How To Write Erotica: A Mills and Boon Guide

Selection of Erotica Available from Mills & Boon

The Original Sinners series by Tiffany Reisz

THE SIREN

THE ANGEL

THE PRINCE

THE MISTRESS FILES

THE MISTRESS (coming soon)

By Megan Hart

TEMPTED

BROKEN

DIRTY

DEEPER

SWITCH

COLLIDE

THE SPACE BETWEEN US

By Portia Da Costa

IN THE FLESH

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH

By Saskia Walker

THE HARLOT

THE LIBERTINE

THE JEZEBEL

By Eden Bradley

THE LOVERS

Collections

12 SHADES OF SURRENDER:

BOUND

UNDONE

10 SHADES OF SEDUCTION

All available in eBook

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Contents

So You Want to Write Erotica?

Porn vs Erotica

Your Kink or Mine?

Characters

Plot

Technique

How Not to Write Erotica

So Go and Write Some Erotica

Excerpt

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE EROTICA?

The tall, dark, handsome publisher sat down on the corner of his polished desk in his big office and smiled at the shy girl who had just been shown in, bearing a big manuscript of an as-yet-unpublished but (she hoped!) publishable book, which this good-looking publisher might want to publish if he liked it and thought it would make a lot of money for them both.

‘So you want to write erotica?’ he asked in his deep, masculine voice.

‘Yes, I do,’ she managed to squeak through her tightly constricted throat.

‘What are you like?’ he asked, curiously.

‘I know, I’m awful, aren’t I?’ The would-be author blushed. ‘If my mother knew what I had been doing all these weeks up in my room where I live with my parents after spending three years at college studying English Language and Literature, she would swoon terribly!’

‘I meant,’ the publisher said, twinkling his green-amber eyes with a devilish grin from his strong, square jaw, ‘why does a sweet, innocent little thing like you want to write erotica in particular?’

‘There is a lot of it about now, isn’t there?’ the girl replied earnestly. ‘And I was always very interested in writing at college so I thought I would try my hand at this.’

‘This pretty little hand here?’ demanded the publisher wickedly, taking her delicate right hand and stroking it between his big manly ones. Her womb went all funny and she got a hot feeling in between her legs where they met at the top, or nearly met because her lady parts were in the way of course.

‘I used this one too,’ she whispered huskily, holding up the other hand. ‘I typed.’

He took her other hand and rubbed it up and down his thigh like a cricket ball.

‘Would you care to have dinner with me tonight?’ he invited her politely. ‘I would like to get to know you better—’ he checked the name written on her manuscript ‘—Chablise?’

‘I would love to—’ her eyes searched desperately around on his desk for a name plate or something so she could call him by his first name, but there wasn’t one, but then after what seemed an eternity she finally glimpsed a letter addressed to him from a firm offering water cooler refills at discount prices, which happily had his first name on it, which she was able to read upside down ‘—Burke.’

So they went out to dinner and later on he published her book, which was a great success, and they slept together.

That’s not how you write erotica.

The language is bland, the exposition clunking, the characters are two-dimensional and unoriginal, there is no plot development or conflict, the author knows nothing about the environment in which she has set her scene, the descriptions are banal and the ending weak, with no sense of surprise. Any of these faults on their own would be enough to cripple any piece of writing, but most damaging of all for a potential piece of erotica is this: there is no sex.

The market for erotic literature—and any self-respecting writer of erotica should at least be aspiring to write literature rather than simple pulp—has never been greater. Erotic literature, primarily written by and mainly aimed at women, has become one of the biggest publishing success stories of recent years. New writers are coming on to the scene all the time, so if you’ve already dipped your toe in the water by reading stuff that has intrigued and excited you, or maybe already tried your hand at writing a few erotic stories yourself, then this is the guide for you. We shall share with you the secrets of success and the pitfalls to avoid. Whether you want to get into it for fun only or with a serious financial purpose in mind, your chances of success can only increase if you know what you’re doing and how to go about it.

Technique can be learned. What you need to bring to the mix are imagination, industry and a unique voice. Nobody can predict what the next big thing will be and we can’t tell you what to write—that must be between you and your Muse—but, if you can bring discipline and confidence to the work, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be the one to produce the next big franchise.

So good luck. Be bold. Be brazen. Begin.

PORN VS EROTICA

‘There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.’

