Sources of inspiration?

Well, like most men I am visually stimulated. I'm inspired by images (which are abundant online) and no not just porn, seeing a young woman in a particularly interesting outfit, or expression, or a boot with a sharp heel...

but
For free stories, articles, and poetry www.bluefood.cc
I've got a few tidbits online there myself in the poetry section

Oops, sorry. Does that count for all links board wide or just erotica?

I have hit this same wall and passed it wondering after writing so many sex scenes how I could possibly keep my freshness.

As for free sites with stories there is literotica.com. However you have to search through it quite a bit to find the good stuff. Sometimes looking through their top listed stories helps.

A couple other suggestions: Switch up the sex, like don't start at the top, start in the middle or at the bottom. Never have them kiss at all, or pick a place for sex that encourages different situations as in water, in mud (lol), in no gravity etc...

I get caught a lot on words. Using the same over and over (it seems to me) Like how many ways can you say "wet" So, I sit and brain-storm lists of all the ways I could think of to describe wet.

dewy as a little rivulet
drops of honey ( like that....)

Also I try to remember that ummm there are not that many people that can even write a good sex scene so what seems uninspired to me after having done so many in fact is still exciting to the reader.

S.Anders

For what it's worth, most of my stories are based on real life. No, not the sex with strangers, but most of the settings are places I've been, some of the situations are even situations I've been in. For example, I lived in South America for a while during college and traveled around a lot. I was hitch-hiking with a female friend of mine. She had had way too much to drink and wanted to sit down. We saw a cab go by and I noticed it was out-of-service. I didn't want to get in, and it turned out my reluctance was right on target. The guy recognized drunk tourists when he saw them and started to drive off into the mountains instead of taking us to our hostel. We were two young single women, and, had we been more out of it, very bad things could have happened. What would have happened to other women in the same situation if they'd let him keep driving?

I found myself experiencing writer's block recently, and it took me some digging to get out of it. Thinking "what if?" about certain situations I'd been in helped me immensely. It also helps the imagery in my stories - I find it hard to write about places I haven't been, and it's difficult to make a situation sound plausible if I've never been close to it. Whenever I try writing about something I'm not really familiar with, I instantly hear that cheap 70's porn music in the background.

I hear you

Sometimes you feel more like you're writing a car-repair manual rather than erotica...once well lubricated, slide shaft A into piston housing B and observe the effects of ignition.

I would also suggest literotica if you don't mind digging for gold -- in the same hidden-treasure realm, http://www.asstr.org has an exhaustive list of free stories.

But you know, it seems this time of year I always get the blahs about the same-old wham, bam, thank-you ma'am scenes, too. Maybe it's the lack of sunshine weighing down the muse? (Then again, I'm in the northeast, where snow is a way of winter life).

My erotic novel has something like 20 erotic scenes. Just to limit the options , the hero wears a chastity belt throughout! Obviously it would have been very easy to become repetitive.

I got around the problem by making a big table listing for each sexual partner stuff like:

• unique selling point e.g. legs, smile, giggle, youth, age...
• personality in a nutshell
• sexual preferences
• physical description, including intimate bits and any tastes or scents
• how she climaxes
• summary of each sex scene: vibe, setting, progression.

It was pretty easy to tinker so that each scene felt different and depicted different erotic action, and each partner left a different impression in the reader's head.

If this sounds a bit mechanistic, it's not! A lot of visualisation was involved, and the action was character driven with a sense of discovery - I hate that feeling you get in movies where they start having sex and it's as if somebody threw a switch... soft lighting, woman on top, no trace of distinct personality.

To me, this is more fun than lifting scenes from elsewhere. Where porn is useful is in nailing down descriptions and geometry...

Taking a plunge

I've toyed with adding an addendum to this thread for a few days, not sure whether or not it's too arrogant to point the way to a humorous essay tied to the subject, since I wrote it. But what the hell, I've already taken a rash of good-natured crap from the other writers involved in the endeavor that spawned the piece, so maybe some of you will enjoy—and get a laugh out of—the sentiment behind it, as well...

Anyhoo, veinglory, ITA that writing sex feels stale sometimes. Recently, I went out for a night on the town with a handful of sister erotica writers. We were in pursuit of fun and hopefully some new ideas. The night didn't turn out as I expected, but it certainly equipped my muse to come at the subject from an entirely new perspective.


Time Marches On (My Head) or How My Squick Meter Squawked


(btw, if this is bad form, someone please be kind and say so, 'kay?)

For what it's worth, most of my stories are based on real life. No, not the sex with strangers, but most of the settings are places I've been, some of the situations are even situations I've been in.

