Talking Shop Revisited: Porn Still Needs Plot!

 There's a lot of talk about erotica and storytelling lately, with the release of E.L. James newest hack-job, Grey. It's a depressing situation for me, because E.L. James makes writers of real romance and erotica look like a joke, and our genre look more than ever like trash. And it's not even well-written trash. 

 

Surgeon general's warning:
Consumption of this product may cause
spontaneous vomiting, loss of IQ,
and potential permanent brain damage.

 

My biggest problems with E.L. James' books lie in the representation of BDSM (in case you haven't already heard, it's a BAD representation). Today, though, I'll be talking about the quality of storytelling.  

 

50 Shades is a terrible story, full of terrible characters. And I'm not basing this on any kind of moral grounds: I'm saying her skill level is awful and her characters are caricatures of human behavior. 

 

It's BAD. It's just BAD. And not only does it make the rest of us look bad, it perpetuates an idea that as writers of erotica, things like plot, characters, and quality of narrative are unnecessary.

 

So I thought I'd bring out one of my first even Talking Shop articles, and revisit one of my strongest beliefs about writing in the genre of erotica or erotic romance: erotica is storytelling, and storytelling is more than sex.

 

I've read a good amount of romance and erotica, both professionally published and, shall we say, amateur. No matter how good the sex, nothing ruins a good, naughty read for me more than a half-assed plot.

Talking Shop: Porn Still Needs Plot!

I've read a good amount of romance and erotica, both professionally published and, shall we say, amateur. No matter how good the sex, nothing ruins a good, naughty read for me more than a half-assed plot.

Writing Challenge by Remittance Girl

If you don't follow me on Twitter... then you should.  If you did, you would have seen that I have thrown my hat in on this writing challenge posed by Remittance Girl, essentially to explore the effects of language and POV in determining the intensity of a scene.  In this case, depicting a sex act as either 'vanilla' or 'kinky'.

      This is just a quick little sex scene.  The characters have no names and no place in my greater headcanon... this was just to see what could be done by changing only the language and perception of the character.  Since Remittance Girl specifically mentioned the differences between styling such a scene in regards to missionary position, that's the path I took.  I did want to try and include a third scene with a sub-on-top position to see what I could do with that, but ran out of time.  Perhaps in the future I will try that, too.  Since this is a writing exercise and I love comments, please feel more than welcome to tell me what you think of it!

Rumblings on "50 Shades of Gray"

I haven't read 50 Shades of Gray but I've been hearing a lot of rumblings about it.  What I've been seeing out there has me rather fascinated, and I would sum up my interest by directing you to a review by Remittance Girl here.


The reason this fascinates me so much -- and the reason I will probably feel compelled to read 50 Shades of Gray despite what I've been hearing about it -- is that I've had an idea for a new novel exploring a BDSM and M/s relationship, essentially expanding on the relationship I started in To the Victor, which I will readily admit is an AMATEUR attempt.  To write a more complex novel on this matter, though, I wouldn't feel right about it if I gave it a "Twilightian" treatment.


I think one of the important things Remittance Girl brings up in her review is that the treatment of the "dominant" character inaccurately reflects the true nature of a power exchange relationship.  As a writer, this is a mistake I endeavor very hard not to make.  I can't promise that I accurately reflect every type of character, community or culture I write about, but I try, and when I make a mistake of this nature I am always more eager to correct it than I am to find a reason to leave it unchecked.


If I expand To the Victor into a full-length novel, I actually hope to write a story reflecting a contrast between a "sadistic" and "badly implemented" M/s relationship, and one that is built on a more balanced power-exchange and real affection expressed through that exchange.  I've been wanting to explore this sort of relationship and contrast since reading this response to a D/s-related query a while back.  I am actually incredibly interested in exploring and showing what makes a D/s or M/s relationship a dynamic and legitimate lifestyle for those who desire it, and contrasting a "good" and "bad" arrangement (for lack of better words) feels like a good vehicle for exploring a character's intrinsic desires and the validation of those desires.

So to read something where the details of this relationship are allegedly underdeveloped or poorly represented almost seems like good research.  So while I am a rabid hater of things epically mis-written as Twilight, and it sounds like 50 Shades may be such a story, I think I might have to indulge a bit of my own masochistic side and give the thing a go.  This is the same reason I read the Twilight books in the first place, too: reading something poorly developed and poorly written is, in my opinion, a fairly good way of not making the same mistakes yourself.


Of course, this doesn't excuse poorly written crap being praised as good literature.  
 

As a mildly entertaining side note, we recently cleaned out our bookcase and my husband asked what I wanted him to do with the Twilight books.  I told him to throw them on the "Used Books To Trade" pile.  When he went to the bookstore to trade in our old stuff for store credit, they would not take any of the Twilights.  Not because of condition, but because they were Twilight

Instead, you know what they did with them?

Donated them to the local men's prison.

Take that, evil-doers.

Taboo in Erotica: A Podcast by Remittance Girl

First off, if you haven't listened to any of the podcasts by Remittance Girl, you're missing out.  If this lady's voice doesn't just make you melt, I don't know what to tell you.  Beyond that, her fiction, written and read, is just gorgeous all around.  Some personal favorites and recommendations are The Central Registry (if you liked my Wages of Sin, it should come as no surprise that I like Central Registry so much), Beautiful Losers, The Waiting Room and The Baptism.


Secondly, this podcast by Remittance Girl tackles the concept of taboo in erotica.  This topic is obviously exceptionally relevant to me, and I have a great appreciation for this rebuttal she delivers to the idea that writers of erotica must self-censor certain subjects in erotica that, let's face it, there is valid audience for.


The Rebuttal: Writing Taboo in Erotica and the State of the Genre


Remittance Girl mentions towards the end of this podcast that writing erotica allows her to tackle certain truths on a deeper level, truths that we may deal with symbolically through sex.  I hadn't really been able to put such thoughts into words myself, but I can certainly identify with this motivation.  I find that, when I write erotica, it is with the desire to address something deeper in my characters or to explore some motivation or desire that is more subtextual than literal.  Especially when it comes to stories like To The Victor, Wages of Sin and Graveyard Games, for example.  So I feel the argument presented here is not only relevant, but significant.  I hope my readers will agree.


Enjoy Remittance Girl's thoughts on writing taboo, and remember to check out her work if you haven't already.  She is really quite terrific.