Conference

I was on a panel at a convention, discussing the topic of "Sex In Genre Fiction." The topic covered writing about erotic elements in science fiction, fantasy, cyberpunk and horror, among other genres.

I was talking about how sex is meant to be, at least in my written works, something that is meant to be there: that far from being a gratuitous insertion of a nude sex scene to bump up the readership, a good sex scene should be part of a conversation between lovers, whoever those lovers are.

Someone in the audience - a young man, apparently - cited "Scarred" as precisely the kind of gratuitously sexual story I was trying not to write, because it starts with a couple having sex, followed by non-sexual activity throughout the story.

I replied "It would have been gratuitous if copulating was all they did throughout the story."