Why I hate the world "should"
I hate this word, because I'm sick of seeing people tell me I "should" write this or I "should have" had the characters in my story do X, Y and Z.
See, first and foremost, it's my story, not somebody else's. I write for me. Yes, I want readers to enjoy themselves, but at the end of the day if I believe in something, I'm going to write it, and if someone doesn't like it, that's fine. But man, if that someone tells me I "should" have done something else, I'm not going to listen.
Specifically speaking, about smut. I'm on this tangent after taking a peek at a friend's LJ (she knows who she is).
Most of the reviews I get for my smut are positive; some are constructively critical--which I appreciate because truly constructive criticism helps me be a better writer.
And occasionally, I get very stupid comments. Like this one time, when I wrote a scene in BoMLF--the PG-13 rated version--about Hermione going down on Ron.
Okay...obviously, in a PG-13 story, I can hardly say "Hermione gave Ron a hummer." The reference was so veiled, in fact, that a couple people wrote asked in their reviews what Hermione did. They really didn't know.
But another reviewer got what I was trying to convey, and wrote this furious, angry review that she couldn't BELIEVE that I would have Hermione do something so sleazy as to go down on Ron and that I shouldn't have written that.
Obviously, I was absent for class that day the teacher talked about how Blow Jobs are Sleazy and Icky.
But you know, that's not as bad as when I'm told--fortunately by the very occasional person--that my smut is "sleazy."
Hello?! It's SMUT. What do people expect? I put warnings on my stuff! It's NC-17!
Oh, wait, I know. These people want the kind of mess-free, tender, perfect sort of sex in which words of love are whispered and both people come at the same time, all the time and float on an ocean...no, a cloud...no, TEN CLOUDS of fluffy happy bliss and there's no such thing as a wet spot on the bed or cunnilingus or pain during penetration and of course the only position is missionary. Because, really, two people who are blissfully in love can live forever together with a sex life made up of this kind of perfect, blissful, mess-free sex.
Man, WAKE UP, is all I want to say to these folks (again, thankfully, they are few among my readers). Talk to me about sex when you've been in a relationship for five years. Hell, talk to me when you've been in a relationship for five MONTHS.
Sex without variety is BORING, and sex is, at its most basic, a carnal act. One can be deeply in love with his or her partner and believe sex to be something sacred and special, but it is STILL a carnal act. And sometimes, people who are deeply in love just want to fuck each other's brains out.
So, yeah, those five or eight people out there who think my smut is sleazy--go read something else. Or better yet, go have sex. ;)
See, first and foremost, it's my story, not somebody else's. I write for me. Yes, I want readers to enjoy themselves, but at the end of the day if I believe in something, I'm going to write it, and if someone doesn't like it, that's fine. But man, if that someone tells me I "should" have done something else, I'm not going to listen.
Specifically speaking, about smut. I'm on this tangent after taking a peek at a friend's LJ (she knows who she is).
Most of the reviews I get for my smut are positive; some are constructively critical--which I appreciate because truly constructive criticism helps me be a better writer.
And occasionally, I get very stupid comments. Like this one time, when I wrote a scene in BoMLF--the PG-13 rated version--about Hermione going down on Ron.
Okay...obviously, in a PG-13 story, I can hardly say "Hermione gave Ron a hummer." The reference was so veiled, in fact, that a couple people wrote asked in their reviews what Hermione did. They really didn't know.
But another reviewer got what I was trying to convey, and wrote this furious, angry review that she couldn't BELIEVE that I would have Hermione do something so sleazy as to go down on Ron and that I shouldn't have written that.
Obviously, I was absent for class that day the teacher talked about how Blow Jobs are Sleazy and Icky.
But you know, that's not as bad as when I'm told--fortunately by the very occasional person--that my smut is "sleazy."
Hello?! It's SMUT. What do people expect? I put warnings on my stuff! It's NC-17!
Oh, wait, I know. These people want the kind of mess-free, tender, perfect sort of sex in which words of love are whispered and both people come at the same time, all the time and float on an ocean...no, a cloud...no, TEN CLOUDS of fluffy happy bliss and there's no such thing as a wet spot on the bed or cunnilingus or pain during penetration and of course the only position is missionary. Because, really, two people who are blissfully in love can live forever together with a sex life made up of this kind of perfect, blissful, mess-free sex.
Man, WAKE UP, is all I want to say to these folks (again, thankfully, they are few among my readers). Talk to me about sex when you've been in a relationship for five years. Hell, talk to me when you've been in a relationship for five MONTHS.
Sex without variety is BORING, and sex is, at its most basic, a carnal act. One can be deeply in love with his or her partner and believe sex to be something sacred and special, but it is STILL a carnal act. And sometimes, people who are deeply in love just want to fuck each other's brains out.
So, yeah, those five or eight people out there who think my smut is sleazy--go read something else. Or better yet, go have sex. ;)