Are Erotic Writers Really All that Naughty?
Okay, we are about to get a little up close and personal into my life—maybe a little too personal. I have read erotic writers and before I became one myself, I always pictured them testing wild, sex-driven theories on unsuspecting males late at night. I continued with this belief until I worked for an erotic publisher and realized, Hey, writing this is tons of fun. I began my journey as an erotic writer and, to my shock, my first little short got an All Romance bestseller star. I was stunned for two reasons. A) I personally never like my own work and am surprised that I’m not sitting out in a garbage can giving away my manuscripts to be used as toilet paper and b) the shocking truth is that I am an innocent virgin.
Yes, you read that right. This erotic romance writer is a virgin who has never even seen a real man part, yet I write about them. Heck, watching people at the beach is closest I’ve ever been to a shirtless man. When my sister read one of my manuscripts, she spit out her soda and said, “I thought you’ve never done it.”
I laughingly reply, “I haven’t, sis. Swear to God. I just edited the manuscripts and learned what people like.”
She didn’t believe me and gave me squinty eyes the rest of the week as if any second I’ll be astride some shirtless cowboy having wild sex right in front of her.
The beliefs behind erotica writers went so far as to interfere with my dating life. When my dates find out my job is being an erotic novelist, I get all sorts of odd invitations. I once got asked to dress up in a school girl costume on the first date, and one man tried to do things to me in a movie theater. (Naturally, both men found themselves dateless within seconds.)
After these horrible situations I realized something about stereotypes, since I was a part of one. I think a lot of people expect us erotic writers to be sex crazed creatures. The truth is, I’m not really sex crazed. I just like love and believe that making love is a part of the great bonding experience that brings people together. I think a lot of erotic writers are just like me. They are women, or sometimes men, that are just like everyone else. Just because you write about sexuality doesn’t mean you deserve any less respect than a sci-fi or fantasy novelist. You most definitely deserve respect as a person. Most erotic novelists aren’t any kinkier than your neighbor next-door. We could even be your neighbor next-door.
*****
When Cynthia goes to a bar with her best friend for their monthly night out, she expects it to be a normal evening. But when she goes to the bar, she gets picked as the lucky winner of that night’s prize.
“Lucky you,” her best friend says.
Cynthia gets presented with a sexy man named Frederic who is wrapped in ribbons. Little does she know that it is more than just his scrumptious body that she’ll be getting.
I love this article! Well said.
So true! I think people jump to the conclusion that we’re all sex maniacs! At a circus skills course once, I ‘taught’ unicycling even though I’ve never unicycled in my life – same sort of thing! 😉
What an awesome article and so true. Glad Miss Chloe shared so much in defiance of the stereotypes aimed our way.