Hard Examinations

[hmmnmm]

The best wording for this thread hasn't yet come, but I want to get it down while the idea's young.

I was reminiscing recently, and looked over some old old stuff I'd written - long before signing up with Lit. Long before entertaining the notion of writing erotica/porn. I compared those old things with the last three years of erotica/porn.

The old stuff seemed to have more 'teeth' or something, and the last three years it seems those teeth have softened. Then it was like this quiet inner voice and a finger pointed to the erotica and said, "this ain't you. It just isn't." Then pointed back to the older more gritty stuff, "this is you."

I then tried to go back to that old way, but it wasn't easy - it was like those teeth had retracted, got rusty.

I mean, it's fun, it's stimulating, it's a blast, it's rich and a huge challenge, to write a sex scene/story, but...

The analogy that came to me was something like, I could stand at a free throw line and maybe make two out of twenty shots. If I practiced maybe get up to ten, and more practice maybe make almost all of them - but I'll never be a basketball player.

I guess I'm just wondering if it's a common feeling or a doubt, or maybe sometimes you get so submerged in it, that you overdose, need to step out and get another perspective. Or, maybe face some bitter truth, and just enjoy what others do, and concentrate on an area more natural for you. Think of it as an occasional guilty pleasure.

Or, I've noticed more than one thread about how you get burned out on sex scenes to the point they become a chore, almost, and so other aspects become more appealing?

Maybe a thread-worthy question to this ramble is something like: if you stopped writing erotica/porn in favor of another flavor, what did you learn from your 'time'?

 

[starrkers]

1. I write porn, not erotica. I don't have the subtlety of nuance for erotica.

2. I haven't given up on writing it yet, but I'm close.

3. When I stop writing this stuff, I'll most likely stop writing. I can get away with porn, but anything else requires a much softer brush than I can wield.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

People change as they age.

 

[emap]

I've found it more fun to write stories that happen to contain sex. Well mostly anyway, I do venture back to just sex with little else from time to time. Net's me an earful from snoopy too, though I suppose he is just getting grumpy in his old age.

Starrkers I gotta disagree with you there, you set the scene beautifully, porn is I ran into him and he grabbed me up and we went into an alley. Our clothes fell off and he was in me in moments. I don't recall reading any of yours that do that, though perhaps I should read them again.

As for burning out, it does happen, sometimes it goes away and sometimes not. Usually depends on if you like writing or just wanted to make porn stories.

 

[hmmnmm]

People change as they age.

that was mentioned in one of the wording attempts, but deleted in pre-post phase.
It's that simple really.
fluctuation of mood and interests.
For the last three years lit and the writing of erotica/porn became a high priority. Begin to wonder about lowering it a few notches, try another idea.

It did feel good to express this.

 

[starrkers]

People change as they age.

True. 20 years ago I would never have written porn.

Emap: Thank you. I always think my stuff has no real setup, but I try not to make it "they met in the street and immediately fucked in the alley" stuff

 

[cantdog]

Yeah. Yeah! Because, like, who in the world would wanna meet in the street and then bring her off real savage in the nearest alley?

 

[hmmnmm]

Yeah. Yeah! Because, like, who in the world would wanna meet in the street and then bring her off real savage in the nearest alley?

Who in the world?
No idea, on a personal level.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I've put off answering in this thread for a long time, while I thought about it.

I guess that when I started writing, I wasn't trying to write anything but porn. I wanted to describe the sex, period. But every story I wrote turned out to be a story, maybe not much plot but with strong themes. I read some of my old stuff and am amazed at how well (not genius or nothing, don't get me wrong) I was able to put a message into what should have been merely smut.

Maybe it's unfortunate that it fired my ambition. Now, I want to start with the message, and a plot and all of that-- and coming at it from the other end, is much more difficult.

 

[hmmnmm]

I've put off answering in this thread for a long time, while I thought about it.

I guess that when I started writing, I wasn't trying to write anything but porn. I wanted to describe the sex, period. But every story I wrote turned out to be a story, maybe not much plot but with strong themes. I read some of my old stuff and am amazed at how well (not genius or nothing, don't get me wrong) I was able to put a message into what should have been merely smut.

Maybe it's unfortunate that it fired my ambition. Now, I want to start with the message, and a plot and all of that-- and coming at it from the other end, is much more difficult.

a) whenever I've been interested in something, trying something, I always wanted to see how far I could get on my own before consulting a manual, and even then it requires the most careful caution, because I always do so much so 'wrong' and when I believe what I've read and tried to correct it, the whole thing just goes down the drain.

b) that I even posted this thread violates one of my most cherished personal philosophies, about simply taking as much delight in whatever moment or place you happen to be at any particular time. It's a simple philosophy but much easier said than done, as this thread attests.

