Note: This article deals solely with het smut and the examples are from that point of view. We'll be talking about slash exclusively in a follow-up article.

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So you've decided to write smut. Congratulations. Just getting over the hurdle of *thinking* about writing smut is a huge step. The next step comes when you actually put words together to make the smut a reality.

Defining smut is tricky. Some would call it erotica and some call it pornography - smut is truly in the eye of the beholder. In fanfiction, smut is used as another way to get in to the minds of the characters. To write a successful (and hot) smut scene, you need to be able to take the reader through the emotions of your characters. You need to add texture and detail to the character interactions and you need to make your smut more than a how-to technical manual.

So why write smut in the first place? Writing a sex scene into fanfic adds another dimension to the story - sometimes the smut helps advance the plot, other times it's just a way to show how two characters feel about each other.

Your first step in writing smut should be to check out the authors whom you admire. Look at their pieces critically and analyze them. What do they do well? What do you wish they had spent more time on? How did their smut make you feel? What was the tone of the smut? Playful? Seductive? Look at the details carefully and then focus on those details you enjoyed the most.

When writing smut, there are a lot of things you need to think about. For instance, does your story belong to the "plot? what plot?" genre (also affectionately referred to as PWP) or do you have a highly intricate storyline with the smut thrown in as an added bonus? If the first, you can just jump right in. The second takes a little more work, but you may find it easier to insert bits of smut in between your plot.

You need to have a good grasp on your characters. You need to know who they are and what they are feeling - and somehow, you need to convey that to your reader. This applies to fanfiction in general, but it's especially important in smut. For instance, if you are writing a Mulder/Scully scene, you need to keep them in character the entire time and note that they are not young people. So a "sex for the very first time" fic for these two would not be realistic, given that neither is a virgin; however, it would not be out of character to write a "first time together" fic for Mulder and Scully, especially if you were writing a pre-season 8 MSR fic.

Endless sex all night long is also something that requires knowledge about what the character is like. Older characters like Picard or Mulder aren't going to be able to have the stamina to go at it more than a couple times a night. Not unless they are on Viagra. You may have better luck with all night romps with "Dawson's Creek."

You also need to think of what your characters are going to say either before/during/after the sex. And again, this conversation has to be in character. Jean-Luc Picard is not going to say, "Do me again, baby" after a hot romp with Beverly Crusher. Kathryn Janeway is not going to dissolve in tears of happiness during an encounter with Chakotay. T'Pol will probably not scream in delight, no matter what Trip Tucker is doing to her.

In "Suttee," Jintian cuts right to the chase quickly. Both Doggett and Scully are taciturn people - they want to get to the point and so the following scene is very much in character for them:

He drops her wrist like it's a live wire, and in fact it is, her whole body is, pressed up against him and setting off sparks he thinks he can almost *see* in the darkness. Her hands fly along the buttons of his shirt, push the suit jacket off his shoulders, slip down to tease his cock awake.

"Fuck," he mutters, feeling his blood stir.

"Yes," she says, and guides his own hands under her sweater.

You next have to figure out where you're going to set your smut. Fantasy places work, but you might also want to consider the reality. For instance, how comfortable is a lake really going to be? Especially a cool lake? If you set your scene in a shower, you're going to have to take space constraints into consideration and cut down your general acrobatics. Turbolifts are also popular settings, but you may want to think about whether the turbolift is disabled or what the general state of the ship is when the captain and the first officer are going at it. Chances are, if there's a red alert situation on Voyager, sex is going to be the last thing on Janeway's mind - even if it is in the turbolift.

Lori sets the scene very nicely in her fic, "Wuthering Holodecks":

"Come take this and show me to my chambers." He'd meant it as a distraction, not an affirmation of her servitude, and regretted it at once. But she took the candles, led him from the room into a huge hall, and glided like a ghost toward the massive staircase against the wall opposite.

Lightening flashed outside, illuminating huge windows on either side of the entry. He almost expected a raven to quote 'nevermore' from the sill over the heavy wooden door, or to hear a beating of the telltale heart.

The place was cold. Bone-deep cold, like any ancient hall would be. Amazing how accurate this was in some respects, and how inaccurate in others. He regretted leaving his boots behind; the floor felt like ice under his stocking feet. He watched her feet -- how was she walking barefoot without dancing around or turning blue? She liked warmer environs than this. Nothing about this reflected her usual preferences, but since she expected him to warm her up he couldn't complain.

Jintian jumps right into the smut with her fic, "Suttee," but still manages to make it clear what's going on and where this particular scene is set from the very first paragraph:

She likes to take it from behind, arching her ass out so the round buttocks gleam with the light from his bedroom window. She always moans at his first push into her. He has to clutch her hips for balance while she grasps the headboard, his fingers grazing the curve of her belly while his penis strains for release. She's always so tight, gripping the aching length of him like a hot wet fist.

When coming up with your setting, think in terms of your five senses. Remember, to make smut really hot, you've got to be able to draw your reader into the scene. What does the setting smell like? What does it look like? Are there any unusual textures? How about sounds? Any little detail you can add will only enhance your overall setting. However, be careful not to add to much detail - you want to add only those things, which will help the overall mood.

In "Cold Hands, Cold Heart," Liz Barr adds a bit of detail about the physical characteristics of Kathryn Janeway and how Susan Nicolleti reacts to them. This kind of detail adds a level of sensuality to the scene that would be otherwise missing.

