To write, or not to write

[KeithD]

Hard/easy isn't a "thing" with me. Interesting and arousing is what has me writing erotica.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Don’t you hate it when stories are hard to write? Wouldn’t it be better if they were easy to?

Mine are always easy to write; sometimes they might take a while, but they're never "hard" to write.

What's with all this suffering and angst for your art? Pick another hobby if it causes so much grief, or get your mom to knit a hair shirt. Erotica needs more martyrs .

 

[SimonDoom]

Mine are always easy to write; sometimes they might take a while, but they're never "hard" to write.

What's with all this suffering and angst for your art? Pick another hobby if it causes so much grief, or get your mom to knit a hair shirt. Erotica needs more martyrs .

If all artists from time past adopted your approach we'd be short a great many stories. Many great writers have talked about how hard it is to write. Everyone's path is different. There's no universal compass for every person. Some writers agonize and suffer to finish their stories. Thank goodness they stick with it.

 

[Hypoxia]

Mine are always easy to write; sometimes they might take a while, but they're never "hard" to write.

Writing is no problem. Persuading my voices to tell me how... can be difficult.

What's with all this suffering and angst for your art? Pick another hobby if it causes so much grief, or get your mom to knit a hair shirt. Erotica needs more martyrs .

Suffering is de rigeur for blues singers (ask Bonnie Raitt), paperback writers, and avant-garde painters. The rest of us can sit in the shade and sip our lemonade, dictating smut to the lithe, comely scribe while exotic naked servants slowly swing the elephant-ear fans. THAT is how and why we write, innit? Unless we're paperback writers. Then it's torture and misery.

 

[ElectricBlue]

If all artists from time past adopted your approach we'd be short a great many stories. Many great writers have talked about how hard it is to write. Everyone's path is different. There's no universal compass for every person. Some writers agonize and suffer to finish their stories. Thank goodness they stick with it.

Yeah, I know all this. But writing smut, ain't it meant to be fun? All I read in these threads nowadays is folk agonising over their craft as if it was the next great American novel, when they should be focussing on le petit mort.

I guess I'm lucky, I don't do angst, I don't do agony, I just write the words down. I couldn't handle being most of you guys, where it seems such hard work.

 

[Heartsongs]

Yeah, I know all this. But writing smut, ain't it meant to be fun? All I read in these threads nowadays is folk agonising over their craft as if it was the next great American novel, when they should be focussing on le petit mort.

Yes! Nailed it. Time for a drink.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

Yeah, I know all this. But writing smut, ain't it meant to be fun? All I read in these threads nowadays is folk agonising over their craft as if it was the next great American novel, when they should be focussing on le petit mort.

I guess I'm lucky, I don't do angst, I don't do agony, I just write the words down. I couldn't handle being most of you guys, where it seems such hard work.

Sometimes when something is a little difficult, once you've gotten over the difficult part you get exponentially better.

Here's my analogy: I crochet also. I started when I was a tween, learned a few things, then dropped it. Started again right after I finished school, learned a few more things, then dropped it. I picked it back up about 12 years ago, and made a point to learn some difficult things. I learned a bunch of new stitch combinations. I learned how the make hats. I made a shitton of hats. Then I started making fancy hats. In doing so, I started a bunch of projects, and at least half of them I had to pull out stitches, maybe scrap the whole thing and start over. That was the hard part, the difficult part. But now, I'm a good crocheter. I can make fancy hats, super fancy afghan patches. I've made sweaters and scarves; I've used all kinds of yarn and tiny little thread.

So, yeah, sometimes it was hard. But it wasn't ever not fun. Sometimes it was frustrating. But it was also super interesting. And now I have a whole slew of skills that I wouldn't have had if I'd just stopped learning once I'd mastered the first basic stitches.

I'm approaching this hobby the same way. Though, I'm prolly not ever gonna sell a story on Etsy...

 

[ElectricBlue]

Sometimes when something is a little difficult, once you've gotten over the difficult part you get exponentially better.

Here's my analogy: I crochet also. I started when I was a tween, learned a few things, then dropped it. Started again right after I finished school, learned a few more things, then dropped it. I picked it back up about 12 years ago, and made a point to learn some difficult things. I learned a bunch of new stitch combinations. I learned how the make hats. I made a shitton of hats. Then I started making fancy hats. In doing so, I started a bunch of projects, and at least half of them I had to pull out stitches, maybe scrap the whole thing and start over. That was the hard part, the difficult part. But now, I'm a good crocheter. I can make fancy hats, super fancy afghan patches. I've made sweaters and scarves; I've used all kinds of yarn and tiny little thread.

