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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2B61AYP:
pearlo:
i’ve been thinking again lately about how dissatisfying i find it when conversations about writing smutty scenes seem to arrange themselves around categorizing lists of words as inherently Sexy or Not Sexy. Like, I feel like I see a lot of people who are starting at what’s a sexy word for _____? and that’s personally never an approach I’ve found super helpful, because it takes me too far out of the character’s head – and the only secret/tip I do find really helpful for porn writing is staying in that context, concentrating on how they’re perceiving it and the words that they would be thinking or saying and going from there.
(So, like, relatively clinical terms are Not Sexy; but there are some characters they work for. I’ve definitely written due South sex scenes in Fraser POV that use language like that, and it can work really well, especially the contrast between that language and the intrinsic earthiness of the actions themselves, and that duality in Fraser. On the other hand, I also wrote a ton of sex scenes about dirty stinky boys in bands, and the vocabulary that was appropriate for those was completely different.)
anyway. the only other piece of advice i have about writing porn (at least porn with cis dudes in it) is: it’s really not necessary to give precise measurements about cock size. you can just say it’s big. we’ll believe you. i don’t want to imagine a ruler out in bed with them – unless you’re actually writing a story about them measuring it, in which case that’s hilarious, and carry on.
Yes! This!
Man I can’t tell you when the last time I agonized over a word in a sex scene was. Sometimes I dither between two different phrases, but the way I resolve it is usually, what stands out the least? What’s truest to the character? And if the character would not be paying attention to a detail, I promise it’s okay to just avoid the detail! Leave the space where it would be, like if you were shooting it there’d be a gesture offscreen, or a beat where it’s obvious something’s happening elsewhere, or whatever, and move on. You don’t have to describe something your character wouldn’t care about. Your readers will follow you.
So you mostly can talk about what’s going on as your character would perceive it, which means you just use the language your character would use, and if your character would never in his life say the word “cock” then you don’t have to use it, you can even just leave it blank, or use a placeholder word or a euphemism or workaround phrase or whatever. But the point is that it shouldn’t be distracting. The point of the scene is what’s happening, not the actual specifics of the genital (or whatever) choreography. [caveat: euphemisms: it needs to be an unobtrusive euphemism, if you notice it on a reread it’s too flowery.]
The last chapter I published of anything featured a scene with a couple having mutually-satisfying sex without removing either one’s underwear. [One was badly traumatized, the other was recently postpartum, they needed some things out of this scene but a complicated sex act was not one of those things they needed.] I still think it was a pretty hot scene, or at least a really emotionally-satisfying scene! You don’t have to specifically put an erection into a specific hole, or really any specific body part into any other specific body part. You can vary your actual sex acts pretty infinitely. Unless you’re writing to a specific contract I guess, which specifies which sex acts and with what frequency, if that’s a thing. But if you’re having really awful trouble choreographic the erection into the hole it might actually be your characters not really wanting you to do that. Try letting them do something else really intimate but not quite so logistically complicated, and see what words come out then. Sometimes there seems to be a feeling like Tab A must go in Slot B for it to be a Proper Sex Scene and I think that’s one of those formulas that doesn’t always serve everyone extremely well. Especially if you’re a person who has never personally experienced that particular tab-and-slot combo– you can write it if you want the challenge, of course! you do what your heart wants even if it’s complicated! but you know, if that’s not flowing well, feel free to write something more rooted in your actual life experience of finding things hot, and see what you come up with? I promise, your sex life isn’t that weird. Porn gives a distorted view because a lot of the genuinely hottest stuff doesn’t look like anything when you visually record it. You don’t have to have some easily-categorized fetish. Sometimes the thing that sets your brain/loins off is astonishingly relatable to other readers even though it’s not something you’ve ever read before. Blaze that trail!
And yeah definitely never measurements of cocks unless that is the point of the scene, really seriously that is not necessary. (And with OP’s distinction of cis dudes– you know, I feel like even with non-cis dudes, or even with like, tentacled aliens or whatever, anyone who doesn’t have just a Regular Old Biological As Seen In Porn™ Dick, it’s still not necessary? Like, if it’s an object someone might not be familiar with you could give a rough size observation– a tentacle as thick as a tongue, for example, but really, it doesn’t have to be in inches or centimeters, and if the POV character doesn’t get that good a look at it you don’t have to be specific at all.)
This is not a visual medium. What better time to enjoy that than erotica? There’s so much about sex that’s so great that has nothing to do with specific visuals or choreography.