Then let's not get started with why we divide everything into categories so we can name them... then we have to consult another manual.

 

[egelante]

Having only written one story here, I'm not really qualified... but I look back at old writings and compositions and wonder in a similar way. Sometimes it is the ambition that has vanished - I know what I can do now, and I know how to do it. It's often good to do something that's intensely difficult to break that again. In general, I look back at most of my work and cringe. With those that don't provoke such a reaction, I often realise that they completely consumed me for quite a large number of very concentrated hours and took much perfecting. As I get used to doing things, I find it's all too easy to reduce the intensity of the way I work and rush things or hurry myself or worry myself as to why it's not coming out write, none of which is helpful.

As to stories... well the thing I'm working on at the moment is about an odd person doing odd things. The last one (see sig) was about an awkward situation and how the characters involved moved through it. Both are sexually charged, but I'm not sure where they come out on the porn/erotica/literature chart, not that this is awfully relevant.

My goodness. That was a bit of ramble. I hope it made at least some sense?

 

[slyc_willie]

I started writing sci-fi and fantasy stories when I was fourteen, ever with the hope that I would become published. I never really considered writing erotica until my mid-twenties, when my girlfriend at the time bought one of those explicit, 'dirty' paperbacks at an adult novelty store.

I can't remember what it was called, but I remember just about every scene in the book. Not that it was necessarily that good, but for my first exposure to an erotic story longer than something you'd read in Penthouse, it stuck with me.

About ten years ago, I started writing little short stories that were pretty graphic. Purely for my own titilation. Never even knew about Lit then. I eventually lost the disk I had them saved to, but many of the stories stayed with me.

Then, about two years ago, I found Lit. Read a lot of the stories, then decided I would formally join and submit some of my work. Since then, erotica has been the ONLY thing I've written. My early stories were primarilly focused on sex, and then I tried to get more character-driven, with the sex being a necessary part of the story. Then the sex became peripheral. And now I'm back to character-driven tales in which the sex is an intagral part. Well . . . most of the time.

I'd hate to stop writing for Lit, or stop writing erotica altogether. But it may happen someday . . . .

 

[carsonshepherd]

I always wrote stories that had some implied sex, but never got into the details. I started writing detailed sex scenes when I began posting on this site, and subsequently wrote a lot of them and got much better at doing it. Then I got bored of writing sex scenes. Writing for an audience became work. Not so much the sex scenes themselves, but writing them because it was what the audience expected, and wanted. Lit's been a double edged sword for me in that way - it got me writing and improved my writing immeasurably, but I also "went commercial" to the detriment of my enjoyment of writing itself.

I stopped writing for about a year, and just starting writing again a month or so ago. I don't have much time because of school, but I find I'm going back to what I used to do: writing for fun, for a "brain break". Fun stories with lots of dialogue, lots of talking about sex but no actual sex. I'm writing for myself again, and not for an audience, and I've rediscovered how much I always loved the craft part of it.

Interesting and timely thread...

 

[hmmnmm]

I wonder if there's something in us that strives or reaches for a challenge and tend to discount the more natural strengths - for example, I seem to find a more comfortable home in the humorous/wacky/skewed/poetic/lyrical than straight fictional prose - but because it's a lot more challenging, it's something I want/wanted to gain at least some passable ability - and on occasion it happens, but it's still a lot more work than the more comfortable areas. Meaning, that if I have so much time in a day or week, and I have the choice to 1) knock out ten songs and a half dozen poems or 2) spend countless hours and massacre millions more neurons with a one thousand word piece of fictional prose - erotic or otherwise, and unfortunately for the poor neurons I happen to be more interested in the fictional prose than the others...?

 

[emap]

For me it's something to do. Well also a good way to see just how depraved I can be.

It's also fun to try new things, for example right now I am writing an erotic horror. Trying for an emphasis on the fright, with no gore, rather like the old horrors. Very tough, and actually pretty darn fun, though slow going.

 

[hmmnmm]

Primary desire right now is to practice what I believe, which would be to just quit worrying about it, quit doing these sorts of threads.

But since I'm still in the ponder/worry rut:

It seems to be a matter of finding how you best connect. With yourself, with friends, with strangers, with life in general.

For instance, maybe for some (of us), erotic stories are fun to think about and try to put into words, but the way of best connecting may be another avenue: song, poetry, pictures, performance, etc.

