What a Sex Scene Can Do
Are sex scenes really so hard to write, or are we thinking about them the wrong way? What can a sex scene do? How can it achieve psychological complexity on the page? How can it communicate emotional history? How can it move the plot forward? In this asynchronous four-week generative class, we’ll consider the power of the sex scene, and what it can accomplish in fiction and nonfiction to explore theme, character, context, and beyond. We’ll do this by closely reading examples of sex writing from prose writers and poets alike, including work by James Baldwin, Garth Greenwell, Isle McElroy, Miranda July, Justin Torres, and more, and then doing various prompts using our works-in-progress and/or drafting new work.
The class is asynchronous and offered on Canvas (a free platform). You can read the lecture, readings, and do your prompts at your leisure, whenever it works best for you. Each week, you are welcome to share what you wrote or revised from the writing exercises, but it's not required to. If someone does share, we will only respond with uplifting, empowering comments about what is working (since this is not a formal workshop). I will provide supportive feedback on everyone's work that they share and reply to questions throughout the week.
Dates: October 4 - Nov 3
Cost: $200
Class maximum: 20 people
How to pay: Venmo me (@marisacrane), PayPal me (marisacrane12@gmail.com), or Zelle me (marisacrane12@gmail.com) Please message me if none of those work for you and we can discuss alternatives.
This class is good for:
-Parents of young children
-People who work evenings or unpredictable schedules
-People with Zoom fatigue
-Those who love self-paced classes
-People who want rigorous craft lessons and time to write while also balancing the flexibility of an asynchronous online class
-People outside of the U.S. who find it difficult to attend scheduled classes in the U.S. due to time zone differences
-Anyone who has ever thought that sex scenes are difficult to write
-Anyone interested in injecting psychological complexity into their work and sex scenes