So, yeah, sometimes it was hard. But it wasn't ever not fun. Sometimes it was frustrating. But it was also super interesting. And now I have a whole slew of skills that I wouldn't have had if I'd just stopped learning once I'd mastered the first basic stitches.

I'm approaching this hobby the same way. Though, I'm prolly not ever gonna sell a story on Etsy...

You sound like my mum - every year she'd knit a jumper for each of us kids (four) during the cold winter months, clickety-click in front of the fire whilst watching tv; we'd get the jumpers at Christmas (in the middle of summer) and of course, we had to wait till next winter to wear it. How on earth she managed to predict the size of growing teenagers I don't know, but they were always perfect fits.

Best year ever, we'd been to Aran and she discovered traditional fisherman's patterns, and knitted one for me and my dad, identical patterns. It was only later I found out that the family patterns were so folk could identify drowned fishermen, washed up on the beach. So there's that.

And by coincidence, last night I was thinking about one of my "what if/lost opportunity" stories set back in college, where two girls each wanted that year's jumper to wear as a winter dress (I was six foot tall, they weren't). The interdynamics were pretty typical "me" - unstated rivalry/jealousy between the two women (one stunning gorgeous, the other quiet and mousy), rivalry between me and a mate, each of us wanting the unavailable one. They both looked gorgeous in my jumper, though, but I didn't get to sleep with either girl. Sigh. Erotic nostalgia, here I come!

 

[BelleCanzuto]

You sound like my mum - every year she'd knit a jumper for each of us kids (four) during the cold winter months, clickety-click in front of the fire whilst watching tv; we'd get the jumpers at Christmas (in the middle of summer) and of course, we had to wait till next winter to wear it. How on earth she managed to predict the size of growing teenagers I don't know, but they were always perfect fits.

Best year ever, we'd been to Aran and she discovered traditional fisherman's patterns, and knitted one for me and my dad, identical patterns. It was only later I found out that the family patterns were so folk could identify drowned fishermen, washed up on the beach. So there's that.

And by coincidence, last night I was thinking about one of my "what if/lost opportunity" stories set back in college, where two girls each wanted that year's jumper to wear as a winter dress (I was six foot tall, they weren't). The interdynamics were pretty typical "me" - unstated rivalry/jealousy between the two women (one stunning gorgeous, the other quiet and mousy), rivalry between me and a mate, each of us wanting the unavailable one. They both looked gorgeous in my jumper, though, but I didn't get to sleep with either girl. Sigh. Erotic nostalgia, here I come!

Well, you pretty successfully missed/ ignored my point. But, OK.

 

[Voboy]

Yeah, I know all this. But writing smut, ain't it meant to be fun? All I read in these threads nowadays is folk agonising over their craft as if it was the next great American novel, when they should be focussing on le petit mort.

I guess I'm lucky, I don't do angst, I don't do agony, I just write the words down. I couldn't handle being most of you guys, where it seems such hard work.

Well said.

When I was getting paid to write, it was sometimes a pain in the ass. I expect it still would be, if I had to worry about deadlines and publishers and editing and sales.

This? No. This is a blast.

 

[SamScribble]

I guess I'm lucky, I don't do angst, I don't do agony, I just write the words down. I couldn't handle being most of you guys, where it seems such hard work.

I'm with EB. I guess if I had ever found writing to be hard work, I would have gone and got a proper job. With overtime rates. And holiday pay. And a pension.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Well, you pretty successfully missed/ ignored my point. But, OK.

No, I got your point. Practice makes perfect, you keep on doing it, you improve, 10,000 hours, the next piece is always better, etc,etc.. Those things are all obvious and go without saying, I'd have thought.

What I don't get are the folk who make writing sound as if it's a chore, as if they'd rather not do it. That's the head-scratcher, for me.

 

[KeithD]

What I don't get are the folk who make writing sound as if it's a chore, as if they'd rather not do it. That's the head-scratcher, for me.

If you want to have some fun when they post like that, agree with them that maybe they shouldn't bother to do it. It's not like we don't have enough writers. Listen for the indignant retort because they invariably want to be cajoled to share their precious writing with the world no matter how much agonizing they have to do to dispense their art.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

No, I got your point. Practice makes perfect, you keep on doing it, you improve, 10,000 hours, the next piece is always better, etc,etc.. Those things are all obvious and go without saying, I'd have thought.

What I don't get are the folk who make writing sound as if it's a chore, as if they'd rather not do it. That's the head-scratcher, for me.

If you want to have some fun when they post like that, agree with them that maybe they shouldn't bother to do it. It's not like we don't have enough writers. Listen for the indignant retort because they invariably want to be cajoled to share their precious writing with the world no matter how much agonizing they have to do to dispense their art.