—Oscar Wilde

Tell someone you are a writer of erotica and they are likely to be intrigued. Tell them you write pornography and they may suddenly go quiet. Some will even take a step away from you. The words themselves come with their own overtones, justified or not, and, while there is no question that erotic literature has become a lot more mainstream over the last few decades, the debate continues as to what the fundamental difference is between pornography and erotica. At best it’s a grey area—no need to count up how many shades exactly—and this is not the place to attempt a definitive prescription of what constitutes one or the other. But the following is a brief round-up of the current consensus, which may focus your thinking and help you produce the kind of work you can be proud of.

The word pornography comes from the Greek words for harlot and writing, so porn is literally ‘that which a harlot may write’ (based on her own experiences, presumably—’write what you know’ could well have been as popular a mantra among ancient Greek literary agents as it is in writing manuals today). It therefore implies that the sex described is nothing more than a business transaction, a loveless act where one party buys services in an encounter devoid of any kind of passion or mutual desire to get to know the other more deeply. Erotica is equally all about the sex in that its ultimate aim is to stimulate and excite, but it seeks to do this by other, less obvious means. Erotica is as much about the process as the end result and concentrates at least as much on the way the people feel about each other as it does on how those feelings are manifested. Interestingly, those feelings may not always be demonstrated in the most standard, straightforward, or even dignified way. The spectrum can extend from the simple act of holding hands at one end, all the way down to anything from handcuffs and beyond at the other. But its focus is always primarily on the essential relationship and not merely the physical act of intercourse...or fellatio or cunnilingus. (Get used to these words, you’ll be seeing more of them and their like as we go on and, if they make you uncomfortable now, you might like to rethink why you started reading this guide in the first place!)

Some would argue that erotica is essentially about the beauty of sex, but beauty itself is an aesthetic judgement and what one person finds attractive or exciting, another might find repellent or simply dull. And just as well, otherwise we would all be chasing the same conventionally gorgeous individuals and the vast majority of humanity would be left making do with what they considered second-best. Besides, tastes change over time and those things that other eras and other cultures find alluring—the glimpse of an ankle beneath a heavy Victorian petticoat, the sight of a young woman’s nape in sixteenth-century Japan—are not necessarily going to get our motors revving today. Erotica serves today’s needs and, if nothing else, provides wish fulfilment. It should always aim to be positive and upbeat. Everyone gets what they want in the end, especially if in the end is where they want to get it.

So while the main difference between pornography and erotica may be in the eye of the beholder, here is a brief rundown of the main points on which most modern observers of erotica seem to agree:

Erotica appeals to readers who like their minds to be engaged sexually, as well as their senses.

Erotica is balanced and egalitarian, even when power-play is involved.

Erotica celebrates sex as mutually rewarding for both sides.

Erotica offers a deeper, more satisfying experience than pornography.

While porn frequently ignores plot, erotica is mostly built on plot.

Erotica is always (and must always be) consensual, even when it is edgy and transgressive.

Erotica is a stimulus to sex rather than necessarily a substitute.

Erotica seduces.

Erotica is classy.

Erotica celebrates sexuality.

So while erotica is seeking to turn the reader on and get him or her into a randy frame of mind, the means by which it tries to do that are radically different from pornography.

The pornographer crams everything into the mix without caring too much about whether it is relevant, appropriate, or even plausible, and leaves nothing to the reader’s imagination. The writer of erotica, on the other hand, is more of a humanitarian, approaching her task with rather more elegance and style, treating her readers with respect and allowing their own fantasies to play a part and contribute to the experience. Where the porn writer will call a spade a spade simply because he lacks the time or the wit to think of anything better, the writer of erotica will find a way of conveying the sense and shape and heft and concept of spade in a variety of ingenious and subtle ways without ever having to use the word ‘spade’ at all. Often what’s sexy is what you don’t say: never underestimate the power of the reader’s imagination.

We will add at this point that none of the above should be interpreted as making any value judgements on the intrinsic qualities of the various types of material out there. Erotica, if it tries to become too high-falutin’, can crash and burn with spectacularly comic results. And nothing is more likely to puncture the erotic mood more effectively than a misplaced laugh. (These days they even give prizes for the worst sex scenes in books and competition is fierce.)

Erotica should fire our aesthetic sense as well as our libido and this means respecting the finer points of the writer’s craft. These include precision in vocabulary, perfect grammar, a sense of rhythm, a sharp eye for detail and a keen ear for levels of language. Good erotic fiction should also contain a strong plot, external conflict, plenty of drama, with pace and a sense of proportion. The actions should be in keeping with the background. And the characters should be rounded, sympathetic, on a human scale, and not simply black-hatted villains or mistresses in scarlet underwear.

Basically, in order to write good erotica it is first necessary that you can write good prose. But assuming you can already do that, let’s now examine how we can turn that skill towards the specifics of producing engaging, stimulating, banging-hot erotica.

