Spanking is one of the greatest aphrodisiacs ever discovered - well, at least for us spankos it is.
And we have contemplated more than once that the standard base plot of our style of fiction is set up, execution, aftermath. All our concern about the set up is that it is believable, and the execution is that the pale moons turn to the exact shade of crimson that denotes perfectly cooked buns.
The aftermath can be as un-erotic as corner time (for those who do not find corner time to be a turn on), as simple as quiet contemplation, or the onset of wild, un-abandoned lust of a heady and bodice ripping nature.
If you have not been down this route before, you have to make an early decision as to which style of erotica you are going to stay with. If your early stuff is gentile euphemisms and then you suddenly unleash a stream of stream of conscious dirty-talk on your audience, you will really tick them off. And those who revel in s.o.c. dirty talk have long dismissed you as an author of interest: so even that group will not make good the mass exodus of readers you have just lost.
I suggest that in this specific area you do actually write for yourself: even though everywhere else I have counseled you to put your audience first. For, putting this as delicately as I can - if you are personally uncomfortable when presented with a string of four lettered cuss words, you will never be able to write them with any degree of ease. And it will show through.
On the other hand, if "she felt her whole body strain in expectation of him taking her as he wanted..." leaves you squirming - then don't write that sort of stuff!
When writing the spanko part of your story, you have an audience who share a very significant trait with you: but when you branch off into erotica, you have as many different potential audiences as they are ways of describing how two people satiate the sexual desires.
There are, at base, three different tracks. Polite euphemisms, clinical descriptions, wild abandon descriptions. The first does not directly mention body parts by namee, the second uses the "correct" medical terminology for them, and the third makes use of raw and bawdy language to paint the picture.
Each will work very effectively for some readers, and not for others. So once you decide to indulge in a spot of purple prose, pick the shade you like and carry with you those readers who have the same taste as you. Each to their own, as they say elsewhere about something completely different.
I can see your point, but I disagree with your conclusions. An author who only writes what he or she is comfortable writing will kill their career. Do you have to have swearing every third word throughout your story? No, swearing is not necessary in any book except to evoke a mood. So if the mood is there, yes, you should include the occasional blue word. Do you need to have anal in every single sex scene of every story you write? No, but if you want to make a career in the genre of BDSM, spanking romances and/or erotica, then you'd better get comfortable learning how to write an occasional anal scene because that is what your generalized target audience expects. Too many authors say 'I hate writing explicit sex scenes'. To be perfectly honest, so do I. But that is also what the majority of your readers expect when they crack open your next book and if you do not provide it, then they will happily go elsewhere. Gone are the days when you can politely draw a curtain over the sex scene and leave it up to the imagination of your reader. And just because you started writing soft and sweet, doesn't mean you are forever boxed into that corner. Authors should grow and change over the course of their careers, or they will not have one. No author who is serious about their craft should allow themselves the luxury of say 'I'm just not comfortable' when it comes to writing in the formula of the genre they have chosen. Write it until you are comfortable with it and then pick and choose when and how you use it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful and reasoned comment.
DeleteI think we are saying the same thing in different ways - if you are going for a specific readership, you had better be able to deliver material that lives up to their expectations. If you are incapable of meeting those expectations, perhaps you should be targeting a different market. There are sufficient numbers in each segment to give you a reasonable audience.
I think you will agree that the biggest flaw in 50 Shades is that it was clearly not written by someone who truly understands, or experiences, the spanko way of life.
But you are quite right - if you decide that a particular genre is your best chance of writing a best seller, then personal taste should be secondary to what your audience wants to buy. But I think I am also right is saying that if your wordsmithery has a more modest target, then should you decide your works should include erotica (and there is no rule that they should) you should decide which style of erotica best suits your pen and - at least in the medium term - stick with it. (There is nothing like a work that bounces in the doldrums of no sales to make you rethink your writing style).
It would seem to me that if your first book is raw and dirty, your second a very discrete bodice ripper and your third neither of the above, you have risked alienating most of your potential readership. If anyone's personal experience proves me wrong, I would be delighted to hear of it.