Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Erotica & Me (lately)

Peta Todd

So, as many of you know, I have been writing and publishing a lot of erotic short stories lately.  They are of the Hardcore Erotic sub-genre; a situation, some characters, and a very steamy sex scene - literary porn, if you will.

They don't have a great deal of back story; the characters are described in brief, the setting is like a sketch of an actual description, and the focus is on the naughty acts themselves.  I am in no way opposed to this sort of writing, I actually enjoy both reading and writing the sub-genre, but my latest story has gone a different way.

The latest piece I am working on (The Last Shot - working title) is a different species of story altogether, at least for me.  It seems to be building itself as it goes along rather than the other way around.  The protagonist is the narrator and it's a first person, past tense view over the story's arc.  As I sit down and write the story, it as if she keeps cramming detail and description into it, unhappy with the idea that her story be an abbreviated sexual romp between the sheets, or over a desk, or on the kitchen floor.  And I am just letting her go with it and watching the results, the evolution of the story with a certain amount of interest.

I was reading a book recently that talked about the difference between writing porn and writing really well put together erotica.  There's an obvious but subjective difference in the two.  Erotica seems, to me and this author at least, to be something that draws the reader along.  It's a full-fledged story with characters, back story, and a plot that may or may not end with short quick breathing and the exchange of bodily fluids.  And yet, it may achieve the same result as the the sub-genre in a more subtle, almost clever way.

After reading the book, I realized that I had never thought about erotica that way and that maybe this is what the new story is leaning toward.  Perhaps subconsciously, this new story is the direct result of that knowledge and my desire to explore it.

It is nothing if not a writing exercise.  I find myself asking all of the usual questions that a reader would ask of the character and the situation in any other genre and then click-clacking the answers through the description or inner-dialogue of the protagonist.  I suppose the point is, it's new and challenging and different and I am enjoying it immensely.  I can't wait to hear what everyone else thinks.

Sorry if this is not up the usual snuff of dirty little tidbits that the usual posts contain.  This one is just an update on the latest piece I have been working on.  I'm hashing out the experience.  Keep an eye out for it.  It should be completed soon, hopefully.  I guess I don't really know, because she just keeps going.

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