December 11, 2013

Guest Post: Writing Sex Magic, by Rayne Hall

Today on Foreplay and Fangs, we welcome a very special guest: 


Rayne Hall, author of The World-Loss Diet, Writing About Villains, and many, many other books across several fantastic genres!  Today, Rayne shares with us one of her previously published articles, Writing About Sex Magic. With my short story, Equinox, soon to appear in the Ravaged anthology by Breathless Press, this was a subject I was eager to learn more about!

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STORIES ABOUT SEX MAGIC

by Rayne Hall



Any magician - female or male, good or evil, witch or shaman, theurgist or Enochian - may use sex magic. Although I'm using the male pronoun, everything applies equally to females.



Before casting a spell, a magician needs to create an intense flow of energy to fuel the magic. Most do this with chanting, drumming or dancing. The magician in your story may do it with sex.



The power raised through sexual arousal can be phenomenal and serve to super-charges a spell. If your protagonist is a magician, you can use this for a plot-relevant erotic scene.



Here's how it works.



1. The magician decides the desired outcome. Examples: make the crops grow, stop the flood, protect the traveller on a dangerous journey.

2. He plans and prepares the ritual. Examples: composing the words for the spell, assembling the ingredients, casting a circle around the area where the ritual will take place.

3. He gets into a state of sexual arousal - in any way which suits your story's plot.

4. Since the power is strongest immediately before orgasm, the magician tries to stretch out that phase for as long as possible.

5. In this state of intense arousal, he casts the spell. Example: he chants the words of the spell repeatedly. He concludes the spell with an assertion that this is his will. Example: a Wiccan witch may say 'So mote it be.'

6. Once the spell is cast, the ritual is over. To ground himself in reality again, he climaxes. For further grounding, he may eat or drink something.

7. He sleeps, exhausted by the combination of mental and physical exertion.



Sex magic has drawbacks, complications and conflicts, which can make the story even more exciting.



- Magic works through the mind and requires enormous concentration, which is difficult to achieve in a state of high arousal.



- When two magicians join for sex magic, they can raise an enormous amount of power, but this requires them to synchronise their levels of arousal as well as their thoughts. This is unlikely to work for a couple who are not already established lovers.



However, you can use this near-impossibility to create tension: Perhaps the only way to save the world is through the kind of magic which requires intense power, and the only way to achieve so much power is for two magicians to work sex magic together. Will the heroine set aside her dislike of the hero and join him in the act? Unfamiliar with each other's bodies, can they coordinate their levels arousal? The fictional possibilities are delicious.



If you're writing erotic fiction, you could also use this for a BDSM scenario: a submissive person serves the dominant magician by arousing him to the desired level without causing distraction.



In a ménage scene, perhaps two magicians are an established team who have worked sex magic together on many occasions. A desperate situation requires additional energy, so they include a third person in their  ritual. Will the new partner be able to synchronise his level of arousal with theirs? Excited by the presence of the new person, will the team be able to concentrate on the task?



Of course, solo sex magic with masturbation would be more practical, but it has less plot potential.



- In a state of arousal, judgement is impaired. A responsible magician never works magic on the spur of the moment while aroused, because he might be tempted to do something which is morally reprehensible or against his ethics.



For example, a male magician may fancy a woman like crazy, and the sight of her arouses him. In this state, he wants the woman - and he uses his arousal to cast a spell which will make her desire him with equal passion. By the time he comes to his senses, it's too late, and he may not be able to undo the spell. Terrible results happen. Maybe the woman divorces her loyal husband because she can no longer love him, or maybe the obsessed woman stalks the magician for the rest of his life.



Of course, in fiction it is interesting if a character makes a bad choice and has to deal with the consequences.



- Sex magic leaves the magician tired, drained, and helpless. An enemy may use this vulnerable phase to attack the magician.




ABOUT RAYNE HALL

Displaying The Word-Loss Diet - writing - Rayne Hall Cover 29Dec12 reduced.jpegRayne Hall has published more than forty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel), 13 British Horror Stories, Six Scary Tales Vol. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5(creepy horror stories), Thirty Scary Tales, Six Historical Tales Vol. 1 and 2 (short stories), Six Quirky Tales (humorous fantasy stories),  The Colour of Dishonour: Stories from the Storm Dancer World, Writing Fight Scenes, The World-Loss Diet, Writing About Villains, Writing About Magic and Writing Scary Scenes (practical guides for authors).
Displaying Writing about Villains Rayne Hall - cover Dec12 reduced.jpeg 

She holds a college degree in publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing. Currently, she edits the Ten Tales series of multi-author short story anthologies: Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft, Spells: Ten Tales of Magic, Undead: Ten Tales of Zombies, Seers: Ten Tales of Clairvoyance and more.  


Rayne has lived in Germany, China, Mongolia and Nepal and  has now settled in a small dilapidated town of former Victorian grandeur on the south coast of England. 
















Displaying STORM DANCER Rayne Hall cover published 11Jan13 reducedforkobo.jpegShort video: Ten Random Facts About Rayne Hall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXv4EisfqvQ
Amazon’s Rayne Hall page: http://www.amazon.com/Rayne-Hall/e/B006BSJ5BK/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1



 A very BIG thank you to Rayne, for sharing her wisdom and works with us.  A huge part of the writing journey is that we should never stop learning more about our craft, and so we appreciate Rayne and authors like her taking the time to help us improve.





 
 

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