Erotica 101

by Han Li Thorn

© 2003 Han Li Thorn. All Rights Reserved.

Article 2: You Called it a What?

One of the most common questions asked by beginning erotica writers is:

How can I write varied, multiple sex-scenes without repeating myself? After all, there are only so many words for human body parts and sexual activities...

And this is, indeed, a challenge that authors working in the mainstream, or in other genres, don't face. Erotic stories - if they're to be successful -- need to contain plenty of sex; many readers (and therefore publishers) want a scene every few pages. And each of these scenes has to seem fresh, or the reader will quickly become bored.

Your first instinct might be to turn to an erotic thesaurus. There may be some help here, but for the erotica writer using a contemporary style, I'm afraid it's limited. The unfortunate fact is that there's simply a limited number of words in the English language for body parts and sex acts, and many of them sound dated or quaint or even ridiculous to modern ears (the writer of rough-and-ready pornography may have an easier time of this, since linguistic nuance will be less important).

Here's a partial list of synonyms for the word Abdomen (taken from The Bald-Headed Hermit And The Artichoke: An Erotic Thesaurus):

abs
alvus
Aunt Nelly
bay window
bazoo
belly
bingy/binjy
corporation
front porch
gizzard
gut(s)
Machonochie

That's about half the terms listed for this entry, but it's more than enough to show the problem: the list looks generous enough, but how many of those words would you use if you wanted to kindle desire, rather than confusion, wonderment, or laughter? If you're like me, the answer is not many. My list of usable words for the lower front part of the abdomen would include: abdomen (of course), abs (possibly, if the context was right), belly, midriff, stomach, tummy (again, in context) - and that's about it.

Looking up a thesaurus entry for, say, breasts or genitalia leads to the same problem: a host of slang and archaic words, many of which will only work if you're writing to a period style, or are aiming for humour or pastiche.

So, what should you do?

The first thing to understand is that there is always at least a handful of words you can use for any given part of the anatomy and any particular activity. I bet you can come up with several words for “penis” or “breasts” without too much thought.

There are also“generic” terms that can stand in for many different parts of the anatomy, while still being evocative and descriptive. If the reason for our search for abdomen-synonyms above was to describe the stomach of a slim young woman, we might write something like:

His hand brushed her belly and he trailed his fingers down along the taut, elegant curve of flesh, working his way towards...

You get the idea. Curves, planes, muscles, skin, flesh, tendons, hollows, clefts, mounds... these are flexible words that can apply to a wide range of anatomy, and they provide a useful extension to the stock of nouns that are available to describe your characters' bodies. Taking it a step further - and this needs to be done sparingly and with care - you can also press modified adjectives into service. His hardness. Her wetness. I hope you get the idea - and why this can quickly become risible if it's overdone.

These usable words and generic terms are more than enough to carry a scene or three, if you apply them carefully - and it's perfectly okay to re-use the same words in later scenes (they only linger in the reader's short-term memory for a page or so).

Which brings me to the psychological reason for varying the vocabulary you use in the first place: readers get bored by seeing the same terms repeated in quick succession. Reading a fresh and original phrase or word triggers a pleasurable response (though the casual reader is most likely unaware of it, at least consciously) the first time it is used. If re-used too soon, that response is reduced - as if the reader's brain has been de-sensitised to it. After a few pages, a word can be used again without provoking a subconscious “bored now” reaction.

So, the first thing to understand is that you don't need to worry too much about finding virgin vocabulary to describe each scene. The important things is to have fresh scenes to describe - after all, if the sex in your story is a succession of they went to bed and fucked in the missionary position scenarios, your reader is going to lose interest no matter how much invention you bring to your descriptions of the event!

Now, I'm going to jump ahead of myself for a moment, because I'm going to talk about point-of-view, which isn't actually scheduled until the next article in this series, but it's relevant here because it can also help save you from the limited erotic vocabulary that our language provides.

Point-of-view is all about going inside your character's head, and showing your reader what the person sees, thinks, and feels. In my opinion, careful point-of-view control is one of the keys to powerful written erotica - and powerful fiction in general - but I'll leave that until the next article.

For now, consider what goes on in your own mind when you make love. If you're a straight woman, do you take the time to think:

his dick is inside my pussy

Or does the more primal and urgent:

he's inside me

come closer to expressing what you feel?

Assuming you chose the second, isn't it credible that your characters would experience those sensations in the more direct way, too? And that your readers, if you've managed to draw them into your characters' lives and heads, will respond all the more strongly for it?

I'm not advocating that you never write a line like:

his engorged cock slid wetly into the warm, welcoming entrance of her sex

but it certainly pays to remember that you can add a whole new layer of power and variety to your erotic writing if you describe - at least sometimes - the internal emotions and sensations your characters feel, as opposed to the clinical details of precisely what they do.

Comments  on this article are welcome (please don't change the email subject line!)