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Living the Dream: Erotica Authors are Adventurous

Discussion in 'Tilted Life and Sexuality' started by snowy, Jun 2, 2014.

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  1. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    Well, this certainly struck close to home.



    Does this surprise you? I'll be honest: it does surprise me a little bit. I've certainly never had sex on the back of a horse, nor do I wish to.
    However, this does not surprise me, as I have certainly done it, and will likely continue to do so (how's that for a line: "Honey, come here. I need to do research."):

    Do you read or write erotica? What kind of impact has it had on your own sex life?
     
    snowy, Jun 2, 2014
    #1
  2. Street Pattern

    Street Pattern Very Tilted

    Location:
    The American Midwest
    I have been reading and writing erotica for decades. Other than having "experience with 11 or more sexual partners", I have little in common with the survey respondents.

    I am pretty sure I've never written an erotic story about anything that has ever happened to me.

    Reading erotica is a method for self-discovery -- one that has changed my life and outlook in countless ways.

    Whether my writing will have any impact on my sex life remains to be seen.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2014
    Street Pattern, Jun 2, 2014
    #2
  3. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    My writing has an impact on my sex life in that I get aroused and then need to do something about it, haha.
     
    snowy, Jun 2, 2014
    #3
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  4. GeneticShift

    GeneticShift Show me your everything is okay face.

    Location:
    The land of drugs, violence, and 8 Mile Road
    Isn't the lesson everyone is taught "write what you know"? I would say a lot of erotica is based on someone's life.

    And yeah, I would say people would fuck around in new ways just to be able to write about it accurately. Like Jane Goodall, except you get involved. And it's about sex. And it's with humans only (hopefully).
     
    GeneticShift, Jun 2, 2014
    #4
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  5. Street Pattern

    Street Pattern Very Tilted

    Location:
    The American Midwest
    Is that really the goal?
     
    Street Pattern, Jun 2, 2014
    #5
  6. GeneticShift

    GeneticShift Show me your everything is okay face.

    Location:
    The land of drugs, violence, and 8 Mile Road
    Not the immediate one, but it's a good excuse, I'm sure. ;)
     
    GeneticShift, Jun 2, 2014
    #6
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  7. redravin

    redravin Cynical Optimist Donor

    Location:
    North
    Have to say that one of the hardest parts to write in my book was the erotic scene.
    I wanted it to feel real and sexy, keeping true to the characters, and work in the context of the rest of the book.
    The is a lot harder than I thought it would be
     
    redravin, Jun 2, 2014
    #7
    • Like Like x 1
  8. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    I will confess to thinking about how to describe what I'm feeling during sex. There are these weird out-of-body moments where I'm thinking about the mechanics. Interestingly, though I'm not completely "in the moment" at that point, it serves to get me off super fast as it ends up being a kind of feedback loop.
     
    snowy, Jun 2, 2014
    #8
  9. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    I dunno. I've written some wild erotica based on personal experience. The really wild stuff is mostly imagination, things I haven't done and would probably never do even given the chance (yeah, like that's going to happen).

    I wonder if some of the authors might embellish & exaggerate their personal experiences in order not to let their fans down. I recall a response from Anne Rice's husband when he was asked if her erotic scenes were based on their sex lfe, "She is no more a sadist or masochist than she is a vampire."
     
    Chris Noyb, Jun 2, 2014
    #9
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  10. Street Pattern

    Street Pattern Very Tilted

    Location:
    The American Midwest
    I like that.
     
    Street Pattern, Jun 2, 2014
    #10
  11. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member


    I suppose this is why my writing trends towards fluffy romance these days.
     
    snowy, Jun 2, 2014
    #11
  12. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Anne Rice's Beauty triology, originally written under the pen name A.N. Roquelaure, which I have read, contains some pretty heavy BDSM, and a lot of it is male-on-male sex. I don't know about erotica in her other works, I'm not a Rice fan.
     
    Chris Noyb, Jun 2, 2014
    #12
  13. omega

    omega Very Tilted

    Poets write about what they can't do. I bet most of those authors are liars, or embellishers. They are selling a dream or fantasy. And if their fans think they are living the dream, they will have a prurient interest as well.
     
    omega, Jun 2, 2014
    #13
  14. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    Oh you know very little about poetry, my sweet summer child....

    Wait—aren't we talking about erotica?