Ditto to all this.

“Amateur” doesn’t mean “effortless”. When the going gets tough, most of us power through. But it seems that a few writers think that it’s community’s responsibility to jump in as their personal booster club.
.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

No, I got your point. Practice makes perfect, you keep on doing it, you improve, 10,000 hours, the next piece is always better, etc,etc.. Those things are all obvious and go without saying, I'd have thought.

What I don't get are the folk who make writing sound as if it's a chore, as if they'd rather not do it. That's the head-scratcher, for me.

No. My point was that there will always be frustration while you're improving what you do, and that doesn't make it any less fun.

And who, aside from MichaelGH (who seems to prefer a hyperbolic turn of phrase) is making it sound like they'd rather not do it?

 

[MichaelGH]

And who, aside from MichaelGH (who seems to prefer a hyperbolic turn of phrase) is making it sound like they'd rather not do it?

I do, I really do. It gets me into a lot of trouble but Hyperboles are just so much fun.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I do, I really do. It gets me into a lot of trouble but Hyperboles are just so much fun.

Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with that, really.
Also, I don't interpret your comments as begging for the commenters here to convince you to keep writing, as was posited by some. I interpret your questions and musings as written "thinking out loud". You do you, MGH.

 

[KeithD]

I don't interpret your comments as begging for the commenters here to convince you to keep writing, as was posited by some. .

Neither did I. I wasn't specifically taking about anyone--just in general where these sorts of threads often go. I haven't read much of this thread actually. It's a well-trod discussion that usually spins around in place as people are avoiding writing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

No. My point was that there will always be frustration while you're improving what you do, and that doesn't make it any less fun.

And who, aside from MichaelGH (who seems to prefer a hyperbolic turn of phrase) is making it sound like they'd rather not do it?

I like to think I'm a better writer now than I was when I started, but never once have I been frustrated in getting that improvement. I've just slowly got better, more confident, tackled bigger, more ambitious pieces (or tighter, more precise pieces), just quietly learning my chops, figuring out what I didn't know and consolidating what I did. Never once have I thought, "Gosh, I wish I knew how to do this better, this is so hard, I wish it was easy." I just don't think that way - so no, I didn't get that subtlety - your "always" is my "never" - we think differently, and that's fine .

Five years on AH - this often comes up, and there's often a "oh fuck, why is this so hard?" line from many writers - often coupled with writer's block and how to push past it type threads. So it's a general impression, not a specific case.

The way some folk describe it, though, they make it sound so very hard. But then, I don't get paid to write (although thanks to whoever it was just bought an ebook - three more and I'll have a coffee ).

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

To me at least the writing is not hard although there may be scenes that are hard to write. Its finding the time to sit down and write what is in my head is my biggest writing frustration.

That said, there is a reason that Jim Butcher and John Ringo have not done anything solo for awhile.

 

[MichaelGH]

Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with that, really.
Also, I don't interpret your comments as begging for the commenters here to convince you to keep writing, as was posited by some. I interpret your questions and musings as written "thinking out loud". You do you, MGH.

Thanks Belle! And I just want to let you know that I don’t care about what they say about you either. Or how much they cry while they’re saying it. Or what court of law they’re saying it in. Or what gender the people who are saying it are. Or how angry they get when I tell them that I don’t care. Or how many times they say “you’re just as bad as Belle!” When I tell them I don’t care. A

 

[Hypoxia]

To me at least the writing is not hard although there may be scenes that are hard to write. Its finding the time to sit down and write what is in my head is my biggest writing frustration.

Difficult scenes see me stomping around the house muttering lines before I slink to the keyboard. Momentum as inspiration, that's the trick! It hearkens back to my songwriting-while-bicycling days with a reporter's pocket recorder to catch my words. Work out a rhythmic theme; hit the keyboard; transcribe, expand, and correct. Motion drives words, like shaking a hornet nest.

Finding "time to sit down and write" doesn't sway my voices, damn them!

 

[Voboy]

I unravel a huge number of plot points while working out at the gym. The trick is to avoid distracting yourself with music, instead pondering the asses of the gymgoers in front of you.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I unravel a huge number of plot points while working out at the gym. The trick is to avoid distracting yourself with music, instead pondering the asses of the gymgoers in front of you.

I do it in my head while I’m driving to and from work. Every now and then I get lost in the plot and drive past my exit. Once I drove half an hour out of town before I looked around and..... where am I?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I do it in my head while I’m driving to and from work. Every now and then I get lost in the plot and drive past my exit. Once I drove half an hour out of town before I looked around and..... where am I?

That's how people die on the road, Chloe. Concentrate on driving, girl, not your smutola.