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WRITING INTIMACY |1

  • Writer: Meg Howald
    Meg Howald
  • Jul 8, 2021
  • 1 min read

"He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began." -Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina



In Bed, The Kiss, 1892, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.


Every intimate moment has been painted or poeticized, lyricized, and immortalized. Writing intimate moments into your fiction depends upon many things, but here are some: the level of intimacy between your characters, your comfort level, what you promised your readers, and how well you know your characters.


From The Joy of Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction Writers(©1996 Story Press), Elizabeth Benedict says:

  • A good sex scene is not always about good sex, but it is always an example of good writing.

  • The needs, impulses and histories of your characters should drive a sex scene.

  • The relationship your characters have to one another…should exert more influence on how you write their sexual encounter than should any anatomical details.

I don't write romance novels, but for me it's so important in my psychological thrillers that love is a strong element that drives the story as much as the murder mystery does. What's the point in spending so much time completing a book without a love theme?


Here's a site, rich in moments of literary intimacy: https://thejohnfox.com/sex-scenes-in-books/





 
 
 

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MEET THE CHARACTERS

Meet Ben Needham, graphic novelist, dad.  Ben's house declared war against the unknown - an energy of relentless power and desperation.  A presence reaching into Ben's soul for help.

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Meet Dr. Rose Henhawke, geo-physicist, paranormalist, object token reader.  Rose and her team do a sweep of Ben's house - an invesitgation that leaves Rose humbled by the power that demands resurrection.

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