Lit's been a good after all

[hmmnmm]

Last fall I got on myspace and began to get in touch with people I hadn't seen in a number of years. One of them mentioned that my writing has shown noticeable improvement since those days past. I thought that was interesting because my primary fictional prose focus the last nearly four years has been Lit. So I find it a bit noteworthy that someone who (to my knowledge) doesn't know that I've intermittently focused on stories for an erotica/porn site, made an offhand mention of an apparent improvement that I was not conscious of. So it's been a good learning experience after all?

But here's the funny part: I told this person I'd been concentrating on prose fiction, but I didn't specify that this prose fiction was primarily erotic. Why? If I'd been writing detective or war or horror, I would've said easily, "yeah, I got on a horror writers site, and I learned a lot." It shouldn't be that way. I might just do that. Just tell them I've been writing erotica/porn. Shouldn't be such a big deal?

Anyway, just thought I'd share that. Maybe somebody out there has felt like me sometimes, that you were wasting your time with this, but you may not be aware that the efforts are paying off after all.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I generally tell people I write romance fiction, but I have no doubt that the gains I've made as a writer happened because I'm writing erotica and dealing with these kinds of emotions and a subject so dear to my heart.

If I'd been writing sci fi or horror, I'd never have been so motivated to crank out the stuff like I have, and I wouldn't have enjoyed the actual writing as much. I wouldn't have been so involved in it and wouldn't have worked so hard at finding ways to say what I wanted to say. I turned into pretty much the kind of writer I wanted to be by writing porn.

Some people ask me when I'm going to start writing "serious" literature, but I think for me now, this is my serious literature. This is what I do and this is what interests me: people and sex.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I generally tell people I write romance fiction, but I have no doubt that the gains I've made as a writer happened because I'm writing erotica and dealing with these kinds of emotions and a subject so dear to my heart.

If I'd been writing sci fi or horror, I'd never have been so motivated to crank out the stuff like I have, and I wouldn't have enjoyed the actual writing as much. I wouldn't have been so involved in it and wouldn't have worked so hard at finding ways to say what I wanted to say. I turned into pretty much the kind of writer I wanted to be by writing porn.

Some people ask me when I'm going to start writing "serious" literature, but I think for me now, this is my serious literature. This is what I do and this is what interests me: people and sex.

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii177/1volupturary_manque/allhail.gif

 

[rgraham666]

I'm never going to do serious literature.

It would keep writing from being fun.

 

[hmmnmm]

Or what about: I write general rambling fiction wherein the ramblers fuck oft
Too wordy?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I generally tell people I write romance fiction, but I have no doubt that the gains I've made as a writer happened because I'm writing erotica and dealing with these kinds of emotions and a subject so dear to my heart.

If I'd been writing sci fi or horror, I'd never have been so motivated to crank out the stuff like I have, and I wouldn't have enjoyed the actual writing as much. I wouldn't have been so involved in it and wouldn't have worked so hard at finding ways to say what I wanted to say. I turned into pretty much the kind of writer I wanted to be by writing porn.

Some people ask me when I'm going to start writing "serious" literature, but I think for me now, this is my serious literature. This is what I do and this is what interests me: people and sex.

See...I'm just the opposite. I started because I wanted to write porn, but now the smut part of the stories are the hardest to write. The action, character interaction, adventure, etc. are the easy parts, when it comes time for them to be intimate I have a hard (no pun intended) time putting the words together.

Don't know why?!?!

 

[TxRad]

Erotica, Romance with the porn left in.

Any time someone asks me what i do for a living I alwaysreply that my day job is working in the oil fields and my night job is writing porn. It can be a great conversation starter or a way to clear a room.

 

[hmmnmm]

Plain honesty seems the best idea. Maybe our fears are mostly oversized shadows? But not all of them?

 

[Belegon]

There can be reasons to keep your second career quiet.

Although it is not something that I have belabored, there is no doubt that my writing was at least partially responsible for me losing my last job in finance. I worked for an organization that was very proud of it's standing in a particular religious community.

