A Writer's True Goal-Advice From Yours Truly, Ramona Thompson

[ramonathompson]

Agree or disagreed with the quote below?

Rewritten the Ramona Thompson way from the quote below

The role of a writer is not to say what one can say, but what we are unable to say.

Anais Nin

The role of any true, honest writer is to say not what just any old, boring, cookie-cutter wannabe can say, but to say with balls and total in your face outragous truth what others are too damn afraid to speak up about

2009 Ramona Thompson

 

[Stella_Omega]

My goal is to make my readers come so hard their brains fall out on the floor.

 

[ramonathompson]

My goal is to make my readers come so hard their brains fall out on the floor.

*grin*

I like it. I think for a lot of writers there's nothing more erotic than the power that comes with the pleasure of creating something new and injecting it into the reader. It's like hot sex without actually inserting your body parts. Mind sex. That's what it is.

 

[impressive]

My goal is to make my readers come so hard their brains fall out on the floor.

. .

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

If the only tool you have is a big fucking hammer, everything looks like a nail.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I strongly disagreed, becausae that isn't the only role I have. My main role is to get people wet or hard, so they can frig or wank, depending on gender. A secondary role is to give couples something to read while they are getting it on.

 

[TE999]

My goal, other than what you stated that I said 'yes' to up there, is to write an interesting story so the readers are entertained while loping the mule or opening the bearded clam.

 

[NoJo]

Agree or disagreed with the quote below?

Rewritten the Ramona Thompson way from the quote below

The role of a writer is not to say what one can say, but what we are unable to say.

Anais Nin

The role of any true, honest writer is to say not what just any old, boring, cookie-cutter wannabe can say, but to say with balls and total in your face outragous truth what others are too damn afraid to speak up about

2009 Ramona Thompson

Notice how Anais Nin was pithy, but your quote went on and on

 

[ramonathompson]

Notice how Anais Nin was pithy, but your quote went on and on

I meant to keep it short. I really did. lol my problem is I always wind up writing a novel when all I mean to write is something short, sweet and to the point. Oh well.

 

[TE999]

I meant to keep it short. I really did. lol my problem is I always wind up writing a novel when all I mean to write is something short, sweet and to the point. Oh well.

We all can't be (or would want to be) Anais Nin, now can we? You done just fine, Ramona.

 

[TxRad]

The main reason I write is to get the damned story out of my head.

If the reader is entertained, then it's even better.

 

[driphoney]

I wrote a story for two reasons. The first was to see if I could and the second was due to wanting to read a similar story and finding few out there. A put up or shut up kind of deal. I wrote a sex story because I'd been going through a major case of sex-on-the-brain!

I still toy with writing because I found the whole process amazing. It's both exhilarating and frustrating. It's a struggle and a joy. I think I also continue because of what it's teaching me about myself. I'm an insecure person, so putting my imagination down on paper (ok, hard drive) is a process of learning to risk myself a little and also to trust myself, be willing to admit I'm good enough, or at least as good as anyone else. Does that sound totally hokey? Will someone please bring me my medication?

Unlike most, I don't write for the reader, as a matter of fact, they scare me to death and have become the biggest stumbling block to creating.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I write what I feel like writing, if and when I feel like writing.

 

[3113]

The role of a writer is not to say what one can say, but what we are unable to say.
--Anais Nin

The role of any true, honest writer is to say not what just any old, boring, cookie-cutter wannabe can say, but to say with balls and total in your face outragous truth what others are too damn afraid to speak up about--2009 Ramona Thompson

Your re-write of the quote is not, IMHO, a correct interpretation. The original quote I agree with--It says that the writer gets in writing what most people cannot find the words to say/describe. This includes, if we're erotica writers, our ability (one hopes) to describe in words what most people cannot describe, that being sex, sensuality, orgasmic ecstasy, and yes, love and human connections and interactions in all their strangeness and complexity.

Your quote, by compare, says that a "true" writer is one who either avoids clichés or writes up what others are scared to write. This I disagree with on every level. First, it's a shocking simplification for Nin's eloquent observation of a writer's ability to capture human depth and complexity of feeling and emotion. Second, it's not true at all. Writers write what writers write. Do you really think a writer can't possibly write about true love without being outrageous? Really? That tosses out Elizabeth Browning's "How Do I Love Thee" then, doesn't it? Nothing in that poem is anything that others would be "too scared to write" had they the talent to write it.

