For one reason or another, more text-based porn than usual has made it across my radar in the last few weeks. (Thank you for the links, gentlemen, you are very sweet.) And it’s gotten me thinking. (And other things as well.)
Most pornographic stories are bad; a vast and sweeping generalization, I know, but I’ll let it slide for the moment. However, more often they are not so much bad as they are off target. They make me feel like ringing the author to say “Great effort, but the judges just couldn’t relate to your performance.”
And it occurs to me that while many, many, many resources exist to enable better writing, not many resources exist that are specifically designed to teach a writer how to target their audience. In fact, I would venture that most of us can’t really manage to write for audiences unlike ourselves, even when we actually try to (and, let’s face it, most of us don’t even try.) Especially regarding this particular subject matter.
And look, I’m not talking about great literature here. I’m talking wank material. Brown paper wrappings. Not safe for work. Porn. Which can still be great literature; the two are not mutually exclusive, although they do entail different perspectives and skills. It’s a bit of an alien experiment for most of us, the writing of porn. I don’t often write it, and you readers never see it when I do.
So, in my half helpful, half rantish mood, I thought I’d give a little Cliff Notes version of how to target porn for an audience I might relate to. Namely, dominant women. (Solipsism? On a blog? Impossible.)
This is how to write porn for me. Not that I expect you to, and not that I’m anticipating that any of you actually will. But many people try, and the success rate is just too low to ignore. So if you’ve ever been curious how to write pornography that a dominant woman would enjoy, here’s my side of the story. (I highly encourage each of you to write your own list for your orientation as well. I’m tempted to meme that suggestion, but I don’t think the world really needs more memes.)
Onward, and leaving aside the obvious things like “write about kinky sex” and “yes, women read porn too” and “yes, male bottoms are sexy” and “yes, as a matter of fact I am queer,” here is the not-so-secret list of hints and tricks.
1. Get out of my head.
Many of the stories I read are entirely made up of long, complicated inner monologues about arousal and angst and the contemplation of dominance. I give this tactic a great big failing mark in bright red pen. Remember the purpose of the piece. If you’re writing academic prose or fiction, go ahead and explore the psyche of your dominant character. Interesting? Definitely interesting. Sexy? Not sexy. Pornography is not contemplation. Pornography is action.
One of the questions we keep asking about pornography is how the reader relates to the characters, i.e. what character will I choose to inhabit? As I have mentioned before, I usually resist “inhabiting” dominant characters, because they annoy me. Instead I will eroticise a third-person perspective of a story, or inhabit the character of the submissive in order to better translate their reactions into wankable material. I would rather not have to do this, but inevitably I find dominant women in pornography alienating and annoying, not because they’re behaving stupidly or doing something I don’t relate to, but because they just won’t shut up.
1a, related: Skip my orgasm.
Unless it advances the plot or is necessary to complete the story, you can leave out all of the bits about the shock waves and juiciness the me-character is feeling. Usually when I get to this part I skim over the lines, usually while thinking, “Been there. Done that. Trying to get there again. Don’t need a guidebook.”
2. Focus on the bottom.
Following very obviously from the above points is this; I don’t want the focus of my pornography to be on the character I’m supposed to be inhabiting, but on the character I find attractive. Or, as other women have said before me, omigod hot slaves! Get the view off the dominant and onto the submissive. I want the bottom’s monologue, the bottom’s reactions, the bottom’s screams, the bottom’s emotions. I want to read the side of the story that I find sexy. Shocker: that’s not me.
3. Write my kinks.
Obviously I would love it if every pornographic story I read was about the things I love. Wouldn’t we all? Give me harem slaves, give me cages and heavy metal, whips and chains, tenderness and flinching, slapping and strengths and service. Give me fantasy and living artwork and quirky details. Give me rituals, love, slavery, fear. Give me characters who are joyful, who are confident, genderqueer, beautiful, funny, sexy, smart, skilled. And especially, give me great long strings of language and all of those searing, desperate words I love.
4. Write your kinks.
My kinks aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and as far as I’m concerned that’s fine. If none of the things I like get you off, then write about something that does get you off. Showcase your specific enthusiasm and passion, and the arousal will translate.
