When it comes to writing love stories, writers can no longer flinch at the bedroom door. We need to go all the way when we get there, and new research shows that this is what women want. A survey by skincare brand Astral asked 2000 women between 45 and 60 what they wanted from books. The surprising result was that two thirds revelled in a good love scene, and positively wanted more sex. This, for many writers, is a problem.
How do you write about sex in a way that isn't tacky, and won't win you the Bad Sex Award (set up to try and stop authors from including 'unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature' in their novels) or simply embarrass or turn off your audience?
Plenty of people do get it horribly wrong, as entries to the Bad Sex award testify – with acclaimed authors such as John Updike and Norman Mailer being past winners. Interestingly, it is mostly men who win, with Rachel Johnson – sister of London's mayor - as an exception. And she stepped up and received her award, demonstrating the family sense of humour.
So I was thrilled when novelist Julie Myerson emailed me when reading my debut novel One Apple Tasted, to say, 'Hey i've been reading your book for the last hour and I have to say one quick thing: you write sex brilliantly! (hardly anyone does).' She's no slouch in that department herself, so this was hugely encouraging.
So why the fuss about writing about it? Well, even now, in the prurient Noughties, we are embarrassed about what people will think as we expose our thoughts on the subject. I found I couldn't write about sex at all until after my mother died. I miss her every day, but it was also liberating to my imagination. Then I found letters and photographs dating from WWII that demonstrated the original passion of my parents' relationship, which set me off thinking about how the 1950s had suppressed the emotional rawness of the war years under a cloak of respectability.
But the kind of sex I write about is not lurid passages dropped in to liven things up. It drives the plot and is based in the characters, and is what they would do given the story, times and circumstances in which they find themselves. It is about not doing it as well as doing it. Sex, as depicted in the media today, has lost its ancient power – it's all 'pulling' and 'being up for it', silicone enhancement and celebrity diets – which I think is sad. The joy of sex is intimacy, love and passion – the strong desire we have for connection, where we go back and back to that one special person for a lifetime – whatever the ups and downs. And for women in particular, it's all in the head and the heart as well as the body.
Written by Josa Young. One Apple Tasted is published by Elliot & Thompson on 7 August: www.oneappletasted.co.uk
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