YOUR KINK OR MINE?

If you’re unsure what specific area you might like to aim at, there’s no better way to gauge the market than to read widely around the subject. Human sexuality is a complex thing, and there’s no accounting for what people get off on. But one thing’s for sure: if you’re into it, the chances are that someone somewhere has written about it. Most book shops these days have sections devoted to erotica, and the Internet of course provides an even broader and deeper well to draw on. Plunge in.

The simplest way to explore your potential market is to think of some of your favourite kinks and type them into a search engine. Be shameless, and honest, and go after the stuff that excites you the most and that you think you could do well. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time and effort working on a book, do make sure your subject is one you’re genuinely interested in. Not only will this prove more enjoyable for you to write, anything that is less than interesting to the author often becomes obvious to the reader. Your boredom or embarrassment will communicate itself through the page.

If you’re new to the game, you might like to start with the Mills & Boon Spice list of erotica. These days the typical Mills & Boon heroine is a lot feistier than she used to be, and frequently makes the sexual running herself. Best of all, she’s found that she doesn’t have to keep one foot on the bedroom floor any more. Indeed, sometimes those feet can be found pummelling the hero’s buttocks as he pounds into her, if they’re not actually manacled to his bed post. There are so many titles available that if you read enough of them, you’re bound to get a good idea of the breadth of experience accepted (and now deemed acceptable) within their pages.

Such research will also help you avoid that most typical of tyro errors: unoriginality. There may be some erotic mileage still to be squeezed out of the hoariest old situations—the artist and the model, the waitress and the millionaire, the lady and the highwayman, the highwayman and the other highwayman (!)—but the chances are that whatever modifications you may come up with on the familiar old theme, someone somewhere has got in first. The rule is, if you have an idea, before you set to work examine it carefully to make sure it is as original as you can make it, and not just a subconscious memory of something you once came across elsewhere.

The good news is that erotic fiction is a very broad church and anything goes, or has gone, or will return to come again. And not only are there definite favourites, there are also the more extreme areas of the market, which are often called ‘niche’ to differentiate them from the mainstream. How niche is niche, of course, depends on your own tastes, and again whatever suits one may not suit all. We would certainly recommend you don’t shy away from exploring the further reaches of the erotic market, if only to expand your own ideas of what the human mind and body and psyche are capable of finding stimulation in. However, be aware that the more niche a concept, the less commercial it becomes as its potential audience is therefore smaller. Prepare to be amazed and amused and, in some cases, completely flabbergasted. You might even come across something that you didn’t know existed before but which, now you think about it, sounds rather fun. (Love eggs, anyone? Or how about a quick golden shower before you leave for the office?) And while even the ‘safer’ niche areas may be more specialist or rare, that doesn’t mean that anything written for this market shouldn’t obey the same rules of good composition that apply in all other writing.

And if your darkest fantasies seem a bit extreme to you, or you think you would feel awkward or embarrassed admitting them to strangers, remember that you’re engaged on a work of the imagination. As the nation’s favourite old lag Norman Stanley Fletcher so tellingly pointed out, ‘Dreams is freedom’, and inside your head is where you can do all your best living. Besides, no one is daring you to go through with any of your most private fantasies in real life, and if for whatever reason you can’t put your own name to the book when it’s published, you can always use a pseudonym. A healthy percentage of all erotica is written by women, though not necessarily under their own names, and some authors have a whole gallery of noms de plume to suit whichever kind of book they’re writing. Queen of Crime Agatha Christie wrote romance novels under the name Mary Westmacott, and if it’s good enough for the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple to adopt different literary personas for different facets of her endeavour, it should be good enough for the rest of us.

Besides, swapping between genres forces you to come at various situations from a different perspective, and so helps keep your imagination honed through constant use. And a lot of women writers out there aren’t even women at all, it’s just that male readers often like to see a woman’s name on the cover as it excites them to think a woman might be into the same kind of rich and fervid fantasies as they are.

Having said this, we would stress that the niche market is not likely to give you the biggest financial return on your investment of time and energy, and it’s only likely to appeal to those who are in it for its own sake. Besides, the most extreme forms of niche, e.g. non-consensual sex, obviously bypass the erotic market completely, finding themselves squarely in illegal territory. Two key words to remember when writing erotica: legal and consensual.

