She told me that her fondest wish was to write a novel. The agent looked furtive and said he did not want to be quoted, but the answer to her question was 'yes'. This disappointed her, because she did not particularly wish to write about sex and doubted her ability to do it with any conviction because she lacked the necessary experience of multiple and various couplings. This set me thinking. In many ways, it might be a disadvantage.
Fantasy is what it is all about.
Bald descriptions of the sex act are unlikely to achieve anything for the reader. The essence of good sex writing lies in the erotic tension, the build-up, if you like, to an act which need not occur on stage or even at all. What the writer needs to have experienced is desire. The idea of a Good Sex Prize, although attractive in itself, is not practicable for that reason. In any case, there is no need to justify our annual Bad Sex Prize, awarded to the year's literary novel with the worst, most redundant or most embarrassing description of the sexual act.