Denial or Indulgence?
No, not referring to Godiva or Garretts popcorn–both of which are currently (and maddeningly) in my house at the moment. I'm talking about sexual tension. I'm currently working on a story where the main character has a long distance relationship (err…to put it simply) and only sees her heartthrob occasionally. when they are together, they aren't really supposed to be. so i've kind of been playing around with a few scenes trying to figure out if it's more satisfying to have them crawling up the walls for each other and unfulfilled (a la TWILIGHT, i guess) or getting together in brief, hot bursts.
god that sounded dirty. and I guess it was a little.
here are my thoughts:
1. unfulfilled sexual tension is always popular.
it makes for a page turner! I swear to god i flew through every ann rinaldi book when i was a kid, searching for that one single kiss. and that's pretty tame sexual tension. look at cassandra clare's books and her tights ripping, i'll tear your clothes off with my stele kind of sexual tension! it keeps you reading. it keeps the story moving and naturally dramatic. always positive.
2. safety.
erring on the side of sexual tension is definitely safer from a writer's perspective. I mean, first of all, I have little cousins. and brothers. and every word I write, i have to assume that they will read. so sexual tension, with no mention of actual sexing, is definitely easier. and less awkward for my family life.
3. responsibility.
um….teens have sex. and in this particular story, the teens are very unsupervised, and they have boyfriends. they will have sex with these boyfriends. i think it's unrealistic to say that they won't, and it's skirting the issue, and it's kind of letting my main character down. i have a responsibility to her.
4. but what am I saying?
as a young adult author, i think talking about sex is REALLY important. i think on the one hand its important to acknowledge it and be ok with it, not treat it like a dark and evil subject. i think school teachers have a duty to talk about the logistics of safe sex, and i think authors have a duty to talk about the emotions of safe sex. I think that's what teens look to books for–emotional guidance and validation, and isn't sex a HUGE part of that? so say i let my main character have sex with her boyfriend. what else do i have a responsibility to portray?
5. which is better for the story?
i know that its pointless to write sex INTO the story if its gratuitous, but is it equally as pointless to write sex OUT of the story if it's just a device to keep things sexually tense? Can the story sustain sexual tension and still have sex?
i don't know if there's really a good choice here–i think i just have to sit down with the manuscript and see what works best.
