Why Bother with Porn?

[oggbashan]

Because my porn gets read.

My non porn short fiction ideas are gathering dust in a forgotten folder on my hard drive. I you can find me an outlet for them that comes anywhere near the porn story scene in terms of readership and directness, I might give them a go.

What he said.

I started writing (again) because I had discovered Yahoo's adult groups and I was appalled at the low standard of the stories I was reading in their Files.

I thought "I can do better than that. Anyone could if they remembered to use both hands on the keyboard some of the time.".

I started writing for the Yahoo groups and had written about 20 stories before I discovered Literotica. Now my stories get read and sometimes people actually leave PCs or send Feedback. The best acknowledgement I was likely to get on Yahoo was "g8 story". (That's unfair. Several members of one group commented on one of my stories at length and the draft evolved with their active cooperation.)

I write here because I get read.

Og

 

[FallingToFly]

I very seldom write porn. I write mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, chick lit, and the occasional horror piece- and some of them hapen to have extremely strong sexual content, some have nothing you couldn't find in a Harlequin romance novel, and some have none at all.

When I do write porn, I write it for ME, no one else. I tend to write all of my anger and frustrations with life out into pure stroke. There's no real reason or rhyme to them, they're short, violent, messy little affairs- just like lancing a wound.

Then I go back and write more of the good stuff. And I've never been ashamed of the fact that I write what I write. If I was, I wouldn't do it, it's as simple as that.

 

[Skip1934a]

I very seldom write porn. I write mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, romance, chick lit, and the occasional horror piece- and some of them hapen to have extremely strong sexual content, some have nothing you couldn't find in a Harlequin romance novel, and some have none at all.

When I do write porn, I write it for ME, no one else. I tend to write all of my anger and frustrations with life out into pure stroke. There's no real reason or rhyme to them, they're short, violent, messy little affairs- just like lancing a wound.

Then I go back and write more of the good stuff. And I've never been ashamed of the fact that I write what I write. If I was, I wouldn't do it, it's as simple as that.

Atta girl. I have one in edit that will not be submitted as Skip1934a. Maybe harv069 can submit it. It's far out sissy sex.

 

[MercyMia]

I want to write erotic stories that turn me on. I like the category "reluctance" but of a very mild flavor--no slapping, punching (especially guys punching females; sorry, I'm sexist that way), no guns or knives. I want my erotica to get started quickly--not drag along for 3 chapters giving the biography of each character first. I guess I write what I want to read.

 

[impressive]

You're good enough to have stuff posted on Lit, which means you have a modicum of talent and ability as a writer. You can write a sentence and a paragraph, do dialogue, know a plot when you trip over one, recognize a story when you see one.

You could be writing mysteries or science fiction or humor, horror or romance or adventure, but instead you're writing porn. How come? Why do you put so much energy and effort into something that will probably never make you any money and that you'll probably be too embarrassed to ever even admit to writing under your real name?

I have my own reasons. I'm curious about yours.

I write sex-centric (my word!) fiction because I hate that something so integral to who we are is viewed as shameful and dirty. In short, I rebel. I'm an advocate. It's in my blood.

 

[mikey2much]

I like to write and be read

Hi Doc,

I guess that I always wanted to write and in my younger days I went out of my way to do things that would be interesting to write about. I am no Jack London but I have did everything from ship out in the merchant marine to working on carnival. ( I have a story in my head based on a real night of having sex inside the reptile trailer) I have lived my life gathering memories and now I have this place where I can work those memories into stories that people will read. I put the places where I have traveled into my stories and many of the people that I have met are there too.

Maybe if I had stayed in school I would have a better grip on the skills it takes to be a 'good' writer, but I didn't. So I write what I like and use my experiences to fill in the gaps.

Mostly I write because this spot gives me a place to post and a group of readers who seem to like what I write.
I am thankful for both.

mike

 

[OhMissScarlett]

I used to write non-erotic fiction, but the sexual relationships between the characters always became the center of the plot. Everything I wrote turned out erotic. Until I found Lit, I was convinced something was wrong with me. Eventually, I just gave up on trying to write "regular" fiction because I had so much more freedom when I didn't have to attempt to "tone it down."