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I've just recently taken a very strong interest in writing erotica. And I can so
relate to most of my stories being based on real life experiences I've had. What triggered this sudden interest in erotica was an experience I've just recently had with someone from a place I would've never thought would of happened. I was thinking one night, this would make one helluva a story. So, I sat down and started writing and, of course, adding in my own to spice it up a bit. From there, I was brainstorming about all these encounters and experiences I've had through the years and just started turning them into some great stories. I've become addicted to sex writing! Lol...I can't get enough! I need to attend "sex writing anonymous", because it just keeps
cumming and cumming and I can't stop! Lol...

I have a short story that I'm almost finished with. I'd like it to be critiqued.
But as someone said earlier, the average critique group in most forums
wouldn't be the most appropriate place. So, exactly where is it that you
all post your stories? I've searched online, but didn't find any place that
interested me to post and then a friend recommended this site.


Oh yeah...I followed the link to read the story Deb posted. I loved it!
I think it's great! I was laughing my bum off! You did a fine job! I
bookmarked it.

celeste

You were looking for places to read stories...

You may already know of these, but I'll post them just incase.

http://www.cleansheets.com/toc.shtml

http://www.scarletletters.com/current/index.html

http://www.susiebright.com/stories/index.html

Well, like most men I am visually stimulated. I'm inspired by images (which are abundant online) and no not just porn, seeing a young woman in a particularly interesting outfit, or expression, or a boot with a sharp heel...

Click to expand...

Post deleted because what I wrote, I'm going to use in a story...

Thanks, VG

I'm pleased you liked it.


Maybe soon... My reluctance to jump in full-throttle is my scarred
cyber-youth showing. I had the misfortune to be part of a large board
that melted down a la Three Mile Island -- and without anyone
ever finding the emergency vent override.

I'm starting to think, however, that sort of thing won't/can't happen
here, but do give this curious rabbit time to find her bravery, and you
may be sorry you gave me the push...

(jk LOL)

[edit note: how come my first version was *way* wide? hmmm, still
is -- what am I doing wrong? ah-ha, something to do with the html
wraps on the quote, I think...]

Inspiration

Celeste, I'm happy you enjoyed the essay. I found both an excellent crit partner and a handful of erotica writers to carry on with through joining my local chapter of RWA, if that helps your search any...

I must agree, Maryn, reading bad erotica is the most inspirational thing I ever did. When I began researching epublishers, I started with one of the biggest and best, and downloaded five bestsellers to get a feel for preferences. One was a decent read (IMO, of course), two were mediocre and three were dreadfully short on plot/character development and the sex in all of them was dishwater dull. To say I was appalled is an understatement LOL, but like you, the experience made me think I'm not *too* much of a hack after all.

Also, I return to the first erotica that captured my attention from time-to-time -- Anais Nin -- for a refresher. She's a little dated, sure, but her writing remains a tremendous inspiration.

I'll check it out. Done bookmarked it. Thanks, veinglory!


Celeste

If you're willing to go public, those who choose to go over it could post their critiques here, exercising caution and judgment about any excerpts they use. If you're not quite ready to let the world discuss your flaws, people could send you private messages here or email you with critique.

Click to expand...

I've never been too keen on posting my work out there on the internet, but
I would like to find a "private", maybe locked critique group. I'll check out
the one veinglory suggested. Actually, I think it belongs to veinglory, right?

I can handle a good critique, whether it's good or bad, telling me it's terrible,
etc... I'd rather have someone read it over and tell me it doesn't work, rather
than send something that's bad out to a market. I've just started writing erotica. So, I don't know what works, or what doesn't. I've searched the net, read some stories. Some I thought were good, some horrible. I've bought a few anthologies, such as The Best American Erotica 2005 and a couple others
to read and learn from. So, I'm just looking to talk and learn with others who write erotica, as well.

The story I'm finishing up, I think is pretty good. But that's just my opinion.
For all I know, others may think it's terrible. So....

celeste

veinglory said:

The desdmona one is a great place to start -- password protected and safe from search engines. There is a good range of writers there. Other than that it is a matter of finding groups fo rthe type of writing you do. The group associated with my forum is run by Fiona Glass who is a great writer and editor, it is focussed mainly on erotic romance.

Click to expand...

I strongly recommend desdmona as well. I stumbled upon it at the beginning of this year when I first started considering submitting my erotica to publications. They've been immensely helpful.

Oooh, and veinglory - I really like your forum! I browsed around it a bit last night and really enjoyed myself!