Tonality and erotica and some newbie questions

Well if you're writing romances, adding erotic content would make them erotic romances. I write both erotica and erotic romance, and yes, there's a definite line in the sand. Erotica is more about the sexual journey of a person or persons and does not require an HEA. Romances, of course, require the HEA.

Seriously, just write what you want to write. If it works, it works. My favorite novels/novellas/shorts are the ones written by authors who are obviously enjoying themselves. If you've got a hankering to add some naughty to your romantic comedies, go for it!

As mlhernandez wrote, write what you want. It doesn't have to fit nicely into one genre or another. If it's good and people want to read it, they're not going to read it because it's 'erotica' or 'erotic romance' or 'comedy' or 'erotic horror' or whatever.

I think that people get so caught up in trying to fit themselves into a niche, that they leave out a lot of good stuff that would be fantastic in a story. But...that's just me.

I'm still trying to work out what separates erotica from romance from adult novels from sexy from...Lord knows what.

I advise writing it and worry about classifying it later.

Plus, I volunteer to beta. Just the rude bits, though.

I have read many light-hearted comedies with fully realised sex scenes. Some were in the erotic romance genre, some were romance, some were chick lit--that is just a marketing choice.

Zoombie said:

What makes something erotica and something not erotica.

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I think it is emphasis and focus of the piece.

Sex is a major and important part of life. As such, it's a legitimate topic for exploration by writers. Yet for some reason, writing about it, or showing it, somehow makes the writing less important, second class, in the views of many. We become denigrated as writing "smut", "porn", or are called exploitive, or whatever.

Writers are artists, we evoke emotional responses to our work, and we focus on peeling off the layers of human experience so others can see them, vicariously experience them, examine them. In my view this is a worthwhile thing, and one of the most important topics for exploration is the sexual experience.

And yet we face this judgement that we know many will make. It sucks.

But anyway. I think an erotic work focuses on exploring the sexual aspects of a relationship, or of a character's personality. It may also do other things, like contain a mystery, or a romance, or an action story. In these cases it tends to get categorized not as erotica but as one of the other genres. I suppose this is useful, to help make the story more socially acceptable, but I think it's a bit disingenuous.

Then there is the story that is focused on the sexual aspects, without adding a substantial non-sexual element. That story would then fall squarely into the erotica category. But should that somehow make a work less valuable? Given the importance of sex in our lives, I think it should make it more valuable, not less.

Very well said. I hope you get a bajillion rep points for that post.

scarletpeaches said:

Very well said. I hope you get a bajillion rep points for that post.

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Gosh, thanks! I got 4, for a grand total of 90. BTW, what good is reputation, if nobody can see it? Is there a way to view a person's rep?

Oops, nevermind, I found out if you hold the mouse directly underneath the P in your post count, it pops up a little box. The totals and the scale aren't listed, though.