The problem with erotica May 21, 2024

 

  I started writing erotica again, which I haven’t done in a long time.

I originally started back in the 1990s when inspired by the mafia don’s widow. She would send me a suggestion and I would more or less take off from that.

But it was very crude, more pornography than erotica – and there is a difference.

Pornography basically focuses on the sexual act, while erotica tends to be more subtle, drying to evoke emotion rather than sensation.

For the most part, women tend to write better erotica than men – although I’ve read some women writers who pass off pornography as erotica. I interviewed a few for news stories in the past, and still read their work.

I like reading poetry erotica better than fictional, although I write both.

I guess I’m inspired by posting old erotic poems and stories, and want to recapture the feelings engendered – with the goal of somehow getting the fictional variety that I write to be as good, as subtle and as emotional as the poetic stuff.

The story I posted today is hardly up to snuff, although for the most part it is better than the pieces if did for the widow back then.

I’ve delved back into volumes of erotica by other people to rekindle inspiration, although in almost every erotic piece I write I have someone in particular in mind – especially the poetry pieces that I wrote in 2012, 2013, 2014, and posted in 2016 and 2017.

I don’t know how successful this will be, although I’ve just penned two or three more erotic poems that evoke some of the feelings I’m looking for.

The other problem is that almost all my fiction, erotic or not, is based on real life experience on some level, a kernel from which the rest of the work springs. While I have a good imagination, I still need something to inspire me  -- other people’s work, ideas given to me from others or some real life experience.

I’m not sure where all this will end up, but it feels right, and so until someone tells me otherwise, I’ll pursue it.


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