How does one do tasteful sexy
OH BOY tails of a dragon rider I KNOW IM 2 YEARS LATE TO ANSWER THIS OR WHATEVER BUT GEE DO I HAVE TIPS FOR YOU!!
(hi, it's me, mod unname, your local queer trans Romance and Erotica writer)
i'm going to assume for this post you mean "how do I let people know my characters are HORNY for each other without being GROSS." if u mean something else, im happy to go into that as well!
here's my baseline advice: lean more into the Feelings and specific actions and motions and details than just being like "and let me tell you, his badonkahonkaroos are HUGE. the cleavage is ASTOUNDING. couldn't tear my eyes off that RACK."
things which read as horny, but in a tasteful manner:
-paying a LOT of attention to someone's specific body movements/expressions/details.
-love the classic "some sort of texture element about xir body has HYPNOTIZED me." the way xir shirt rides up to reveal the curve of xir hip. sweat sticking damp tendrils of hair to hir neck as ze laughs. water escaping from the corner of eir mouth as ey chugs an entire water bottle in one go, and the way the water trickles down eir throat, disappears under the collar of eir shirt.
-do you see why this is horny. it's because nobody's thinking obsessively about the way the sunshine dances on the skin of, like, a casual friend. it's also very tactile, as opposed to just visual!
-if you want to go into like "holy shit, they have a REALLY NICE [ass/pair of boobs/etc]" territory i also suggest "person is wearing form-fitting or otherwise revealing clothing and for SOME REASON, i absolutely CAN'T LOOK AWAY. im flustered. im overwhelmed. im sweatin like a sinner in church."
-also if you want to make a character seem sexy, highly suggest making it not just about their body but also about actions they take and the way they speak and the way they move, etc, or about things that aren't usually sexualized/display competence. The more a thing is specific to the character, the better! If you talk about someone's broad shoulders flexing as they carry a cord of wood back to camp, or about someone's immaculately manicured nails trailing across your arm, or about the warm, crooked scrunch of someone's smile, or the way their voice goes rough and low when they're tired, or the way their hand tightens on their cane when they're trying to control their emotions and it's addictive to try and be so sexy that it makes them lose just that tiny sliver of control, that's hot!!
-once again, it's about the SPECIFICITY. it's about the VIBES. you can make ANYONE seem sexy if your viewpoint character really obviously thinks they're hot/a side character really obviously thinks your viewpoint character is hot and is very specific about why!
