What Makes Good Erotica?

October 9th, 2011 → 4:53 am @ Dallas Black // 2 Comments

None of us read anymore. The advent of smartphones, tablets, eBooks and 140 character blurbs have shortened our attention spans and forced us to glean facts and determine interest in seconds. You flip pages more than you use to and rightfully so. You have more reading options than ever before. Don’t like what you are reading? Go to the next story or topic. You must be intrigued in the first 2-3 sentences, period.

This is also true of erotica. If you don’t grab me, are obvious or manage to turn me off in the first 2-3 sentences then I am scrambling for the “Next” button. As an author, I would never tell someone what to write. But I can encourage caution; caution when writing an erotic story that begins as an erotic story.

The sexiest stories are just that, stories. They may be short, they may be long but they are bodies. Bodies of work that have a beginning and end up somewhere. The story may include a sexual tryst or it may not. It may be set in the countryside or in a concrete jungle. Either way, a story is told.

Words do not titillate, stories do. Filling your prose with “her pussy was so wet” or “his dick was so hard” does nothing for anybody. Trust me. Conversely, overly displaying your complex vocabulary does nothing but insinuate a level of sophistication that really does not exist. It shows.

The true essence, the beauty, the fun of writing erotica is walking that line. Telling a story that happens to be erotic. Conveying feelings, passion and describing their impacts upon characters. That is what keeps a reader turning pages.

It doesn’t have to be 50 pages and can be as short as one page. I am sure you already know it isn’t the “length” that counts but rather what is behind it and what lays ahead.

Keep writing.

-Author Dallas Black
http://www.erotictidbits.com