Comments on: Living The Life

By: Jean Roberta

Jean Roberta — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 17:44:07 +0000

Good post. My favorite inaccuracy in a porn story is: “He plunged into her clitoris.” Can’t remember where I read it. I felt sorry for this male writer’s female partners, if any.

- Jean Roberta

By: dave smith

dave smith — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:37:16 +0000

Your post covered two or three topics that I wish I could comment on but for the sake of brevity I’ll mention the first point. Sometimes I’m in a scene or I see things that others do but I don’t know the exact anatomical parts involved or the specific sex toy that was used. I try to describe it as best as I can and hope to revise later.
My second comment, if I may, is the smug endings that Holywood puts on bisexual, bdsm, tg & other “abnormal” behavior in their “youth-oriented” films: “sure they’ll play around but in the end they’ll settle down and get married, live a “straight” life in the suburbs and in time have 1.2 children” (ABC-Disney’s Modern Family?).

I can tolerate some inaccuracies in glbt, bdsm, etc. fiction but I believe the “Hollywood” ending is the greater misrepresentation. I guess the writers add the “romantic” ending to appease the “moral majority” and sell stuff to them.

By: Shar

Shar — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:58:43 +0000

I think that\’s a very good point, that \"Too many people feel that they are alone…\". I don\’t mean alone in the sense of being unpartnered, but alone in the sense of being highly unusual in their tastes or desires. You see that online all the time, the people posting \"Am I the only one who … ?\" \"Does anyone else like to … ?\" And I like your solution, too, to write honest sex with respect.

By: Shar

Shar — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:58:25 +0000

I think that’s a very good point, that “Too many people feel that they are alone…”. I don’t mean alone in the sense of being unpartnered, but alone in the sense of being highly unusual in their tastes or desires. You see that online all the time, the people posting “Am I the only one who … ?” “Does anyone else like to … ?” And I like your solution, too, to write honest sex with respect.

By: Sascha Illyvich

Sascha Illyvich — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:09:14 +0000

Figures you’d be in cahoots Thomas LOL! Seriously though I train my authors to do their research cause if I have to and I go back and butcher…well I’m a mean editor.

This is good solid advice for anyone. It’s also why I/we teach classes and a lot of romance authors also teach classes. Angela Knight teaches ones on sex scenes, writing fight scenes and criminal investigation I believe (her husband is a cop)

By: Thomas Roche

Thomas Roche — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:33:05 +0000

That was supposed to be “worse in BDSM than anywhere,” not “everywhere,” ooops!

Also, THANK YOU for the plug for SFSI! We’re starting our next training soon, though at this point I think we might be full up. But there’s one every 6 months — really, really good training for anyone in the area who wants to write erotica or sex nonfiction, give sex advice or work in social services, especially with a sexual minority or gender variant population. Thanks for the plug!

By: Thomas Roche

Thomas Roche — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:30:24 +0000

So true, Chris!! I see this error all over the place — even in American Tabloid by James Ellroy, who’s usually pretty “gritty” but missed the boat on this one. Same book has a cop using a magnum in the ’50s — not impossible but pretty unlikely, especially since it was an undercover and .357 magnums back then were NOT the compact easy-to-carry items of today. Also, safeties on revolvers — not totally impossible, but really unlikely.

And the erotic equivalent runs amok throughout ASSTR and even professional erotica writing…worse in BDSM than everywhere (D/s stuff being often inaccurate, but largely sort of “soft inaccuracies”). Too true, great column!