Author Chat Friday - It's not porn. It's research!

Once again, it's time for Alysha's Author Chat Friday, and this one is a Naughty Hoot and a Half!

It’s not Porn. It’s research.

Writers are a strange bunch. We listen to the voices in our heads and convert them into stories. Most of us would rather stay home and write than go out and party. We lock ourselves away in little rooms, then waste time on the internet when we’re supposed to be writing.

Those of us who write erotic fiction are even stranger. We imagine all sorts of situations and then we strive to convert that particular embrace, that connection, that physical position into a scene in the story we’re telling. And to do that, we have to do some serious research.

Stop laughing. It’s hard work spending hours every day looking for pictures of hot naked males, preferably with ALL their equipment on display. Note, looking AT the pictures is easy, real easy, oh my god easy. Looking FOR them, not so much.

I’m sure this will absolutely astonish most people, but there is a lot of nakedness and sex on the internet! The diligent writer of erotic fiction has to wade? feel? grope? lick  (sorry, that’s just me) through a plethora of naked people doing extraordinarily interesting things to each other.

Some people post pictures that fall into the category of Things that Make You Go Hmmm. With the number of images out there, you end up looking at a few things you wish you hadn’t. Pictures you can never unsee. Fear not, I am not going to post any of these here. This is Phoenix’s blog and I am pretty sure she wants you all to come back. A brief description might do.

I was looking for an image of group sex—yeah, yeah, I know, I’m kinky, weird and a disgrace to whatever, but the thing is if you are describing a sex scene with multiple people, you need to know exactly how Tab A fits into Slot B, and connecting rod C links to receptacle D without bending along the dotted line. This is especially important if it’s an IKEA sex scene…you know, the kind where you have both hands full, a couple of strange tools and several bits left over.

Okay, so you’ve got an idea of the kind of picture I was looking for. How was I to know there was a very active cell of over sixties who not only enjoyed group sex, but also liked to post multiple pictures of themselves in the most detailed of close-ups? I’m a firm believer that sex should be fun at any age but in my head the story was filled with taut, young bodies, not proof that gravity works.

Then there’s the pictures that almost get there, but somehow leave you puzzling. You have a gorgeous male, just about perfect in every way, but he’s wearing knee high sport’s socks? What’s with that? In this case there’s also the issue of the cream.

This picture is polarizing. Reactions seem to be either yum, I’d like to lick that off (Do any of you notice there’s an unfortunate tendency to licking developing here? I may have a problem) or to get mothery and want to make him go inside and have a bath. Now I think of it, that’s not such a bad idea either. Who’s a dirty boy then? Oh yeah, that’d work.

As writers we’re aware that different people get turned on by different things. We need to check occasionally to see if what we think is hot is really sexy or just caters to our particular kink.

The Australian Erotic Writer’s group I belong to is wonderful, I couldn’t ask for a better bunch of people to share questions, ideas, and, yes, pictures with. But if the average person could read some of the threads on our posts, they’d faint clean away. We refer each other to good web sites and quite often outline the particular area of kink catered to.

We talk about the best way to position the participants in multiple partner sex scenes… Yes, I do think back to front with the third sitting on her lap would work… or whether it would work better to have the heroine tied to the bed while wearing nipple clamps, or put the nipple clamps on later. And do this guys tattoos make him perfect or does he push it a bit far? The fact that this image is saved in my files as Way too many tatts guy should give you clue where I stand, but I know that isn’t everyone’s opinion.

The point is, we writers have to look and evaluate all sorts of images and ideas while we’re trying to lick our stories into shape. Um, no, let me rephrase that, while we are trying to craft our stories. Oh yes, that sounds much more professional.

So next time you read a work of erotic fiction spare a thought for the hours of hard work and eye strain that have gone into the preparation of the story. No sacrifice has been too much, no search too wearisome.

It’s a hard job and one that takes dedication and determination. But don’t worry. I think I’ve got it licked.

Alysha Ellis

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