the neighbors complain about the noises above

[lunabee34]

Last week, I posted a poll about sex in fanfic.

Here are the tentative results:

Admittedly, the sample size is pretty small (37 participants), but apparently many of those who answered my poll routinely skip over sex scenes in fic. We seem to be pretty evenly split on whether the presence of sex scenes are important to our enjoyment of fic and on whether we think our readers expect us to include sex scenes in our fic. Most participants say they have not included a sex scene in their fic because they feel it is expected. 84% think stories with sex scenes get more attention than those without them and most participants indicate that the way they feel about sex scenes (either as a reader or writer of fanfic) has changed over the course of their fannish involvement.

And some followup questions (which some of you answered in your comments to the post):

If you skip over sex scenes, why? What compels you to do so? If you're one of those who always reads them, why? Those of you who feel like your readers expect you to include sex scenes in your stories, where does that pressure come from? What's given you that idea? Any evidence (anecdotal or otherwise) for stories with sex scenes getting more attention? Anyone else want to share how your thoughts on sex scenes have changed over the years?

I'm still interested in the questions that didn't get answered in the comments to the post poll:

What should a good sex scene do? What should the purpose of sex in fanfic be? What do you do to keep sex scenes fresh and original as a writer? What would you like to see more of in sex scenes? What works best for you as a reader and/or writer of sex scenes? Got any links to sex scenes that you think work really well?

Comments

[decynthus.livejournal.com]

To skip or not to skip? That depends on how horny my mood. If I'm looking more for story, and it's not especially well-written, I'll skip.
As for pressure to include sex, I once asked a BNF in the Harry Potter fandom to read a fic of mine and offer comments. This person missed a major plot point, and the excuse was that it was only briefly mentioned, and that "you can't expect people to read a story that closely. It's click,click,click to get to the sex!" Maybe that's all that writer wanted from a fic, but I thought it was a sad way of looking at fandom, especially from someone who produced so many well-written, plot driven fics. Anyway, a couple of other commenters made it all better, picking up on things I hadn't said at all, only implied. They were paying attention!
That fic was my first foray into online fandom or anything remotely slashy. I'm guilty of stretching the rating from what should have been a mild PG-13 to an R, hoping to get more attention. I don't know if that worked, but I discovered being more pleased by a few thoughtful comments than a series of "squees".
I haven't done much writing, honestly. I'm uncomfortable writing sex and did feel pressured to put it in, so I've got a folder full of fics stalled at that point. You're right about attitudes evolving over time. I started out looking for just R's and NC-17's, but then found myself enjoying a lot of lower-rated fics in spite of myself. Lately I spend more time looking at rec lists and summaries than ratings. Now that I've realized that "it's ok even if there isn't a lot of sex", I've decided to pull up those old files and rewrite them to suit me. If the sex stays in, it'll be because it serves a purpose, and because we need to push those comfort zones sometimes, too. I love this discussion; it's something I've thought a lot about, so please to be forgiving the novel.

Please write novels in my journal. It makes me happy. :)

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. What a thing for a beta to say to you. *shakes head*

Most of the pressure I've felt to include sex has been less overt. Like noticing that the fics most often recced include sex scenes or are considered "hot." Or in feedback to my fic, having the sex scenes and situations praised more highly than plotting or characterization or something like that.

I initially felt really uncomfortable writing sex because it wasn't a kind of writing I'd done before. With practice, I got over my initial qualms. When I first got into fanfic, I read everything--EVERYTHING--and was equally delighted by it all because it was so novel. Now that I've been in fandom for five years, I am so much more interested in story and characterization than anything else. I almost never ever ever read true PWP anymore. I've noticed that people will call stuff PWP sometimes when it's really not, as an aside.