9/3/23
Writing Smut
This is number twenty-six in the blog series, “My Life In Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community so I can afford to keep writing.
THIS ENTRY of My Life in Erotica marks the completion of six months of weekly posts! When I started, you couldn’t have convinced me that it would go on more than a few weeks. And who knows how long it may yet go. I’m just glad you are along for the ride.
As most people who follow me know, I am an avid participant in National Novel Writing Month, or as it is popularly known, NaNoWriMo. I have been participating since 2004! Yes, this November, I’ll be participating in my twentieth NaNoWriMo with a record of “wins” (meaning I wrote over 50,000 words in each) every year.
But that doesn’t really indicate the scope of my participation. On two different occasions, I wrote more than one book during the month. I have participated in ten ‘off-season’ Camp NaNoWriMo in April and July. I wrote a play during NaNoWriMo’s Script Frenzy. And I’ve never missed finishing the goal, often many times over. The NaNoWriMo statistics page says that I’ve written 2,538,717 words during those events.
My own stats show that from January 2019 to today, I’ve written 4,624,445 words. My currently running “Photo Finish” series of six novels is more than 1.3 million. And more are coming.
Since it is September, that means it’s almost October and that’s NaNoWriMo planning month! Yes, for some of us, NaNoWriMo is the pumpkin spice of the writing year.
What does that have to do with smut? Over the past twenty years, I’ve taken part in many ‘write-ins’ and have joined several writing groups. One of the most common things I hear when I’m in a group is that when someone is stuck, they start writing smut. So, I asked a few what that means.
To me, smut is like… steamy? If that makes sense? It’s something written to get you hot and bothered maybe? The presence of actual sex is usually there but not necessarily. And I can’t remember what my original answer was gonna be but I write it cuz it’s fun. Haha
Writers are pretty forthcoming that they write smut (even non-erotica writers), but this response shows that they aren’t that sure what it actually is. What’s more, I find a remarkable degree of innocence and naïveté among the writers of smut. It more closely approaches being defined as “naughty.” As you can tell by the quote above, there’s a hint of blushing when talking about it.
“The Hero Lincoln Trilogy” is now available as a collected set on Bookapy.com
I think when I started the Hero Lincoln Trilogy in Lazlo Zalezac’s Damsel’s in Distress universe, I was thinking of exactly that kind of smut. Lincoln was inexperienced in the ways of love, but had intense feelings for his sister-in-law and niece. They were the kind of things that were embarrassing because he couldn’t do anything about them. Getting him to the point where he could actually make love to one of them was filled with naughty acts and blushing. Making love in the first book is something that is a long time coming—so to speak.
A favorite convention in smut is to interrupt the process as much as possible. Each time the couple are about to get carried away, little brother interrupts, the phone rings, a man with a gun enters, or they suddenly realize what they were about to do and make excuses for it: I didn’t mean to kiss you like that. I just got a little carried away. It didn’t mean anything.
In fact, one of the most fun aspects of writing a sexual relationship is building tension and frustration between the characters. By the time they actually get together, they are bursting. It requires very little actual description of sex to accomplish the arousal of the characters or of the reader.
A ’friend’ many years ago was talking to my fiancée and me a few weeks before our planned wedding. She (being single) said that she knew of a couple who denied themselves all forms of sexual contact with each other for thirty days before their wedding. They were so hot for each other you could see it in their eyes as they said their vows. My fiancée thought that would be a great way to start our marriage—so hot for each other we couldn’t wait to get alone.
I never did forgive that ‘friend.’
Another reason writers who don’t consider themselves erotica authors write smut is because it is easy. Writers during NaNoWriMo are driven by daily word count goals. It takes 1,667 words per day in November to make the 50,000-word goal for the month. I have often been with writers when one snarls in frustration, “I’m 300 words short! What am I going to do?”
The answer is inevitably, smut. Write a sex scene. It’s a middle grade fantasy story? No problem. You can cut it when you rewrite and edit. Sex is an easy 300 words.
I admit that I have used sex as an extender in a story on occasion. I know that readers build an expectation for their stories. With some stories on SOL, there is an expectation of a certain amount of sex. Why else would you be releasing the story on a sex stories platform? But the other two major expectations on that platform are frequency and length of postings. I can establish whatever frequency I want to, as long as it is regular. If readers expect a chapter to be posted every Sunday morning at 8:30, they will become upset if it isn’t there when they sit down with their coffee and Post Toasties Sunday morning.
I speak from experience. A chapter of mine got held up in the posting queue a few weeks ago. I don’t know why. It was in line and the status indicator said ‘Processing,’ but it didn’t clear the queue until half past noon instead of half past eight (Eastern Time). I received half a dozen messages before it posted asking me if I’d forgotten to post the chapter.
In fairness, the site does not guarantee a posting time. In scheduling posts, the choice is “Not before x time on y date.” It is not ‘at’ a specific time. It happened that day there was a hiccup and the posting was delayed. No big deal. Unless you were a reader expecting it promptly at 8:30 Sunday morning!
Readers also expect a consistent length for chapters. I will receive email from readers if a chapter of 6,500 words posts in a story that usually has chapters over 7,000 words. Yes. Really. What is the time-honored extender for a story? Smut! I can get those extra 500 words with a quickie in the backseat of the car if I need them.
So, according to my informal polling, writers write smut because it’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s quick. None of those things make it good, erotic, or an integral part of the story. For many young authors—and some older authors—however, it’s also a little embarrassing.
With NaNoWriMo synonymous with pumpkin spice season beginning, many authors are trying desperately to come up with an idea for their 50,000-word stories. Me too. So next week, I’ll talk about a credo of NaNoWriMo: “No Plot, No Problem.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
