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I very nearly called this post “Finding Where You Fit” but the double entendre was a bit much, even for me.
So you’ve decided you want to write romance and/or erotica: awesome! New year, new goals, new smutty you. But what to write about? If you start skimming through Amazon, you’ll see that there are tons of subcategories under erotica: billionaire, supernatural, interracial, dinosaurs, Pokemon, the list goes on and on.
You might feel tempted to fit your writing into a specific genre in order to differentiate your work from everyone else’s–after all, all erotica is about people (vampires/aliens/dinosaurs/manticores) having sex, so in order to have to set yourself apart, you need a gimmick, right?
Don’t get me wrong–if writing gay alien shapeshifter werewolf erotica is your jam, then go for it. But too often, I think erotica writers feel pressured to fit their work into a niche and they’re too focused on the window dressing of a piece rather than the quality of the writing. I don’t mean that to sound disparaging against people who do have some sort of ultra-specific niche or embrace gimmicks–clearly, it’s panned out for Chuck Tingle. But it works for him because it’s original and he’s not trying to be someone he’s not.
It all comes down to authenticity. If you’re really jazzed about the idea of writing gay alien shapeshifter werewolf erotica, then do it! If you’d rather writer something less specific or more vanilla, go for it! I believe it’s important to allow yourself to try different styles and experiment a bit, but if you’re miserable trying to write about ultra-virile space aliens because you’d rather write about a Victorian romance, then go for the latter.
Writing is hard work, but it’s also fun, especially when you’re writing erotica. You get to write about people/zombies/sphinxes having sex! How awesome is that? I’ll give you a hint: pretty awesome.
I hope these quick tips are useful for your next scene. More than anything, just have fun with it. Sex is fun and your writing should reflect that, so get busy!
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Emily Regan 