Writing out of your sexual comfort zone

[Stella_Omega]

Do you? Do you not?

Why, or why not?

Me, I don't. Writing is my comfort zone-- and so is sex. I know what I like, and I write to cater to myself first. I share what I write for the sake of anyone who might also be looking for the same kinds of things.

 

[SquiresBoy]

I usually don't but recently I tried it with a BDSM story (you know about this, Stella ;-D). I never considered that sort of relationship in my writing, but a thread on this forum called "Visual Inspiration" (guess it worked) has had quite few comic strips featuring a budding relationship between two women. It was so well-done I decided I would give it a shot.

I think the end result was a success, and I'm tempted to continue writing the ladies I created for that story if just to stretch my horizons.

I think letting your muse out to explore can be scary, but at the same time it might also make you look at something you may otherwise not understand. I admit, before I didn't feel comfortable thinking about BDSM and how the people involved related to one another.

It's like if you have a handful of favorite restaurants you frequent and one day you decide to try that new place down the street. It might not be your favorite, but you might be surprised at what you find.

That said, writing for yourself is really the main reason TO write. If you don't enjoy what you're writing, the story will suffer and NO ONE will enjoy it. So it's a delicate balance of exploration and pushing your own personal envelope.

 

[lovecraft68]

Do you? Do you not?

Why, or why not?

Me, I don't. Writing is my comfort zone-- and so is sex. I know what I like, and I write to cater to myself first. I share what I write for the sake of anyone who might also be looking for the same kinds of things.

I went out of my comfort zone for the Valentine's day contest.

The story I entered was a romance and a fairly sweet one. A complete 360 from my BDSM stories and incest fantasies. Also many of my sex scenes range from rough to close to vicious, so everything about this story was different for me.

I chose to do it, because incest has a bad rap and many of the authors are considered stroke writing hacks.

I write incest for fun. It's my kink and as you said Stella, if writing is my fun, why should I push things?

So I wrote this as an "oh yeah?" story prove I am capable of a well written piece out of my zone. Although admittedly I did let some of my personality flow through it, as it had a depressing beginning.

The story did well and finished tied for third (should have been first, but long story short scouries was involved). which is when the site decided to award 3rd to the other story that had a third less votes/favs/comments and everything else less than mine.

I was initially pretty pissed, but now take it as a compliment. The site couldn't afford to let their perennial favs go down to a hack now could they?

and the 80 comments including those from competing authors telling me mine was the best they read, mean more than a blue W. I'm the only person I need to impress and I felt I delivered.

Now I am back to writing BDSM and having fun. But will not rule out something different when I'm done.

For me there is something to be said for rising up to a challenge.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Having written stories in 30 of the 35 categories every year, I guess all categories are my comfort zone, with some more than others.

Sure, I have favorite categories and others that are not so easy to create a story, yet, writing in so many categories makes me a better writer.

I suggest that every writer break out of their comfort zone and try writing a story in a category that they'd never write.

 

[Ironiclaconic]

I did it with a bondage story. It was well received but it's my least favorite story. I discovered I don't enjoy writing submissive characters. That said if you don't stretch you will never grow.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I wrote a series of BDSM stories. The first I wrote just to see if I could. The response was surprisingly positive so I wrote some more. And I ventured a toe into some gay male scenes within those stories. For a strictly vanilla straight bear it was a little different.

 

[PennLady]

I generally don't, but it's because I don't feel I know enough about those types of relationships, or those types of sex, so I don't want to do anything wrong. Like BDSM -- all I know is what I've read in other stories, and I'm skeptical enough to realize some of that is not how it really is.

I sometimes do try stuff based on other things I've read, but that's about all I've got.

 

[RedMonkeyButt]

I write very much in my comfort zone, but out of my DHs comfort zone. I gotta get it out somehow...

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, I do. I try to write across the board, so I sometimes write outside of the zone.

 

[jomar]

I've got a bunch of stories that are outside of my interests and comfort zone...the first one did well so I kept it up to see if I could maintain the "success." I've also tried variety of writing styles, just because.

 

[SamScribble]

Broadly speaking, I work on the premise that if I wouldn't want to read it, why would/should anyone else. So I guess, no, I don't stray too far from my comfort zone.

 

[sr71plt]

Broadly speaking, I work on the premise that if I wouldn't want to read it, why would/should anyone else. So I guess, no, I don't stray too far from my comfort zone.

Of course, that quite possibly is a false premise. My best sellers in the market involve fetishes that make me cringe.

