For you more experienced writers and poets. What have you found that makes erotica a harder or more difficult genre to write poetry or stories in?
"Illegitimis non carborundum." Vinger Joe Stllwell
What you learn in life is important; those you help learn are more.
Though I don't consider myself highly experienced, I'll take a stab at it. For most average people the mere mention of the word érotic or erotica' conjures up preconceived and often judgemental categorizations such as "pervert". Most people I share with invariably do one of the following: devalue the work for its erotic content, change the subject, attempt to convince me to tone down or eliminate the sex, assume the only thing I'm capable of thinking about of is sex, usher away nearby children, and my personal favorite inform me how I'm offending the Lord. (The Bible contains a book/play called Song of Solomon and it's highly erotic describing oral sex between a young couple in detail and I am grateful it does).
Sorry for such a long answer to a short question, but erotic literature carries an unfair and unnecessary stigma like no other genre and it is that perception that makes it both different and harder to thrive in. Even some of my most liberal friends assume I only write smut and admittedly that facet exists so I'm forced to correct them saying there's excellent, no, phenomenal storytelling throughout ... and smut.
Now I want to write a truly nasty fuck tale containing incredibly graphic, intense, and hard fucking, but avoid any redeeming social content just to piss everybody off. Any rebellious collaborators out there want to join me?
That which did not kill me didn't try hard enough
for me, i just create characters and write a story and add sex into it. the only real thing that's harder is come up with creative ways to make writing sex scenes so they feel fresh. that usually involves making sure that your characters personalities and emotions shine through, otherwise it's just kind of the same boring 'put penis in vagina' stuff, you know?
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
Yep, I concur with Katherine and sprite. The sex is the hardest part to write with enough variety as your quantity of stories increases. The number of stories I write with fully realised character moments and build up, that contain the placeholder line "insert sex here" is unreal.
Bypassing the stroker stories of slot A in tab B, which serve a simple purpose, any character-driven piece needs to bring their individualisms to the bulk of the sex in order to be fresh. I'm guilty of recycling things (mainly because I forget what I wrote four years ago) but I do try and put something subtly different in each story - maybe an unexpected viewpoint or a moral question the characters face. Just to try and deliver some conflict or tension that makes the story more interesting to me (and hopefully my readers) than a pure stroker piece.
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* A whole heap of often filthy, tense, hot sex.
Pretty much agree with what has been said above. I definitely struggle with the sex descriptions more than any other part. I don't worry too much about what people think of me, shockingly sex is rather common place. If people don't like it they don't have to read it. I think Carlos nailed it; at the end of the day a good story is a good story. In reality life has sex in it, why shouldn't stories too?
I don't have the writing credentials here that most of you have, but I'm in agreement. I adore introducing characters, giving their back stories and motivations. Adding all the sensual flirting that leads to the final act or acts. I do have one quite different story, which begins with me, waking up dead. My ghost has powers that provide entirely new forms and methods of sex. I had an easier time writing four 10,000 word chapters than I did writing that flash story. Short stories just aren't my thing.
amy
I've had the "insert sex scene here" problem, and I think a workaround (for me, anyway) is to make the story ABOUT the sex, as opposed to writing a story that happens to have sex scene. Write the story around the power dynamics of the sex, or sexual quirks of the characters, or interior monologues about the sex. Really focus on detail. That way the sex itself gives you a plot and a structure, so you don't fall into the "insert sex scene" cookie cutter trap.
It has occurred to me that the thing that sets erotica apart from other genres of art is explicit in its definition.
Erotica: Literature or art intended to arouse sexual desire.
Quite simply, we write our erotic stories and poems with an intention to arouse. Sexually. And some of the most erotic works I've seen have actually had little or no explicit sex in them. Perfect examples in our current competition are the entries from Saucymh and Rumpleforeskin. Her story is Jams, Pickles and Preserves. His story is Of Schemes and Things. Neither contains any graphic sexuality. Both are erotic.
It might be a good practice to test your writing skills by trying to arouse with your words and never mention actual sex acts.
Well, I love writing and I find writing erotica keeps you alive. Besides, I read writing and reading erotica brings benefits to your health, your circulation improves,if you know what I mean. And to those who judge...I have no time,sorry.
Thank you all for your input and suggestions. I've several stories up and I've tried to use these suggestions, hopefully with good effect. Improvement is a constant as a writer.
