|
|
To recieve a copy of this bi-weekly newsletter via e-mail send any e-mail to Newsletter@KatyTerrega.comClick here for back issues |
|
--- Writing Porn For Fun and Profit! --- ========================================= ========================================== As of right this minute we have 223 subscribers and we're getting new ones almost every day. I say the more the merrier and look forward to hearing from all the new subscribers. In this issue we've got a great article on rule breaking by a reader and writer, Jenesi Ash. Christina Munoz has some good news in "Goings On". I've got some more information on a collection of paying markets (and another question), so check out "More on Markets." Plus, there's another excerpt from my book on fine-tuning your story, a market and a little Q and A. Thanks to all of you for your feedback, suggestions and questions as I become more adept (well, more or less) at this whole newsletter thing. I really like the sense of community I'm feeling from all of you and am excited about the directions we can grow! Katy =========================================== The other day I was flipping through a technical journal for writers. An article about sex scenes caught my eye. (Gee, wonder why.) It was by an award-winning, best-selling romance writer known for her sexy stories. Never heard of the writer before and I read romances frequently. Still, I read the article only to find out that this woman had no idea what she was talking about. She wasted my time and the periodical's space to reinforce old myths. Myths that I broke or someone I know proved false. Let me give you an example. The first 'rule' the author mentioned was that the writer must have experienced sex in order to write it. Hmm. Sounds logical. Must be true. Guess what? It's NOT! Shocking, isn't it? How do I know? Because I know of at least one poet and one writer who wrote extremely explicit love scenes and were virgins. I may know more virgins who write erotic fiction, but virgins tend to keep their status to themselves. Anyway, these women not only wrote about sex but also consistently sold their work. How can this be? Simple. The women had experience using their five senses. Add their sensual expertise to an academic knowledge of sex and they managed to write publishable fiction without having to get laid. (Their loss, but that's another matter.) Okay, I know, you think that's a fluke. Think again. The romance author said in her article that when it came to love scenes, one must adhere to the rule, 'write what you know'. This is not the same rule as the first one. More like a tangent of the first one. She meant that if you've never given or received oral sex, you shouldn't write about it because it will advertise your ignorance. Bull. I've written stories about every sexual position and situation I could imagine (and my imagination is getting wilder by the day.) I did not do every technique and I'm not going to. I am going to rely on my bookshelf of reference manuals that deal with everything from aphrodisiacs to BDSM. But you don't even need revolving credit with Amazon.com and a sagging bookcase to debunk this myth. Let me give you another example. I was asked to write an erotic story dealing with fantasy characters. The story I wrote was in the point of view of the magic mirror (from the Snow White fairy tale). In this story, the mirror gets aroused and yearns for his human form. The erotic mood stems from his deprivation. Now, last time I checked, I was a woman. And I also resided in a human form. So, how could I write this story that was accepted by respected editors for a proposed anthology? Because, while I may not know what its like to be a man trapped in a mirror frame, I do know how I would FEEL about it. So, let's change that pithy saying into 'write how you would feel in the situation', hmm? There were a few more rules that this romance author spouted, but I'll just add one more as food for thought. In this article she stated that the way to produce an arousing love scene is to be 'in the mood' when you write it. Now, I don't know about you folks, but I spend a couple hours a day writing erotic fiction. There is no way I can be in a state of arousal - and sustain it - throughout my workday. Hell, I knew a clinically diagnosed nymphomaniac and even she wasn't aroused 365 days a year. Yet I write every day and I produce erotic stories. Stories that are published and received fan mail asking for more. How is this possible? It is because I write everyday. I don't wait for Eros to pay me a visit. If I'm in the mood, the last thing I want to do is run for my computer. I write about sex whether I feel like it or not. I would rather struggle through a short story when I'm grouchy than wait impatiently for Eros to drop by. I admit that sometimes this is extremely difficult, but since I've tried to keep to a writing schedule, those bad days aren't so terrible. So the next time you hear about the unwritten rules in writing, don't get intimidated. The experts are repeating the rules they followed and they don't know of other roads to success. It's your job to be aware of the rules and forge your own path to publication. Just remember that the rules can be broken - and usually are! Well, the general consensus is that when it comes to markets, y'all would rather have them all at once in book form than have them doled out monthly. Actually I kind of like that better, too, as I can do all the research in one fell swoop. One reader had a great idea...do a book but update it regularly, monthly, maybe, or quarterly. I'm mulling over the best way to do that. I've already started fishing/searching for more markets and my goal is to have a book of 50-100 paying porn/erotica markets ready for distribution by the end of the year. If you know of any, please feel free to share! Print, web, anything that pays is fair game. Speaking of pay...in my research I've found plenty of quality forums that
publish porn/erotica. Unfortunately a fair amount of these markets are non-paying, but they'd still look good on a resume. Are you interested in those? I'd be happy to include listings of non-paying markets as well, please let me know your preference.
