Thoughts on Writing Porn
It's not like there aren't a million people on the net offering their opinion on how, or even what, to write- but what's a journal for, right? So I'm going to join their ranks and ramble on about the same. Between reading other people's efforts and posting my own, I notice things- things that work well and other things that don't, and a lot of it comes up on every writing advice ever because it's just that basic... but some of it is pretty porn-specific and I feel it deserves mention, too.
I read a story a while back which starts out with a rape scene... a rape fantasy, to be precise; by which I mean it's the kind with a mysterious stranger (who turns out to be good-looking) and a helpless damsel younger man who is a little scared and a little embarrassed but also very turned on and it ends up being really good sex.
The plot then develops in such a way that the rapist takes his victim home and cares for him in a completely bipolar loving manner; they later star in a porn shoot together; the victim gets raped again by someone else except this time it makes him cry and cling to his first rapist and then neither rape is mentioned again because the main characters are far too busy angsting over maybe wanting a relationship.
It was pointed out that this isn't how a rape aftermath goes down, and now the author is trying to fit some fretting about that into the story, too... but it's already ten chapters later and the sudden unease is as random and arbitrary as the previous lack of it.
The point I'm getting at with this example is that the story quite obviously started out as a PWP fantasy and was made into angsty romance afterwards- and I don't know if that transition happened before or after the author started posting, but it doesn't matter, because the point where it changes from one to the other is still blatantly obvious (read: after chapter one).
Now, I understand how porn can turn into plot; it's where all my stories originate, after all. But it seems crucial to me to alter the original PWP to fit the story, at least if it's something that would affect the characters- most notably, rape, but also kidnappings, sudden enslavement, that sort of thing. Ideally, that transition would take place before the story goes online (come on, how hard is it to decide on the overall direction of your story before you post your first scene?!), but I understand sometimes these things happen out of the blue. Fine. But do something about it.
Straight-up porn can be unrealistic as hell, like the scene described above, even; but an actual story -actual plot- needs some semblance of realism to hold my interest, and no, you can't just write PWP and start with the realism in chapter two. Leave it as a oneshot, or re-write it and post the new version as a separate story while leaving the oneshot up as well, or change the whole thing.
You can start a story with steamy sex right off the bat, sure. But it needs to fit in with the rest of the story.
Ironically, the only story I've ever seen that had a decent after-the-fact transition from porn to plot (SweetSurrender's Loser ) was also the only one that went through a major overhaul because the author wasn't satisfied with said transition. Not a coincidence, maybe, but there are a million stories out there that would have needed it more.
I read a story a while back which starts out with a rape scene... a rape fantasy, to be precise; by which I mean it's the kind with a mysterious stranger (who turns out to be good-looking) and a helpless damsel younger man who is a little scared and a little embarrassed but also very turned on and it ends up being really good sex.
The plot then develops in such a way that the rapist takes his victim home and cares for him in a completely bipolar loving manner; they later star in a porn shoot together; the victim gets raped again by someone else except this time it makes him cry and cling to his first rapist and then neither rape is mentioned again because the main characters are far too busy angsting over maybe wanting a relationship.
It was pointed out that this isn't how a rape aftermath goes down, and now the author is trying to fit some fretting about that into the story, too... but it's already ten chapters later and the sudden unease is as random and arbitrary as the previous lack of it.
The point I'm getting at with this example is that the story quite obviously started out as a PWP fantasy and was made into angsty romance afterwards- and I don't know if that transition happened before or after the author started posting, but it doesn't matter, because the point where it changes from one to the other is still blatantly obvious (read: after chapter one).
Now, I understand how porn can turn into plot; it's where all my stories originate, after all. But it seems crucial to me to alter the original PWP to fit the story, at least if it's something that would affect the characters- most notably, rape, but also kidnappings, sudden enslavement, that sort of thing. Ideally, that transition would take place before the story goes online (come on, how hard is it to decide on the overall direction of your story before you post your first scene?!), but I understand sometimes these things happen out of the blue. Fine. But do something about it.
Straight-up porn can be unrealistic as hell, like the scene described above, even; but an actual story -actual plot- needs some semblance of realism to hold my interest, and no, you can't just write PWP and start with the realism in chapter two. Leave it as a oneshot, or re-write it and post the new version as a separate story while leaving the oneshot up as well, or change the whole thing.
You can start a story with steamy sex right off the bat, sure. But it needs to fit in with the rest of the story.
Ironically, the only story I've ever seen that had a decent after-the-fact transition from porn to plot (SweetSurrender's Loser ) was also the only one that went through a major overhaul because the author wasn't satisfied with said transition. Not a coincidence, maybe, but there are a million stories out there that would have needed it more.