5. Write well.
I know that as you’ve been reading this you’ve been mentally gearing up for my (hopefully witty, you cross your fingers) contribution to the titanic outpouring of hatred against improper grammar, spelling, and punctuation that already floats about online. You can stop bracing yourself; you won’t get it. Two points on this:
Point the first: It’s porn, for fuckssake.
When it’s porn I really don’t care. I will not be brought back from the brink of orgasm by a misplaced apostrophe. (Honestly, if you’re brought back from the brink of orgasm by something so minor, I would suggest that you examine your grammatical hang-ups with a more critical eye.) In literature these things are important. In porn, frankly, not so much. I spoke out strongly against the Kushiel series recently not because they aren’t good pornography (they contain, in fact, some scattered moments of very good pornography) but because they aren’t good literature.
And point the second: Of course I would prefer proper grammar, proper spelling, proper punctuation, but good writing is not the same as these things. I suspect that many potentially good writers (pornographic and otherwise) don’t write because they fear being vilified over these aspects of their craft. And, of course, because on the internet there are no full time copy editors.
When I say “write well,” I mean to present developed characters, engaging scenarios, powerful interactions, and emotional growth. That sounds more complex than I could rightly ask for in pornography, but it’s actually a deceptive set of very simple ideas. A character can grow emotionally by simply moving from pain to acceptance. Our erotic imaginations have scenarios and interactions galore. As I said, pornography is about action. And as for character, which seems to stump so many people, hell, there are characters everywhere. Write slash if you don’t want to make your own. Appropriate your friends. Appropriate people you see on the street or meet in shopping centers. Appropriate your blogroll. I’ve been appropriated in pornography a few times in the past, and it always seems to turn out remarkably well.
And that’s it. It’s not a very long list, being the Cliff Notes version. But as May said last night when I was ranting the baby beginnings of this post at him, “Sex just isn’t that complicated.” And in the end, he’s right.
Now that I’ve written all of this down, I think I might just go write some pornography of my own. Who am I writing for? What’s on your how-to list?
27 Comments
I would assume you did not find my site Unpublishable at all interesting, as you’ve never made a comment there. It’s clear from your comments above that you wouldn’t like my story, “Separation.” But what about Sad Case?
Junk, huh?
Hi Alexis,
Actually, when you originally linked me to Unpublishable I read the entire thing through in about 3 days. I thought I left a comment to that effect, but it seems I didn’t. I like your writing there, and consistently find it either sexy, engaging (from a literary standpoint) or both.
Can’t remember specifics of Sad Case, but I’ll go back and re-read it tomorrow without my current monstrously painful stomach ache, and then report back.
Fascinating. I’d love to write my own.
In particular, I find internal dialogue incredibly sexy and technical details, unless it’s really awesome, to bore me. Usually, the technical details only interest me if they lead me to an understanding of what’s going on in the heads of the characters.
And if you read too much porn that can’t get out of the head of the top, then, if you don’t mind me asking, where the FUCK do you find it? I would love to read some, if it’s believable (like, no mandom misogynist macho revenge anger plzkthx, it’s just not hot.)
Hm, definitely food for thought.
Second Jos’s request on links.
And here I’ve been writing something just for you and I totally messed it up. I should have known you liked long strings of language.
Here’s an excerpt of what I was writing:
“Me Jane, you subbie Tarzan”
Oh well, back to the ol’ drawing board.
Vague!
I’m glad it’s food for thought, but I hope you don’t take me to seriously. This links back to the purpose of your writing; I’ve defined a very specific purpose and a very specific audience here, not exactly what you’re doing currently. I’ve really enjoyed your writing, so don’t change course on my account!
Axe, have I ever mentioned you’re a teeny bit of an asshole? Ah wait, I tell you that all the time. Maybe that’s why I like you so much.
Jos, Wanderer, let me see about getting permission from people to pass their work on.
Alexis, usually my response to the pieces you write on Unpublishable (such as, for example, Sad Case) is that your ideas are extremely sexy, and I’ll usually remember and rephrase them for my own use when I’m looking for or creating masturbatory material. But I don’t treat your stories as pornography while I’m reading them, sometimes because they’re too focused on the dominant character, sometimes because they’re too long to serve that particular purpose, and sometimes, albeit rarely, because I enjoy reading them but am not aroused by them.
