I've asked myself this question for a while now. And I think that depends on the reader. Some people don't want it to impose on the story, others think it adds to the story. Personally, I think that some sex can add to a story if it is used to demonstrate character development, or if it is a primary moving force behind the story. Say a girl or woman experiences a distasteful episode and is shown to grow or evolve because of, or in spite of, that episode. Or, a man becomes obsessed with a woman and never quite gets the hang of a relationship until he is able to come to grips with her. Now, he can either be changed or validated by that experience, but very little more.
I've read some books; some of them quite successful, that used an involved storyline but had several gratuitous sex scenes in them that weren't necessary. By the end of the book, the authors tried to make the reader believe that the sex had caused a profound change in the character, but to my eye, the character was changed very little. Just because the author says the character has changed, unless the author shows the character behaving differently, there isn't any change at all. In the instances I am thinking of, the author seemed so locked into the character as originally created, that they had no success, or even inclination to show the character changing.
So, to make this simple; if the character development or story isn't advanced by the sex, either leave it out or make it a closed door scene. Unless you're writing the new style of romance novel; then it seems that anything goes.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Taken Apart, Questionable Interests, It Happens Every Day and others.
Available on Kindle
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