I’ve been writing erotica since 1999, and since then have penned stories about a huge range of characters, fantasies, fetishes, and plotlines. I’ve written protagonists who are straight women, lesbians, bisexual women, straight men, gay men, bisexual men, transgender characters, polyamorous characters, kinky characters, and more. I’ve written erotic stories about lap dances, French fries, fire blowing, nudist resorts, masturbation, nipple clamps, roleplaying, sex work, and celebrity sex. I’ve been published in over 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006 edited by Susie Bright, and Succulent: Chocolate Flava II and Purple Panties edited by Zane.
I’ve also edited over 70 erotica anthologies and taught hundreds of students around the world how to put their deepest sexual fantasies and wildest creative ideas on the page. I know there are so many people who have naughty stories floating through their minds they’re longing to put down on the page. They hunger to create stories that will arouse readers and share the innermost workings of their sexual imaginations.
I believe that anyone can write erotica; all you need is an open mind along with imagination, creativity, and empathy. So I’ve taken all my knowledge from over 20 years of erotic writing, editing, and teaching and poured it into my new book, How to Write Erotica. This writing guide features dozens of writing prompts to help you get started with erotica, along with practical advice from me and over a dozen erotica authors and other professionals, including Sally Bend, Megan Hart, Katrina Jackson, and more. I interviewed a sensitivity reader and a beta reader about how those processes work, and give an overview of the landscape for publishing erotica.
I also know that one of the biggest stumbling blocks to writing erotica for the first time is fear. What will people around you think if they find out you’re writing smut? How do you get past all the voices in your head that tell you what you “should” think about sex in order to be true to your characters? What if you want to write about a taboo subject? What does writing about spanking or age play or alien sex really say about you? Will people think your erotica is all autobiographical and judge you for it?
These are all valid fears. Erotica is still not as accepted in mainstream culture as I’d like it to be. For five years I ran an erotic reading series in New York called In The Flesh, which featured over 300 authors reading and performing across the erotic spectrum. I also recorded video of these erotic readings to post on YouTube for those who couldn’t attend in person. Numerous times, despite obtaining the author’s consent to record them, I’d receive frantic email requests to remove the videos. Sometimes an author’s job was at stake, or they were worried that someone in their life would see the video of them reading “dirty” words. I always took them down, but it broke my heart a little each time to see how our culture’s negative attitude toward sex, even of the fictional variety, had such an impact on our modes of creative expression.
There are many factors erotic authors should consider before publishing their work and when choosing a pseudonym, a practice adopted by the vast majority of the over 700 authors I’ve published in my anthologies. Pseudonyms help protect you from wielding awkward inquiries from coworkers, bosses, friends, family, and neighbors. They allow authors to brand themselves in whatever way they want, without their legal name muddying the water.
How to choose a pseudonym, how to make a name for yourself in the widespread erotica marketplace, and what editors like me are looking for are all covered in How to Write Erotica. If you’re curious about the subject, I hope you’ll check it out, or perhaps give the book as a gift to someone who may have the desire to write erotica but doesn’t know where to start. I also teach online erotica writing classes to attendees around the world who want more instruction and encouragement to kickstart their erotic writing career, and offer consulting services for authors who want individualized attention or personalized critiques of their work.
It’s always been important to me to not only get my erotic stories out into the world, but to help other people do the same.
How to Write Erotica is available from Amazon and Bookshop.