The weaker lines of connection are not abandoned, but put in their best places - occasional pleasures for their sake.

Now - the next thing is to completely forget about it and be in each moment as it comes. Sounds like it should be simple.

 

[gauchecritic]

When I first started writing at Lit. I just liked the idea of writing the stroke, no particular plot just sex scenes really. Or at most picaresque adventures.

Difficult as it might be to believe with today's political sniping and frilly froth freads - I mean threads - there were quite a few challenge and exercise threads and I found that the sex didn't need to be there at all to enjoy what I was writing. This ushered in my sexless stroke period at Lit. Concentrating on characterisation (a smidgen of plot) and interaction between both the characters and me as author with reader.

The last piece that I've posted has turned back towards the sex but with the added writerly bonus of character, a bit more plot, conflict, power play etc.

The teeth had always been there but were muzzled while I explored other areas of writing.

You may just be finding that it's the other things that are drawing your interest at the moment. Sex is one of the most powerful things to write about, holds the largest most immediate 'reward' for a writer. It has passion. It is a common denominator between writers and a wide ranging audience.

Now that you've found the writing groove, the sex is just a topic for exploring or a background for the story.

Now what you need to do is start a thread that discusses the writerly aspects of stroke/pr0n and I don't mean the proper usage of pronouns.

Often when I edit for someone I find that the 'good' parts I choose to allay the slagging of the bad is usually about such things as lief motif, imagery, and that thing where they mention something early in the piece and then refer to it later. pre- something.

So there you are. You're just writing, rather than writing about something.

 

[hmmnmm]

Difficult as it might be to believe with today's political sniping and frilly froth freads - I mean threads - there were quite a few challenge and exercise threads and I found that the sex didn't need to be there at all to enjoy what I was writing. This ushered in my sexless stroke period at Lit. Concentrating on characterisation (a smidgen of plot) and interaction between both the characters and me as author with reader.

The last piece that I've posted has turned back towards the sex but with the added writerly bonus of character, a bit more plot, conflict, power play etc.

The teeth had always been there but were muzzled while I explored other areas of writing.

You may just be finding that it's the other things that are drawing your interest at the moment. Sex is one of the most powerful things to write about, holds the largest most immediate 'reward' for a writer. It has passion. It is a common denominator between writers and a wide ranging audience.

Now that you've found the writing groove, the sex is just a topic for exploring or a background for the story.

Now what you need to do is start a thread that discusses the writerly aspects of stroke/pr0n and I don't mean the proper usage of pronouns.

Often when I edit for someone I find that the 'good' parts I choose to allay the slagging of the bad is usually about such things as lief motif, imagery, and that thing where they mention something early in the piece and then refer to it later. pre- something.

So there you are. You're just writing, rather than writing about something.

They had exercises here?!
It wasn't replete with politics?!

Politics threads on a literary/erotica/porn site seems kinda counterproductive to me, but nobody cares what I think, so... let them carry on.

You served up a mouthful, plenty to sample and swish and ponder.
Also, on further reflection, I've realized that all this about 'this isn't you, this is you' is simply a matter of recognizing a self from another time. New selves are often strange and they create momentary nervous tension.

Another - I've sometimes wondered (and privately experimented but not near enough) that an overtly explicit sex scene could be completely unerotic, while with the use of suggestion and ambiguity, something that appears straight up non-erotic, could create unconscious erotic suggestion that serves up a delayed reaction. That's an attractive experiment.

 

[gauchecritic]

Another - I've sometimes wondered (and privately experimented but not near enough) that an overtly explicit sex scene could be completely unerotic, while with the use of suggestion and ambiguity, something that appears straight up non-erotic, could create unconscious erotic suggestion that serves up a delayed reaction. That's an attractive experiment.

Interestingly that was the goal towards which I was aiming with my last story in a compare-that-with-this kind of way. Even more interestingly (to me at least) one of the PC's I received wasn't about the overtly stroke but about the 'erotic' part of the story, and another was about going over the top with the other part.

I enjoyed writing it more too.

 

[hmmnmm]

Interestingly that was the goal towards which I was aiming with my last story in a compare-that-with-this kind of way. Even more interestingly (to me at least) one of the PC's I received wasn't about the overtly stroke but about the 'erotic' part of the story, and another was about going over the top with the other part.

I enjoyed writing it more too.

Yeah, Over the top - good way to put it. John Waters comes to mind - I don't if I ever really did that, at consciously, at least not with sex - but it sounds like it could be interesting. I laugh just thinking about it - just let it loose, have fun with it.

New exercise: over the top, gratuitous, senseless, manic. Ha! Like it!