(Your picture was not posted)
pearlo:
i’ve been thinking again lately about how dissatisfying i find it when conversations about writing smutty scenes seem to arrange themselves around categorizing lists of words as inherently Sexy or Not Sexy. Like, I feel like I see a lot of people who are starting at what’s a sexy word for _____? and that’s personally never an approach I’ve found super helpful, because it takes me too far out of the character’s head – and the only secret/tip I do find really helpful for porn writing is staying in that context, concentrating on how they’re perceiving it and the words that they would be thinking or saying and going from there.
(So, like, relatively clinical terms are Not Sexy; but there are some characters they work for. I’ve definitely written due South sex scenes in Fraser POV that use language like that, and it can work really well, especially the contrast between that language and the intrinsic earthiness of the actions themselves, and that duality in Fraser. On the other hand, I also wrote a ton of sex scenes about dirty stinky boys in bands, and the vocabulary that was appropriate for those was completely different.)
anyway. the only other piece of advice i have about writing porn (at least porn with cis dudes in it) is: it’s really not necessary to give precise measurements about cock size. you can just say it’s big. we’ll believe you. i don’t want to imagine a ruler out in bed with them – unless you’re actually writing a story about them measuring it, in which case that’s hilarious, and carry on.
Yes! This!
Man I can’t tell you when the last time I agonized over a word in a sex scene was. Sometimes I dither between two different phrases, but the way I resolve it is usually, what stands out the least? What’s truest to the character? And if the character would not be paying attention to a detail, I promise it’s okay to just avoid the detail! Leave the space where it would be, like if you were shooting it there’d be a gesture offscreen, or a beat where it’s obvious something’s happening elsewhere, or whatever, and move on. You don’t have to describe something your character wouldn’t care about. Your readers will follow you.
So you mostly can talk about what’s going on as your character would perceive it, which means you just use the language your character would use, and if your character would never in his life say the word “cock” then you don’t have to use it, you can even just leave it blank, or use a placeholder word or a euphemism or workaround phrase or whatever. But the point is that it shouldn’t be distracting. The point of the scene is what’s happening, not the actual specifics of the genital (or whatever) choreography. [caveat: euphemisms: it needs to be an unobtrusive euphemism, if you notice it on a reread it’s too flowery.]
The last chapter I published of anything featured a scene with a couple having mutually-satisfying sex without removing either one’s underwear. [One was badly traumatized, the other was recently postpartum, they needed some things out of this scene but a complicated sex act was not one of those things they needed.] I still think it was a pretty hot scene, or at least a really emotionally-satisfying scene! You don’t have to specifically put an erection into a specific hole, or really any specific body part into any other specific body part. You can vary your actual sex acts pretty infinitely. Unless you’re writing to a specific contract I guess, which specifies which sex acts and with what frequency, if that’s a thing. But if you’re having really awful trouble choreographic the erection into the hole it might actually be your characters not really wanting you to do that. Try letting them do something else really intimate but not quite so logistically complicated, and see what words come out then. Sometimes there seems to be a feeling like Tab A must go in Slot B for it to be a Proper Sex Scene and I think that’s one of those formulas that doesn’t always serve everyone extremely well. Especially if you’re a person who has never personally experienced that particular tab-and-slot combo– you can write it if you want the challenge, of course! you do what your heart wants even if it’s complicated! but you know, if that’s not flowing well, feel free to write something more rooted in your actual life experience of finding things hot, and see what you come up with? I promise, your sex life isn’t that weird. Porn gives a distorted view because a lot of the genuinely hottest stuff doesn’t look like anything when you visually record it. You don’t have to have some easily-categorized fetish. Sometimes the thing that sets your brain/loins off is astonishingly relatable to other readers even though it’s not something you’ve ever read before. Blaze that trail!
And yeah definitely never measurements of cocks unless that is the point of the scene, really seriously that is not necessary. (And with OP’s distinction of cis dudes– you know, I feel like even with non-cis dudes, or even with like, tentacled aliens or whatever, anyone who doesn’t have just a Regular Old Biological As Seen In Porn™ Dick, it’s still not necessary? Like, if it’s an object someone might not be familiar with you could give a rough size observation– a tentacle as thick as a tongue, for example, but really, it doesn’t have to be in inches or centimeters, and if the POV character doesn’t get that good a look at it you don’t have to be specific at all.)
This is not a visual medium. What better time to enjoy that than erotica? There’s so much about sex that’s so great that has nothing to do with specific visuals or choreography.
(Your picture was not posted)
