Erotica... Probably Not.

[lydamorehouse]

I haven't done much of anything this morning other than sneeze. I don't quite know what happened, but I didn't just have an allergy attack... it was some kind of ambush!!

But my eyes and nose are starting to recover, I think. And, I did manage to get two other things done.

1) The dishes. This was a rather monumental feat, as we had a full-on Sunday dinner yesterday, including a roasted chicken, gravy, fried potatoes, beans, and a salad. I think I pretty much used all the dishes in the house, especially since I'd made scones earlier for breakfast. While I was doing said dishes I got a call from the folks at Mad Norwegian. They had just one more thing for me to look at...

So, I downloaded the file and 2) I went over the final proof of the short story included in RESURRECTION CODE, "Ishtartu." After having re-read that I have to say that there is absolutely NO HOPE of me having a lucrative side-career as an erotica writer. It's actually not a bad short story (which, again, is not one of my stronger suits), but there's not a lot of sizzle. There's sex, and, you know, I spell some of it out, but it's actually quite *sweet.* You could actually read it out loud at a late-night reading, because, while *I* might blush at some of the words, there's actually not that much that even happens on stage. Much of it is left to the imagination.

It's kind of sad, really.

If only because I have this weird notion in my head that some day I'm just going give up on this hard stuff and write fun, "trashy" erotica. Yet, you'd think I'd remember that every time I sit down to write something I think will be fun and "easy," it's still writing, and writing is always hard. And, sadly, writing something good enough to be published still means I need to have character development, plot, etc., which is all that stuff I find "hard" about writing in the first place. And, frankly, writing graphic sex scenes really difficult for me. Oh, I can imagine them, no problem. Write them down? That's a bit harder. I'm easily embarrassed by committing the erotic things I imagine to print, and also, like any description, writing a good, graphic sex scene takes practice that I just don't really have yet... you need to know when to brush stroke and when to stroke stroke, you know? Gah! I just embarrassed myself!

You see the problem.

Anyway, I need to get writing on Ana. My cat, Ms. All Ball, has just curled herself, like a baby, against my chest, so I guess that means I'm stuck at the computer anyway. I might as well be constructive.

Comments

[seawasp]

Hey, I can't write sex scenes either unless they're critical to the plot, and in that case I'm the color of a tomato all the way through writing it. And it takes three times as long as writing anything else of the same length.

[(Anonymous)]

We had the same Sunday dinner! Except it was pan-fried chicken rather than roasted. Wierd.

I find it hard to write erotica today, but I think we mean different things when we say that (badabing! Thank you ladies and germs, I'll be here all week!).

jpj

[lydamorehouse]

regarding Sunday dinner, I think that just proves that in a parallel univers, I AM you!!

[muneraven.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem. I can do romance, but when it comes to erotic sex scenes I just can't pull them off. What the heck? I'm not a prude. It has occurred to me that my characters seem quite real to me and so even completely fictional sex scenes trigger something courteous in my brain and I "look away." I mean, that is what I would do if I saw two friends in real life getting it on (along with clearing my throat LOUDLY several times). Sigh.

Are there sex scene ghost writers out there? lol.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

I'm not a professional writer, so it's nowhere near the same sort of experience, since I don't have to live up to any kind of standards and aren't attempting to become published. That said, I've tried writing erotic short stories on a few occasions because I thought it would be fun, and I have a hell of a time doing it. The first several times, my characters wound up never even getting together -- they'd be thinking all kinds of lusty thoughts about each other, but turning the corner to actually expressing them or touching each other (at all) never quite seemed to happen. (Then again, that's a threshold that I find difficult and mystifying in life as well, despite having been over it a few times.) I did eventually write one story which I think was mildly successful for what it was, but that was after years of "percolation" and I don't know if it would be possible for me to even begin to make it publishable -- it's at least highly implausible. But yeah, a big part of that is that I'm very shy myself, and I find it really difficult to get past that even in a story.