Now I know the title will have had a few eyebrows going up but I am not talking about what happens once the clothes come off I am indeed talking about the actual act of stripping. The problem is that in most cases the actual act of removing clothing from characters is an inconvenience rather than seductive.
My novel is a dark medieval fantasy, lots of raping and pillaging and in one way that solves the problem the bad guy simply takes out his knife and cuts the clothing away. The problem comes with other characters, it is easy to lose momentum when there are leather straps to be untied, armour to be removed and layers to be discarded of. And it is not just this genre, think about bodice rippers fine if you happen to have a knife about your person but given that most women required at least one other person to help them into the corset and layers of petticoats, the idea that they could all be removed seductively is a lost cause.
I know these things do not bother the reader, they are happy to suspend disbelief to get to the good bit, skirts can just be pushed up and then thrown off a few minutes later but for the writer who has to know every detail they can be a real headache and passion killer.
Paula Acton 
This is probably why I usually steer clear of writing historicals. 🙂
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Funny, I always thought that in books (more so in movies) the author glosses over that part because of that very reason. I don’t think readers even notice because they want to get to the juicy bits. 😛
Jai
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Maybe that’s when ladies used to “go slip into something more comfortable.” These days, we ain’t got time for that – shirts and pants just get ripped off along the way to the bed, or the couch, or the kitchen table…well, you get the idea. 😉
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Just think how pissed off you’d be if some guy (I’m talking about partners here) did just cut away your clothing whenever the feeling got to them… it would cost a fortune in repairs! 😉
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I would imagine much harder to write the undressing than the actual sex without it sounding awkward.
#atozchallenge
maggie at expat brazil
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I think it’s an instance where less is more and more is less. Keep it simple; avoid clumsy details.
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