When my work was in Sports Illustrated, it was a source of pride for my Board of Directors and CEO.

When my other work was discovered, the reaction was quite different.

There were other reasons. Financial (I made too much money), the failing housing market, internal politics, etc. But at least one of my close associates believe that my erotica was the deciding factor. And based on my exit interview, it was definitely ONE of the factors.

I will continue to keep my "names" separate, and if I do return to the "corporate world", I will hide my status as a writer.

Some people ask me when I'm going to start writing "serious" literature, but I think for me now, this is my serious literature. This is what I do and this is what interests me: people and sex.

As to the "seriousness" of my writing?

Name me one other topic that so universally creates strong emotions in the audience?

Sex is the basis for so much... people murder for it, create for it, go to war over it, achieve ambitions and greatness to enhance their ability to indulge in it.

This IS serious literature, according to Mata Hari, The Illiad, Romeo & Juliet, etc.

Sex is one of the fundamental driving forces of human existence.

Academics who profess otherwise are either lying or fools.

 

[hmmnmm]

Well, when the person complimented me so, I should've felt casual about it enough to just say that if there's been any improvement to my writing it's because of the time spent posting sex stories on Lit. But... but there was that hesitation, the dodge, which is silly because as Real Life goes I have nothing to really lose, as far as I know.
It's nuts I tell ya!

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Name me one other topic that so universally creates strong emotions in the audience?

I've heard detractors say that's why writing "porn" is so easy - the emotions are already there, so a writer doesn't have to really work at it. In other words, it's easy to turn someone on - so porn is Pavlovian, just an automatic biological response to mental stimulation...

 

[rgraham666]

Really?

Cuz I've read some stuff that's quite snore worthy over the years.

 

[impressive]

I've heard detractors say that's why writing "porn" is so easy - the emotions are already there, so a writer doesn't have to really work at it. In other words, it's easy to turn someone on - so porn is Pavlovian, just an automatic biological response to mental stimulation...

Well, they're detractors. What else are they gonna say? It's their job to... detract.

 

[Belegon]

I've heard detractors say that's why writing "porn" is so easy - the emotions are already there, so a writer doesn't have to really work at it. In other words, it's easy to turn someone on - so porn is Pavlovian, just an automatic biological response to mental stimulation...

hmmmm... so I guess we should stop writing about death too... and no more war movies aimed at men, or tearjerking "Steel Magnolia" type movies aimed at women...

...and Disney is hereby and forthwith banned from killing off parents of their child protagonists!

 

[shereads]

or tearjerking "Steel Magnolia" type movies aimed at women...

When those are aimed at me, I duck.

 

[hmmnmm]

Aimed that low I'm not sure the duck will really keep one safe from those high cal. tearpoints. Not sure.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I've heard detractors say that's why writing "porn" is so easy - the emotions are already there, so a writer doesn't have to really work at it. In other words, it's easy to turn someone on - so porn is Pavlovian, just an automatic biological response to mental stimulation...

That's very true. If you're just writing to get people off, it is easy. If you're trying to do more, it's a little harder.

 

[sr71plt]

I've heard detractors say that's why writing "porn" is so easy - the emotions are already there, so a writer doesn't have to really work at it. In other words, it's easy to turn someone on - so porn is Pavlovian, just an automatic biological response to mental stimulation...

But what I've found more often than not in deficit porn is that it doesn't, in fact, capture the emotion at all. It's all flat. Reminds me of the brothal I went to once in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and laughed myself through the whole experience because it was so empty and emotionless.

 

[DeeZire]

But what I've found more often than not in deficit porn...

deficit porn? I like that. Now I have a description for pretty much everything I do.

"I write a little deficit porn, some deficit music, I'm in a deficit relationship and I earn a deficit living. Plus, I'm running a moral deficit, and lately I've been dealing with a memory deficit."

Thank you, SR. You are, indeed, good with words.

(Sorry to ramble all OT on you. I also have an attention deficit, and an obvious deficit in social skills.)