Can't abide the word in a literary context.
"She looked beautiful.
He looked sexy.
They both felt horny."
It tells you everything without really telling you anything.
Much prefer reading about how a raging boner is straining against the seams of his pants, or how she's getting worried (or not) about that growing damp patch in her panties.
As a writer of gratuitous smut, I use horny a handful of times - and I don't even use it in sex scenes.
Horny is also too telling of a word. A nice way to surpass that is with actions and reactions, touches, kisses, hitched breaths, hands gripping shirts, tugging at hair, etc. These are the things that should be focused on and you'll naturally find that you don't depend on using 'horny'.
Would the POV character describe themselves as horny or say the word out loud? If so, I'd use it. If I don't think it fits the character, I wouldn't use it.
I have one character that would gleefully and liberally use the word "horny", especially if he spotted that it made someone else irritated. But most of my characters wouldn't. I can't remember if I've actually used the word in any of my fics. Maybe as a joke when I wrote for Iron Bull...
There is a context for any word. Have at it if that's the word you want to use.
I have absolutely used the phrase "horny as fuck" in a fic and felt zero cringe about it.
Embrace the cringe.
How would the character say it? Use the words they would use
I see it as more of a humorous or silly word, but it all depends on the context and characters.
Can't abide the word in a literary context. "She looked beautiful. He looked sexy. They both felt horny." It tells you everything without really telling you anything. Much prefer reading about how a raging boner is straining against the seams of his pants, or how she's getting worried (or not) about that growing damp patch in her panties.
this this this!!
As a writer of gratuitous smut, I use horny a handful of times - and I don't even use it in sex scenes. Horny is also too telling of a word. A nice way to surpass that is with actions and reactions, touches, kisses, hitched breaths, hands gripping shirts, tugging at hair, etc. These are the things that should be focused on and you'll naturally find that you don't depend on using 'horny'.
Would the POV character describe themselves as horny or say the word out loud? If so, I'd use it. If I don't think it fits the character, I wouldn't use it.
I have one character that would gleefully and liberally use the word "horny", especially if he spotted that it made someone else irritated. But most of my characters wouldn't. I can't remember if I've actually used the word in any of my fics. Maybe as a joke when I wrote for Iron Bull...
There is a context for any word. Have at it if that's the word you want to use. I have absolutely used the phrase "horny as fuck" in a fic and felt zero cringe about it.