On Writer's Block

Writer's block used to be a thing, say, 15 or 20 years ago. It was the subject of oh-so-many films and novels (seriously, any time you need a conflict for a writer character, just give them writer's block). It's been tackled by a plethora of self-help books promising fast remedies. It's been combated with writing prompts and speed writings and who knows what else.

And then, recently, there was a shift. Most of the advice given to beginning writers aching for a way to get over writer's block is ... there is no writer's block.

It is not the writing that is blocked

And this is pretty good advice, actually. A lot of what people call 'writer's block' is simple inertia, not specific to writing or even art in general. In any line of work, there are days where you just can't get going. A lack of motivation, an abundance of distraction, a tendency toward procrastination. Some people call it a muse, but I don't know that inspiration has much to do with it. A lot of it is just the natural ebb and flow of work ethic, and the fact that once you skip a day or two, it can be hard to get back into the groove. That's why the "no such thing" advice helps so many people; it's easier to move past something when you pretend (or realize!) that it's not actually there.

I think there is something specific to artistic creation that can make progress hard, though, and it's something I've been struggling with in my non-erotic fiction. It's that inner editor niggling. Telling you your writing isn't good enough, it's shit. That I'm at the age that other people have started to finish series and win awards, and how do I ever expect to get to that level with this word-vomit?

So yeah, that's a real problem. Thankfully, I think erotica is a real escape from that. Not that I'm saying I don't strive to write erotic fiction well -- I do. But there's a different set of expectations for erotica. Mainstream fiction rarely exists for any single purpose. You might say "to entertain," but even so, there's plenty of thematic depth expected from all but the most shamelessly banal of stories.

Erotica, on the other hand, exists for one purpose: to get the reader off. And we all have such wildly different tastes that you're not even expected to succeed for *everybody*. Writing erotica, in some sense, is easy. Most of us have fantasies, as a friend of mine once said. Put your fantasy on the page. You have written erotica.

So when will you get to read some of mine? Soon. Promise.

Review: The Substitute (Kinky Mom), by Molly Prude

Moving to a new town is always fraught. It's usually not pornographic. Given the type of blog you're reading, you might suspect that Serenade Springs is an exception.

The novelette revolves around a young windowed mother named Molly Prude. She comes equipped with three cute daughters ranging in age from Sexy Teenager to Sexy Young Adult. Actually, one of her daughters is in her mid-twenties so I'm not really clear on what she's doing here, but oh well.

So yeah, with four sexy women in a town that gives out sex toys in their welcome basket, you know we're gonna see some stuff. Each character gets a chapter, and each chapter involves them getting into sexy, sexy, conundrums.

The first encounter is actually probably the hottest, but also the most taboo and might disturb some readers. The women all act with disgust toward the sex toys, but when night falls, they each grab one in secret. Molly goes from room to room, checking on her kids, and of course each one is in the process of diddling herself. The mom/daughter incest fantasy is a stereotypical male one, but it's still pretty hot, at least for me -- maybe because I'm really into female self-pleasure. In any case, for those not too into it, it doesn't really go much further than Molly peeking in, so it's easily skimmable.

The other escapades are interesting, though I did feel like the actual sex was too short. I'm not one to complain that the story needs to be all sex and nothing but sex, but many of the chapters were a lot of build up, and then clothes falling off and an orgasm in all of couple of lines. I would have liked to see more, which is absolutely a compliment to the author's writing skills.

The other complaint I have is that the daughters are too similar. It's nice, in shorter stories like these, to have some easily identifiable character traits to differentiate the protagonists. Here, the girls are all pretty interchangable, which made me care less about their reactions than I wanted to.

As I intimated above, the writing is strong and clear, and some of the situations are hot, but short. I was left wanting more, but the story was interesting enough that I want to continue with the rest of the series. Given that this entry is currently free, I'm going to Recommend that you check it out!