I happen to think you’re a superb writer in many ways, although I suspect you already know that. I read your pieces expecting a good literary treatment of concepts that I’m interested in.
Alexis,
P.S. If you’d really like Unpublishable to serve as a repository for your writing, might I suggest you make the entire thing easier to browse. Right now the only way I have to browse that site while on a specific post is through a list of previous posts. That drives me crazy, especially if I’m trying to read a story in the right order.
That goes for your personal blog as well, actually. I’d spend a lot more time there if I could actually get where I wanted to go easily.
Thank you for the compliments. I wasn’t expecting them.
I don’t know why it would bother me that I don’t write “masturbatory material,” but I guess on some level it does. I’m sure I would masturbate to them if I could get out of my own head, and I know Mistress does…but her and I are no templates for anyone.
As far as organizing the blog, I thought this irrationality was the nature of blogs. At any rate, I wouldn’t know how to fix it; I am the wrong kind of nerd (think Booger, not Louis). But I will ask around and see what can be done.
Again, thank you. Surprisingly kind.
Well, no, but I am also looking to attract as broad an audience as possible. So I’m more than willing to throw elements in to appeal to other people, especially since at the moment you’re like 20% of my audience.
This post was really funny in my own personal context. Jos and I recently had a whole conversation where he talked about how sm porn never tells you anything about what the top is thinking or why they are there at all. We were talking about Elizabeth’s HFDU stuff and he had that slight gripe about it. I argued that in all porn, it’s basically the subject or patient who is interesting. (That’s the rough version, but I think it’s basically true.) And then you posted this.
Oh yes and for sure. :) We need lots more good porn, encourage away!
Having written my own porn for [counts on fingers, moves to toes, runs out of digits] *many* years, I find I like sliding points of view. I want to feel her hunger and also feel his response to that hunger. I get stuck because as a literary style (you know, if I’d want to show it to anybody), it’s a bitch to pull off.
Thanks for posting this.
hugs,
E
Ooops, just noticed that Dev’s comment above mine mentioned me. It might look like I was writing in response to her…nope, not that organized. *hi Dev*
It’s funny, HFDU is written specifically, explicitly and intentionally as porn for women. I didn’t know if guys were going to like it at all, so Jos’ comment is one I thought I’d hear more. I think from his POV it’s completely legitmate. I haven’t even given a physical description of Ariana yet, intentionally, although I’m feeling generous and will probably throw it in the next chapter. The guys are being very patient. :)
I get annoyed fast when someone runs off the physical measurements and hair colors. I don’t care what the bottom or the top looks like in the story. I don’t care if the girl has small boobs, no boobs, one boob, and I certainly don’t want to know how many inches the throbbing member throbs along. Although, if the girl is submissive because she thinks she deserves it because of her ugly boobs (which I see occasionally), you’re just pissing me off.
One time, I was reading a story, and there were three women, and the story ran off their hair colors. You all know where this is going: one blonde, one brunette, one redhead. Thanks. I really need to see that in my mind to get aroused. Blah.
Tell me about the fear. Tell me about how when your submissive gives you that orgasm, the dark fire inside of you rages up like an inferno and you grab their hair so hard they cry out. Tell me why. Tell me what’s going on inside your head. What makes it hot for the people doing it.
And then, while you’re at it, introduce something involving pain and electricity.
Do that, and you’ve got me totally hooked.
I hope I’m staying on topic here and not hijacking Eileen’s comment thread. I think I’m still in the safe zone. [bites nails]
Jos, a lot of what you’re talking about here re: physical description has to do with good writing vs writing crutches. (I’m much better at talking about writing than I am actually writing, unfortunately.) It’s a crutch to start a story with physical descriptions of every character and to start every scene with a description of the room the people are in at the moment. You see this in plenty of commercial writing, not just amateur internet porn. It’s annoying in commercial writing and will suck the life right out of a porn story before it even gets started.
