Writing Advice: Realism and Ikea instructions

Good points.

Most of life isn't worth mentioning, including detailed descriptions of clothing, hairstyles and footwear we see in so many current works. Who cares? We can assume the character will wear something else the next day. Do we have to read a detailed description every time somebody changes clothes? If it's not relevant to the story, skip it.

What was my other point? Oh yes--

Sex scenes wherein bodily sounds are exalted are just plain dumb. Has the writer nothing better to say? By the way, where is it written that the man always grunts, swears and claims his partner as "mine?" And by what decree was it mandated that the woman begs for more and says "please?" Better to give the pair their privacy.

If the readers want more, let them use their imaginations.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Cheers.  JP

j.p., there are men who don't  grunt, swear and claims his partner as mine?  As far as clothing, there's a happy medium, and in fantasy, you have to go in detail, at least the first time, as people want to know--what are they wearing?  i sometimes just say a golden kirtle or a purple jerkin.  But you can fail to mention clothing too.  Kathy Reichs had an inadvertently hilarious scene when she had Tempe strip, go to bed nude, get up the next morning, realize that something was wrong, called the CSI's, and stood around as they checked.  She had gone to bed the night before nude, right?  No mention of her putting on clothes, so I imagined a scene where's she standing around naked, chatting with her colleagues while the investigation was going on. A simple, "I threw on my house robe" would have done, but then, I wouldn't have chuckled for half a day after reading that scene.