Writing Sex Scenes in YA

Melanie Fishbane

As writers of Young Adult books, I think there’s a tendency to shy away from the complexities of sex because we are writing to a younger audience and there is a certain responsibility that comes with that. Perhaps, someone will think that if there is a sex scene that we are promoting pre-marital sex. Yet, there is also a responsibility to our audience to tell a story that speaks to them. It is an audience that is probably having sex or knows people who are having sex, or, who is thinking about sex. I believe we would be remiss to not include a sex scene if it’s an important part of a character’s overall development.

At Vermont College of Fine Arts, we are encouraged to read novels that use particular techniques or themes that we are working on to help us navigate questions of style. I think that this exercise works well, because it gives us insight into how to write something differently than we had before. This past semester, I read two books, Cassandra Clare’s City of Fallen Angels and Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens, in which the authors wrote a sex or make-out scene that was sexual and passionate, but also spoke to the complexities of how it feels to be thinking about being intimate with someone and having sex.

By observing how these authors write their own sex scenes, showed me different ways of approaching this scene in the novel. When Clary and Jace are making out in City of Fallen Angels, Clare combines the perfect amount of heat and intensity with Clary’s desire for Jace, coupled with the uncertainty of how far she wants to go. This fit in perfectly with some of the questions I had with my own character. Knowing that others seem to be asking the same kinds of questions, made me feel better about the scene that I was writing.

When writing the sex scene in my novel, I wanted it to be sexual, sensual and loving. I considered how my character felt to be kissed. What it would taste like to kiss her boyfriend after they’d just had some popcorn at the movies. How his fingertips lightly caressing her bare forearm would feel. I didn’t want to skim over the experience because it was an important development in their relationship that will influence how the characters relate to each other later in the novel.

I didn’t want the encounter to be perfect though. I remembered as a teen feeling confused and surprised at how my body responded to someone’s touch and my insecurities of my own “sexual talents,” so I tapped into that and used it in the scene. I wanted my character to have some of these insecurities. As she is enjoying the way he kisses her softly on the nape of her neck, she is worried if she’s doing it right. As he moves his hand up her thigh, she’s excited but also scared as to what will happen next.

At VCFA, I’m learning by reading other authors work, I can read as an observer, taking notes at how other authors do things, then incorporate those techniques into my stories.

Melanie Fishbane is starting her second semester at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. With over fifteen year working in YA/Kids lit at various Canadian book chains, she decided it was time to write one herself. She writes book reviews for the Canadian Children’s Book News and is active with online communities promoting children’s literature, Laura Ingalls Wilder and L.M. Montgomery. You can see her blogging about writing, YA and her love of classic children’s lit at http://melaniefishbane.blogspot.com/ . Feel free to contact her with any questions about this post or the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program at melaniefishbane@gmail.com