Lady bits!

[StillStunned]

Lady bits are lovely, but usually hell to describe. Not just what you call them, but all the terminology, all the descriptions, everything.

I try to steer away from "cunt". The exceptions are in Rulk the Rat and the Demon Dagger and What Scabby Saw In The Bathhouse, where "cunts" and "tits" fit the diction of the POV characters: lowlifes from the gutter.

I find myself using "entrance", "folds", "mound" and "moist enveloping warmth" a lot. After a comment that I overused "cream" I've been using "arousal" (or "the slickness/cream of her arousal"). In one story - can't remember which one - I have something along the lines of "her folds, like pursed lips".

So do you prefer "steaming cunt" or "delicate petals", or something in between? How do you navigate between coarse and flowery? Have your readers ever complained, and if so did you tell them to fuck off and write their own story?

 

[StillStunned]

(Should this be a Writing Exercise?)

 

[big_cane_sugar]

I don't do so much narrative description that it becomes an issue, but in my characters' voices I go for what I imagine those characters would say or think given their personalities, experiences, and so on. It's usually not very creative because they're not poets or anything. My instinct is to focus less on the physical mechanics and more on the characters' emotions, but it seems to me that the better authors here do more mechanical description than I find myself able to do well.

 

[Kat90xx]

It must be hard as your portfolio expands to not keep using the same tired turns of phrase. Surely by now you’ve used them all @StillStunned!?
As we all improve our crafts as a writers, we also have fewer and fewer unused metaphors and synonyms in our backlog to call upon, or risk resorting to clumsy ones just to add variety. Focussing on a strong character voice is a great approach, giving each a few set ones as you said. I tend to avoid the big C purely because it can rub some folk up the wrong way, and we don’t want that now, do we…
Another idea is look up the equivalents in other languages - some of them can be fantastically dirty or delicious

 

[Erozetta]

It fully depends on how the pov character sees the woman they desire. If they respect her, respectful terminology is used. If they are in a lusty headspace, things get a little more vulgar.

Women use the words they are most comfortable with. My characters tend to be comfortable with pussy, which I see as a line between "sex" and "cunt". But when those characters are desperate for a fuck, they will quite demurely say cunt with a certain bite to the t even as they blush a little.

People are complex. Characters should be as well.

I'm unlikely to ever use pearl, button, sheath, petals, warmth, slit or gash. To me, those just aren't appealing terms. They either feel like an attempt to sugar coat the sex into something more palatable to prudes, or they seem to be more about alluding to sex being a violent act forced upon a woman.

Clit, sex, cunt, pussy, flesh, folds, mound, mons, vulva, lips, labia, entrance, etc, I use fairly often, but my least favorite of those is "sex", it just feels... bland.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I have no real qualms over any of the words, except vijayjay (that one is nails on a blackboard), but even that I would use if I felt that it was the right word for the scene. It all comes down to the tone of the scene to determine which words are used.

I also like to use a harsh word like cunt or a clinical word like ejaculate for emphasis or attention in an otherwise softer more intimate scene. I think it's often very sexy to use such an obviously strong word in the middle of an otherwise flowery or delicate sequence. Especially I think a fair amount of men probably find it hot, like the sweet girl that you would never expect suddenly whispering something filthy in your ear. Interested in what you guys think of that technique. Am I wrong?

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

In Red Shoes, she referred to Kitty in various ways including mewling.

 

[StillStunned]

It must be hard as your portfolio expands to not keep using the same tired turns of phrase. Surely by now you’ve used them all @StillStunned!?
As we all improve our crafts as a writers, we also have fewer and fewer unused metaphors and synonyms in our backlog to call upon, or risk resorting to clumsy ones just to add variety.

This is one reason why I prefer not to use flowery descriptions or exaggerated metaphors. You can get away with repeating single words again and again in every sex scene, but "the gentle rose that was the core of her sexual femininity" is very much one-use-only.

 

[Kat90xx]

I think there are simply more ways to write about phallic things with positive connotations than “lady bits”. That phrase I personally find particularly off putting - like a turkey’s neck
For example - column, rocket, flagpole = grand, proud, maybe even intimidating… Meanwhile - clam/oyster, gash, fuckpocket (off the top of my head I’ve read recently) = dirty, hidden, wet, but not in a good way, at least to me, as we all have our own tastes and sensitivities based on backgrounds and experiences.
Food seems a nice avenue to evoke positive sweetness, warmth and sensations but as you said, can quickly be overused! More than once I’ve settled down to read and halfway through the action started feeling peckish instead

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

A Story Idea made mention of a Vulcano, but i think it was just a typo.

 

[subdudeme13]

It must be hard as your portfolio expands to not keep using the same tired turns of phrase. Surely by now you’ve used them all @StillStunned!?
As we all improve our crafts as a writers, we also have fewer and fewer unused metaphors and synonyms in our backlog to call upon, or risk resorting to clumsy ones just to add variety. Focussing on a strong character voice is a great approach, giving each a few set ones as you said. I tend to avoid the big C purely because it can rub some folk up the wrong way, and we don’t want that now, do we…
Another idea is look up the equivalents in other languages - some of them can be fantastically dirty or delicious

No pun intended I am sure.

