how does one apply lube?

[electricswitch]

so i've been reading erotic fiction (mostly fanfiction, which feels embarrassing to say haha) for most of my sexual media, and a question i have is if they're depicting the application of lube during anal sex properly. most fiction portrays first anal fingering with a good amount of lube to both "stretch" it out and get the lube properly applied, before then applying the lube to the penis and penetrating. is that.. accurate? it makes sense in my mind but i'm also hesitant to believe everything i read in fiction - i've been told a lot of fanfiction is to be taken with a large grain of salt for obvious reasons (by which i mean most of it is completely based in fantasy rather than accuracy, not that fanfiction is inherently something bad or weird). every time i try to read articles about anal sex to figure this out, it always just says to apply lube, never how to do that. i think this is a missed teaching opportunity, because nobody wants to get hurt when experimenting with that kind of thing (sensitive parts of the body i mean)! so, how *does* one apply lubricant for anal sex? is fanfiction mostly accurate for once or are there better methods?

[Sam W]

Hi electricswitch,

This is an instance where I would say the fanfiction you're reading is pretty accurate! Lube needs to be applied whenever something--be that fingers, a sex toy, a penis, etc-- is inserted into the anus. So applying it to both the fingers and the penis in those scenes is an accurate description.