PORN VS EROTICA ‘There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.’ —Oscar Wilde Tell someone you are a writer of erotica and they are likely to be intrigued. Tell them you write pornography and they may suddenly go quiet. Some will even take a step away from you. The words themselves come with their own overtones, justified or not, and, while there is no question that erotic literature has become a lot more mainstream over the last few decades, the debate continues as to what the fundamental difference is between pornography and erotica. At best it’s a grey area—no need to count up how many shades exactly—and this is not the place to attempt a definitive prescription of what constitutes one or the other. But the following is a brief round-up of the current consensus, which may focus your thinking and help you produce the kind of work you can be proud of. The word pornography comes from the Greek words for harlot and writing, so porn is literally ‘that which a harlot may write’ (based on her own experiences, presumably—’write what you know’ could well have been as popular a mantra among ancient Greek literary agents as it is in writing manuals today). It therefore implies that the sex described is nothing more than a business transaction, a loveless act where one party buys services in an encounter devoid of any kind of passion or mutual desire to get to know the other more deeply. Erotica is equally all about the sex in that its ultimate aim is to stimulate and excite, but it seeks to do this by other, less obvious means. Erotica is as much about the process as the end result and concentrates at least as much on the way the people feel about each other as it does on how those feelings are manifested. Interestingly, those feelings may not always be demonstrated in the most standard, straightforward, or even dignified way. The spectrum can extend from the simple act of holding hands at one end, all the way down to anything from handcuffs and beyond at the other. But its focus is always primarily on the essential relationship and not merely the physical act of intercourse...or fellatio or cunnilingus. (Get used to these words, you’ll be seeing more of them and their like as we go on and, if they make you uncomfortable now, you might like to rethink why you started reading this guide in the first place!) Some would argue that erotica is essentially about the beauty of sex, but beauty itself is an aesthetic judgement and what one person finds attractive or exciting, another might find repellent or simply dull. And just as well, otherwise we would all be chasing the same conventionally gorgeous individuals and the vast majority of humanity would be left making do with what they considered second-best. Besides, tastes change over time and those things that other eras and other cultures find alluring—the glimpse of an ankle beneath a heavy Victorian petticoat, the sight of a young woman’s nape in sixteenth-century Japan—are not necessarily going to get our motors revving today. Erotica serves today’s needs and, if nothing else, provides wish fulfilment. It should always aim to be positive and upbeat. Everyone gets what they want in the end, especially if in the end is where they want to get it. So while the main difference between pornography and erotica may be in the eye of the beholder, here is a brief rundown of the main points on which most modern observers of erotica seem to agree: Erotica appeals to readers who like their minds to be engaged sexually, as well as their senses. Erotica is balanced and egalitarian, even when power-play is involved. Erotica celebrates sex as mutually rewarding for both sides. Erotica offers a deeper, more satisfying experience than pornography. While porn frequently ignores plot, erotica is mostly built on plot. Erotica is always (and must always be) consensual, even when it is edgy and transgressive. Erotica is a stimulus to sex rather than necessarily a substitute. Erotica seduces. Erotica is classy. Erotica celebrates sexuality. So while erotica is seeking to turn the reader on and get him or her into a randy frame of mind, the means by which it tries to do that are radically different from pornography. The pornographer crams everything into the mix without caring too much about whether it is relevant, appropriate, or even plausible, and leaves nothing to the reader’s imagination. The writer of erotica, on the other hand, is more of a humanitarian, approaching her task with rather more elegance and style, treating her readers with respect and allowing their own fantasies to play a part and contribute to the experience. Where the porn writer will call a spade a spade simply because he lacks the time or the wit to think of anything better, the writer of erotica will find a way of conveying the sense and shape and heft and concept of spade in a variety of ingenious and subtle ways without ever having to use the word ‘spade’ at all. Often what’s sexy is what you don’t say: never underestimate the power of the reader’s imagination. We will add at this point that none of the above should be interpreted as making any value judgements on the intrinsic qualities of the various types of material out there. Erotica, if it tries to become too high-falutin’, can crash and burn with spectacularly comic results. And nothing is more likely to puncture the erotic mood more effectively than a misplaced laugh. (These days they even give prizes for the worst sex scenes in books and competition is fierce.) Erotica should fire our aesthetic sense as well as our libido and this means respecting the finer points of the writer’s craft. These include precision in vocabulary, perfect grammar, a sense of rhythm, a sharp eye for detail and a keen ear for levels of language. Good erotic fiction should also contain a strong plot, external conflict, plenty of drama, with pace and a sense of proportion. The actions should be in keeping with the background. And the characters should be rounded, sympathetic, on a human scale, and not simply black-hatted villains or mistresses in scarlet underwear. Basically, in order to write good erotica it is first necessary that you can write good prose. But assuming you can already do that, let’s now examine how we can turn that skill towards the specifics of producing engaging, stimulating, banging-hot erotica. YOUR KINK OR MINE? If you’re unsure what specific area you might like to aim at, there’s no better way to gauge the market than to read widely around the subject. Human sexuality is a complex thing, and there’s no accounting for what people get off on. But one thing’s for sure: if you’re into it, the chances are that someone somewhere has written about it. Most book shops these days have sections devoted to erotica, and the Internet of course provides an even broader and deeper well to draw on. Plunge in. The simplest way to explore your potential market is to think of some of your favourite kinks and type them into a search engine. Be shameless, and honest, and go after the stuff that excites you the most and that you think you could do well. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time and effort working on a book, do make sure your subject is one you’re genuinely interested in. Not only will this prove more enjoyable for you to write, anything that is less than interesting to the author often becomes obvious to the reader. Your boredom or embarrassment will communicate itself through the page. If you’re new to the game, you might like to start with the Mills & Boon Spice list of erotica. These days the typical Mills & Boon heroine is a lot feistier than she used to be, and frequently makes the sexual running herself. Best of all, she’s found that she doesn’t have to keep one foot on the bedroom floor any more. Indeed, sometimes those feet can be found pummelling the hero’s buttocks as he pounds into her, if they’re not actually manacled to his bed post. There are so many titles available that if you read enough of them, you’re bound to get a good idea of the breadth of experience accepted (and now deemed acceptable) within their pages. Such research will also help you avoid that most typical of tyro errors: unoriginality. There may be some erotic mileage still to be squeezed out of the hoariest old situations—the artist and the model, the waitress and the millionaire, the lady and the
