There are certain subjects that can make an author, especially a new author, a little squeamish to write about. It won't be the same subjects for each writer, but there are a few that can cause us sleepless nights.
For me, the most difficult one was writing about sex.
Let me clarify: I do not mean love scenes. I don't want to read them, and I am not writing them. What I do mean are the scenes that were in movies when society was more subtle about the subject. A couple would be together privately in a romanic moment, and the screen would fade to black. Adults knew what had happened by the time the next scene started.
When I wrote The Pride of Central, my first novel, the romantic lives of the main characters did not have any impact on the story. But there are two supporting couples who are will-they-or-won't-they characters. The narrative, and the allegory behind the narrative, required this. But when one couple decides to go through with it, I was not quite able to give them a fade-to-black scene. The reader finds out what happened after the fact.
By today's standards, it is outrageously mild. But I still kept questioning myself. Would people not want this in a baseball story? Or would it seem prudish since this unmarried couple immediately faces consequences for their tryst? Is merely referencing pre-marital sex in a book labeled “Christian” considered offensive? Or does the implication in the story that sex is best saved for marriage too Christian for a general reading audience?
In retrospect, I wish I had given the couple a fade-to-black scene so that the reader could better understand their emotions when they gave in, which in turn would make their guilt seem stronger later, and their redemption after that stronger still.
But The Pride of Central is finished, whether or not I should have given that fade-to-black scene. Now I am working on a second project, The Jewelry of Grace. In this case, the two main characters are married, and I realized early on that a sanitized version of romance would not work for the story I had created. Neither the literal story nor the allegory behind this new manuscript works if the passion between Adam and Grace, the husband and wife, is invisible to the reader.
Again, the actual love scenes will not be in print. If the reader wishes to imagine them, that is his or her decision. But for me, I have to overcome my fear about letting the scene fade to black to keep the story going and to present the allegory I want.
But there is one reason that I feel is never enough to put fade-to-black scenes in, or (for more explicit writers) actual love scenes.
Never do it just to put sex in the story.
Everything, from the exciting to the mundane, needs to serve a purpose in the manuscript. Nothing should be there for its own sake. If the couple in your book – whether married or unmarried – is going to have its bedroom activity revealed to the reader, it needs to either tell you more about the personalities involved or push the plot forward.
Sex – yes, even sex – for its own sake only slows the story down.
And this is also true of other subjects that authors can be afraid to write about.
Does your story require a main character to express a controversial political opinion? Don't be afraid to have it expressed. It is your story, be willing to be bold with it.
Will your story carry a religious theme that your family or close friends disagree with? They are as entitled to their opinion as anyone else, but so are you. This is your manuscript.
Chances are, most readers who disagree with your opinions will still appreciate the rest of your story, and you'll just agree to disagree.
But don't throw in political or religious views simply to include them somewhere, stapling them inside dialogue that does not move the story. It will slow the reader down, and worse, make the reader feel badgered.
There is a balance needed with all these subjects. The author needs the willingness to write what the story requires. For The Jewelry of Grace, there must be some fade-to-black scenes, so I must have the courage to put them into the story. But the author also needs to make sure that whatever is in the story (sex, politics, religion) actually belongs there. For me, I will need the discernment to know what fade-to-back scenes really belong.
I am working on only my second novel, so I am not pretending that I have this balance worked out yet. But I won't allow my fears to prevent me from writing my next book the way it needs to be written.
Next week: Looking past your labels