    Oh, I see. Lying and embellishing in fiction.

    It's just like politicians. They're all liars. Judges? Black-robed tyrants. Cops? Trained bullies who earn a paycheque. And let's not forget: Those who can, do; those who can't, teach. (etc.)

    Or maybe "write what you know" is really a thing.

    But don't ask me. I'm just an editor, which is pretty much a failed writer.

    If you're interested in my opinion though, I don't think it's much of a stretch that fiction writers write about stuff that's happened to them or stuff they've experienced. People like to write about themselves or their perception/knowledge of things. This is part of the reason why a lot of fiction is actually pretty bad: they don't embellish enough.
     
    Baraka_Guru, Jun 3, 2014
    #14
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  15. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    BG, always my knight in shining armor.
     
    snowy, Jun 3, 2014
    #15
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  16. omega

    omega Very Tilted

    So you're saying that sci fi or fantasy or western or horror or crime writers have actually experienced those things? Poor stephen king.
    So I guess I touched a nerve there. It was an off the cuff remark to a "study" worthy of cosmo.

    I guess based on that I should crank out some tentacle porn. Write what you know, eh?
     
    omega, Jun 3, 2014
    #16
    • Like Like x 1
  17. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    You said poets. Writing poetry is a wholly different experience from writing erotica. Therefore, I can conclude you have likely never written either based on your conclusions.

    Yes, writing is an exercise of the imagination. However, it is grounded in experience to some degree. Yes, I can certainly imagine things outside of my imagination. Goodness knows I started writing about sex long before I'd ever had it! I could extrapolate based on reading of the experiences of those around me. That said, I would ultimately come to the conclusion that my erotica is better for having had sex.

    And your original statement tells me that either you haven't read much erotica, or you don't know many erotica writers. As an avid consumer of erotica and a writer of it, I can honestly say most erotica falls in the "fluffy romance" camp. Totally het, totally normal. The second most popular bunch of erotica would probably be yaoi Yaoi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    For the record, I do know you are referring to me personally via your reference to tentacle porn. No, I have never written a tentacle porn story; no, I am never likely to do so. Yet I am still a fan of Maeda Toshio's works. I find that acceptable. I don't see what your problem is, or why you took issue with the observations in the article. As an actual writer and consumer of the stuff, I found it pretty accurate.

    I should add that on average, I churn out about 6,000 words a week, regardless of my employment. I challenge anyone here who says they could meet that tally.
     
    snowy, Jun 3, 2014
    #17
  18. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Judging from the reponses, it seems that you touched several nerves.

    If the discussion of erotica authors and their real life experiences is limited to relatively mild sex (for the sake of argument let's say hot & passionate sex that doesn't stray far from 'normal' MF sex), then I can agree with the findings.

    If the erotica goes into really wild sex, I have my doubts as to how many authors have experienced 'really wild sex' in real life. Or at the least how often they've experienced it.

    If erotica is well written, I could not care less about how much of it is based on the author's real life experiences.

    If an author wants to present themself as being experienced in wild sex in order to present a certain persona to the readers, that's up to them. I don't condone lying, but I can understand an author of erotica not admitting to having a relatively mild sex life. OTOH, if they 'talk up' their sex life ad nauseum, it triggers my Bullshit-O-Meter (just like IRL, we all know people who are way too eager to impress us with their sex adeventures).
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2014
    Chris Noyb, Jun 3, 2014
    #18
  19. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    It looks like an anonymous survey, and three quarters of the authors use a pen name.

    Also, is it that surprising that those who write smut for publication are a bit more risqué than the average American. Do you realize what the profile of the average American even looks like?
     
    Baraka_Guru, Jun 3, 2014
    #19
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  20. Herculite

    Herculite Very Tilted

    Its always easier to write what you know. I think the true artistry would be writing what you don't know in a convincing manner.

    It would be easy for me to write erotica to a point due to my experiences. It would be easy to slightly exaggerate or change stories to be things I didn't experience but were not completely alien. It would be very hard to write about life at sea on an oil rig for me being I have no experience there.

    This thread comes at a good time for me being I was bored the other day and decided to chronicle our introduction to swinging, took about an hour to write 2000 words and I didn't even get to the sex part yet. At that pace I could write a average length novel in 40 hours. Its easy to write what you know.
     
    Herculite, Jun 3, 2014
    #20
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