you, lady, but I have a few points I can’t resist arguing.
“As long as it furthers the storyline and isn’t thrown in for the sake of gratuitous sex (PWP being the exception, of course), a lemon is a wonderful thing.”
“It shouldn’t be haphazardly thrown in for the simple sake of characters having sex.”
Okay, let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? Look, unless the fic’s sole purpose is to get your rocks off, I have never seen an example of a lemon that’s actually VITAL to plot progression. And I’m definitely including IPoN in this, because I have no trouble admitting that I include lemons for the sake of pure entertainment value, & I don’t think anyone else should feel ashamed to admit that either.
And even if a sex scene does somehow further the plot, a full-blown, explicit lemon still isn’t necessary OR vital. The penetration can be implied & the smut toned down considerably & it still have the same impact plot-wise.
Lol, sorry, I’m not trying to step on anyone’s toes, I’m really not – and you know I love my lemons! I agree that if you don’t feel comfortable writing sex scenes, then you shouldn’t feel pressured to. A lot of stories are carried by the sex alone, and if you can write a GOOD story without relying on the sex to gain you readers, then you should be damn proud of that. At least you know it’s your writing and plot alone and not your ability to write porn that’s gaining you readers. (And let’s face it – there’s poorly written smut that still gets tons of reviews just because it has Edward and Bella humping every other chapter.)
I actually intended IPoN to be PG-13 because I wanted readers of all ages to be able to read it, but as I started writing I couldn’t seem to help myself. (But younger readers can still read the toned-down version I post at FFn!)
Anywho, love ya, Mari, & I really hope people will give your fic a chance even if they might initially be opposed to Ed/Ro!
Susan, again, sorry, I wasn’t trying to be argumentative, but I have trouble biting my lip sometimes – or in this case, my fingers. ;)
-Kari