Author Freya Marske

Today Rekka is speaking with fantasy author Freya Marske, who has gently coached many of her author friends through writing effective and satisfying sex scenes.

She jokes that her mission in life is to improve the quantity and quality of sex scenes in genre fiction.

Freya believes we should lift joyful romance and healthy, fun romances in genre fiction to leave the reader a warbling ball of happy feelings.

Question 1 A: Do you need a sex scene?

Does it serve the story? Not every book needs them. Handholding and snuggling may be the culmination of your relationship arc. Fade-to-black is also acceptable.

Also, consider if you enjoy writing them. If not, you can write up to the point you enjoy and go no further. But, if you like reading them, and they spark joy, then let’s get to the good stuff!

Please reconsider your scene if it is meant for shock value and you have no joyful, healthy sex (communicating that all sex is dark and abusive).

Romance/sexual arcs are powerful tools to fuse your reader to your characters’ story.

Question 1 B: Does the sex scene belong *here*?

Lonely Island Video “When Will the Bass Drop?”

Narratively cock-block your characters to ramp up tension throughout the story. Freya recommends you save the scene for the moment the reader is screaming, “Just kiss already!” but before the reader’s head explodes.

You can dial in the tension by allowing a kiss to happen, or interrupting a near-kiss.

There’s a lot of mileage to be had from the characters fantasizing about what might happen.

Sexual frustration or new-relationship emotions can also drive the character to make plot-useful decisions that their normal competence would avoid. “Pants Feelings” is the official term.

Releasing sexual tension will deflate the tension in your book, which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on where it goes (thus this half of the question).

Sometimes releasing sexual tension can increase other plot tension depending on the outside pressures related to the characters’ romance.

Question 2: What purpose does it serve?

Freya believes you should make sure your sex scene cannot be extracted from the story without endangering the overall story. It should be illustrating a point or developing/complicating the plot.

You can use the sex scenes as a mirror to another issue in the book. You do need your sex scene in a non-Romance/Erotica book, something needs to shift in the scene before you move on with the rest of the story.

Freya uses the example of her book with two “sex chapters” in which the first sex scene happens halfway through the book, which provides relief to the sexual tension but complicates the plot and increases the need to resolve other plot situations. In the second scene, the romantic storyline is resolved and this scene “rewards” the reader and provides a joyful pause before diving into the main plot climax.

In the musical example, this is the “Reprise” where the melody is familiar but the lyrics indicate that the characters have completed their emotional arc(s).

In a genre book, the broader plot gets resolved after the romance plot is resolved.

Some Romance writers write the sex scenes all at once to make sure the arc of the romance is managed intentionall...