Two Girls Kissing: Writing Lesbian Literary Erotica
with Amie M. Evans

Is Writing Erotica Serious Work?

Dear Amie,

Is erotica a serious pursuit, or is it a testing ground or a place to hone skills and a springboard to other more lucrative genres?

Wondering in Montana

Dear Wondering,

The answer to your question is both yes and no. Let me explain.

Literary erotica is a serious business. Publishers are, after all, business owners and want (need) to make money. They want to produce the highest possible quality product (i.e. erotic anthologies) they can to ensure their customers (i.e. the readers) return to buy again. If you are an aspiring author I encourage you to start now to think about writing as a job. Sure you should love and enjoy writing. And yes it is definitely an artistic endeavor, but ultimately writing is a job and you need to treat it as such. You should approach your writing career just like you would any other job you might have. After all, you, the author, are a subcontractor for the publisher. Is that image of writing as a career embedded into your mind? Great.

Now, I’d like to be a heart surgeon, but I’m not trained to be a doctor so no one will let me into the operating room no less allow me to cut open someone’s chest and poke around in their heart. This is probably a good thing. Unfortunately, the same isn’t true about writing. Anyone can write. And on a lot of levels that’s also a very fortunate thing. I think everyone should write. I am not sure everyone should be published or everything someone writes should be published, but everyone should write. That’s one of the best ways to learn to write—to do it. That and reading other well written works. Well, actually studying other well written works for style, character, plot, etc…

So yes, writing erotica is serious business.

Too often, new writers think they can write erotica as a stepping stone even if they don’t really know how to write. This is just a naïve, uninformed opinion. Erotica when done well consist of a fully developed story that contains graphic sexual content. You should be able to remove the sex and still have a story, if you cannot you aren’t writing literary erotica. If you cannot write a fully developed story with multi-dimensional characters, adding sex isn’t going to make your story better. Not to mention writing interesting, provocative, hot sex scenes is a skill of its own.

Writers should approach writing like another career. They should practice it, study it, practice it some more, honing their skills and talents. And then, once they’ve done this, they should start submitting their work to editors.

Most erotica authors also write in other genres. There are also a number of folks who write erotica almost exclusively. So if you are going to write erotica do it because you have a passion for it, not as a stepping stone. If you are going to step on it, make sure it is a stone you are interested in being on and not just a means to an ends.

Erotica can be a way to break into the queer writing word, but it isn’t the only way to break into the queer writing world. If you don’t take writing erotica seriously as a business, as a real art form, as serious writing, it will show in your prose and you will not "break" into anything. You will be marked as a sloppy, hack writer and dismissed. So my advice to you is if you don’t like to write about sex, don’t write erotica. If you think the erotica genre is "slumming it" please don’t take up any space in our neighborhood, stay uptown. If you are visiting the genre just to get a few publishing credits before you move up, please show the hard working erotica writers and editors respect due to them by producing high quality work.

My mother once told me that if you don’t love what you are doing you shouldn’t do it because it will show in the quality of your work that you aren’t enamored with the task. As always my mother was correct. If something is worth doing, the saying goes, it is worth doing well.

If there is an issue you would like me to address in "Two Girls Kissing," please email it to me (Amie M. Evans) with the column title as the subject line. To be added to my confidential monthly email list, please email me with subscribe as the subject line.

Amie M. Evans
August 2007

  More of Amie M. Evans' Two Girls Kissing in ERWA 2007 Archive.

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"Two Girls Kissing: Writing Lesbian Literary Erotica" © 2007 Amie M. Evans. All rights reserved.

About the Author: Amie M. Evans is a widely published creative nonfiction and literary erotica writer, experienced workshop provider, and a retired burlesque and high-femme drag performer. She is on the board of directors for Saints and Sinners GLBT literary festival and graduated Magna cum Laude from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in Literature and is currently working on her MLA at Harvard.
Read Amie M. Evans' full bio at the Erotica Readers & Writers Association.

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