The Ground Rules

Thursday, November 12, 2009 6:09 AM

Today, I worked on my story. Not the next chapter, but outlining some of the Mal/Inara stuff I have planned for close to the end of Eidolon, and getting the rough ideas down before I forgot about it. Stuff that I'm going to have to make very carefully sure that I cut off appropriately before it could potentially become smut.

It's a bit embarrassing for me to be writing anything like that. I mean, first it wouldn't be believable (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouFailSexEdForever anyone?), and I have issues which makes it all really uncomfortable (Mal has NOTHING on puritanical), and lastly, because the characters are acted by real people, it's almost kind of a whole privacy thing for me.

Strangely, I'll READ smut... Just don't, you know, TELL ANYONE.

But in order to make sure I stay within an allowable zone, I'm laying down my own personal rules. First is to not show anything that wouldn't be shown on Firefly the series or Serenity. That means artsy fartsy conveniently covering bedsheets, camera angles, no graphic descriptions of breasts or other privacy concern areas. Vagueness is also a useable tool. No onscreen orgasms, no description of the, erm, rhythm, no overly specific description of the touching. And, most likely, probably will cut away before even undressing has occurred, and certainly before anything starts in earnest.

Hopefully that will keep things from being awkward. But, the reason I'm posting this blog, is that I'm interested to see what kinds of advice or anecdotes I can get from you other authors. How do you all deal with this issue?

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