As will *smack* *smack* *smack*. No! I do not need to know the sound of spanking. I have heard this before. Writing is not about transcribing a porn movie scene.
But more people should write porn, not fewer, so if we talk too much about these mechanics, it makes it more intimidating to write, I think. (It does for me.) The most important takeaway from Eileen’s post-which-I-loved is that keeping the focus on the guy is the way to write porn for dominantly inclined women. This *is* news because I know that in the stories that have been sent to me or that I read online, the focus is never there.
hugs, E
Alexis,
Actually, one of the reasons I enjoy reading your material is because I read into it many things about your personal character and the relationship you and your Mistress may have. I’m sure they’re not all accurate hypotheses, but just the game of it interests me.
As for the blog navigation, I suggest you look into a different template, or adding widgets to your pages. It’s been a while since Blogspot for me, but if you think I can help with anything you’re welcome to shoot me an email.
Dev,
Obviously I agree with you. But I don’t know that the argument could be applied in general. I just get the feeling that somewhere there are people who’d prefer their pornography to focus on their personally inhabited characters. I mean, what about solo masturbation porn? Or perhaps not. It’d be an interesting topic to study.
Elizabeth, Jos,
Hijack! Hijack! The conversation is an excellent thing to come back from my crazy weekend days and read. E, I wouldn’t say anything I’m saying here is exactly *news,* but perhaps repeating it over and over will eventually produce some new material. And while I enjoy your shifting points of view in the stories you write, I confess that I am sometimes a bit more focused. When I’m reading HFDU as pornography, I skip Ariana’s entire perspective. But hey, that means I just read it through more than once.
Tell me about how when your submissive gives you that orgasm, the dark fire inside of you rages up like an inferno and you grab their hair so hard they cry out.
I’m just jumping in with my own perspective – sometimes the aforementioned raging infernos get a little out of control for my tastes; and I actually do enjoy (sometimes) reading explicit descriptions. Want to point out that there is a blonde, brunette an a redhead? Fine with me, although it’s better reading if those descriptions are an integral part of the story. “Ann walked into the room. She was a tall blonde woman…” is a bit bland, but “I looked up as the scuff of boots signaled Ann’s entrance into the room; her wide face made more severe by the tight ponytail of long, blonde hair…” pulls it together.
I’ve been told – and I think that I have to agree – that I really don’t write porn. It seems to be some kind of erotica, but I don’t seem to have that intense action that I associate with good porn.
That said, the feedback that I usually get about my hot chastity
pornerotica is that people enjoy reading about the submissive and acceptance of orgasm denial; but contrary to Eileen’s suggestion about writing for dom women, it’s the men subs/bottoms who seem to enjoy reading the perspective of mine, and other male subs/bottoms. Personally, I also tend to prefer porn & erotica written from this perspective.Hmm. Is bottoming inherently more interesting?
I don’t know that bottoming is inherently more interesting, but I do think conflict is inherently more interesting. And when you have pain and pleasure, that’s a big old conflict right there that you can use, which makes it easier to write about bottoming.
On the other hand, with most tops in stories there just isn’t much conflict (“She wanted to hit him with a stick. She hit him with a stick. It felt good. She did it again, and wished she had a bigger stick.”)
Dunno, just my random ramblings.
I’ve just started to write about situations I’ve experienced. Although I quite enjoy writing it, I don’t know if anyone would get off reading it. But I do, so I guess that’s what counts. Even though it’s really not intended for a broader audience, I want it to be well-structured, and hopefully, well-written.
And if someone happens to read it, and finds it “wank-worthy”, that’s ok with me.
When it comes to “good” porn/erotica..whatever you want to call it, if it gives me that “special feeling & gets me wet..if it keeps my interest & reads well (smooth, and sexy and to the point), I really don’t care “who” it’s about.
~ree
@ Vague – only exactly, *conflict*. And conflict is missing from just about all garden variety internet porn. Conflict has teh sexay, especially if your turn on happens to be power dynamics. I’ve heard some people are turned on by that.
@ Tom – the bottom perspective is “more” interesting to me because I’m bent to enjoy those reactions, but it’s rare to read a story where the top is interesting at all. See Vague’s stick plot line.
