Forty Things Every Erotica Writer Should Do

[valarltd]

(Mirrored from my Blogger)

This is advice that is often given to writers.
It's not a bad bit of advice. It can be stifling if taken too literally. All we end up writing are people just like ourselves. Or, we can treat it as an imperative to go out and learn about what we're writing about.

The best advice I can give any writer, after "WRITE!" is this:

Go Do It.

Very simple, and yet so very hard. It may require experimenting outside your comfort zones, stepping outside your sexual orientation, or braving a learning curve.

Go Do It.


1) Have Sex.
2) Have Anal Sex.
3) Suck a Cock.
4) Eat a Twat.
5) Receive Oral.
6) Be Fucked with a Dildo. A Butt Plug. A Vibrator.
7) Fuck Someone with The Same.
8) Try a Strap-On
9) Fist Someone
10) Be Fisted.
11) Try Shibari.
12) Try Suspension
13) Wear Handcuffs.
14) Wear Leather Cuffs.
15) Wear a Leather Collar.
16) Wear a Metal Collar.
17) Put Cuffs on Someone
18) Put a Collar on Someone.
19) Walk on a Leash.
20) Walk Someone on a Leash.
21) Take a Blow. From a Rubber Flogger. From a Leather Flogger From a Single Tail. From a Crop. From a Paddle.
22) Throw The Same Blows.
23) Try The Position.
24) Have a Safeword.
25) Have Clamps Applied. And Removed.
26) Apply and Remove Clamps
27) Have Hot Wax, Ice, Needles, Electricity Applied to Erogenous Zones
28) Apply Hot Wax, Ice, Needles, Electricity to Erogenous Zones
29) Be Slammed Against A Wall and Kissed Ferociously
30) Slam Someone Against A Wall and Kiss Them Ferociously
31) Be Put Through the Basic Submissive Poses
32) Correct a Sub Through the Basic Submissive Poses
33) Give Aftercare
34) Receive Aftercare
35) Start a Relationship
36) Break Off a Relationship.
37) Go On a Traditional Date.
38) Have a One-Night Stand.
39) Have a Threesome.
40) Fall in Love
.

Comments

[sidewinder.livejournal.com]

What if you have absolutely no interest in d/s (and/or actively find d/s completely squicky)? That's the problem I have with lists like this and a lot of the items suggested.

I guess I am just extremely vanilla in my erotica interests...don't want to read in certain kinks, never write them, don't know why I should have to explore them if it's not something I've ever want to or be comfortable/interested in writing about. Does EVERY erotica writer have to be comfortable with and interested in things like d/s and painplay if we never write about it?

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Given how many people are writing it and have never done it, I think the list is reasonable.

I think every erotica writer should at least know the basics of BDSM, whether they have ever done it or not:
The scene is negotiated
The scene is consented to
The concept of safewords

If only so they can look at someone on a panel and say "That's not how it works! It's not my specialty area, but look, go talk to [Name Here] before you perpetrate more problems."


Of course, the list also suggests that straight writers have a same sex encounter and gay writers have an opposite sex one.

[sidewinder.livejournal.com]

But what if the erotica writer has absolutely no interest in ever writing (nor reading) BDSM? It is very much Not My Thing. It is something in fact I have a lot of personal, negative visceral reactions to. I'm not interested in writing it, ever, and very rarely can I even read it, let alone want to try it in real life (the one time a partner suggested it and we tried, I completely freaked out after just a few minutes because it was too triggery to me due to personal experiences previously.)

I guess I'm a very vanilla erotica writer...so be it (maybe I'm more a romance writer who likes to include smutty but relatively kink-free content). So yeah, if a writer wants to write BDSM, they should absolutely understand how it works. If it's not going to cross your writing radar, I don't see why it should be in your required life experiences or research.

If the topic of BDSM were to come up at a panel I was on, I'd just stay out of it or defer to more knowledgeable/interested parties.