No Sex Please...Frankly, We're Bored!

Over on Facebook--what, writers waste time on Facebook?????--some of us author-types were discussing sex in romance novels (mostly M/M romances, since that's what the writers concerned wrote mostly). I can only go by my own tastes, of course. And...it's not that I'd a prude, by any stretch of the imagination, but I am of the opinion that with this subject, a little goes a long way.

Okay, I'm a sucker for romance. I admit it. I like a good falling in love story as much as anyone. And do I object to a well placed sex scene? Not at all. Some of them are quite good, and even add to character development and plot. But (or should that be "butt?") it's often overdone, and I find myself skipping scenes. Come on, honestly, how many times can you use the word thrust before it becomes laughable?

I recently read a book by, from what I can tell, a very popular gay romance writer (certainly much more popular than me, if Goodreads is anything to go by) and every other chapter, literally, was a sex scene. It was as if the author was thinking, "Oh, my goodness, I've written 10 pages and they haven't hit the hay again! Better get their clothes off!" and insert thingy and boinky boink and another chapter was done. I was enjoying the actual plot of the book, but found myself skimming a lot. I mean, it was the same two characters! I get it! They like each other! It did fill out the book, though. Probably added 30,000 words, all sex scenes. By the end, I was so annoyed that I hoped a very large anvil would fall on the two guys before they could get their skivvies off one more time. And it was a shame, because the writing was good, and the plot was interesting, until it became secondary to the boinking.

Do we need a blow by blow description, so to speak? Especially EVERY time the protagonists get frisky? And, I must point out, this wasn't a book touted as Erotica, just romance. I'm probably alone on this. I know I get some complaints from people because my books, for the most part, have little or no sex in them. I guess I feel like there's enough of that out there. Take a break every now and then. Read something, or write something, that doesn't have a sex scene every other page. Again, not talking about erotica here. If I pick up something that promises that it's erotica, I expect a lot of sex. I guess I'm just saying I miss good old boy meets boy or man meets man romance.

Yeah, I'm alone on this.