The Psychosexual Motive in Writing

I have been a writer all of my life. My employment as an adult has, to a large extent, depended on my ability to get published, which I suppose makes me a professional writer. In addition to writing, I've also served as a consulting editor for a number of publications. I am no stranger to the written word.

The motives for writing erotic fiction no doubt vary among authors and I suspect is not monetary for most authors. For many, myself included, the basic motive is probably personal psychosexual dynamics. After reading a good bit of erotic fiction, I found that stories tended to resonate or not with me depending on how sexually arousing I found them. I did not find very many stories that really latched on to my sexual psyche. I concluded from this that there were probably not a large number of authors who shared my particular psychosexual dynamics. This recognition led me to the decision to write my own erotic stories. Self-authored stories would, by definition, be individually tailored to one's particular tastes in erotic fiction. In short, I write for an audience of one.

I have written and posted several erotic stories. I have left all of them open for rating and for public comment. I'm curious about reader reactions to my stories because those reactions, especially the comments, tell me a lot about the reader. There have been few ratings and fewer comments relative to the recorded number of readers for my stories. This appears to be the case with many posted stories. From this I infer that most readers are not motivated to respond to stories because the stories don't sufficiently tap into to their psychosexual dynamics. A story can strike a neutral, positive or negative "cord" with a reader's psychosexual dynamics. On a 1 to 9 scale, think of neutral as 4 to 6, negative as 1 to 3 and positive as 7 to 9. The further toward one end or the other of the scale a reader places a story the more likely a rating or comment.

If there is a group of amateur sexologists within the Literotica readership, I think they could develop a classification system to categorize the psychosexual dynamics of posted stories. This could be done from a random sample of stories. Once a classification system has been created any story could be classified based on its psychosexual dynamics. The very broad categories used on the Literotica site are a starting point but each would need a number of subcategories to be sufficiently focused.

For example, stories that appeal to me almost always fall under the broad category of Transsexuals and Crossdressers. However, this is a pretty broad category and the psychodynamics of transsexuals and crossdressers differ in important respects even while sharing some components. In my own thinking, stories that I write are clearly more oriented to the cross dresser element in the category than the transsexual element. Thus, it would not be difficult to break this category down into two categories. If there were a separate category for cross-dressing stories, it could be further divided into subcategories. Each subcategory could focus on a theme such as self-expression, female guidance, female domination, coerced and forced. Of course some of these themes can overlap within a story although one will probably be primary.

My own stories on Literotica can serve as an illustration of the themes mentioned. In my story "Life on the Farm" the main character's cross-dressing is clearly female guided. When the story makes the transition from cross-dressing to overt sex, there is an element of male coercion but no force. In the story "Home From the Resort," both cross-dressing and overt sexual activity are initiated by male coercion. However, following the initiation, cross-dressing is turned over to a female character to supervise. Given that the female character has an "ax to grind," regarding her male charge, the supervision would likely be consistent with the female domination theme but is not developed. In the story "Escapade," there is an initial component that fits the self-expressive theme since the main character is already wearing lingerie on his own initiative. As the story unfolds, there is male coerced sexual activity. The story ends with the main character's cross-dressing apparently being taken under the tutelage of a female who also uses the main character sexually, which suggests that the relationship could develop into one of female domination. Finally, the multiple-part story "Little Sister" begins with mild coercion but unfolds almost exclusively under the theme of female guided.

I am currently working on a female domination story and have an idea for a self-expressive story. I have not written any stories that focus on overt force as a theme. My characters are usually submissive enough that they are either easily led or easily coerced. So far my characters are essentially "ripe" for the experience but uncomfortable with accepting responsibility for taking the plunge into an alternate identity. Thus, they become putty in the hands of anyone, especially a female, who is willing to assume that responsibility for them.

Once a classification system has been completed, the number of stories posted in a category and the number of readers would constitute a de facto census of the psychosexual type represented by the category. It would also make possible within category comparative ratings of the stories. Within category ratings would be more dependent on story quality than on psychosexual dynamics since they would all share the same or similar psychosexual dynamic.