You can probably teach ME about writing sex, but I hope I say something of interest for you.

And yay sex!

And Nicole, I am so psyched beyond belief to hear a PhD in Lit writing in the genre slums… you have no idea (being a simple bachelor’s peon, I have nothing but bowing and genuflecting for smart, educated people who “get” mainstream fiction, especially dealing with sex.

I write erotica and erotic romance in lots of subgenres (plus other stuff) –UF/fantasy/paranormal and historical being my favorites. I particularly like historical beucase of the different external attitudes about sex and sexuality. But I like the sub genre not becuase it’s kinky (although there is a certain fun in that LOL!) but in that it’s so true that a character can use and be used for sex for so many psychological reasons. For those of us in erotic romance, specifically, there’s a difference in the focus of the character’s process throughout the plot… it’s not just a romance with graphic sex scenes scattered throughout that you could just as easily write as mainstream love scenes or delete all together. What happens and how it happens and why it happens matters to the character and the story.

I will definitely be checking out your books!

Fiona Vance

Sascha: No worries, hitches happen.

But my gut reaction would be that at least for me, as a mainstream writer, sex has to further the plot or the character. I’m wondering how the erotica writers would handle this question? But over all you’ve raised a number of interesting issues, and I’ll think more on your questions and put together a proper blog post. Thanks for responding I really appreciate the feedback.

Kate T: great question! And I hear you on the vocabulary. The word that always gets me is when they talk about “cream.” As in “she creamed.” I’m all, “ANYBODY GOT SPINACH? We can make us some DIP!” So this is an issue I’ll DEFINITELY be writing about in future. Thanks so much for your feedback!

We’ll definitely be addressing sexual vocabulary. I can understand your points and will publish post on them in the future!

Vague, Thanks for following us. Nicole will be here to answer your question soon. We had a few hitches getting this set up and those were my fault

Thanks the both of you!

Looking forward to seeing what you have to say, and you may be planning to address this already but I was wondering:

Do you write the cast or their sexuality to serve the plot of your book, the plot to serve the cast, or try to find a middle ground? For example, unless your main character is promiscuous with multiple partners (and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that), they need a regular partner to have sex with. Which seems to require writing that partner into the story, which can be a problem if the partner doesn’t have any other purpose to the plot beyond serving as a sex partner. I’m sure there are ways around that, such as letting the main character monologue or fantasize about sex, but again, unless that is somehow tied into the plot it feels artificial.

I guess the short version of this is, ultimately what is your priority when writing: plot, character, or sex?

And thanks, looking forward to reading your thoughts, and the blog in general.
Vague