She has long fingers, white, with lines and flaws that show her age. The hands of a scientist and artist. She runs them up the keyboard until she finds a note that pleases her.

(I imagine them on my skin, in my hair, inside me. Long, sensitive white fingers.)

Conversation in a smut fic is tricky - and in general, with any smut scene, it's hard to write good, believable dialogue. If Captain Picard decides to talk about the Maquis issue during an intimate encounter with Vash, it's going to kill the mood fast. Think what would happen if in mid-kiss, Mulder starts babbling about aliens? Bringing the emergency room home will also ruin a romantic moment between Dr. Green and Dr. Corday. So if you want your characters to talk, what should they say? In general, make it general, make it breathless, make it sexy, make it romantic. Start off general - after all, you've got your two characters together, they have to say something. Lori does a splendid job of this in her fanfic, "Time and Youth."

"Tell me about sex." I back away from the counter, taking her with me, and she dances on her toes into the shower, never leaving my arms.

"In what context?" She plays with the controls. With lukewarm water falling around us, she reaches for soap and begins with my scalp, lathering with her palms.

"In our context." Rather than copy her, I reach around and begin in the small of her back, spreading soap downward.

"A song without words," she says, her hands drifting down to lie idle on my shoulders.

"A poem," I murmur, closing my eyes against the water and tasting her cheek. "A poem. . . ."

However, as you get closer to the actual smut, narrow the focus of the dialogue. The conversation should become more pointed, more suggestive. For an added benefit, you can punctuate the dialogue with little gestures of foreplay. During actual sex, it's hard to speak more than a few words, but you may want to add a few words here and there, just to break up the mechanics of what's going on. Again, back to Lori's "A Meriteur" for an example of how this works:

"Do you love me?" She punctuated the question with another kiss.

"Yes," he breathed. "Oh, yes."

"Trust me?"

"Always." The whisper felt hot against her lips.

Slipping her fingers under the lapels of the robe, she pushed it off the rest of the way, and he followed the movement with his arms, letting the robe slide off and fall around him. She took a long look at him, naked, hands open and arms out as if beseeching her to come fill them.

His erection bobbed slightly as if seconding the motion.

Half the difficulty of writing smut is what to call part A, part B and so on. There are the clichés - shaft, vault. A big problem with those sort of words is the sound like a pornographic cliché and make the reader think of bad seventies' porno films. We suggest watching Boogie Nights and avoid any terms used in that film. You can also go with the actual names - penis, clitoris - but those sound too clinical, as if you're making a trip to the doctor's office.

Most fanfic writers settle for something in the between, i.e. a euphemism. You often will read about Mulder pushing into Scully, or Janeway shuddering as Chakotay's tongue runs up the length of her thigh. These work too. It will take a few tries to get to a balance you feel comfortable with. In general, try to mix it up a bit between the clinical names and the euphemisms. Use the clichés only if you really need to.

As an example of euphemisms, the excerpt below is from Seema's "Sometimes the Heart":

She undressed me with an experience I did not question as shadows grew long across the room. She had only a few candles lit in alcoves around the room.

It had been so long, too long, that I felt almost out of practice as my lips skimmed the line of her collarbone. Lucilla's hands, talented at tantalizing and teasing, were everywhere at once as we slipped beneath covers. I ran my hands down the smooth skin of her stomach and down lower.

She gasped as I lowered my head to taste her. She shuddered against me and carefully, slowly, I worked my way back up to her lips.

You can also go with the language that a character would most likely use. Vulcans would probably be literal. Seven would be more exacting. Mulder would be pornographic. Again, how your characters think and act will be your best guide.

Keep in mind that most people who read your smut should have a good idea of how sex works in the first place. They aren't looking for a technical manual, so it helps to intersperse little details throughout. Talk about the color of Scully's hair. What does it feel like for Abby to run her hands over Luka's back? Think of what it should feel like and use those details liberally throughout the scene.

For example, in Christine CGB's fic, "Beautiful People," she adds texture to the smut, which gives you more of an impression of what the encounter feels like versus what the characters are really doing.

She had the kind of touch that made me think she was trying to determine the exact nature of my skin. A labored touch that felt each centimeter of me separately.

You also don't need to make your smut drawn out or incredibly detailed. Some writers excel at writing pages and pages of hot sex, and others get by with a line or two, which gives the general impression. Think Margaret Mitchell and "Gone With the Wind"; you know that Rhett and Scarlett didn't disappear behind closed doors to play checkers. Go with the style and flow that fits your story. If the sex doesn't necessarily advance the plot (and it's rare that smut actually does), you may want to keep it brief - a few paragraphs will get the job done. Five to six pages detailing one encounter may be too much for even the best of writers to get through, not to mention the reader.

There is ongoing controversy about whether you need actual experience to write smut; the answer is yes and no. Yes, it helps to have the experience yourself - you can write more intelligently and coherently. Little details about body positions or refractory time periods will be obvious to you. However, it is possible to write good smut without having the experience yourself - after all, there are plenty of female writers out there concentrating on m/m relationships. The key is good research - go look for pictures if you need to, or find yourself a beta reader who will be honest and kind enough to work with you through the smut.

In general, smut isn't the easiest thing to write, but once you get over the first few hurdles, you'll find that with enough practice, you'll develop an ease and style of your own.