The Crime Scene vs. The Sex Scene

I really had to share this thought of the day.

Today I went to lunch with a very good friend. We met through a local writing group, which a few of us then left as we felt it wasn't quite ticking the boxes for what we wanted out of a writing group, and sort of made our own one up. This way we've actually got to know one another, and we believe this is important if we're then going to critique each other's work.

She's also a surrogate mum to me, and has helped me through my various dramas over the past couple of years.

We could talk all day and everyday I feel, we get on so well. We often message one another via Facebook or meet for coffee. (Not often enough sometimes.)

Today was no different, we met for lunch, but what I thought was particularly funny as our conversation moved to writing; we started talking about writing erotica - probably a bit too loudly in the middle of Frankie and Benny's, and we had no alcohol to blame it on either, only caffeine.

My friend confessed to writing something saucy, something she doesn't ordinarily do. She's not really a romance writer like me. She doesn't believe in happy endings. She said that this particular story just flowed from her - I'm constantly nagging her to stop the inner editor and just to write the damn thing. We joked that maybe she should write erotica, if it flowed so easily, but she said if she got published she wouldn't be able to tell anyone. Then we laughed a lot.

We discussed how, if we wrote crime, and described cutting a person up into gory pieces and stuffing him in a bin or burying him etc. etc. etc. not one of our friends would think 'hey, that's a bit weird/sick/sadistic'. They'd just think 'oh, clever." Yet, writing a saucy sex scene, friends and associates would instantly raise an eyebrow and ponder, is this her usual bedroom behaviour? Does she experiment for research purposes? Is she this kinky in bed, too? THAT came from her head!!!

Crime writers aren't criminals, therefore romance writers aren't necessarily, well, you know... well, not all the time anyway...

As a romance writer, I like to create a little bit of fantasy, a little romance, and heroic men that lets face it, just doesn't happen in reality.

Book Review: Writing Erotic Fiction by Derek Parker

Writing Erotic Fiction by Derek Parker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Jean Saunders' family donated some writing books to my writing group. We use it as a library, and this was among it.

The edition of this book was published in 1995, and therefore is a little out of date.

We now have the eBook which is a great source for erotica novels - with many ebook publishers available. But, all the same, it was an interesting read, including the history of erotica literature - it provided some classic passages. 

I'm not sure if I'm any the wiser in how to write erotica (or if I'd be any good at it). It's something that depends on era. What was being written in 1995 and accepted, could be very different to what is present day.

This book talked of novels being 80,000 words and sex had to occur regularly (every 2000 words - or something like that!). I'm not quite sure I could manage that! I might stick to romance... However, this might be proof that times have changed, and more plot is required in your story.

Right, what to read next?

(By the way, this is not the cover of the book I read. Thanks to the Amazon/Goodreads dispute, my cover has been lost).


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