It is easy to let undergarments become cheche in stories, as they are usually only mentioned just before a sex scene in romance and erotic romance stories. But they can be used to better effect during a story to get a deeper point of view. For those not used to a deeper point of view, in a nutshell, it is getting to the inner motivations behind your characters, what they think, what motivates them there innermost feelings and conflicts. For example, you could have one character see the panty line or bra outline through another character’s clothing. That might add conflict? Or sexual tension? They could be friends, colleagues, it might hint to a secret sexual desire? Or the fact that one character is observing something out of the usual? I think this point is a good one to bring up for writers who are writing from a male point of view in a story, as men look and notice that kind of thing. Men do look, at least some do, maybe that is another blog topic “pool perving” and “street perving.” Message me if you have encountered this phenomenon.
Anyway back to the topic at hand, I would be interested to hear if women observe men in the same way and how that affects your thoughts on the characters you are writing. It is entirely possible that the underwear has no impact on the story, but it is a nuanced detail that might add to the depth of a story.
How underwear can detract from a story. This takes me back to when I took over as CEO of Black Velvet Seductions. A writer submitted a story, I liked the idea, but the story was not well developed. I told the writer it was thin, and over a few weeks in a series of e-mails I tried to help her. Sadly, it would not work now, I simply don’t have the time to be that helpful. But then, we worked through the first chapter with me pointing out where descriptions could be added to make the story more interesting to the reader. There was a section that I remember vividly where the use of underwear was used so badly that it jerked me right out of the story. The author had written something to the effect that the heroine took off her clothes as she walked around her room, then listed the clothes she took off while walking. The top half would not be a problem, but in the script, it mentioned taking off her pantyhose while walking. I thought that is a neat trick; I would love to see how that would work. I mentioned it to the writer, but she saw no problem with it. I suggested that she try it and see what it looked like. For me, it conjured up a comic scene. The only thing it did was break me out of the story, killing the mood.
This is a subject I could and probably will return to.
I would love to hear your views, thoughts, and stories you might like to share, on the blog, facebook or twitter.