Product Description

The definitive guide to writing sex scenes and its lessons will also teach the craft of writing fiction as a whole. Elizabeth Benedict explores all the issues: the first time, married sex, adultery and more. It is a guide grounded in the experiences and examples of the best contemporary novelists: Toni Morrison, Edmund White, Roddy Doyle and John Updike among others. Benedict focuses on crafting believable sex scenes that hinge on freshness of character, dialogue, mood and plot. She takes into account recent changes in sexual attitudes due to AIDS, Monica Lewinsky and cybersex. There are interviews with a wide range of younger writers, including Jeanette Winterson, Darin Strauss and Dorothy Allison.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66276 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-13
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Peter Carey, author of True History of the Kelly Gang
Read it because it will teach you everything you need to know about writing good fiction.

'The Sunday Times' June 16th 2002
Elizabeth Benedict's quietly perceptive guide... a useful book for would-be novelists and an interesting one for readers of fiction.

'The Guardian' June 15th 2002
Humane and life-affirming, it shares the liberating rationale of the work whose title it parodies.

Customer Reviews

How to lose the cheesy pop-porn from your writing
Despite the title this is a really classy book. It shows you how to write pulitzer prize sex scenes rather than sleazy. It isn't a handbook for porn writers at all. It is aimed at literary fiction writers.It teaches you primarily that sex scenes are always about something other than sex. Definitely one of the best (and most entertaining) writing books I own.