 

[Erozetta]

I think there are simply more ways to write about phallic things with positive connotations than “lady bits”. That phrase I personally find particularly off putting - like a turkey’s neck
For example - column, rocket, flagpole = grand, proud, maybe even intimidating… Meanwhile - clam/oyster, gash, fuckpocket (off the top of my head I’ve read recently) = dirty, hidden, wet, but not in a good way, at least to me, as we all have our own tastes and sensitivities based on backgrounds and experiences.
Food seems a nice avenue to evoke positive sweetness, warmth and sensations but as you said, can quickly be overused! More than once I’ve settled down to read and halfway through the action started feeling peckish instead

*Often includes full fledged meal scenes in my stories including the preparation.*

Sometimes a writer can't tell if they're hungry or horny and the writing gets a little confused. But is still quite enjoyable.

 

[Kat90xx]

*Often includes full fledged meal scenes in my stories including the preparation.*

Sometimes a writer can't tell if they're hungry or horny and the writing gets a little confused. But is still quite enjoyable.

Haha guilty!

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Folds, entrance, wrinkled skin, sheath/home for his cock, or just 'inside her', if I'm not using cunt, labia, clit etc.

I don't like twee euphemisms, but will go for the odd metaphor. If from her point of view, then she squeezed down on his cock, she enjoys the fingers invading her, etc.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I once had her lay back on a pool table while he inserted his cue stick in her center pocket.

 

[TheLobster]

I default to pussy which IMO works well almost in any context outside of strictly medical ones.

Lips, folds, opening, entrance, labia and clit are all pretty straightforward and non-metaphorical; I tend to use them more or less interchangeably (okay, with the obvious exception of clit), with a sprinkling of tunnel or glove if we're talking more specifically about ongoing penetration.

It's rare for me to use cunt, though, because I find it unnecessarily vulgar. If I do, then it's not going be anything gentler or subtler than pounding her slutty wet cunt; it just doesn't fit into any narrative that strives for even the modicum of finesse.

Vagina is quite similar in this regard, except from the opposite side of the spectrum. It can be sexy enough to use, but it often feels too clinical.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I'm unlikely to ever use pearl, button, sheath, petals, warmth, slit or gash. To me, those just aren't appealing terms. They either feel like an attempt to sugar coat the sex into something more palatable to prudes, or they seem to be more about alluding to sex being a violent act forced upon a woman.

Clit, sex, cunt, pussy, flesh, folds, mound, mons, vulva, lips, labia, entrance, etc, I use fairly often, but my least favorite of those is "sex", it just feels... bland.

Agree with all that. I find ‘sex’ in this context rather off-putting. Slit and gash are , fucking is not surgery. I’m wholly comfortable using anatomical terms. I know not everyone likes that, but . I also find myself being indirect more and more: her inner warmth, her welcoming opening, etc. I know it’s flowery (deflowery?) but it depends on the nature of the other writing. In a lyrical piece, pussy feels out of place, in a grittier one, it’s one of the nicer names.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Does anybody use Beaver any more?


Or Muff/Muffin?

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm less fussy about this subject than many people are. I think almost any term can work depending on the tone and nature of your story and the characters in your story.

My go-to terms in my stories are the standard "cock" and "pussy." One, these are the two terms I see most often in porn and in erotica. Two, these are the two terms I encounter most often in my real-life encounters with other people, especially women I have dated. So I figure if the term "pussy" is the standard term used by women I'm dating, then it's OK.

I personally like the word "cunt." I prefer it to pussy. But I'm aware that many people don't like it, including most of the women I have dated, so I use it only when the situation makes it appropriate.For instance, if the story has a dirtier tone, or if the woman character in the story herself uses that term.

At different terms I've used the words vulva, vagina, clitoris, folds, entrance, petals, slit, furrow, sex, fuck hole, snatch, and others. I take my cue from the tone and requirements of the story, the scene, and the characters.

 

[onehitwanda]

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's rare for me to use cunt, though, because I find it unnecessarily vulgar. If I do, then it's not going be anything gentler or subtler than pounding her slutty wet cunt; it just doesn't fit into any narrative that strives for even the modicum of finesse.

Being an Australian writer, this American angst about cunt amuses me no end. You have joined the exalted realms of Stacnash, who found five uses of cunt in a story "vulgar", whereas fifty or so uses of ass or asshole were perfectly okay. To be fair, the story was in Anal, so that told me as much about her as it did about the story.

 

[big_cane_sugar]

I'd definitely be fine with a female character using the word "cunt." I've heard women use it quite happily IRL so why not in fiction?

 

[onehitwanda]

The American sensibility about cunt is very amusing. It's not a particularly nice word, and it does get flung around a lot, but given its root in latin it's a lot nicer, gentler and at least meaning-adjacent when compared to "gash", "minge", "growler", "flange", "front bum" or "axe wound" - all of which I've heard used.

Writing a story in a British or Australian (or, I suspect, Kiwi) setting and omitting cunt from the lexicon would be like trying to paint without one of the three primary colours.

Edit: I'm okay with having my lady-garden called a cunt. But I'd object to being called a cunt, unless it was by a friend, in which case I'd call her a cunt right back and probably give her a hug to boot.

 

[EmilyMiller]

axe wound

FFS

 

[onehitwanda]

FFS

The English have a phenomenal ability to kill with words, but when you need wall-to-ceiling blood, you need a Scot to stop by.