Whether a plot-driven or character-driven novel—or memoir—you need sexual tension to move the story and sustain readers’ attention (and to make them relate). We will discuss the creation and types of sexual tension using, among others, Jonathan Franzen’s novel “Freedom” as an example. (A novel that got Franzen on the cover of TIME Magazine, 2010.)
To discuss in workshop:
How to create sexual tension
- The slow-draw: Don’t allow two characters to sleep together prematurely; tickle us slowly along many pages (stretch over 30, 50, 80 pages or more)
- A little bit at a time: A glance, a stare, bump into each other, exchange words, body language (dissonance), brush hands, kiss on cheek, kiss on mouth, foreplay, etc
- It’s not about the sex: The lead up is what counts
- Don’t have the characters talk about their sexual desire openly. Keep it secret, subtle, non-verbal. Body language. Tone. Dissonance.
- Dissonance: A character says one thing, thinks its opposite (desire)
- Suspense techniques: hook readers in then slow time down
- Get two characters very close to physical contact or sex and then yank us away at the last second and move to something else (force readers to need to KNOW)
- Have one character loathe another character and yet sexually desire that character at the same time
- Have a character desire more than one other character simultaneously
Types of Sexual Tension
- Forbidden love (love triangles; one character loves/desires his best friend’s wife/husband)
- Internal conflict: I want her/him but I love my partner, too. What do I do?
- The unhappy married husband/wife (they seek sexual gratification outside the marriage)
- The Peeping Tom Theory (readers love to observe secret sexual “bad” activity); this is why we watch Madmen or Glow or Friends
- Taboos (older married man desires a much younger woman; older woman desires a much younger man; teacher desires their student; father or mother desires their kid’s friend; etc)
Staffed by Michael Mohr
Michael Mohr is a Bay Area writer, former literary agent’s assistant and freelance book editor. His fiction has been published in: Adelaide Literary Magazine; Bethlehem Writers’ Roundtable; Fiction Magazines; Tincture; Flash: The International Short Short Story Magazine; and more. His blog pieces have been included in Writers’ Digest, Writer Unboxed and MASH. His writing/editing website and weekly blog is www.michaelmohrwriter.com. His most recent client accomplishment is a memoir, White American Youth (Hachette), by Christian Picciolini, a former neo Nazi skinhead who changed his life. Michael edits memoir, adult literary and commercial novels, YA and suspense/thriller.