Why Not All Books Should Be Fifty Shades of Grey

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by Priscille Sibley

This morning I heard on the news that the Fifty Shades books are on their way to breaking another record. Frankly, I don’t care which one. People like sex. People like reading about sex. And when everyone is doing or talking about something, people stop being embarrassed about it. I’ve heard people say they are reading the Grey books because they love the characters. To me that sounds a little like how men used to read Playboy for the articles, but to be fair, there are other steamy books and they haven’t caught on the same way this series has, so there is something in the books that has latched onto readers’ imaginations. Again, I won’t hazard to guess what. Wink. 

But that’s not where I was going with this blog post. My book has hardly any sex in it; at least there is nothing graphic or intentionally titillating on the page.  I was reaching out to show an emotional connection between the characters. And my book is not a romance.  When one of my day job coworker’s asked me what my book was about, her primary interest was to find out if my novel was like Fifty Shades. (She’s the wife of a minister.) Ah, no, I said. That’s not my story. Well, she said, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s part of life after all. Sure, sex is part of life. BDSM? Whatever.

My characters have sex. They just don’t do it on stage. Why don’t they? Should they? I don’t think so, and not because I’m a prude, and not because I’m a mother and don’t want to set a bad example. My characters don’t have sex on stage because my narrator would not choose to share that information. My characters don’t have sex on the page because the she in my story is gravely ill. Her husband is devastated because he is in love with his wife, and he is a private person. He had to be a private person for other reasons. Their situation, a right-to-life, right-to-die trial, is being played out in the front of the media, much to his chagrin. While that may sound like a squirrelly way to avoid writing about THE DEED, I can honestly and unequivocally swear, sharing the details of their lovemaking would not advance my plot or add to their characterization. It would not impart more information about their relationship. I sincerely believe that by the end of the book, the reader will have a sense of who they are and the tenderness and passion they share. It is a love story, but not a sexy story. There is a difference.  And in this one, graphic sex would detract from the emotional arc.

Sometimes less is more.

Not all books should be Fifty Shades even if readers are clamoring for it. What do all people (except maybe nuns, priests and monks) have in common? Sex. Yes, it’s how we are all created, and most adults engage in sex. But graphic sex is not necessary in all books. Let’s face it folks, sex is not the only part of a love story.

In other words, adding graphic sex to my novel would have been gratuitous. Why not put a little gratuitous sex on the page if that’s what readers want? Because that would be another book, a different book. And maybe I’ll write that book someday, but not this time.  

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