Eileen -
Hijack? I demand a parachute and $200,000 in unmarked bills before I leave this comment thread. signed, D.B. Elizabeth
What you are saying isn’t exactly *news*, but it is still pretty darn new. It was a revelation the first time I ever had the conversation with Beej, what a little over a year ago, that any other woman on the planet had the same reactions that I did.
Plus, I would really like some more porn, whatever it takes. i can haz pr0n 2?
Oh come on. The bottom’s totally more interesting, especially when that bottom is me.
What…? Too toppy?
hey
i have started my own porn
i am 17 and i wrote a short story for my bf once and i wrote it down and showed it around to some friends
they liked it so i wrote a nother
and now i’m on my 3rd short story
e mail me if u would love to take a look and i can send u the link
Sam
I have never written erotica/porn for public consumption, but I seem to have been following Eileen’s rules about it since my teens. That was when my favoritest fantasies started getting too long to remember, so I had to write them somewhere.
The perspective is/was always from the male bottom’s point of view. They have never included my orgasm*. They are chock full of great kinks (mine!). And as a bonus, they are well written and very well edited. OK, that’s my opinion on the well written part. But I do get paid big money to write well, so others at least agree that I can. And if I can, why waste it all on professional reports?
One reason my own stories never fail me and others often do, is I base them on real people I have known, often from older childhood. That way I have all that background that is so hard to describe. I know each of their basic personalities and histories. Then I can make up how they turned out as adults– i.e., submissive, having certain kinks, etc. The psychological conflicts created in the submissive person are a large part of the turn on for me, so the more I understand why a certain character has the reactions and feelings he/she does, the better. It’s so hard to convey all that without going in to flashback chapters and the like.
I too never encountered these kind of female-dominant, in the head of the submissive, hot sexy stories, anywhere, and never expected to. Twenty five years later….. omg, starting to find them on the internet.
*ok, one story does include reference to my orgasm, but not a description. It is a piece entirely in the head of the submissive person, having a recurring fantasy. In one segment of the fantasy, he imagines/recalls a scene in which he is tightly bound and being edged in a highly objectified manner. Part of that is being used for intercourse, but in such a way that I have an orgasm and he doesn’t. There is absolutely no description of my experience of it, just that it happens.
Yeah, convoluted. Whatever.
(goes back to reading convoluted….)
I wish I had time to write all the porn I have in my head, for fun mostly but also ‘cos I could do with some practice. When I started writing (fortunately way before I found my way online) I focused on the dominant because that’s what my fantasies were like: his eyes, his voice, his touch. It didn’t really work, probably because I made him my, well, my fantasy and therefore too ‘perfect’. Now I tend to concentrate on the submissive’s POV, and generally prefer to read that kind of thing too.
I did try writing from inside a dominant boy’s head when I started my site, but he just ended up switching! Perhaps if I get a bit more confident I’ll mix it up a bit, I think there’s scope for conflict in the top as well as the bottom, you just need to find the right balance between self-loathing (difficult to make sexy) and over-confidence (difficult to make good narrative out of).
…have you read mine yet, love?
Kyle!
I have! Twice. I have clearly failed to give you feedback, however. I am sincerely sorry for that.
I thought maybe I was getting in on the tail end of this, then I saw the comments were from May LAST year; a tad much to say I’m fashionably late?
I found your thoughts very interesting, as well as those of the commenters. One of them had advised me previously that strong, interesting female characters were the way to go. Now inside the sub’s head is the place to be. I suppose those recommendations are not contradictory. It is a direction to consider. (Short, declarative sentences, said Hemingway.)
What makes me roll my eyes is the stuff that takes itself so damned seriously – I write smut. I like to think it’s quality smut (if you check my little notch of the Internet, you may not agree, but you should see the stuff I don’t post – blech.) I think I turned the corner when I realized I should try to write actual stories as opposed to just semi-coherent versions of masturbatory fantasies. I find it helps with my ‘real’ writing, although I produce about ten times as many femdom pages than anything else. Go figure.
I regret not finding this blog while you were actively working it; I like your perspective. If you do stop by my place, I hope you’ll leave a quick note.
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