Point of View

For the most part, we're all writing third person limited. It makes extra sense for HP fanfiction writers as the Harry Potter books are written in this PoV. We are in Harry's head and know only what Harry knows.

Common Mistake

(Let's say we're in Draco's PoV)

Draco's gorgeous gray eyes widened.

O RLY? Draco might think he has gorgeous gray eyes, but this isn't the right way to inform your reader about Draco's conceited ways. This is a PoV mistake. Look at this sentence:

Draco stared at Harry, then batted his eyelashes innocently, knowing he looked gorgeous.

See the difference? You said the same thing, but can't you just tell that in the second sentence we really are in Draco's head, and in the first we're forced to look at his gorgeous gray eyes, and therefore you, the author, just threw us OUT of Draco's head. (The only thing that could justify this is if Draco was looking at his reflection in the mirror.)

If you're writing in third person limited, and you are following a character around, looking and judging everything through his eyes, don't suddenly change perspective. You're basically evicting your reader from the story. If you are in Draco's head, then stay there, don't jump out to look down at the scene. Not if you're writing third person limited.

Different perspective can be provided by choosing a different point of view, but you don't do that in the middle of a paragraph. You can do that in the next chapter, part, or whatever. If you're writing a story that alternates between Harry's and Draco's points of view, then don't make the readers head spin by changing perspective every other paragraph. That's not omniscient PoV, that's third limited gone wrong.

Disclaimer: Every rule can be broken by a skillful author.

Here's an essay: On Writing: Narrative Point-of-View by halfshellvenus.

Oh, and another mistake (we're still in Draco's PoV):

The Slytherin kissed the Gryffindor.

First, this is just evil. Please use characters' names or he. However, I admit that sometimes it seems necessary to do this; do try to re-write your sentence before you resort to these constructions. That said, as ugly as saying the Gryffindor instead of Harry is, at least that's not necessarily a PoV mistake. Draco, however, will not think of himself as "the Slytherin." Ever. He'll think of himself as Draco. I'm not even touching phrases such as "the taller boy," "the older man," or "the blond." Also, bear in mind that Draco might think of Harry as "the annoying Gryffindor," if they're still enemies, but he will normally think of him as Harry (or Potter) especially if they're in a relationship, and it's highly unlikely he would ever think of him as the dark-haired boy. 

Writing Sex Scenes

I'll talk about sex scenes but this can be applied to all sorts of situations.

Your sex scenes don't have to be hot. They can be funny, they can be sweet, they can be moving, they can be sad, they can be boring.

That's fine. Even boring is fine. I'm not saying that you should aim for boring, or expect praise for boring, but starting out by writing boring sex scenes is a lot better than starting out by writing laughable sex scenes. Do try not to be boring, however. Note that a boring sex scene and a low rated sex scene aren't synonyms; an exciting sex scene and a high rating aren't synonyms either. You can write a PG-13 rated sex scene and make it awesome. If your explicit sex scenes don't work very well, then fade to black. An amusing essay about writing sex scenes here. And another one here: The Top Ten Things HP Fangirls Should Know Before They Write About Gay Sex!

On a more constructive note, check out these essays: 1001 ways to write an orgasm by lobelia321, More about writing orgasms by schemingreader, and How to Write a Sex Scene by Resonant. Then there's The Formula for Writing Sex Scenes by cupidsbow, Heat, Desire and Leg Cramps: How To Write Smokin' Hot Smut by nautibitz, and The Art of Writing a Sex Scene by zelda_zee.

Don't forget technicalities. Sex Tips for Slash Writers (a classic by now). Then there's Ass Ed 101 and 201. And of course, Sexuality.org can be worth a look. Don't forget The Language of Love, Lust, Sex (a sex dictionary).

A far too common mistake:

You can easily make a sex scene laughable and ridiculous by using metaphors.

Don't get me wrong, metaphors are good and fun, but be careful, especially when you're writing a sex scene. Sudden appearance of bad poetic language that snuck up on you while you were aiming for erotica and avoiding calling things by their proper names, can KILL a story.

I'll give you some odd advice now, but this is what I do. Sometimes to be constructive, sometimes for fun.

Read your smutty sentence. If you can make fun of it, rewrite it. Read your metaphor, taking it literally. If it makes you laugh, rewrite it. It's not an ideal rule; it's possible to deconstruct and make fun of anything, but it's a guideline. A story sentence is in red, my attempt at making fun is written next to it.

Don't let your readers have thoughts like these when reading something you've intended to be serious or hot/touching/moving.

. . . should be shot. Immediately.

DO NOT DO THAT! EVER. "Ah," "Oh," "he moaned," "he groaned," are the words and phrases you are looking for. At least, do NOT repeat letters and signs. Less is more. Seriously.

Side note: A character expresses uncertainty with the following sound: "er." Not "errrrr," not "errrrrrrr," and definitely not "err." To err is human, but don't let you spellchecker err.

Some basic questions to ask yourself and situations to ponder when writing simple PWPs.

Awkwardness and mistakes are wonderful things. Let your characters make silly mistakes. Let them forget to take their pants off and trip, let them hit their toes on the bed's leg, let them miss their intended target and kiss and touch parts they didn't really plan on touching. Let them be confused. Maybe they want one thing but end up doing something else. Maybe they planned to stop, but then continued. Maybe they planned to continue but then stopped. Let them not know exactly what they're doing, let them forget to think and go by instinct. Let them think and ruin things, let them misinterpret.

