Erotic Sunday: Beyond the Purple Prose; Writing that make you cringe.

When I started writing decades ago, I found myself writing steamy scene into my stories. It felt natural for me to include them, but I was horrified when I was told these scene were too mechanical and stiff (no pun intended). Sad thing was, when I re-read it, I agreed. That’s when I decided maybe I should think seriously about getting it right.

Love scenes are supposed to flow seamlessly and envelope the reader in the passion the characters are feeling. We ebb and flow with their feelings; experiencing their highs and lows, but sometimes, for one reason or another, a story fails sweep us into ecstasy and we’re pulled from the arms of our characters by something like this;

“He began to massage her with a kind of dry pumping action, which reminded her of someone blowing up a lilo” [For the record, I have no idea what a lilo is]

“Her weasel-like loins clutching and unclutching his lovely, long, louche manhood, as though squeezing an orange for its juice…” [I’ve heard it called a lot of things, but a weasel?]

See more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/27/bad-sex-aawards_n_2199706.html

Cringing yet?

Did you note the page I found that on? The Bad Sex Awards. Seriously! Horribly written love scenes have become so rampant in they’re giving out AWARDS! There are even groups on places like Goodreads dedicated to cringe-worthy material.

Why is this happening? I found a site that helps to explain. As the author states, “Cringe worthy scenes almost always come from a writer that fumbles with words because of a basic misunderstanding about how sex scenes should be constructed, or those with a shame about writing what they are writing.”

http://writeworld.tumblr.com/sexscenetips

I write erotic scenes now, not only because they need to be in there, but to prove that they can be done properly. I don’t claim to be good at it, I’m still learning, and I make a promise to you to NEVER write a cringe-worthy scene.

Sensual Sunday: It’s all in the delivery.

So you want to write erotica. Well, I hope you have the stamina. I’m talking about the delivery, the prose, in plain English—the words.

Words have power. A good wordsmith can write things that can move you to tears, make you angry, or make you laugh. Writing erotica isn’t any different, but people think because it’s sex you can just write it down and that’s fine.

Really? Do you know they have awards for bad sex scenes?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/badsexaward

Do you really want to find yourself nominated for this kind of award? No. I didn’t think so.

Like a horror story, erotica must make the reader feel something. Like a romance, it must be organic (not forced), and like any story, it must be told in such a fluid way that the prose does not pull the reader out of the moment.

The link below will take you to a site with a list of words to help expand your erotic vocabulary.

http://www.darkerotica.net/EroticThesaurus.html 

Characters and Sex.

One thing that drives any story forward is character motivation. Your Hero must want to do what he’s supposed to, or nothing gets done and the story might as well end right there. More importantly, the reader must believe your character wants to do his task, otherwise the entire thing comes off as forced and trust me, the reader will pick up on that.

We all know what motivators characters; good vs. evil, discovery, money (or is that just for writers) but what about sex? What if it’s the sole motivation? In most fantasy I’ve read (apart from erotica) sex is used to bring two characters closer, or the final act after pages of hot and heavy flirting and teasing. I don’t think I’ve read a story where sex was used as a means of motivation; either the character did what was necessary so he could have sex, or as a means of manipulation. Again, not outside of erotica

I’ve been toying with this idea for my side WIP, and wondering if this would be something to explore. The story itself is NOT a romance, so get that idea right out of your head (Darke can’t write romance, remember 😛 ), but I can write decent erotica. It would also bring in some conflict between the protag and the other characters in the story, as my MC would be the one being manipulated.

A part of me has wanted to write something hot and steamy for a while now; actually, ever since DATE NIGHT was published, to be exact. Could add a whole new dimension to my story. One problem, I’m afraid that if I write a story like this, then people will expect this kind of writing from me in the future, and right now, I don’t have too many stories where graphic sex scenes would fit.

I’m curious as to what you think about this?