Sex - Scene it?

Hi there,

I've joined NaNoWriMo to finish the first draft of my novel this month. Writing every day makes the book really come alive in your head and I feel like I'm living simultaneously in parallel universes. The characters tend to take on lives of their own and start making decisions and choices that you hadn't planned for them. 

So what do I do when two characters decide they want to do the rumpy pumpy? Far be it from me to stand in the way of lust. Trouble is, I have to write it! I mean, my mum is going to read this. Do I put all the detail in, complete with throbbing members slipping into ham wallets (thanks for that lovely phrase, random Google search)? Or can someone just say, 'Take me darling!' closing the literary door before the x-rated stuff starts? I know 'Fifty Shades of Grey' is making squillions but personally those sex descriptions far from tickled my fancy or anything in the proximity. I wonder sometimes if a bit of mystery isn't better. 

What do you think - should I let my characters do the jiggy jiggy in private or do you want a blow by blow of bumping of uglies, every dirty detail of the doona dance?

Cheers,
Amanda

Songwriting - Therapeutic or Tedious?

Hi there,


I've decided this is the year I finish the first draft of my novel. As a result, I've been reading a lot of how-to books on the subject to help nudge me along. Every single one so far has said that most writers don't actually enjoy writing. They enjoy having written, the satisfaction of finishing a piece of creative work. But the laborious process of getting the words in the right order is often plain frustrating.


I am hoping that learning more about writing fiction will also help me improve my songwriting. I've got to admit, those days when I'm wrangling rhymes and slaving over syllables can be more about exasperation than inspiration...but oh how I love having written!  So can you compare lyric writing and writing a book? Let's see, I'm going for 85,000 words for my novel - a song for me will be more like 150. But of course you have to consider rhyme and singability for song words too. And then there's that pesky music to go with the words.


A piece of advice that seems to be consistent in these 'Dummies Guide to Writing your Novel' type tomes is to allow yourself to write freely. It really helps to silence your internal judge at least for the first draft. So this week one of my goals will be to write a quick pop song. Get it out in one go without agonising over adjectives and getting vexed over verses. No editing. No refining. No censoring. Muzzle that inner critic and let the fun begin!