Demure

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Yuletide Discord for Hippos & Exchanges After Dark Discords for Namespace drama 18+ discussion. Google Group for PHs.

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Re: Yuletide dilemmas

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like this depends on whether the request actually says what OP quoted, which is "sex scenes that serve characterization," or if it's what you said, "sex with characterization." IMO those are not the same thing. I agree with your examples of what "sex with characterization" would mean, but I think "sex scenes that serve characterization" means the sex scene is subordinate to the rest of the fic. The scene helps build or develop or reveal something about the characterization that's important to the big picture/other stuff outside the sex scene. I think PWP by its very nature can't be a "scene that serves characterization," because it's not a scene in a larger fic, it's the whole fic by itself.

So if the like is literally that, I would say this person doesn't want PWP at all. They want sex scenes only if the scenes add something to the characterization in the fic.

Re: Yuletide dilemmas

[(Anonymous)]

cyrt you could be right? Although I think it's reasonably likely that "serve characterization" makes sense in the context of a PWP too, it just means you're making the choices based on serving the characterization first rather than serving porn tropes and figuring out how to make it work with the characters.

But if it does mean "you can include sex scenes but only if they're one scene as part of longer plotty story" that's a bad like for a 1000-word minimum exchange.

Also I'll admit I have a grudge against that version of "serves characterization" because I've seen a lot of "how to write good sex scenes" that are versions of that and it has resulted in so many bad sex scenes that would have worked just as well if the characters were having their incredibly important characterization arc realizations over coffee and donuts instead. Possibly better, all the interludes to put body parts into each other just get in the way of the plot-relevant conversation. As someone who wants characterization-heavy smut, my first advice is always that if they could have had the characterization interaction before the sex or after the sex and faded to black for the sex without any other effect on the story, you need to write a completely different sex scene. This is why there's a generation of fic readers who skip everything but the dialogue in smut!

Re: Yuletide dilemmas

[(Anonymous)]

But if it does mean "you can include sex scenes but only if they're one scene as part of longer plotty story" that's a bad like for a 1000-word minimum exchange.

Why would it be? Many people write much longer fic than minimum length for Yuletide. You're not required to include porn, so to say "only include porn if it's a longer, plotty fic" isn't a bad preference at all.

Re: Yuletide dilemmas

[(Anonymous)]

NC

So if the like is literally that, I would say this person doesn't want PWP at all. They want sex scenes only if the scenes add something to the characterization in the fic.

That's how I interpret it too. It seems fairly obvious to me that someone who says they only want sex scenes that serve characterization isn't interested in a fic where sex is the main purpose and is mainly self-serving.

Re: Yuletide dilemmas

[(Anonymous)]

A sex-scene-only fic doesn't have to be "mainly self-serving" and the sex can add to characterization on its own though? Have some of you never read a good pwp that did characterization through sex so viciously well that it completely changed your perception of the characters and the ship?

Re: Yuletide dilemmas

[(Anonymous)]

no because I avoid PWPs by default because 99.99% of them are not like that and I ain't reading 1000 versions of something I find fundamentally boring in hopes of a rare gem that interweaves something I actually like with the boring part

Re: Yuletide dilemmas

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

I can't say that I have.

To be fair, I've never read any fic that "changed your perception of the characters and the ship" and I don't expect that (or want that) from fic. I go into fic having a clear idea of the characters and the ship and a fic that goes against that would probably be a backbutton for me.

But what I meant is that when I read PWP, I read it for the porn. I haven't read any fic PWP that left me deeply in awe about the character development mostly because even when the PWP is perfectly in character, everything else takes the backseat to the porn. For me, that's the entire point of a PWP. PWP and character development are kind of antithetical for me.

Re: Yuletide dilemmas

[(Anonymous)]

+1000