"Illegitimis non carborundum." Vinger Joe Stllwell
What you learn in life is important; those you help learn are more.
Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of tea?
In some ways, erotica is easier to write than other genres. Most cases, you know where the story is going to end up (SPOILER ALERT: It's fucking). So, mostly you just need to engineer a plausible and engaging path to get your characters to their final destination. But I agree with Sprite et. al the biggest challenge is to avoid formulaic sex (which anyone can write) while at the same time avoiding the tendency to create a ridiculous parody of sex and mistaking it for "hot and wild."
Don't believe everything that you read.
Oh, Just a Guy,
I must disagree with you. It doesn't have to be fucking. Erotic writing can be completely without any sex acts, of any kind. Maybe it is different for men, but some of the most erotic things I've ever written are basicly just flirting with hints of things to come. The first two chapters, perhaps three, of a story I'm working on now, don't have any sex at all. Never the less, I get aroused, just rereading them for edits. I think a lot of people, perhaps mainly women would as well, at least I hope so. Oh, those are about 10,000 word chapters.
I think sensuality awakens the senses if written with emotions
First I wish to disagree with much of what has been said here. Sex is not an essential part of an erotic story. Not even heaving bosoms or turgid members. A writer should never feel she must "Insert sex here" to complete a story. Of course, if the sex tells you where it goes it can't hurt.
I've been a writer since pre-teen, sometimes professionally. I started writing erotica when I came to Lush, and I find it no different from any other writing. It happens when it happens.
Interesting conversation going on here. It seems to have diverged into what feels like a tengent considering whether or not erotica stories needs sex... It obviously doesn't, but that doesn't mean that you won't occasionally fall into the "insert sex here" writing issue.
The conception that "insert sex here" evoked by sprite and Wannabee consists of adding sex to an already finished and self-sufficient story is a tiny little bit of an underestimation of both these writers. Some stories need sex, some stories don't, but it has nothing to do with having "Add sex here" in a story that does need it.
I have been very specifically challenged by this in my latest competition entry because for the first time I felt like some sexual elements ("Add sex here" for a long while in my drafts) were somewhat ungraciously "bolted" on the story as a whole. They did not feel like they had the perfect flow with the rest of it. But the issue was with writing balance and skill, not necessity of the scene itself. In editing I grinded out much of the bloated feeling (without getting rid of it entirely as far as I'm concerned), trying to remove the obstacles in the story without removing the elements themselves.
In order for sex to feel like an integral part of a story you must know exactly where you are going and what you're trying to get out of a scene. Yet the writing challenge is different enough that I'm not shocked by the idea to keep it for later. I think of it as directing a movie, scenes don't need to be filmed in order, keeping entirely different challenges for different moments makes a lot of sense.
But to be fair this is valid for literally any scene, any element in any story. I've never written a story strictly in the narrative order. I assume very few writers do. Writing methodically from beginning to end only appears to make sense for the reader, but it is something that at this point I find extremely counterintuitive as a writer. To go back to the movie analogy, I always write in a storyboard fashion, with planned elements that can be flashed out in any order I need.
As I particularly enjoy stylistic motifs and echoes through my stories, writing in that way allow for any idea at any point to feed the story in any direction. An idea can stem from the very end of a story (let's say the sex) and pour into the very beginning. It gives the story a very circular feeling to write. Any story element, any stylistic motif, is just as likely to have its beginning as a consequence of its ending than the opposite. The difference is almost imperceptible for the reader, but very significant for the writer.
In that regard I find erotica much easier than any other genre because of how unapologetic I can be about messing with the story that way. Sex and erotism have a particular taste of "wholeness" about them, treating them as powerful and inevitable and fucking with causality just feels right to both the writer and reader. People are also much more forgiving to outrageously bloated style and motifs about sex than they would be about pretty much anything so it's a joy to just mercilessly mess with without excessive subtlety.
It's even more significant when writing in English. French as a language has much more of an appetite for some stylistic forms. Assonances, alliterations, the occasional zeugma are almost always tasty, while English is much more business about itself. You need something as decadent as erotism in order to allow yourself even half of the stylistic nonsense you can pull off in Latin languages. It's one of the reasons a much larger part of my scribbling in English are erotica compared to the fiction I write in French.
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Thank you for that.