I guess, the way things are now, I could write a marketable erotic romance novel, but that's not exactly what thrills me. I have a passion for writing about bisexual and group sex lifestyles, so that kind of limits my audience. What I write is too het for some and too gay for others! So, I write to entertain myself first and foremost and I've never been very interested in making money from it. If writing becomes work, I have a feeling it would no longer be entertainment or an escape for me.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I enjoy it.

Although I haven't written much of anything in the last year.

And I had been working on a couple of stories that won't have any porn in them at all.

 

[elsol]

And oh yeah...

Because chicks read the stuff and think you know what you're doing, which I do but it's so much easier when the mountain comes to mohammed.

 

[jomar]

Don't tell before I can chime in, Doc. maybe a couple of hours. Gotta work a bit.

ETA: Dang it. I'll still weigh in later.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I wonder if Dr. M is leading us down a path that we are not fully aware of. He asked about writing PORN. How many here write porn and how many write erotica. I don't really see them as the same. The difference as I see that in porn there are gratuatous sex scenes that don't serve any purpose other than to get the reader wanking, while erotica the sexual stimulation is one of the elements of the story itself.

Yeah, I see a difference between porn and erotica too, but not quite the same as yours. Like you say, I define porn as writing that has no purpose except to titillate, but for me erotica is the literature of sex & sexuality. It explores what sex means and how it works and should give us a deeper appreciation and understanding, all that stuff that literature's supposed to do.

I also make a distinction between porn/erotica, in which sex is central, and more mainstream fiction that happens to include graphic sex, because in the latter, the sex is incidental to the story. In my experience, if I find myself having trouble writing a sex scene, it's usually because the sex is gratuitous. Maybe I want to establish that the guy and the girl make love, but I don't really have to get graphic about it and show every lick and nibble.

That's not going to happen in porn or erotica, because there the sex is the story.

But I don't mean to split hairs about this or try to be clever. And I'm certainly not trying to put anyone down for writing porn &/or erotica. It's still my preferred medium.

Because my porn gets read.

My non porn short fiction ideas are gathering dust in a forgotten folder on my hard drive. I you can find me an outlet for them that comes anywhere near the porn story scene in terms of readership and directness, I might give them a go.

That's an A-number One reason right there. I don't know how many people are waiting around to read my childhood memoirs, and coming up with a good Sci Fi or mystery plot is damned hard and getting the reader's attention is even harder, but there's always an audience for porn.

I don't read as much fiction as I used to, but I notice that when I'm leafing through a book, a glimpse of a turgid nipple or a chained wrist will always make me stop and go back and look again, and I know that most people are the same. It's a cheap gimmick, but it works.

I guess what excites me more, in writing porn, is thinking about this area of human interaction that's so high-stakes, emotionally, psychologically, physically. It's pretty much the nexus of human drama, for dozens of biological and sociological reasons. So, even though I can see my writing having less and less explicit sex, I have a hard time imagining writing stuff that doesn't revolve around aspects of sexuality.

That's the other thing. Sex is immediately very intense and intimate and high-emotion, probably the most emotionally intense part of our lives. Not many of us are ever going to fly a space ship or solve a murder, but we all have to deal with sex and we're all terribly curious about it.

Given that, it always surprises me how little serious erotica there is. There's a lot of porn - a lot of stories about what people do to each other - but not much about what they think of what they're doing and how they feel about it, why they do it, what they're looking for and what they actually find. Even in mainstream serious capital-L literature they don't seem to delve too deeply. D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller - they're like serious pornographers.

So that's another reason I work in erotica, because I think it's a wide open field. People have sex for all sorts of reasons - because they love each other, because they use each other, because they're trying to change each other or change themselves or they hate each other or God knows what - and yet probably 90% of the stories on Lit are about people just wanting to have fun or be naughty. The rest of it is wide open. The great sexual literature remains to be written.

So personally, instead of getting away from sex in my writing, I seem to be getting more into it, getting more personal and hopefully more honest. I've spent the last 4 years basically investigating D/s and trying to figure out why my characters engage in it and what they get out of it and I've only just scratched the surface. When you think of all the other sexual behaviors out there... There's a hell of a lot of virgin territory.

And oh yeah...

Because chicks read the stuff and think you know what you're doing, which I do but it's so much easier when the mountain comes to mohammed.

