Keep Hoping Machine Running (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefourthvine) wrote2007-03-17 08:00 am
thefourthvine) wrote2007-03-17 08:00 am
Entry tags:
Poll: Hot or Not?
Recently, I was discussing the writing of porn with a party who shall remain nameless (unless she chooses to be named). The key part of the conversation went kind of like this:
Her: I'm writing porn that is very difficult.
Me: *sympathy*
Me: *rambling about ME ME ME*
Me, continuing to ramble: Like, when I was writing my Yuletide 2005 story, my recipient requested "hot het porn." And what I wrote was unbelievably not hot, the antithesis of hot. You were there for the shrieking hysterical breakdown, so I don't need to recapitulate.
[Note: For those many lucky folks not there for the breakdown: there was shrieking. And hysterics. And a post that is, mercifully, locked privately away forever, but can be summarized as, "I will fail my recipient and ruin Yuletide. I LOSE." In conclusion: porn does not come easily to some of us, and if you're just snickering at that, well, okay. I am, too. Join me in my club for the incurably low-minded!]
Me, still rambling: And when I reread that story, it is still the antithesis of hot, at least to me.
Me, rambling ever on: In fact, I don't think I've ever found anything I've written even remotely hot. Huh. Perhaps this is why I am so very bad at writing porn.
Her: ...I find the porn I write hot.
Me: Ooo. I feel a poll coming on.
And then I realized that today I would be in need of distraction. So - here is that poll. And it's only for people who have ever written any kind of porn, of any stripe, except the last question, which can be taken by anyone.
For the purposes of this poll, "porn" doesn't have to be NC-17 or even R; it just has to be erotic in intent. And you don't have to have written a lot of it. Once is enough! And it doesn't have to have been fan fiction, either. And any manner of porn - boy parts, girl parts, a delightful mixture of parts, merman/centaur (no, do not ask where the merman keeps his parts, for that way lies madness), tentacles galore, whatever - is equally valid.
Pimping of this poll would be not only welcome but, given the topic, entirely appropriate. If you know porn writers, why not ask them to come on over? I'd appreciate it. Distract me, people! I'm begging. Nicely.
[Poll #948511]
Her: I'm writing porn that is very difficult.
Me: *sympathy*
Me: *rambling about ME ME ME*
Me, continuing to ramble: Like, when I was writing my Yuletide 2005 story, my recipient requested "hot het porn." And what I wrote was unbelievably not hot, the antithesis of hot. You were there for the shrieking hysterical breakdown, so I don't need to recapitulate.
[Note: For those many lucky folks not there for the breakdown: there was shrieking. And hysterics. And a post that is, mercifully, locked privately away forever, but can be summarized as, "I will fail my recipient and ruin Yuletide. I LOSE." In conclusion: porn does not come easily to some of us, and if you're just snickering at that, well, okay. I am, too. Join me in my club for the incurably low-minded!]
Me, still rambling: And when I reread that story, it is still the antithesis of hot, at least to me.
Me, rambling ever on: In fact, I don't think I've ever found anything I've written even remotely hot. Huh. