Warning: In case you’re dumb as a stump and the title didn’t tip you off, this blog is not about good clean fun. We’re about to get a little dirty.
Profanity and slightly graphic depictions of sex will follow.
Children and Clean Fiction Advocates Move Along. This Blog Will Only Traumatize You.
Today’s topic is racy and salacious, even dirty and downright pornographic. Got your attention? Good. As you any of you who’ve read my work know, I have very healthy imagination when it comes to sex. I can imagine all kinds of things in very vivid detail. You don’t even want to know what I’ve done to Clive. Is this one of those areas where write what you know applies? That’s for me to know.
My reason for bringing sex up at all is that I’m tired of porn and erotica getting mixed up and I’m tired of them being taboo.
While some of the sex scenes I write border on pornographic, I intentionally keep them just behind the line most of the time. Why? I think there’s an art to writing sex scenes. Many authors and readers don’t seem to understand this difference. They think erotic equals sex. Period. It does not. Some think porn is the same as erotica. Two completely different things. I think the readers who mistake the two annoy me the most. Why would you read something clearly erotic or clearly “adult” when you claim to prefer clean fiction? Why? So you can sit back on your pretentious little ass and judge the writer and call what they write filthy porn. That’s why. Stop it. I hate you people. Sex happens, just like shit and other necessary evils. Why pretend it doesn’t?
Personally, I don’t think porn is a bad thing; it just has a time and a place. There are times where it is inappropriate and very wrong. Like tantrums and masturbation, porn isn’t something you just pull out whenever the urge strikes you.
How do you know where the line is? Is there a place for porn or erotica in mainstream fiction. Definitely. But let’s look at what each is, not what people mistakenly believe it is:
Erotica is intended to arouse, or excite. In my opinion, it’s a tool, not unlike characterization or setting. While it may be graphic, the story surrounding the sexual encounters is what is most important. The sex does not drive the story. The sex is PART of the story. Without it, the story makes little sense, and vice versa. Erotica doesn’t tend to use porn words either. Cock and clit are borderline words. Too many cocks and clits and you’re writing porn. A cock here and a clit there, you’re probably erotic. Those of you inserting throbbing cocks into sopping wet pussies and calling it erotic? Quit it. Goodness, that’s awful shit. Sopping. Ew.
Porn is intended to get you off. Porn is what you carry into the bathroom to view or read while enjoying your “me time” or wherever it is that you masturbate. Yep. I said it. By the way, the couch is not the place to do this. Gross. Pick a spot that’s disinfectable.
Porn is about sex and nothing else. Story? Plot? Characterization? Have you read any porn recently? I have, and there is none of that. It’s pure, unadulterated sex for the sake of sex. It’s nasty, usually cheesy, and sometimes quite entertaining to read. Skill? Sadly most writers of porn lack the necessary skills to write what I like to call “real” fiction. I’m not judging. It’s a lucrative industry. You don’t need skills. I could write a half dozen novellas or flash pieces tomorrow and they’d sell like hotcakes. I don’t because well…I don’t know. Perhaps I will.
But writers of mainstream and genre fiction can dip their toes in erotic waters and that doesn’t make their novel erotica. Hell, we can dip them in the porn stream too. (Although, I’d wash my foot when I was done with that particular fluid.) The novel doesn’t have to be tagged as porn just because you’ve got a couple of nasty dirty sex scenes either. The secret? I’ll get to that.
I want to illustrate the difference between erotica and downright porn. Oh yes, I’m gonna give you a sample. Which of the two scenes below is erotic? Which is pornographic?
Scene One
She stepped closer, so that her breath fanned my cheek. Raising a small hand, she stroked my hair. “I want to take what’s ours back. You and I could rule it all. My, but you’re prettier than I expected.”
“Thanks?”
She smiled, her dark eyes searching mine. I’d pay anything to have lips like hers. Full, perfectly red, moist…she darted a pink tongue across them. I could not be turned on. What had I turned into?
“If we joined, we could have it all. Don’t you want that?”
“I—uh, it’s not impossible, no.”
“I want to kiss you. May I?”
Since I stopped saying no a few weeks ago, I nodded. My brain screamed at me to run. But where? She inhabited my head. I couldn’t run. Her lips brushed mine. Soft. Not at all what I’d experienced with Nate or Chaos. Pleasant, but strange. I opened my mouth and she deepened the kiss. Her hand crept under my shirt, lightly stroking my ribcage, just below my breast.
“This is—I can’t. Stop.” My voice sounded breathy…weak. I didn’t want her to stop.
“You are thinking like a human. It is not wrong to share yourself with another. Not if you want to.”
I didn’t want to. Did I?
She took my hand, lifting it to her chest. Beneath the filmy material of her dress, her nipple hardened against my palm. “Have you ever shared yourself with a female?”
I shook my head. Of course not. Duh, I wasn’t gay.
“Human thoughts, dear.” She whispered, pressing against my hand. I’d never felt a large breast, only my own, which were anything but large. I imagined them to be squishy, like a bag of milk, not firm like hers. My fingers squeezed involuntarily.
Diana sighed. “Imagine what I might taste like if you trailed your tongue over my body. What if you took my breast in your mouth, sucking, teasing it until I cried out? I want you to make me beg for more. Go on. You know you want to.”
She lowered the top of her dress, exposing the breast I cupped. Removing the hand that held it there, she clasped the back of my head. I let her push me forward, until I was faced with her nipple. Licking my lips, I hesitated. Darn it, I was curious. Just once, maybe?
“Take it.” She pressed gently on my head.
I opened my mouth, closing my eyes. Her groan did funny things to my insides, filled me with a need not unlike what I’d felt when giving Nate that fateful blowjob. I sucked, rolling my tongue over the hard, yet so soft bud. The sensation turned me on. I couldn’t deny it.
“Bite it.” Bite it? This had to be a supernatural fetish. “Hurt me.”
Fine. I’d hurt her. I bit down, dragging my teeth over what I knew to be a sensitive little bit of flesh. “That’s it, sugar.” Sugar? I paused. She pushed at my head again. “The other one. Please.”
I know I should have just backed away. Stopped the insanity right there. That’s it. Bianca Smith is not a lesbian. But I didn’t. The experience was so unreal, like being a virgin all over again. Curious, terrified, unable to stop the train that I knew would careen off its fucking tracks, but I rode it anyway. I lifted my head and moved to the other breast. She didn’t have to tell me what to do this time. Didn’t have to push my face into her either. I willingly sucked at her, nipping a bit roughly at the tender skin until her breath quickened. So did mine.
“Is this all you want?” I asked. Was that my voice?
“Oh, no. I want much more than this, sugar. So do you. Imagine my tongue inside you, my fingers touching just the right places. Men know nothing about the female body. They maul it, fondle it, and pound it into submission. Not so with another female. Do you want me to show you what only a woman knows, Bianca?”
“No.” I’d never been bi-anything, not that I’d really considered it before. But damn, I could not remove the image of her dark head between my pasty-white thighs no matter how I tried. I did want to know. And although it scared the bejesus out of me, my mouth watered at the thought of tasting her.
“You lie. Why do you deny wanting me as much as I want you? They’ve got you thinking you belong to them. You don’t. If you and I were to b—pair up, we could eliminate them altogether. We’d have everything.”
The hand at my breast slipped to my jeans, under the waistband, and down. I never wore underwear. My mother told me I’d regret that.
Diana’s fingers moved against me, inside me. Oh my, she wasn’t kidding.
She kissed that place right below my ear; the one that sent my insides to mush. “So wet. Your body betrays you, sugar. You want me to make love to you. This is our purpose.
Me and you. Come on, don’t you want to know what it could be like?”
My legs trembled. Something tugged at me, deep in my stomach. I blinked. “Stop.”
Pushing against her, I tried to free myself from her awesomely inappropriate fingers. She pushed back and we fell. Her body was light, her breasts pressed against my mine. Damn these people and their clothes stealing. Grinding her hips, she covered my mouth once more. The kiss no longer gentle, and not at all soft, she thrust her tongue into my mouth.
I pushed again and she moved away. Silly me, I thought I’d won my inner battle with willpower, but no. Diana only repositioned herself over my thighs, and lifted her beautiful face to grin at me.
“They’re watching us you know. They see everything. We could own them, you and I. They’re in fits at the moment, wishing they were here, touching you this way. But, why should the boys have all the fun?”
Please, let her be lying. The thought of Nate or Chaos seeing me doing this…with her, filled me with shame.
“Silly thing. They’re not judging you for doing what is natural. They’re jealous.”
Grasping my hips, she lowered her head, her hair tickling my stomach. Cheese and crackers, the woman knew what she was doing. My body jerked, wanting to push into her talented mouth, but the tugging in my stomach intensified into a gnawing pain, despite the fireworks sparking down in my nether regions.
Scene Two
“Lay down, Cowboy. I’ll teach you a new game.”
“I like games.” Jack lay on the bed and she joined him, setting a vibrator and a bottle of lotion next to his head. “I wish you wouldn’t put that so close to me. I don’t like them.”
“You’re just jealous of it. Don’t worry, it doesn’t compare to the real thing. I’ll need it later and you’ll be glad once you see what it does.” She took his cock into her mouth and began working her magic as promised.
Jack wound his hands in her hair and pushed her face into him leaving her no choice but to take all of it in. Whitney liked that. Jenny did not.
“God, I love your mouth.” Jack groaned as she trailed her teeth along the shaft and then back down again sending shivers down his spine and fire into his balls. “Faster, I’m almost there.”
She stopped. Jack wanted to push head her back down, but he knew she had better things planned. When she picked up the lotion and rubbed it on his cock he was intrigued. When it tingled and then went numb, he was confused. Damn it. That stuff made it impossible for him to get off and she knew it.
“Whitney, you know I don’t like that shit. Now this could take forever. I don’t have all night.”
She smiled but said nothing. Squeezing more lotion on her hand Whitney reached behind her. Jack blinked. Was she rubbing it on her ass? Oh God yes, she was rubbing it into her ass. His heart raced in his chest. Shit, he was too old for this. But what a way to go. No one had ever let him do this and Jack couldn’t recall ever asking.
“Are you serious?” he asked.
She capped the bottle and knelt on the bed.
“Why don’t you come up here and see?”
Jack jumped up and moved to the end of the bed. She pointed her ass at him and he positioned himself but hesitated.
“Are you sure about this? It might hurt.” He didn’t want to hurt her, even if she did ask for it. She enjoyed it rough but if he hurt her, she’d pout for days, even if it was her idea.
“It won’t hurt. It’s going to feel amazing. The key is lubrication and relaxation. Now do it.”
Jack eased his way in, not ready to believe she would really let him do it. If she stopped him now, he’d cry. He expected her to do so any minute, but she didn’t, pushing her ass against him instead. His breath caught in his chest as her muscles clenched tight around him, and Jack heard her soft moan followed by the unmistakable hum of the vibrator. Opening his eyes he watched her place it first against herself and then just under his balls.
“Sweet Jesus,” Was that his voice?
“See, Jack? When I’m done, I’ll just help you along with my friend here and everyone is happy.” She moved the vibrator back to herself and pushed against him so that he was all the way in.
“Nguh,” Jack grunted. Nguh? He didn’t care how he sounded anymore. This was just too fucking good to be true.
“That’s what I’m talking about. Now push, Cowboy. You can move around a bit.”
He snapped out of his shocked stupor and moved in and out. The sight of her bent like that would have been enough to end it without her lotion. She cried out and pushed the vibrator inside of her and it hummed against him. Jack nearly fainted, his heart racing painfully in his chest.
Can’t tell which is which? Well, the content of the scene is not what makes something porn or erotica. It’s the purpose of the scene and the writing that surrounds it. That is the secret. Easy, yes?
Think of the second scene as a short story. Imagine Jack picks Whitney up at a bar and this is the result, the ending would be their climax. (gigglesnort) Make it about twice as graphic, with fewer pretty words and proper sentences, more cocks and whatnot, and you’ve got what sells as porn these days.
This is actually a scene out of The Legend of Jackson Murphy, which is mainstream fiction with a pornographic scene or two mixed in. Are the scenes necessary to plot? Yes. Do they need to be in so much detail? Not at all. This is what pushes them into the porn zone. I could take them out, fade to black, be a bit vague, or simply have Jack talk about the sex that occurred, but what would be the fun in that? I included it for a reason and it wasn’t intended to shock. This scene is the single scene that every one of my beta readers remembers. And they aren’t disgusted because it fits the plot and it fits the characters. I didn’t just pull it out of my ass (excuse the pun) to add interest to the story.
The first scene is from a work in progress, I haven’t quite tweaked the ending enough to consider it a finished draft. You’ll probably notice I have some tweaking to do within the scene too. Sorry for the “roughness”. It is one of a few sexual encounters in this particular work. None of them include the same two people. The entire novel is (hopefully) thick with sexual tension.
But is it porn or erotica or is it genre with erotic elements? Erotica. The focus is on the story, but the erotic elements are crucial to the plot and characterization. Part of the underlying theme is how society influences what we view as right and wrong. Society influences sexual…activities very much. Imagine if no one would judge you for what you did or who you did it to? Wouldn’t that be fantastic? What if monogamy was a choice and not an expectation? Would we see so many people sharing their bodies with just one person forever and ever? I doubt it. Without the sex, it’s just me babbling on about these theories in a narrative that would be quite boring if you ask me.
So there you have it. Porn and erotica are not the same. They aren’t bad either. If your novel calls for sex, then use one or the other. It’s okay. To keep it tasteful, or to keep it…real, make sure that it’s necessary. Don’t chicken out though. If you’re going to write a sex scene you need to bite the bullet and avoid euphemisms like loins, love caves and shafts, but also go easy on the clits and cocks. Okay? Great. I look forward to being aroused by your work. Writing work. Pervs.
Dangling on the Edge of Insanity 
Dear God, I take a rest from blogging and come back to this! What else have I missed? And I thought Canada was cold. No wonder you don't complain about the long dark winters overmuch 🙂 Nice choice of examples, Renee.
I just wanted to make your return to the Blogosphere special. Canada is cold, so we're inside A LOT. Well that didn't come out right at all, did it. You like the examples? I hesitated because they're both still drafts, but the other scenes were far too long so…
I think I was going to study after I was done checking blogs. I probably won't be able to focus now. Gee, thanks Renée. 😉
My work here is done.
Renee, I love you. Great post, overflowing in salaciousness. I think I shall go have some me time on the couch. Yup I said.
Ew.