I was wondering whether anyone else would admit to getting off on making readers hot with their stories, if anyone else looks at writing as a kind of remote, long-distance, generalized seduction. I can't be the only one?

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

I have a few reasons, actually.

As glynndah said, it feels naughty. Fun. Flirty. It's a dirty little secret.

I've also explored a few personal fantasies through writing. I was able to tell my husband about some things I wanted to try in an indirect way (he did get the message.)

But I also enjoy knowing, via reader feedback, that others are touched by my words.

And that's a lovely feeling of power.

You speak for me so well and often that I hereby authorize you to be my voice on all threads like this.

Well, maybe I should look at the checks before signing them. But - what she said.

 

[elsol]

I was wondering whether anyone else would admit to getting off on making readers hot with their stories, if anyone else looks at writing as a kind of remote, long-distance, generalized seduction. I can't be the only one?

Actually, I think of it as the closest thing to mind-control I'm likely to ever get.

I'm not even a female-centric writer... so I cant' imagine what it's like for a writer who have a more female friendly style, considering the emails I've gotten.

 

[rgraham666]

I was wondering whether anyone else would admit to getting off on making readers hot with their stories, if anyone else looks at writing as a kind of remote, long-distance, generalized seduction. I can't be the only one?

Yeah. That was one of my reasons. Didn't work horribly well though.

 

[Pure]

a couple points, doc and all,

writing porn gets you read, and it's great to see "reads" over 100,000. but it's 'writ in water,' as they say. were one to get a single story into the Atlantic Monthly, it would be available for 50 years. do you ever think of making it into library collections?

question, in light of some postings: (in general) does writing porn and/or erotica subvert anything, foment any kind of resistance to "The System," or does it encourage conformity and submission? does that concern you?

 

[elsol]

writing porn gets you read, and it's great to see "reads" over 100,000. but it's 'writ in water,' as they say. were one to get a single story into the Atlantic Monthly, it would be available for 50 years. do you ever think of making it into library collections?

Ever seen a library collection of porn?

Mostly the fact it's writ in water is a good thing... Can they take back the Nobel Prize in Literature if they found out I'm really elsol... that would suck! But in a cool way.

question, in light of some postings: (in general) does writing porn and/or erotica subvert anything, foment any kind of resistance to "The System," or does it encourage conformity and submission? does that concern you?

Why it got to be political?

We're not writing "The Declaration of Poon-Tang Freedom"...

Mostly, we're exhibitionists, masturbating in front of the only audience that will watch. (Come on people, laugh! That is a funny line!)

Yes it does encourage conformity and submission... everyone just loves to parrot the conformity of the porn/erotica dichomoty. Fucking puke all over me!

It's a sad day when writers working on the fringe of society put labels on things that naturally disparage the works of others on the fringe.



Ps. I'm just kidding on the porn/erotica thing... after all I am an literary ARTISTE who would never sully himself by writing so low as porn.

 

[Pure]

myself, i use the term 'porn-erotica,' and think it's a matter of Hustler aiming at the working class, and Susy Bright's anthologies, middle class.

in particular 'intent to titillate' shouldn't be used to rule out something as literature! (see Sade, though he's often not very titillating).

---

Why it got to be political?

you have heard of the problems of publishing Henry Miller, Sade, and others, not to say Joyce, Lawrence, etc?

 

[Stella_Omega]

I ask myself this question a lot. It's perplexing to me because, with rare exception, I don't read it just for the sake of reading it (though I enjoy discussing writing with other writers, and read other people's work to that end).

Initially, what I wrote stemmed directly from my personal sexual fantasies, and I discovered that building an actual story around the scenes and feelings from the fantasies, there were emotional and...other rewards that exceeded the original fantasies. And all of that is largely to do with being able to have sexual and emotional adventures that can't be had in real life (I tend to write pretty far-fetched stuff).

Since starting that first story three or so years ago, though, it's become less and less about the actual fucking (I'm with Cloudy--I dread and procrastinate on the sex scenes these days).

I guess what excites me more, in writing porn, is thinking about this area of human interaction that's so high-stakes, emotionally, psychologically, physically. It's pretty much the nexus of human drama, for dozens of biological and sociological reasons. So, even though I can see my writing having less and less explicit sex, I have a hard time imagining writing stuff that doesn't revolve around aspects of sexuality.