The Line Between Safety and Fantasy

Erotica is a lot like porn. Okay, it is porn. Just in literary form. Sometimes people try to pretend that it's a higher art form, and I guess there *is* erotica in which the actual sex acts take a backseat (in the backseat? BOOM!) to the story. But for most of it, the intention is to get the reader off. Which is great!

One of the things that's talked a lot about in porn, though, and only sometimes in erotica, is the line between granting fantasy and portraying safe, sex-positive interactions.

Dan Savage addressed this in a recent podcast concerning the depictions of condoms in erotica. On the one hand, we should be striving to make safe sex just as sexy and sought after as barebacking. That's the responsible thing to do, right? On the other hand, a lot of people go to erotica to escape the dangerous, unsexy realities of the real world. To be able to experience crazy, thrilling, caution-to-the-wind fucking without having to worry about destroying lives, relationships or body parts. And contrary to the efforts of safe-sex advocates everywhere, condomless fucking is simply sexier to a vast majority of people, likely owing to the simple fact that it's by definition more intimate and more dangerous, both of which tend to get people's cranks turning.

And after all, there are plenty of far more dangerous, problematic fantasies in the pages of erotica than screwing without protection. Rape is a hugely common subject, but we've sort of come to terms with that because a) It's a fantasy that a lot of people, men and women, legitimately have, and b) it allows us to experience that fantasy, to scratch that itch, while still recognizing that a real-world manifestation of such a thing is awful, abhorrent and forbidden. There are plenty of other topics we can throw in here: incest, bestiality (how many copies did Dinosaur Porn sell?), hell, I've even seen pedophilia in mainstream published erotica anthologies.

So does that mean we say 'fuck it?' Make everything as sexy as possible for our readers, social responsibility be damned? Well ... perhaps not quite. I think there's a way we can have our cake and eat it too. We don't necessarily need to shove our politics and morals down a reader's throat -- there are plenty of other great things to shove down there. But maybe we can play with subtly, treat safety like it's No Big Thang, and see how it goes.

In my latest work, I've got a small little reference to a condom. A one-line thing. Enough that it might stick in your mind even while you're jillin' it, but small enough that if you're one of the people for whom the condom REALLY destroys the fantasy, you can easily ignore it and keep going. There's no focus on it. It's not slipping off, being adjusted. There's no breakage followed by a race to the Walgreens to get some Plan B. Just a short, sweet, "she slipped a condom on" and then away we go.

What do you all think? Should we ignore the threats of the real world and focus solely on fantasy? Is there a responsibility on the part of erotica writers or porn producers to at least pay lip service to safe sex?

Fan Art Friday: Wonder Woman

Hi there! Welcome to the very first Fanart Friday! Today I'm featuring one of my favorite characters, and quite possibly my favorite superhero of all time! Wonder Woman! Now, of course, since this is an erotica blog, we need to sexy it up a little. One of the problems with Wonder Woman is that she's often *too* sexualized. That is, it's hard to find a picture of her that's not her being raped by her supposed allies or something, and while that sort of fantasy is okay here and there (especially given how bondage focused she is), I wanted to highlight something different.

Both of these pieces are via Jeff Chapman. You can find more of his fantastic work on his DeviantArt page.

First up is a steely wonder woman, lasso out, ready for battle. I love the look on her face here, and I especially love how subtle the sexiness is. She's got curves, but they're not over the top, and they don't detract from her muscles or her power in general.

Second, let's get a little more risque! Here we've got Diana in a fairly comprimising position courtesy of her arch enemy, Baroness von Gunther. I love this picture for a few reasons. First, the model is just plain sexy as fuck. Second, I find the girl-on-girl power dynamic a lot hotter and less problematic than a lot of the male domination in WW porn, and it ties into the actual story fairly well. Third ... did I mention how fucking sexy that model is? Yowza. The swastika is a little troubling here (obviously it's a part of the lore, but it might give some viewers the heebie jeebies), but maybe you could just avert your eyes. I'm sure there's something in the picture you can look at instead.

Jeff Chapman has a lot of other great Wonder Woman pictures, as well as pictures of other characters and even original stuff. Go check it out, and have a great weekend!

