Writing Inspiration

[SoBelle]

Does anyone else find that they only write well when they're horny? I've been busy lately and not feeling my best. Led to a rather long dry spell for writing, sadly.

 

[SolarRay]

My experience is very much the same as yours. I tap into erotic desire as fuel for writing erotica quite heavily. I've learned that Lit authors are mixed on this, however.

Check out this thread from a couple years back on this subject. Responses were interesting: http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1487100

 

[SimonDoom]

Not me. My writing inspiration ebbs and flows in unpredictable ways, and doesn't seem to correspond with anything else. It may be the product of arousal, it may be the product of pure intellectual interest, or it may be in response to something I read or saw on the Internet. I got the sudden inspiration to write my story "Penis Fish" last December after reading an article about worms washing up on a beach. There was nothing arousing about it at all. It just seemed weird and interesting so I wrote a story about it in just a few days.

 

[HeyAll]

Exact opposite for me.

I write erotica like it's a job or university assignment. I need a clear head and I think a lot.

 

[lovecraft68]

I can write when I'm not aroused, if nothing else when I start a sex scene that will kick in anyway. But even if it doesn't I can pull it off.

Of course if you're sick or in pain that would affect any kind of writing, but especially erotica. Hard to think sexy when you're hurting. My longest writing drought came after tearing an abdominal muscle...if you haven't done that....don't

 

[VermillionVenusian]

What’s that old saying? “Write horny, edit... calm? Satiated?” Something like that.

 

[KeithD]

My stories come out smoothly and quickly more often when I'm horny--or can let the stories make me horny, but I'm actually surprised in going back to review stories that dropped in chunks and with some effort hold together better than I expected. When I don't rush the stories out, I have a better chance of coming up with plot twists as I write.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

Exact opposite for me.

I write erotica like it's a job or university assignment. I need a clear head and I think a lot.

Same here. When I write, I’m completely focused. When I’m horny, I have sex.

 

[KeithD]

When I'm writing erotica, I'm having sex. That's pretty much the whole point in writing it for me.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I write my best when awake and calm. A boner only gets in the way of coherent sentences and concise explanations. Sure, fantasizing and "choreographing" a sex scene while horny might cause positive association, but actually putting the words in order is pretty difficult, at least for me.

 

[SolarRay]

I write my best when awake and calm. A boner only gets in the way of coherent sentences and concise explanations. Sure, fantasizing and "choreographing" a sex scene while horny might cause positive association, but actually putting the words in order is pretty difficult, at least for me.

Yeah, I think this is one of those cases where one person's motivation is another person's distraction, though I think it goes even further than that. If I were horny while writing non-erotica I would find it a distraction but when writing erotica it's anything but -- I find that it rather critically enhances the scenarios I need to imagine and put down. This is true at least during the initial writing; I prefer not to be horny while in the later editing phase for the same reason you stated, so I can focus on grammar checking, etc. better. It's just a personal matter of how you process the experience of arousal while trying to complete a writing task, either throughout or at different phases of the workflow.

 

[Damoiselle]

It's difficult either way. If I'm not turned on, I approach it all too clinically and the sex scene isn't fun. If I get turned on *while* writing, then it's difficult to stay focused.

 

[bushyTrail]

It's difficult either way. If I'm not turned on, I approach it all too clinically and the sex scene isn't fun. If I get turned on *while* writing, then it's difficult to stay focused.

It's a delicate balance. I need to be horny in order to be inspired and imaginative, so that I can find out what happens in my story (I really can't plan ahead). That's when I write a first draft, but I usually edit when I'm calm and focused. However being too horny usually distracts me.

I think it also depends on what you write about. Fetishes are silly if you don't feel horny. I believe that this explains my process, as I mainly publish in the Fetish category.

 

[KeithD]

There might be a difference in whether you are composing in first or third voice. I compose mainly in first and am in the action when I'm writing it.

 

[GroverLang]

Does anyone else find that they only write well when they're horny? I've been busy lately and not feeling my best. Led to a rather long dry spell for writing, sadly.

I think I’m not unusual at having several stories, at various stages, in process at the same time. Some of which I haven’t added to for weeks or months. That’s because for unexplained reasons I get bored, have other things I want to do, which results in not doing anything as regards writing. Then, all of a sudden, something I can’t put my finger on occurs and I’m back in the saddle. For the first time ever I’ve just had two stories, in different categories, published at the same time. One had been waiting for the best part of a year and the other only a couple of months. All of a sudden I felt like finishing them. Does that happen to others?

