Tee hee! Girls don't like to talk about...you know...S-E-X. Okay, that's not true at all. But talking about sex and writing about sex are two very different animals. Stephanie Lehmann is the author of Are You in the Mood?, Thoughts While Having Sex, and The Art of Undressing. Her plays have been produced off off Broadway, and she is a contributor to Salon. And, she is the teacher of mediabistro's Chicklit: How to Write It, How to Get It Published course. Among the many things you'd learn in her course is how to put a bit of the blue in your pink book.

If you choose to include a sex scene in your chicklit novel, these are some things to keep in mind:

1. We aren't writing erotica, so we don't need gratuitous sex. Meaning we don't need a sex scene just for the sake of showing them have sex. It has to move the plot forward and reveal character.

2. It's also not a sex manual, so we don't want a mechanical description of what's going on. Unless your point is that the sex is mechanical. In which case we'd better be hearing what our heroine thinks about that - or says about that to her partner, if she so chooses.

3. It doesn't have to be good sex! Now be honest. How many of you have good sex all the time? And it was even good the very first time, right? Uh huh. Our heroine's relationship with her guy must have tension, problems, conflict, fear of intimacy... All these dynamics can and will show up in the bedroom. Or wherever they may happen to be doing it. Or trying to do it.

4. If there's a lot of humor in your novel, don't forget to have humor in your sex scenes. If your heroine has a great sense of humor, it's not like she's going to suddenly be all serious while she's having sex. Actually, maybe she is, and that could be part of what's funny.

5. A sex scene is a place where you can really show off your skills at writing interior monologue. What is she thinking, feeling, seeing? All her senses are probably in high gear. Exploit that. Or maybe she shuts down emotionally and/or physically. That's interesting too. How does what she say contrast with what she's thinking?

6. As always, have your characters use words they would usually use. They haven't suddenly turned into Dr. Phil and Dr. Ruth having sex. (An unpleasant image if I ever had one...) Don't become so self-conscious that you lose your voice. (Have I made you self-conscious?)

7. Don't forget to use dialogue. People don't usually completely stop talking during foreplay, or while they're actually having intercourse (do they?) or after the orgasm. Assuming there was one. If not, that might be a subject for discussion. If they want to talk about it. Which they might not...

There is still plenty of time to sign up for Stephanie's course!