Structure Start with the story as a whole. Break it down into it's beginning, middle and end. Make sure that you have all three, if you can't define them you're probably missing something. Is there a clear set-up (beginning), one or two sex scenes (middle) and an ending? If not, block them out. At this point you don't have to worry too much about the details, the words themselves, you're just looking for the basic structure. You may find that you're top heavy on one aspect of the story, perhaps your set-up lasted 1,000 words. Or maybe you left something out, maybe there's no ending, or only one sex scene. For now, fix your basic structure - give yourself three separate pieces to work with. Once you've broken your story down into more manageable segments, you can begin to fine tune just a little. Let's say you've got your basics, beginning middle and end. Take one and work on it, manipulating it until it's a complete and coherent piece. Beginning - Is your set up plausible? Could it really happen, at least in the fantasy world of porn? Do your characters have a presence? Are they well defined, do they have personality? Did you fit in all the details necessary to get the story started, to move it along? Middle - Does the sex flow easily from your set up? Do you have two separate sex scenes (if needed) and are they relatively plausible? Do all the pieces fit together? Do the characters move from gracefully from act to act or place to place, or are some parts awkward? End - Did you bring all the elements of the beginning and end together? Did you leave any loose ends or unanswered questions? Does it all tie-in nicely? In this rough stage, as you notice things out of place with your beginning, middle and end structure, fix them. You may have to add some space between your sex scenes or move the participants to another location so the sex is smoother. You may even have to rearrange. Often I'll find a paragraph that just doesn't fit and I'll need to move it to a different part of the story. Or sometimes I have to get rid of large pieces of the story because the whole thing is too long or because once I got to the end, some of the beginning had become unnecessary. Only when you've got your basic structure blocked out, your beginning, middle and end all there and accounted for, should you begin to dig a little deeper. Paragraphs I like to look at a paragraph as almost a separate story in it's own right. Beginning - A paragraph needs a clear beginning that usually ties in somehow to the preceding paragraph. If it doesn't do that naturally as an extension of the last one, you have to manufacture it. Beginning writers often let their paragraphs jump randomly from place to place, making it difficult for readers to follow. Try to transition smoothly from one to another before you move on. Middle - The bulk of the paragraph (the middle) is where each sentence has to fit into the paragraph's structure as a whole. If this paragraph is about your heroine's physical attributes, you need to stick to that. You may have written the perfect sentence about her motivations but if it's in this particular paragraph, it's going to be out of place. In reworking a first draft I often I find that my sentences and paragraphs are jumbled together in awkward ways. I may have all the right information and all the right descriptions, they just need to pieced t together in a different way. By going through each paragraph individually I'm able to ferret out those pieces that belong to the story as a whole but not to this paragraph. End - After your paragraph has completed it's urse and finished up it's particular thought process, it needs to somehow flow into the next one. As it's creator, you need to make sure the ending is put together in such a way as to take your reader on a seamless journey into the next one. If you don't, if your transitions are awkward, you're going to slow (or even abort) your reader's journey. Sentences Once you've dissected your paragraphs and decided that every sentence belongs, you need to look at each sentence separately. Pay attention to how you begin each one. Are you always starting with the same word or phrase? Not only is that awkward to read but it's boring as well. You'll need to mix up your phrasing. And watch out for the word then at the beginning of a sentence. If you find yourself overusing that word it may mean you're not transitioning your sentences and paragraphs very well. Aside from the beginnings of sentences, watch out for repetitive words within the same paragraph. There's no reason to overuse certain words, there are almost always plenty more available where those came from. Sure, when you're dealing with porn, it can seem like your resources are limited. After all, how many words are there for a particular body part? But to keep it interesting you've got to learn to be creative about re-structuring your sentences to keep from overusing the most obvious ones. Vary your sentence length. If you have five sentences in your paragraph, try to make some short and some long. Throw in a compound sentence for variety, or maybe just a creatively used comma. See if your paragraph flows. If not, fix it. Chances are, you'll intuitively know where your sentences and/or paragraphs are falling apart. On some level I'm always aware when something's wrong or just doesn't fit, even if I'm not always sure exactly how to fix it. Pay attention to your gut feelings about your sentences and paragraphs, if they don't feel quite right to you, they won't feel quite right to your audience.
Next Week, Part III, Including Perspective, Final Drafts and Proofreading
Basically, the porn/erotica market is the same as any other, except that you rarely need to send a query for fiction pieces. Nor do you need to tell an editor anything about your clips and/or writing history. Most of them are only interested in your story, and either it stands on it's own or it doesn't. For almost all of my fiction submissions I use the same cover letter (see below) that I present in my book and so far it's worked quite well.
Dear Ms. Editor:
Please let me know if you can use the enclosed 1,000-word piece, Porn Story Extraordinaire, for Porn Magazine. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Hopeful Author To "prove" it I'll tell you that as I write this (perched at my desk in the corner of the living room) my son is playing Spyro in the same room, my daughter is watching him while she eats breakfast and my husband is in the kitchen reading the paper. I do save the hard-core porn writing for when the kids are at school and the husband's at work but everything else is fair game at ALL hours of the day and night.
Thanks for all your e-mails concerning article ideas. To clarify, what I'm looking for are essays/articles that will inspire and/or instruct other porn writers. Success stories, how to break into certain markets, unique views on the genre, etc. I'm thinking about 800 words, although I'm flexible. No, you don't have to be published but it might help. Or, maybe you're published in other genres but not in porn, and maybe you've got something to say about that. Another good angle is familiarity with a specific market. There are so many sub genres of porn and it's hard to know the subtleties of each. If you've got a specialty, from BDSM to Watersports to Leg Sex to Amputeeism, feel free to share your knowledge. I don't really need queries, just send me your finished article/essays and we'll go
from there. Right now I'm paying with a copy of the updated It's A Dirty Job...(plus credits) but as SOON as this site is self-supporting I'll be able to offer some cash.
And you have been, thank you! Please keep on doing so. I will try to get to all e-mails ASAP, and that usually means within twenty four hours. But sometimes - this week it's Kids Out of School for Fall Break! - it'll take me longer. If you haven't heard from me in two or three days, EMAIL ME AGAIN! I probably screwed up and didn't get/see/notice your question or comment. Tell me what you want this newsletter to be, tell me what info you need to have, tell me what you like or (oh, alright) dislike about what's going on here.
|
Click here for back issuesIt's a Dirty Job..........Contest Rules.............Home.......... Contact Me |
|
Copyright© 2000 KatyTerrega.com. All Rights Reserved Refer to my Privacy Policy Send Feedback to Webmaster |