I also have a huge bug up my ass about how sex & sexuality tend to be portrayed in our culture, and kind of get off on spinning things my way.

Nasha, you've just said almost everything I would have! Especially your last two paras, I couldn't agree with you more.

Except for the part about the sex scenes, which still enthrall me. I am trying to add more and more story around them, though. And now the challenge is to craft sex that merges seamlessly into the storyline, and that always moves the plot forward.

 

[shereads]

If someone doesn't write it, what will happen to us porn readers?

 

[hmmnmm]

Well, I haven't worked on this stuff for a while - got sidetracked into other avenues - but I would say I was intrigued by the challenge. Still am. Before this I'd felt a cool confidence of my abilities with words, ideas, images, story, etc.
It wasn't until I tried writing erotica/porn that I appreciated how difficult it really is or can be. Or I should say effective erotica/porn

I've always felt that The Toughest gig is the stand-up comedian.
Very close second would be the writer of erotica/porn.
On the one hand both objectives are pretty simple and clear: Make people laugh, make people erotically aroused. However these very simple and clear objectives can also create tremendous pressure, that tempts the killer known as self-doubt, which when given even a toehold can destroy all the art, all the love for the work and sincerity in the execution.

So - I will never ever have the talent to do standup comedy. I am left with enjoying, admiring, and those many who I do not find funny, I at least respect them.

I still have interest in the writing of erotica/porn but I allowed too much doubt and self-consciousness to invade and take root. In the meantime, I can read and enjoy and even for those whose work doesn't particularly work for me, I can still respect their efforts.

And if I ever did get good enough for widespread publication I wouldn't be a bit ashamed or embarrassed to go by my own name.

Anyway, thanks.

Carry on...

 

[oggbashan]

Because of feedback like this:

I'm impressed
02/09/04 by Anonymous
I'm a married female in her 30's, currently on anti-depressants that made my sex drive go fron 55mph to maybe 5 at best. (With my husband using every trick in the book--so to speak--at once). That was well written, imaginative, and sexy. Plus, I think someone just FLOORED the gas pedal to the metal. Thanks. I needed that. Writer? Try to publish! You can do it.

Og

 

[elsol]

If someone doesn't write it, what will happen to us porn readers?

You will not come.

(In case anyone missed it, reference to Field of Dreams.)

 

[Stella_Omega]

I'm impressed
02/09/04 by Anonymous
I'm a married female in her 30's, currently on anti-depressants that made my sex drive go fron 55mph to maybe 5 at best. (With my husband using every trick in the book--so to speak--at once). That was well written, imaginative, and sexy. Plus, I think someone just FLOORED the gas pedal to the metal. Thanks. I needed that. Writer? Try to publish! You can do it.

Og

There, you see? We are a boon to society! Medical, even!

 

[Grushenka]

We're not writing "The Declaration of Poon-Tang Freedom"...

I've only quoted that because it made me laugh out loud.

Anyway, I only have 3 stories here and one re-submission pending (had to fix an under-age thing). These comprise about 1% (just a guess) of what I've written over my seniorized life-span.

Originally, I had a simple idea taken from life (not mine) that kept growing and developed into the characters of my first story. The meat of the story was especially pornographic so I embellished it and here I am.

I enjoyed writing sex scenes, especially focused on the female. Getting it posted here gave me no great sense of accomplishment after checking out the 'competition', but what took me by surprise was the feedback. I've mentioned that I've been published (no, you wouldn't know my real name), but I'd never received 'feedback' like this. It was great fun.

Most recently, within 24 hours of having my contest entry up I received an even dozen email feedback notes, all wonderfully complimentary (a couple lasciviously so). But as with my first stories the 'adulation' leveled off within days. I don't know that I can keep doing this, certainly it will be for the fun of the writing more than its receipt.

I do appreciate some of the more serious comments above, but most of my life sex was never something I took seriously .

Thanks for asking, Dr. M. - Gru

 

[Stella_Omega]

You will not come.

(In case anyone missed it, reference to Field of Dreams.)

(I just wanted to say that I didn't miss it- you're pretty funny, dude!)