Don't forget where your scene is set. Use objects, smells, and sounds available. Are the bed sheets fresh and pleasant? Did they bunch up and are digging into someone's back? Is it dark or bright or dim? Do characters wish to see more or less? Are you writing kitchen sex? Is there flour on the table? Was there a dinner on the table? Are they in the bathroom? Is everything wet and cold? Are they somewhere public and the sounds are too loud? Are they in a funny-smelling hotel room? Is the bed uncomfortable and dirty? Do they care? Are they outside? Is it raining, is it sunny, is there mud on the ground? Do they get dirty? Are there insects around, trying to get into inappropriate places? Are they on a beach? Did sand get everywhere?

Don't forget suspense. How are your characters feeling? Do they even know? Do they want to know? Do they judge the reactions of their partner, trying to figure out his or her mind? Or are they trying to miss the obvious because they can't handle it? Do they want to stop but can't bring themselves to say it? Do they want to continue, but think they shouldn't? If they are in an established relationship, are they trying out something new? Are they uncertain about it? Are they doing the same damn thing they were doing for years? Are they worried about that? Is one of them afraid that something will stop their encounter? He, with silly, wrong words, or inappropriate behavior; his partner, because he doesn't care enough, isn't as interested as he seemed to be; or someone else, either with their physical or mental presence.

Don't forget unpredictability. Did they really had an orgasm at the same time or merely seconds apart? Maybe one of them had two and the other (gasp) just one. Did one of them had it much too soon and now he can't really do it the second time? Is he going to run away or stay and try extra hard to bring pleasure to the other? Is he embarrassed or unconcerned? Is his partner disappointed? Did they even take their clothes off? Did they even make it to the bed? Did they make it into the apartment? Away from the public eye? Did they had sex first and kissed a lot later? Maybe they'd rather not have anal sex. Maybe they said no to rimming. Maybe it was time for some oral action but one of them pushed his tongue a little lower. Is there such a thing as time for oral action? Maybe one of them was all set to bottom and then is asked to top? Maybe one of them was all set to top and then was asked to bottom? How do they react?  Does one character likes it slow and his partner just ripped his clothes off? Is this character pleased or upset? Can you really rip someone's clothes off? Is this clothes cheap? Was the clothes removed slowly and with care? Was this complicated?  Did one character ignored shirts, reached for the pants, but forgot about shoes? Did the scene went like this: talking, kissing, removing clothes, nipple kissing, oral sex, one finger, two fingers, three fingers, penetration, an ow and an oh, thrusting and pounding, simultaneous orgasms and then collapsing? Really? Did I write it? Didn't everyone?

Don't forget dialogue. Inner dialogue or actual dialogue. Are the characters coherent when they talk doing sex? Are they talking about unsexy things? Does one partner wants the other to shut the fuck up? Do they scream a lot? Really? Do they profess their love? Really? Are they grunting and moaning like they're stuck in a bad porno movie? Really? When they want something, how do they express it? Will they show it or say it? How will they say it? Are they embarrassed or unrepentantly explicit? Are they bossy or pleading? Does one of them try to tell the other what to do? Does the other find this hot or annoying? Does he obey or complain? Do they say each other's names a lot? Really? Do they yell them? Really? Is one of them really quiet? Is that pleasant for the other or annoying or disturbing? Do they try to break the silence? Do they say something silly? Do they laugh?

But what happens after? Does one of them leave? Do both of them leave in a hurry? Did they want to stay? Did one of them want to stay? Do they stay? Did they fall asleep? Did just one of them fall asleep? Did they cuddle? Did they attempt to cuddle? Did one of them attempt to cuddle? Did the other one smack him? Did they profess their love? Really? Do they still feel exactly how they felt before sex? Do they feel different? Do they feel better? Do they feel worse? Do they talk? Do they talk about something that makes sense? Are they avoiding to talk about what they really want to talk about? Did the sex make some difference? Did it have some effect on their feelings, their thoughts, their fears, their hopes? Do they admit this? To their partners, or to themselves? Do they feel awful, do they feel comfortable? How will you show either to the reader?

There are hundreds of other questions you can ask yourself. (If this is not a PWP, you also have to think about how this scene corresponds with your whole story. What's the point of it? Does it have one?) And the point of these questions is that there's no right answer, or rather, that every sex scene you write has different answers. Don't use a cookbook; not one the fandom made and not one you made. Don't let your readers know exactly what will happen next. Surprise them. But don't surprise them by being too creative (that could backfire) but surprise them with little things: unexpected reactions, humor in an odd moment, sadness during a happy moment, things going wrong when it looked like nothing can go wrong, things going worse when it looked like they might go wrong. Little things make a sex scene hot. The mere presence of characters people know and love make a sex scene hot. Wild reactions and unnecessary display of emotions, screaming, crying, excessive laughing, too much pleading won't make it hot. It'll make it ridiculous.

What makes a sex scene hot is characterization, suspense, unpredictability, sensation and realism. Characterizations are something you have to worry about all the time, just make sure not to change them when you start to write your sex scene; suspense is something you achieve when you set your scene slowly and/or unravel your scene slowly; unpredictability is easy: do what you didn't do in your last sex scene; and realism and sensation is something you know. This is something you can draw from your own experience. You don't have to write kinks, you don't have to have bondage, you don't have to make your sex scene worthy of a NC-17 rating. Do that if you want to, not because you think that's the only thing that will make the scene hot and worth reading. A PG-13 (or R) rated frotting scene? God, those will never get old and it's hard to make them unhot. More frotting, please. And more hand-jobs, since I'm already begging. 

Writing Goodfic

Do read essays and follow advice given to you by professionals or more experience people than you. However, nothing will teach you how to write better than READING and WRITING.

Bolding mine, because yes. God, yes.

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