I’ve been writing for a long time now and almost every character I’ve written has been more than happy to share everything about their sex lives in rather graphic ways. That’s why I write erotica and romantica. My characters have always liked to overshare.
Until one of my more recent books! My latest character is quite shy and very vanilla. While he’ll tell me a little about the sex he’s having, it’s not nearly so graphic or wild as some of the other characters I’ve written. He’ll go into it some, but when pushed he just sort of clams up. So, I haven’t pushed him much and just let the scenes stand as they do. They aren’t fade to black for the most part, but they are not nearly the same degree of graphic that I usual end up writing.
My friend asked me why this was the case and wondered if I was trying to tone things down. The reason is the character. I’m not trying to tone my writing down, not at all. It’s just this particular character has a lot of reluctance and so I don’t push him. It’s a good reminder that our characters aren’t entirely of our design. They don’t do what we say or what we want. They are their own creatures.
I had another character who was pleased as punch to tell me all about the sex he was having but when it came to his emotions and motivations? He wasn’t interested in sharing. Which, uh, made things quite difficult let me tell you. It also made for a lot of rewrites. *shakes character hard*
What about you? Every had an experience of a character not giving you information that others have spat out willingly?
