I don’t know about other writers. It’s always been sort of… explained to me, that romance and erotica authors have no problem typing up that scene. They never have trouble with wording or are embarrassed in any way about what they do.
Which really makes me feel like the crazy person in the corner.
To write smut, I need to be alone. Tried it a time or two with an ex-boyfriend of mine. He started reading over my shoulder. Talk about a mood killer!
I need music, not television, but music. If television is on, I’ll be jarred out the moment I get into it. Not into the sex, but into the swing of writing it, into the moment that is happening in.
Then it takes three hours to write a page.
I need to not be interrupted. Not by the phone, not by Trixie, not by Dorian, and definitely not by my upstairs neighbour.
Who blasted something about beating a ho just as Izzy began writhing for Nathaniel.
Now, while I am writing a BDSM story, and Nathaniel had just gotten through beating Izzy (at her request) that’s not the type of music that helps me out. It kind of makes me feel like I was narrating everything out loud on a megaphone.
The moment I feel like someone else knows that I’m writing about sex is the moment my words dry up. The scene has already gone through my head at least ten times, possibly more. It was interesting the first two times, that’s why I’m writing it down. After the third it’s just repetition on the part of the characters because I didn’t listen the first time.
I really should listen the first time, that’d probably make the writing easier.
Then there’s over thinking. What if my mother sees this? She’d probably enjoy it.
What if Dorian sees this? Oh gosh, I’d die of embarrassment. I haven’t even told him that I’ve decided to publish romance/erotica stories. He knows I write, but thinks I’ll take more of Beth’s route, where there’s a kind of plot. Although the plot wouldn’t work without the relationships that are forged but that’s what she gets for creating a world that focuses on breeding and needing a significant other in order to be taken seriously.
Not a man, just a significant other of some kind.
There’s also the question of the day job finding out I write smut. Of course, need a day job first.
Definitely need a day job.
So for me there’s a lot of pressure when it comes to writing sex. There’d be less pressure if I was having actual sex, instead of writing it. But then, Dorian’s pretty good and relieving that pressure.
I should text him… No, no, he can text me first.
When I texted my problem to Beth (yes, we mainly text, but she also has a full-time job so she doesn’t have a lot of time for calls) she laughed out loud at me and then told me that it’s not just sex that writers can struggle with. She struggles with killing people, as well as anything to do with emotion.
Thankfully for me, it’s just the sex I have trouble writing, because I think too much during.
Oh dear, I hope you didn’t come to the post hoping I’d tell you how to write sex. I haven’t the faintest clue if my methods work yet. And I can’t talk about special flowers or nether lips like other writers seem to scribble off without so much as a sigh.
Secret flower… it’s not exactly a secret, now is it? Everyone knows the main female character has one!
But that’s just my opinion and you don’t have to listen to it in the least.
Aya DeAniege 