Writing sex scenes

Writing a good sex scene is not easy. Some authors love to write them others not so much, but they are essential in Romance and Erotica. Depending on what you write they are more or less detailed and descriptive. Mine are quite graphic, but that’s just the way I like to write.

It is important that you are familiar with the human autonomy. You have to know what makes up the male and female genital and not only that, you have to learn to use different words for the same part or your writing becomes repetitive. There are several sites on the internet that have a great selection of words that you can use. Some of them are just funny and not very good to use others work fine.

When you write your sex scene remember, it has to be somewhat realistic. You don’t want your reader to think: wow, that’s physically impossible. Try to visualize the scene and make sure hands, legs, and so on are in the right position. Clothes are another thing that is easy to make mistakes with. If the woman entered the room in a dress, the man can’t unzip her jeans five minutes later.

Pull, push, roll, unbutton, unzip, lower, tear are examples of word I like to use for undressing people. There are many more, just check any dictionary. You can either write:

He rolled down her lace panties or He tore off her lace panties.

It all depends on with what intensity you want to write.

When it comes to describing the actual scene you have to decide on what you are comfortable with and in what genre you are writing in. Here is an example.

He unclasped her bra and let her breasts free, her nipples were like little pink berries and hardened under his touch.

When he tore off her bra her tits burst out, and as soon as he touched her nipples, they became like little bullets.

If you are new at writing you want to read as many books as possible in your genre so you learn how others write. Then you can adjust to what you feel comfortable with.

It is also good if you learn the most common erogenous zones on the body. Apart from the obvious ones you have, the back, the back of the legs, neck, throat, ears, earlobes, feet and toes. Use them as much as you want to build up the scene.

I would like to comment on something that I think is important. The point of view, often sex scenes are written from one person’s POV only, which is fine if the entire story is written that way. But, for a more emotional read it should be written from both partner's point of view. Even if you are writing a three ways, or group sex, it is important that the reader feels what all the parties involve feel. If it’s a group scene, it might be difficult, and if you have ten or more people involved try to use at least four or five of their POV’s. This creates another issue. If you are a man writing, how do you know what or how a female orgasm feels? How does it build up, and how does it end? The same for women who write about men, but the answer is simple, ask your friends. They might blush, and ask why you want to know, just tell them you are doing some research. Also look on the web, lot’s of people write about their orgasms.

A lot of new writers mix up the words “cum” and “come”. Here is how it works.

He came with a loud moan and his cum fell on her back in warm droplets.

Maybe a bit graphic, but you get the idea.

Does Erotica writers live as they write?

When I was in high school (many years ago) my English teacher told me that I should write about something I knew about. He said this because I told him I had no idea what to write about.

Fast forward some twenty five years and I am writing Erotica. Do I know anything about steamy sex, the use of sex toys, gay sex, or any other topic I write about, no not really. But, I can fantasize about it and put it into words. Also, I can talk to people who have had such experience and use it for my novellas.

This brings me to the topic in question; does erotica writers live as they write? I don’t think so. I think most of us are regular women and men with day jobs who at night (or morning) close the door to our writing room and there, in the darkness, let our fantasies take form on the screen in front of us. There we can dig deep into our souls and find those things that might not be talked in polite company or even not so polite company.  Maybe we have a fantasy about trying to be with someone of the same sex, but on the other side of that door are a spouse and kids, and maybe a dog. So instead of running off to the next town to fulfill this fantasy it is written down in the form of a novella or a book. If we can transfer our emotions in the right way it will become a great story.

On the other hand, there are those authors who look for niches on the internet, they check key words and so on to see what topic in trending within erotica and then they write about it. I think these stories are not as good as the ones that actually come from the author’s soul.

What kind of author are you?

What happens if you don’t have any secret fantasies you can write about? Nothing, but I don’t believe it. I’m pretty sure all of us have something that is lurking inside and just has to be put down in words.

Happy writing!

Amazon or Smashwords

When it comes down to deciding on which online outlet you want to use for your books you got two main players, Amazon and Smashwords.

There are distinct differences between the two and they both have benefits. Amazon is the biggest and has the most readers and the most books. But, that doesn’t mean Smashwords is bad, it’s just different.

Amazon: The world’s largest online book retailer.

The benefits going with Amazon are many, here are a few.

·         User friendly: Easy to upload books.

·         They have the KDP Select (more on that further down).

·         Various payment methods to receive your money.

The not so good things are:

·         You can’t get paid by PayPal.

·         You have to send them some paperwork before you can receive money. This is irritating if you live abroad.

·         If you use KDP Select you can’t have that book on Smashwords.

Smashwords

Benefits

·         Easy to sign up.

·         Get paid by PayPal.

·         Access to other online bookstores like iBook and Kobe.

