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.