Review: Gender Swap Lollipop, by Raminar Dixon AND Wishing for Something Extra, by Therese Verras

Hello fellow perverts!

Today I'm reviewing a pair of gender-swap stories. For those who haven't been initiated, these are stories where characters come to inhabit an opposite-sex body while retaining the same mind. As you can tell, there's a little bit of ethical crossover with transgender issues, but in general, gender swap stories avoid that, instead tackling it from a more lighthearted, "what if one day I grew a dick?!" attitude. So, let's get to it!

Gender Swap Lollipop #1, by Raminar Dixon

Our first entry today will be a male->female yarn about a drug trial. A drug trial administered (by a company called Sissco, naturally) in the form of a lollipop. VERY SCIENTIFIC. Our main character, Evan, ends up participating to make a few extra bucks, and the lollipop of course turns his outie into an innie and gives him some nice big boobies. Oh, and it also turns the participants into huge sluts (using the narrator's word, here). It also, at least for Evan, causes him to be attracted to men, and he immediately starts to pleasure himself to thoughts about his hunky roommate.

I'm referring to Evan as "he," here, because it seems like he still considers himself a man throughout the story. The end leaves that sort of ambiguous, though. Without spoiling too much (after all, there are several more books in the series), there's a funny perverted Beauty and the Beast/Cinderella thing wherein Evan will stay in his new female body if he gets someone to come inside of him, which adds some enjoyable tension to the romp.

So, is this a guy-on-guy story? Guy-on-girl? Guy-on-trans-girl? Hard to say. If you're the sort of person bothered by the distinction, I suspect you're not the target audience anyway. It's well-written, quick and free, so if the description sounds up your alley, I definitely recommend giving it a try and checking out the rest of the series. This one didn't quite turn my crank sexually, but there's nothing I can point to that's bad or wrong, so I'm giving this one a Recommend!

Wishing for Something Extra, by Therese Verras

Now let's cross the river and read the exact opposite of Gender Swap Lollipop! Wishing for Something Extra is the story of a woman (Christine) who willingly grows a cock to attract the girl of her dreams, and does so through magical, rather than scientific, means.

I'll make no secret of the fact that I find futanari pretty hot, so this story definitely got me going. I found Christine easier to relate to than the previous story's protagnist, and her shy but passionate use of her new appendage was both sexy and adorable. Ms. Verras's writing was clear and evocative -- I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the prose in both this week's reviews.

If I have any complaints about Wishing for Something Extra, it's the brevity of the sex. I guess Christine inherited more than just a cock from the male gender, as she's something of a two-pump chump, and in the ultimate cliche, it left me unsatisfied. Furthermore, this seems to be the only thing Ms. Verras has published, meaning there's not even a sequel to fufill my needs. Annoying!

Still, if you're looking for some futa fiction, put Wishing for Something Extra at the top of your list. Recommend!

Inaugural Post and Schedule!

Welcome welcome to the very first post! If you're reading this, you're almost certainly looking back through the archives from THE FUTURE, where hopefully I'm rich and famous (hell, here's to hoping we all are). A little bit about me: my name's Tiff Tyler (or is it?), I write and read erotica (or do I?) [I do], and this little corner of the Internet holds my thoughts, reviews, as well as links to my original erotica!

A quick rundown of what you'll find here and when, which is ABSOLUTELY subject to change:

Monday - Monday Musings. Random rants and ponderings. I'mma freestyle this one. Whatever's on my mind for the day, you're going to get.

Wednesday - Wednesday Reviews. Sort of alliterative ... (w)right? This is exactly what it sounds like. Every Wednesday, I'll have a review of some erotica. Some of it will be good. Some of it will be bad. So bad. If you want your story reviewed, contact me.

Friday - Friday Fanart. Every Friday, I'll link to some sexy artwork by some Internet denizen. Even though it says 'fanart,' none of it will reference my work, and much of it will be original! Hooray for misnomers!

So, there you have it! Hope you enjoy, and thanks for visiting!

~*~