What is erotic, Part 6 Power

Wanting it, having it, succumbing to it, fighting it—power and sex are inseparable. It's been said, "Men use power to get sex; women use sex to get power." The relationship between power and sex underlies the action in my story Clytie. Paris is a hugely muscled, heavily hung super athlete. But to the rich woman who controls his fate, he's a sex toy. The title character, Clytie, is a tomboyish slip of a woman. Yet her heart and her beauty make muscle-bound Paris powerless in her hands.

Much fiction deals with power/sex issues indirectly.  In erotic fiction, the question of who's on top is wrestled out in the bedroom.  There's a kind of honesty in erotic fantasy that you don't find anywhere else.

Making it up as you go along

Writing fiction is more fun if you make it up as you go along. Some writers outline the plot and describe the characters in detail before they start writing. I've done so, but I much prefer starting with a general idea of a character and a situation, and making things up from there. My story Clytie has several appearances of a man wearing a bull's head and tail (nothing else) and waving dildos. He's called the Minotaur. When he shows up, everyone in sight plunges into wild group sex. The distinctions between master and servant disappear.  I started my story Minotaur with nothing in mind except to write about a character like the minotaur man in Clytie.  By the time I ended that story, I'd built a framework for my entire Fair Warrior Chronicles series.

This way of making up a story seems more lifelike than starting with an outline. If you had tried to make an outline of your life, would it have worked out anything like the reality? What we really do is go day to day with a general idea in mind, and deal with what comes. That's the kind of outlook I like my fictional characters to have.  And since I'm writing erotic fiction, a lot of what comes along for them is wildly sexual.

What is erotic, Part 5 Initation

Initiation into a new and deeper level of sexual experience is wildly erotic for both the person being initiated and the person doing the initiating.  Remember losing your virginity?  Remember your first oral sex, your first outdoor sex, your first….  All my erotic fiction involves initiation into new levels of sensual pleasure.  This is especially so for my novel Clytie.  The title character comes from a secluded upbringing.  Although the story is told from the point of view of her lover, the plot revolves around Clytie's initiation into the anything-goes life of a sexual consort on a private resort island, and her battle to live with a free heart.

What is erotic, Part 4 Orgies

 Ménage, an arrangement is which three or more people share a sexual arrangement, is a mainstay of erotic fiction. A writer needs to come up with plausible reasons for groups of people to jump into the sack together.  In my Fair Warrior Chronicles series with eXtasy Books, I write about six people who enter a cave together and come out endowed with odd powers. One of the effects of their shared experience is that they now have an overwhelming physical attraction to each other. And they have discovered that their powers grow stronger if they engage in sex, especially sex with one another, and especially wild group sex involving all of them and their significant others. In the Fair Warrior Chronicles, each story is written from the point of view of one of the six companions. Each of their stories involves them finding their way to the group and becoming initiated into the mysteries. This gets me to another topic in my What is Erotic blog posts—initiation.

The virgin huntress stalks her prey

My story Huntress will be published tomorrow by eXtasy Books.  The ebook will be available immediately on the eXtasy site and a few days later on Amazon and other online outlets.  Here's a description:

Men who enter Camilla's forest pay a price. Touch her, and she'll turn you into a living statue. Anger her, and she'll make you believe you're a hunted stag. Threaten her, and you'll feel the bite of her arrow. Try to love her, and see what you get.

Keeping it sexy

This morning I wrote a scene for my story Morpheus in which a squad of soldiers visits the scene of a helicopter crash that nearly killed them. It was interesting to write, but I was concerned because it wasn't offering opportunities for sex. This is frequently a problem in erotic writing. When the writer needs to cover plot material that doesn't take place in bed, the shower, or some other setting that lends itself to lewd nude behavior, she is making a problem for herself. Readers who are interested in soldiers going about their business will be looking for The Things They Carried,  and not fir an X rated romance from eXtasy Books.

I'll solve that problem in the scene I'm working on by adding flashes of recollection of sexier times. Lieutenant Lindsey, the point–of-view character in Morpheus, will recall what the landing area looked like when he and his men approached the area in the helicopters. They saw a circle of very attractive naked people, which seems sexy enough. The Lieutenant's recollection will probably spark a few more sexual thoughts.

All this seems lifelike.  Readers who are in touch with erotic romances are probably open to the bits of sexual imagining and memory that run through our daily lives. The Lieutenant's train of thought won't surprise us.

What is erotic, Part 3 Intimacy

Intimacy may be the kind of eroticism most of us prefer. What is better than to have a lover who is your closest friend and your devoted soul mate, with whom you share your deepest secrets, your bumps and bruises, and your everyday ups and downs?  For most people, the more adventurous or hazardous kinds of eroticism are something you'd rather read about.

I'm happy to oblige.  My stories serve up quantities and varieties of sex that few people will ever have the freedom, imagination, athletic ability, and stamina to experience. But my characters are people, albeit entirely fictional. Despite or because of their adventures, they desire the same kind of snug, intimate sexuality as real people.

What brings intimacy to mind is that this morning I found myself describing a woman giving a man a convalescent bath. He's been confined to his bed while recovering from a wound. The nurse has given him permission to get up, but his lover asks to bathe him as she has done each day during his recovery. Her movements and his thoughts create a deep unspoken intimacy.

Of course, since this is an erotic story, they're fucking hot and heavy two lines later. But the quiet moment made a nice interlude. I'll try to build on it as the story develops.