A lot of romance authors, including myself are annoyed when people refer to romance novels as porn for women. But, surprisingly I've discovered that many erotica authors feel the same way about their work. Well, I kinda think erotica is porn. Porn is made for the purpose of inciting sexual arousal in its audience and I always felt that erotica served the same use. I mean, it's not like I read it for a compelling story or a deep emotional connection. (Disclaimer, I'm referring to short erotica stories, not erotic romance, which does involve those aspects.)
That said, I should clarify my statement: Well-written erotica is like good porn with good acting.
Admit it, most of us have seen at least one adult film...and chances are, we've seen an awful one...or ten. The bad acting goes far beyond robotic lines.
The worst aspect is the woman who is obviously faking enjoyment. Watching her painful efforts to mask the agony in her eyes and moan in false pleasure always makes me think the director shouted, "Now you better pretend to like it, or this rape film will turn into a snuff film real quick!"
...and sometimes it's the guy who seems to be losing his...um...enthusiasm despite his costar's desperate attempts to moan encouragement. It's like they're being held at gunpoint or something.
 |
| Get in the mood, or else! |
Badly written erotica is the same way. It doesn't matter how many "dirty" words and exclamation points the author throws in. It's not going to turn me on. I'm going to give an example, but to keep it PG-13, I'm going to replace all the dirty words with "smurf."
"My smurf was so wet. At last my fantasy of being filled with two smurfs was about to come true! Lester's tongue flicked across my throbbing smurf as Wilbur unfastened his pants releasing his giant smurf.
"I took it all into my mouth and fondled his smurfs. His hand reached forward to stroke and pinch my smurfs!
"Then Lester's smurf plunged inside of me, filling my smurf until I couldn't take another inch!
'Smurf me, Lester!' I cried as Wilbur's smurf dripped down my chin."
 |
| And then Gargamel showed up, turning this nightmare into a full-fledged clustersmurf. |
Anyway, you get my point.
Now good, smurf-free erotica is, well, it's hot, and definitely does incite arousal in its audience. So if someone calls it porn, I shrug and say, "So?"
However, finding quality erotica can be difficult, so I always recommend downloading the free sample first....and if it ends up being bad, I turn on the text-to speech feature and enjoy a good sophomoric laugh.
