All Comments on 'Why Do We Do This?'

I can't speak for everyone, but I write to please myself. Sometimes I please others and sometimes I don't, though that seems to depend entirely on what category the story falls into! I have to ask, what was your motivation for writing this? Sometimes the "Roughly he thrust his throbbing tool into her quivering quim." suits the mood, others it doesn't, and when it comes to mood, who is to say that 'porn' or 'erotica' is best? You? And by whose definition is it one or the other anyway? Yours? They can both be beautiful if they suit the mood! I can't help thinking that this piece is a bit of an ego trip for you. Well, whatever, may your God go with you, I'll go my own way!

I too write externally, and I first posted here to exercise different writing skills. I have to admit that now I really enjoy the quick feedback provided on this site. Writing can be lonely, and you end up being quite isolated from the work once it is 'out there'. Literotica gets you noticed by a great variety of readers, many of whom are happy to share their opinions on your work. I don't know which is better but I find that writing erotica is more challenging and difficult than writing straight porn. These days I think I need more story to keep me interested, but when I am here I also look for good sex scenes too. That is what the site is all about.

Like you, I've written a fair bit of non-fiction, all of it related to computing. My Lit submissions have been my first shot at fiction, not counting some unfortunate experiences in mu school years, and I've really enjoyed it. Also like you, I get a special kick from reading the comments. I've even had a few especially moving ones sent privately and anonymously.

I think of my stories here as erotica, even though most fall well in the one-handed-reading category. Why did I bother to write? Largely in protest. Despite some very talented writing here, large numbers of stories lack in the warmth that I value in eroticism, and at least as many lack in basic writing skills. I felt that something as important as sex deserves better. When the thought "Even I could do better" occured to me, I took that as a challenge.

There are always nits to pick, adn I can pick plenty in my own stories. Still, based on my own tastes and on reader comments, I think I've had some success in meeting my goal.

I read it, and immediately felt like it might contain some useful insights. But what I found interesting is that after you laid out what you consider erotica to be (it happens that, as a "real" writer as well, I don't agree with your narrow definition, although the differentiation between porn and erotica is very real, just not along the lines you drew) you the submitted for consideration something that does not meet your own definition. How does this story fit, in your view?

I write because I couldn't. I wanted to write but couldn't string a sentence together. It became a mission. I started writing thoughts I had, to writing children's stories, then stories about children. It was lonely. No one is interested in poorly written children's stories. I wrote about 150 of them over 10 years.They were imaginative and interesting if they could be understood. I then found erotica. It took me a long time to start writing it. At first it was dreadful stuff. But I am determined. It takes me about a year on average to get a story out. This is fast for me. I always have a lot of stories waiting- having been written but needing my reviews to make them intelligible. I have improved with time. I enter competitions now- looking for comments as to how I can improve. Its a changing thing. I have worked on it for 30 years. Its frustrating but also rewarding. I think its important to be able to use one's language. I have noticed that most stories on this site have very little sex in them. I have rarely seen a story that is all sex. Mostly, I guess, its about a dozen lines in a story and then, for some reason the focus moves to the ceiling like a camera in an old movie, or perhaps because the writer has the innate message of "stop it now- you've gone too far!" I don't know what it is. There are so many challenges in writing erotica. At present mine is to write a story that is sexual and interesting through out after a brief introduction. I notice too that sexual intercourse isn't such a focus in written erotica as it is in real life. I think this is because there are fewer visuals to describe. I find it fascinating. Thank you for your essay- it is an essay- isn't it?

You confuse good and bad erotic writing with the overarching term 'pornography'. Pornography is defined as: ' the explicit description or exhibition of sexual subjects in literature, painting, films, etc, in a manner intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic feelings.

'Erotica' was a neologism of a 19C English bookseller to allow him a shelf of smutty works.

There are very good stroke stories on Lit just as there are many poor romances. In all genres of fiction there are different qualities of writing and if you now regard your early stuff as juvenilia it probably means you weren't as adept then at writing passion and arousal separate from the sports commentary.

To say that us girlies need our sex to be watered down to Harlequin amorous dalliances is, if I may say so, insulting. Try the posts of Selena Kitt or Colleen Thomas for example. Also, from a male writer, the brilliant BDSM of Dr Mabeuse

Your 'monosexual' snippet was really good, I thought.

This was a most interesting essay. I liked your "Chinatown" writing sample, although it needed a bit more to meet my definition of erotica - maybe she acts on those desires?

Pornography is not really susceptible of definition - the term involves way too much subjectivity. Victorian nudes - those of Rossetti and Waterhouse in particular - to me are much more erotic than anything skin magazines (or their internet counterparts) have ever offered, but at the time were acceptable, barely, to the British upper class, since allegedly they did not appeal to the sexual interests of the viewer.

One person who responded to your essay wrote

"… I find that writing erotica is more challenging and difficult than writing straight porn. These days I think I need more story to keep me interested, but when I am here I also look for good sex scenes too. That is what the site is all about."

Correction: in a perfect world it would be what Literotica is all about. In the event there are very few stories that have story lines worthy of being called "plots" or character development. Mostly, it is "boy meets girl, boy fucks girl," and screen fades to black.

But I certainly thank, and try to do so by personal, non-anonymous messages, those who can put some real sex in an interesting story.

I admire your attempt to write analytically about erotica and pornography, although I'm not sure I agree with you. I think I'd have to say that erotica arouses through subtlety, more often through what is left out than what is expressed, to whatever outcome eventuates, which may just amount to an admiration for the expression and the artistic creativity that produced it. Pornography is rarely subtle in its effect and its chief purpose is to heighten sexual desire. It is rarely artistic or subtle in its expression. It mostly does not include any concern for the emotions of the protagonists.

The short story you've included in this thoughtful essay is exquisite. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. It's a perfectly beautiful piece of erotica in my opinion, ably accomplished. I call it 'erotica' because you made us care about the character, and because it is subtle and artistically crafted to prompt an emotional, caring response in the reader.

I have to admit that some of my own writing fails to meet these definitions. Some I wrote in order to explore human interaction, because I am interested in all the varieties of sexual response and expression, and wanted to explore them in writing. Some I wrote for the sheer challenge of writing about an emotional and sexual relationship in all its complexity. It's not at all easy to write about sex competently and interestingly. Every story I write is a small tilt at this challenge, and in the process of writing I discover things about myself and others that I hadn't realised before. It's worth it for that alone. Then there is the sheer pleasure of crafting a story – the myriad choices for expression of one's ideas and the reasons for those choices, and the joy when characters come to life in one's head to the extent that they determine the progress and the dialogue of a story without any manipulation from me. When the plot or the characters assume vitality in this way, when they surprise me by assuming precedence over my own intentions, then my pleasure in writing is infinitely enhanced.

Thank you for writing this essay and for sharing your opinions so openly.

I tried writing for over ten years. I won a few small contest and was paid for some stuff. I've quit writing as I could no longer find anyone willing to read, edit and tell if it worked. Now, I'm a lonely old man who reads all types of erotica because it gives me some type of sexual outlet.

I like what you write very much. Please keep doing it.