----- Original Message -----
“How do you deal with someone saying that erotica writers have no self-respect?”
-- Fellow Erotica Author
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Okay kids... Rolling up sleeves... It goes like this. You get in their face and say:
"Yeah, I write SMUT and I'm crying all the way to the BANK, you B*TCH!"
Repeat as many times as necessary.
Why do people say this crap to us?
There’s a couple’a reasons…
1) It’s all about THEM.
Ordinary people rarely think outside their own heads. They measure everyone else against their own perceptions.
“Well I hated that movie, so no one else will like it either."
"Don’t drink that! That brand of soda sucks, you won’t like it.”
It’s called Tunnel Vision or Narrow-mindedness. If they can’t do it, or they don’t like it, you shouldn’t be able to do it, or like it either.
"Well if that was me I would never...!"
Yeah well, you AREN'T THEM which is why you Do, and you Have, and you are getting CASH (or at least a lot of attention) for it while they are not.
Unlike the average human, the writer is a unique creature. We can get out of our own heads long enough to view a perspective Other than Our Own. In fact, in order to write successfully, we are forced to view MANY different perspectives, frequently opposing and usually simultaneously. Consider how many characters are in the average novel with ONE author to think for them all.
As a writer, USE that unique talent to step out of your feelings of rejection and get into Their head. As a writer, you have the ability to look at the character traits they are displaying and interpret pretty darn accurately what’s really going on in their twisted little reality tunnels.
2) Petty jealousy.
Ever spend time with someone who just bought a new car? Without fail, someone just has to come along and tell them what's Wrong with that make or model. This person will list fault after fault until the new owner is deflated enough to salve the bruised ego of the person who Didn’t have a new car.
The technical term is: SPOILSPORT.
Believe me, these nasty buggers are everywhere -- especially if you're Good.
3) “That's not real writing. Anyone can write a smut story…”
Oh yeah? Let’s see them TRY it! The results ought to be hysterical, and really, really bad.
Writing Fiction is freaking hard work. It takes anywhere from weeks, to months, to years of hunching over a keyboard word-crunching, plus research, plus plot-crafting, and character development, and dialogue, and sentence-structure, and manuscript formatting, and fighting with the computer…etc.
"I can write, I have a college degree to prove it."
They do? Oh, that's too bad -- for them.
College degrees won’t help anyone write good Fiction of any kind, never mind smut. (Unless of course, their degree is in something useful, like history or mythology.) Fiction writing is a CRAFT that takes unique skills that you just can’t get in the classroom.
Formal Education teaches you to stuff as many words into a paragraph as possible. Preferably using the biggest words available, (with extra points for obscurity.)
Fiction Writing is the total reverse. You want the most amount of information using the least amount of words. Think ‘Advertising Copy’ and you have a clue. And that’s just the Grammar.
Imagination is the real sticking point.
Even if you have perfect grammar skills, you STILL have to have an imagination beyond: “Hey I had one hell of a night with this kinky so-and-so I picked up!” Boooooooooring!
Writing good Erotic Fiction takes skills the average Literary author would cringe at. Let’s see one of THEM write a sex scene that holds the reader’s attention long enough to Really Satisfy and without repeating the word penis or vagina 5 million times, (personally, I’ve never used either word,) AND give it a Happy Ending.
So yeah, let’s just see them Try to copy your accomplishment. You’ll laugh for weeks!
4) Ordinary embarrassment.
Most people are raised to believe that Sex is bad, so anyone who actually Likes sex is a deviant.
Yeah, and us deviant's are Popular with the opposite sex too!
In Conclusion...
So what do we, as Purveyors of Fine Smut, do about this kind of “No self-respect” crap?
We DON’T take comments like that personally. Those comments aren’t meant for US, they are meant for the Speaker that opened their mouth, and drooled that filth out of it. Those words are a reflection of THEIR personal hang-ups – not yours. YOU are making friends with fellow writers, making the occasional buck or two, and generally having a good time making your readers squeal with delight, among other bodily functions.
So, some prissy-fingered prudes are have a problem with you writing smut?
So what? No matter the reason, it’s Not Your Problem – it’s THEIR’S. When someone opens their big fat slobbering gob, just smile and consider the source, because it really IS all about them.
Morgan Hawke
-- Smut-Writer and Damned Proud of it!