Besides, why would anyone want to mess with that kind of stuff when there is so much wholesome filth available at no risk to life and liberty? Here is a brief—and far from comprehensive—rundown of the most popular subject areas these days:

BDSM—Stands for Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism, and accounts for a healthy majority of the most popular types of erotic fiction around today. It’s usually written from the point of view of a heroine who finds herself strangely drawn to the brooding, powerful presence of a dominant male, and in the course of the book is subjected to any number of apparently painful and humiliating acts, in the process learning to embrace her submissive nature and forging a deep bond with her pitiless tormentor. The flip side of the coin concerns a hitherto ‘normal’ man who finds a similar level of security and fulfilment beneath the whip and high heels of a cruel mistress. There is plenty to commend this subset, and it’s easy to see why it’s so popular—which of us has not occasionally longed for a holiday from care and responsibility with a powerful and trusted companion making all our decisions for us? A timid or conventional reader can vicariously enjoy the thrills of confinement and submission without putting herself at risk, and with no awkward whip marks across the buttocks to explain in the gym later. Any deeper psychological explanation for an individual’s positive response to such treatment has been keeping psychiatrists in couches for decades, and goes way beyond the scope of this guide (!). Suffice to say, BDSM is ground-floor entry level for a lot of first-time writers of erotica, and there are numerous titles and authors around to help you find out whether this is the way forward for you.

Commercial—It may well have been the publishing phenomenon of EL James’s Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, or any of its competing franchises, that inspired you to think about joining the party, in which case welcome to the world of ‘mommy porn’. Like all marketing or press-imposed slogans, that phrase is more misleading than helpful—the use of the word porn is intended to be pejorative, and it’s not only housewives or ‘mommies’ who read it—but the one thing it does show is that the readership for erotica now extends into areas that just a few years ago would have avoided it like a dull cliché. There is no simple explanation as to why many more women are now enjoying erotica than in their parents’ day: perhaps it’s simply a symptom of the increasing liberality in society; perhaps when family budgets are tight we’re forced to find our pleasures in other, less traditional fields than the package holiday or the wine bar; or is it merely proof that escapism likes to keep up with the broader trends in society? Whatever the reason, mainstream erotic literature is now a fact of modern life.

Fan Fiction—Often the jumping-off point for new writers, who either start by concocting reverential homage pieces in the style of their chosen favourites, or simply plunge straight in with vivid and energetic accounts of Jean-Luc Picard getting it on with Admiral Janeway in the airlock of the starship Whatever. The advantage here is that the author can adapt a ready-made universe peopled with established characters who will already be familiar to the reader. On the down side, such franchises are generally copyrighted to the hilt, and owners are rarely chuffed at the thought of their property being misused and disrespected, especially if they’re not making any income from it. Tread carefully.

Fetish—Some might categorise fetish erotica as niche, but it depends on the niche and how much it impinges on the health and sanity of the protagonists. Fetishism is the unusual elevation of an object or action into a sexual turn-on in its own right, and it’s frankly amazing how so many humdrum subjects have been exalted in this way. Stockings and suspenders, for instance, started out with a purely practical function, but have been regarded as sexy for so long that these days they’re barely regarded as a fetish at all. Any inanimate object can find itself fetishised; the skill is to make the reader see in it what the characters see, which can require great sensitivity in the writing.

Historical—Lots of scope here for glamorous and unusual fashions, quaint-sounding dialogue and extinct social divisions. But bear in mind that in historical fiction tone is all-important, and the social politics have to fit the context or there is no verisimilitude. Any story set in the Restoration period that shows a poor working girl sleeping her way to the top and finally becoming prime minister will make most readers guffaw. It couldn’t happen, it certainly didn’t happen, so best not try to pretend it did. Wish fulfilment is one thing; wishful thinking quite another.

Modern Day—Most erotic fiction is set in the present day, and it’s easy to see why. To get inspiration for her characters and backgrounds the author need do no more than lift her head and look out of her window. She can concentrate on the kind of conflicts and dilemmas she and her readers are most likely to identify with. She won’t need to put on a voice or adopt a kind of pseudo-style to fit in with a more foreign background. Her language can be straightforward and precise. The challenge, of course, is to make literary gold out of such ordinary, humdrum materials in such a crowded market.

Role Play—The adult version of dressing up, this genre can take in everything from doctors and nurses to the enforced feminisation of willing men. Much of this genre is taken up with minute descriptions of the niche’s favourite clothing and accoutrements, and the protracted putting on and taking off of said gear. Often the clothing itself is out of the ordinary, though those good old standbys like leather, rubber and Lycra figure prominently, particularly if the setting is a riding school, tyre factory or gym. But again, a common trait in role-play stories is the assumption by one character of a dominant position and the meek compliance of another who is mildly astonished to be actually getting off on this sort of rough treatment. The important point here is plot development. The story should not merely consist of a repetitive series of dressing-up days, like an adult version of play school.