And, quite frankly, about 90 percent of the "what's the name of this story?" appeals that get posted on this forum have storylines that make me go "yuck." But someone likes them so much they are looking for them.

 

[TE999]

I've written in practically all the genres at least once just to see if I could and the overall response has been positive.

 

[SamScribble]

Of course, that quite possibly is a false premise. My best sellers in the market involve fetishes that make me cringe.

And, quite frankly, about 90 percent of the "what's the name of this story?" appeals that get posted on this forum have storylines that make me go "yuck." But someone likes them so much they are looking for them.

It may indeed be something of a false premise - at least in the general sense. But it seems to work for me. And I think that was the intention of Stella's question.

 

[oggbashan]

Many of my stories are nowhere near my sexual preferences but I have seen them as a challenge. I don't have a comfort zone for writing.

But I don't like Incest as a category although I have written a couple of stories for it; I can't see the point of interracial; and I find several other categories unattractive but I might write for any category if I had a reasonable plot idea.

I keep saying that I'm stuck writing about hairy armpits. I'm still stuck on that story. It may be the story, not the fetish, that is the problem.

If I have a half-reasonable idea for a category I might write for it.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I agree with Stella. I have to get into my stories, and I'm not going to get into them if I'm gagging and gritting my teeth.

I've written outside my comfort zone, but not outside my squick zone.

I kind of pride myself on being able to find the eroticism behind almost any sexual act, but I can't imagine what would motivate me to write about something I find personally repulsive. For votes? To be known as the Master of hot bestiality fiction? The King of Pee-drinking porn? Why would I ever put a character in a situation where she'd have to be vomited upon? Or have sex with an amputee's stump?

Well, money I suppose would do it...

 

[Handley_Page]

Do you? Do you not?

Why, or why not?

Me, I don't. Writing is my comfort zone-- and so is sex. I know what I like, and I write to cater to myself first. I share what I write for the sake of anyone who might also be looking for the same kinds of things.

I'll try writing outside my comfort zone when I feel competent to write properly.

 

[sr71plt]

I've written outside my comfort zone, but not outside my squick zone.

I kind of pride myself on being able to find the eroticism behind almost any sexual act, but I can't imagine what would motivate me to write about something I find personally repulsive. For votes? To be known as the Master of hot bestiality fiction? The King of Pee-drinking porn? Why would I ever put a character in a situation where she'd have to be vomited upon? Or have sex with an amputee's stump?

Well, money I suppose would do it...

It can be done for literary stretch too. It's what got me into writing erotica from the beginning--and then farther into it--and then farther still.

It doesn't all have to be about money.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Broadly speaking, I work on the premise that if I wouldn't want to read it, why would/should anyone else. So I guess, no, I don't stray too far from my comfort zone.

I would put it this way: If I wouldn't want to read it, why would I waste my time writing it? At that point, it is no longer fun and rather resembles work.

 

[sr71plt]

I would put it this way: If I wouldn't want to read it, why would I waste my time writing it? At that point, it is no longer fun and rather resembles work.

Unless stretching yourself as an author is fun, which, in my case, it is. Staying in a set box is what I think of as work.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

I think I agree with soflabbwlvr. I don't write about things that I wouldn't read.

However, I have written out of my comfort zone on two occasions, and both of them were straight stories. I am straight, and I can get turned on by a well-written straight scene, but the muse doesn't flow when I write about women. I've always found it really hard to identify with women in erotica (the few straight stories I do read are from a male perspective) I find them kind of disgusting.

Not to mention, the average woman in these stories is some brainless slut with boobs the size of her head.

 

[lance gt]

I'm much like Stella in her approach. I found staying in a 'comfort zone' got boring very quickly. Once I explored different genres and what went on, I wanted to write them and hopefully feel I presented it well. I felt it broadened my scope of writing of the emotional experience.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Unless stretching yourself as an author is fun, which, in my case, it is. Staying in a set box is what I think of as work.

Well, I don't want to write wide. I want to write deep.

 

[sr71plt]

Well, I don't want to write wide. I want to write deep.

So do I. I don't see why it has to be just one or the other. (And I seem to recall once or twice that you said I did write deep. I was writing broad at the time too, I think. )

 

[lovecraft68]

I tried a GM scene once for the hell of it. I managed to get through it, but damn did it suck, I had no clue what I was doing and was told my males sucked cock like females. Not sure what that meant, but I agreed that it sucked.