·         You can put a book as permafree to attract new readers.

·         Multiple platforms. Apart from Smashwords site your books are being sold as a PDF, on iBook, Kobe and others.

Not so good.

·         Difficult to format your book to their format.

·         Less readers use them.

·         Harder to market.

KDP Select

This is Amazon’s way to help you publish and manage your book sales. After you have signed up for your Amazon account and uploaded your book you click on Enroll and you are in. You can earn between 35% to 70% profit on your sales, depending on in what regions you are selling. You get five days a month where you can offer your book for free to attract new readers. This has been discussed on many forums. Some writers like giving away books to get new readers, some don’t, it’s all up to you. After three months you have the option to get out of KDP if you want. If you don’t unclick the KDP option your book will reenroll automatically for another three months.

Formatting for Smashwords.

This is hard the first time and can be very frustrating. There are several great blogs on the subject so just make a Google search and you will get the help you need. Once you have done it, it’s easy.

What I like to do is, when I have a new book I enroll it in KDP and put it up for free. Hopefully this will get me some reviews. Once the three months have past, I put it up on Smashwords as well and there I add the good reviews in the book description. You can get reviews on Smashwords too, but it is a lot harder.

Both Amazon and Smashwords offer author pages where you can write something about yourself and link to your blog or website, and are easy to use. On Smashwords you can take the “Author Interview” where a set of questions are asked and you answer them. This way the readers learn more about you. If you write Erotica like I do, Smashwords and the partners seem to be a little more flexible about content. Amazon can be very touchy about covers and content.

In the end you have to decide what fits you the best. Read as much as you can about both sites and try to search for books, look at reviews to learn how the site interacts with the reader.

New Up date to Free Erotica

Today I added a new story to my Free Erotica section. Enjoy!

A follow up on my post Dark Fantasies published September 2013.

Just over a year ago I wrote a post called Dark Fantasies. I had sold several books about pseudo-incest and trannies which surprised me at the time.

The trend hasn’t changed those topics are my most sold books. I have added a few more in the same genre and they are also selling well.

I still haven’t figured out why these are popular, what I do know is that the topics are very sensitive and I had to rewrite one of them due to Amazon’s bots or human reviewers. Not a major problem, but a hitch.

Maybe we are secretly curious and with the invention of the e-book we can read about all the topics that just a few years ago we could never do in public. Imagine sitting on a train with a pocket book called, “Anna’s love for daddy.” It wouldn’t be possible, or at least not very comfortable. These days the name of the book can be a lot more provocative and no one around you would know.

Maybe reading lets us understand our own sexuality and curiosities. We can read about topics we would never talk about with friends or families. Then we let our own fantasies take us to that special place.

Why I write graphic erotica and don't like to use metaphors

When people ask me what kind of Erotica I write, I tell them; graphic. Usually I get a look saying “What?” Followed by; “Oh, it’s like comic books for adults?”

For me graphic erotica is somewhere between normal erotica and porn. You have the story, developed characters and real dialog as in erotica, but the sex scenes are more detailed, almost pornographic.

Some of my novellas were band on Amazon and some other e-book outlets, but after rewriting them they were allowed to stay.

While I rewrote them and softened up the words I used in the sex scenes I realized I didn’t like the story as much as before.

When you write a character, or at least when I do, I imagine how he or she would say things, and a man in his late twenties would not say “vagina” to a friend while telling him about a girl he was with the night before. He would say “pussy” or similar.

“Hey buddy, you should have seen the “honey pot” on that girl I picked up last night, it was beautiful.”

That, to me doesn’t sound real.

So why use such metaphors? One reason is to comply with the e-book publisher’s policies. Another is so catch more readers maybe, or adjust your writing to what you think readers want. But, wait a minute. Someone once said. “You should write what you like, not what you think other people will like. If you do, it doesn’t sound real, it sounds made up.”

Well, I like to read about juicy sex scene with things “squirting” and being “wet”. I like cock and pussy; I like boobs, tits and nipples. I don’t like; meat sausages, love swords, honey pot, pink tacos, etc. I want to be turned on, I want to become wet, not laugh and giggle (well, that too, but in a sexy way).

Some years ago I had a boyfriend who was into pornography he loved to watch porn at night before going to bed. In the beginning I didn’t like it but being a good girlfriend I would keep him company.

I had not watched much porn before, none of my earlier boyfriends were into it, and personally I couldn’t be bothered. But, this guy had pretty good taste, so after a couple of weeks I actually began to enjoy the movies.

Most men are turned on what they see, not what they read, while women are the opposite. I realized I liked and was turned on what I saw. At the time I hadn’t begun writing, but when I did I remembered this guy and his affection for porn, so I began to write the way I do. Some people like it and some don’t but I write what I like, and to me that is important.