But personally I don’t need to be aroused to write sex scenes nor am I aroused by them. My first attempts are fairly clinical/simple and then I go back through several times to make them more arousing for the reader because that’s what many are looking for and I don’t want to disappoint.

Perhaps because of the way I am I can’t understand why some writers need to be aroused to write sex scenes. That doesn’t mean I haven’t read stories which have made me tingle but never to the extent I felt the need to take things in hand.

 

[GroverLang]

There might be a difference in whether you are composing in first or third voice. I compose mainly in first and am in the action when I'm writing it.

I find it easier to write in first person. When third person I find, when checking, examples where I’ve put ‘I’ instead of ‘he’. But I think it depends on what tense is suitable for a particular story. But I do enjoy me being the hero. Or villain.

 

[KeithD]

Sometimes in writing in third person the "I" slips in where I meant "he." Invariably I stop then and put it all into first person and it tools along nicely from there.

 

[vanmyers86]

Horniness might spark ideas and imagery, but that's not the ideal state for me to try to write in.

 

[davion2308]

Not me

When I'm horny, the ideas and images flood my mind and I can't keep up. I don't even try to write then.

My productive writing is done in cold-blood, when I have the story and imaging firmly in my head but I'm working. I consider it more a "job" when I'm actually trying to get a lucid, well-written story down on the screen.

Horny? I'll write a few words and then go off to find some porn to look at.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

I think it also depends on what you write about. Fetishes are silly if you don't feel horny. I believe that this explains my process, as I mainly publish in the Fetish category.

That’s an interesting distinction and makes a lot of sense.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

For the past couple of months I have awaken with and idea for a story running through my mind. When I get up, I write a blurb of what the story is about and a possible title. Then I get coffee check out the BB and other places around the net.

It really doesn't help to be aroused while writing. If I do get that way, I take a break, go play some inane games and when I'm calm and thinking rationally, I go back to writing. But, I very rarely get aroused while writing only when I read what I have written.

 

[EvelynEden]

Most of my ideas are things that just come into my head or they float in from some kind of inspiration, and I think, 'Oh, that might be cool...", but there are a few times where I've written straight from a particular ongoing fantasy of my own.
Usually, the way I write it changes the narrative and by the time I flesh out the characters a little it ends up being different from the original concept, but at the end of the day they are still written fantasies and they are almost always more exciting to write than anything else. The ideas flow and I feel like my fingers just dance across the keys with a mind of their own.

The odd thing is though... after I have finished the story, that 'fantasy' no longer does it for me. I don't know why. So when I look at those few stories (I won't mention which few) it's like I'm looking at a sacrificed fantasy, which is, I admit, an incredibly dramatic thing to say.

I will say though, the only stories I've really enjoyed writing are the ones that match my own particular tastes. There's a couple of stories I found difficult to write because I didn't really have a lot of love for them, they more felt like a chore. 'My Motel' was one of them. It was interesting to write but I only really did it for the challenge of writing in a category that I hadn't written for before. I didn't hate it, I found the concept compelling and I enjoyed the experience, but I didn't love it either- maybe that's noticeable in the writing, I don't know. I do know that it was no easy feat writing a masturbation theme in the voice of a man. That was bloody hard and I'm still not sure I got it right.

 

[EvelynEden]

I have a somewhat similar experience. Maybe this is because, in your fantasy, there's always a bit of surprise, mystery where the story goes to, while, once you've written it down, all details are fixed? Is it harder to tweak the fantasy to the particular feelings of the moment?

Although they may no longer work as fantasies for me, I do enjoy re-reading those stories.

Ahh, that is so interesting! You know what, that makes a lot of sense actually. I agree, once that flexibility has gone it's difficult to play around with it anymore.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I've had years of practice at dealing with pain by sexualising it. Which helps me get to sleep when in pain, which is great, but sometimes I find new idea which might make stories. Like the covid symptom of smoky burning taste in the mouth and throat has resulted in 30k words about a guy trying to quit smoking by using cock as a cigarette substitute.

I tend to write stories I want to read, so after a break (the final editing really ruins a story for a bit), I find them my better stories as potent as ever, though the less good ones have their flaws become more apparent (usually the fact that they are fragments rather than a whole story)

 

[LexxRuthless]

I'm reminded of the Bruce Banner line from the end of the first Avengers movie. "You want to know my secret? I'm always angry."

Fuck, if I couldn't write while I'm horny, I would never get anything written!