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The Joy of Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction Writers, Revised and Updated: Interviews, Examples, and Advice from Today's Most Celebrated Writers

by Elizabeth Benedict

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A craft guide to writing intimate scenes with narrative purpose

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A craft guide to writing intimate scenes with narrative purpose

Elizabeth Benedict’s revised guide examines how sex scenes function within fiction, treating intimacy as part of characterization, dialogue, mood, and plot rather than as an isolated element. It addresses a range of situations, including first experiences, marriage, adultery, AIDS-era concerns, and online intimacy. Alongside Benedict’s instruction, the book uses fiction excerpts and interviews with established writers to consider different approaches to depicting sexual relationships on the page. The revised edition expands the material with newer examples and additional author conversations, making its emphasis both practical and comparative.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Fiction writers developing intimate or sexual scenes
  • Writers interested in using character, dialogue, mood, and plot in scene construction
  • Students of contemporary fiction craft and author interviews

Themes

Fiction writing craftSex and intimacy in literatureCharacterizationDialogue and moodPlot development

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Twelve years after it was first published, The Joy of Writing Sex remains the classic writer's resource on creating compelling sex scenes. Elizabeth Benedict covers all the issues, from the first time, to married sex and adultery, to sex in the age of AIDS.

Her instruction, supported with examples from the works of today's most respected writers--among them, Dorothy Allison, Russell Banks, Alan Hollinghurst, Joyce Carol Oates, Carol Shields, and John Updike--focuses on crafting believable sex scenes that hinge on freshness of character, dialogue, mood, and plot.

In this revised edition, Benedict addresses the latest sexual revolution, intimacy on the Internet; adds new interviews with Edmund White, Darren Strauss, Stephen McCauley, and other writers; and updates her selections to include examples from the best fiction of the past few years.

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