Now you might well decide that certain writers are safe, boring and cliché--and be amazed when such writers are incredibly popular; but clearly something in that boring writing (as Nin pointed out) describes exactly what most readers find hard to say--like their feelings of love, passion, etc. Other writers you might find original, bold, unique--and you might be amazed by the fact that they're unknown and unpopular. Why? Well, just because something is scary doesn't mean it's hard to talk about once you get past your fear. So bold as it may be to talk about it at all, it may be easy to describe your feelings and emotions once you do. Easier, sometimes, then something that you're not at all scared of.

In the end, Nin isn't saying anything about how a writer writes. The words or even subject picked by a writer doesn't have to be anything special, unique, in your face, or anything that a reader is afraid to say...they just have to be what most people find hard to express.

 

[Dragonlipz]

I tell stories, writing is but one medium that I use.....

 

[slyc_willie]

In the end, Nin isn't saying anything about how a writer writes. The words or even subject picked by a writer doesn't have to be anything special, unique, in your face, or anything that a reader is afraid to say...they just have to be what most people find hard to express.

Agreed.

Not every subject needs to be gonzo when it comes to erotica. But under the idea that every writer puts something of themself into what they write, doing so potentially opens up parts of one's personality that is very private to public scrutiny. That takes more than a pinch of guts to do.

 

[3113]

Agreed.

Not every subject needs to be gonzo when it comes to erotica. But under the idea that every writer puts something of themself into what they write, doing so potentially opens up parts of one's personality that is very private to public scrutiny. That takes more than a pinch of guts to do.

Guts? Naw. Just the arrogance to believe that what you have to say is important enough that you should write them down and publish them for lost of people to read.

If it's guts, then there are an awful lot of gutsy bloggers

 

[slyc_willie]

Guts? Naw. Just the arrogance to believe that what you have to say is important enough that you should write them down and publish them for lost of people to read.

If it's guts, then there are an awful lot of gutsy bloggers

LOL. True. Very true.

Anonymity gives lots of people guts . . . and fuels their arrogance. Or maybe it's just old fashioned Don't-give-a-shitness.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Guts? Naw. Just the arrogance to believe that what you have to say is important enough that you should write them down and publish them for lost of people to read.

If it's guts, then there are an awful lot of gutsy bloggers

I think you're right, although I don't know that I would say "important." Interesting, or entertaining, or something like that, maybe. Speaking (or writing) for myself, when I first started posting stories, I would have stopped if I hadn't gotten complimentary and encouraging feedback.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I agree with 3113.

I read somewhere that the writer's job is to provide readers with experience minus the hardknocks and mental math that real experience requires.

How you get the reader to buy your version of reality is how you package the information.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

More Raymond Carver

My Fathers Day books are arriving. WHERE I'M CALLING FROM by Raymond Carver arrived yesterday.

This collection of stories is mostly re-writes of his most popular tales, many years later. Plus there are 6 or so new stories.

Carver writes about simple human interactions. My favorite, so far, is called FAT. A guy visits his wife at the diner where she works. Sitting at the counter sipping coffee and eating a club sandwich, he eavesdrops on two men discussing the wife. Their comments dont flatter the Mrs. Mostly they harpoon her weight and veiny legs.

The rest of the story is about the husband's efforts to make the wife lose weight and shape up. He buys an expensive scale and a clipboard to record her progress.

 

[CharleyH]

My goal is to make my readers come so hard their brains fall out on the floor.

Ah, erotic horror at its best.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think you're right, although I don't know that I would say "important." Interesting, or entertaining, or something like that, maybe. Speaking (or writing) for myself, when I first started posting stories, I would have stopped if I hadn't gotten complimentary and encouraging feedback.

You wouldnt have gone far in the Marines.

I dont think anyone should be allowed to write so much as their name until theyve been thru a 60s era bootcamp or cadet hazing.

 

[CharleyH]

I strongly disagreed, becausae that isn't the only role I have. My main role is to get people wet or hard, so they can frig or wank, depending on gender. A secondary role is to give couples something to read while they are getting it on.

Nin is an erotic writer and I know that you define yourself as a porn writer, Box, but I'm not sure that even (or especially) as a self-defined porn writer you could disagree with...

The role of a writer is not to say what one can say, but what we are unable to say.

Porn, especially, speaks to those untold, dirty secrets. It's all well and dandy to write porn or erotica to get people off, but if the writer only said what could be said about sex, I doubt it would be a turn on.

The role of the writer (any genre, as I understand Nin) is to press at the boundaries and pressure the taboos until they are busting at the freaking seams (anew).

 

[Stella_Omega]

I gotta say this is all making me feel much braver about the story I'm writing, which has taken me into some deeper waters than I expected it to.