Gay romance fiction

Intense Intimacy

craft workshops for genre authors

  • Subtopics: (Intimacy workshops can focus on...)
    • The Game of Desire: seduction for novices and experts
    • Action Pact: staging intimate action for maximum impact
    • Dirty Talk: the filthy poetry of intimacy
    • Virginity & Taboo: the power of trespass and boundaries
    • Explosive Climaxes: orgasms, kisses, and other fireworks
    • Conjunctions: prepositions, propositions, and the Ball
    • Sexual Healing: problems as possibilities
    • Erotic Paradox: the subject/object wave
  • Format: available in lengths from one to six hours.
  • Technical requirements: projector/screen if available.

 

General Class Blurb:

INTENSE INTIMACY with Damon Suede

Get the intimacy right and it can nail your readers to the page. Whether sweet or raunchy, intimate moments have always been the beating heart of romance fiction. Fans call them “the good parts” and dogear them for a reason; love scenes are often where authors cut loose and romance gets closest to poetry.

Writers at the top of their game keep their sizzle fresh, using slang, rhythm, symbol, and chemistry to make love in ways that matter. Go beyond the mechanics in this one (or two) hour advanced session on the sensual science and making love scenes unskippable.

"No one deserves to be punished for loving with an open heart." (Hot Head - D. Suede)

Class Description:

Intense Intimacy is a hands–on workshop about writing unskippable love scenes at any heat level. In this session we’ll explore:

  • the basic mechanics of intimate moments in fiction (from sweet to smutty).
  • techniques to charge any interaction with emotional intensity.
  • Ways to elevate and inspire unexpected closeness between your characters.
  • the tricks and traps of love scenes and how to keep the ball(s) in the air.

Since this workshop targets the most advanced students, the focus will be on theory and practical application for folks who know their craft but want to level up their love scenes.

Takeaways:

  • a strategy for planning (or revising) any intimate scene for maximum emotional impact.
  •  several techniques to add variety, tension, and eroticism to love scenes at any heat level.
  • a checklist of intimacy goofs and gaffes to avoid & a revision map.
  • intimacy exercises and planning sheets for post–class experimentation.

Presentations:

 

Additional exercises:

If you’re feeling frisky after we finish and want to try some of these things out, here are a couple intimacy games to play that might prove useful.

  • BODY LANGUAGE: specify the words your character(s) uses for parts and acts. How does that reveal context or conflict with idiom and tastes of others in the story?
  • BOTH SIDES: rewrite a love scene from each character’s POV. Use actions & details to reveal what both characters think/feel. Allow mistakes, misreading, and projection.
  • MAKING LOVERS: Map the essentials your character would focus on during intimacy. List the turn–ons & turn–offs, flaws & assets, illusions & admissions, the most buried desire & anxiety, and one discovery/decision unearthed in a pivotal scene.
  • BAD SEX: write an awkward, unsatisfying, or upsetting sex scene with your lovers.
  • UNTOUCHABLE: write a seduction that doesn’t allow your characters to touch or communicate directly. Then revise it, allowing them one moment of contact.

 "For an endless moment, Runt imagined the crooked corporation had folded and they’d been forgotten, laughing and living together under these perfect suns, waiting for wives that would never come, happily hunting fresh meat at the sharp edge of the galaxy." (Grown Men - D. Suede)

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Recommended reading:

CRAFT

THEORY

EROTICA

Obviously your mileage may vary, but reading interesting, well–written erotica will stretch your writing muscles and improve your intimate scenes, depending on how far you're willing to go off reservation...

"For an endless moment, Runt imagined the crooked corporation had folded and they’d been forgotten, laughing and living together under these perfect suns, waiting for wives that would never come, happily hunting fresh meat at the sharp edge of the galaxy." (Grown Men - D. Suede)

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If you'd like to book Damon to come present a workshop for your group or chapter, just give a holler.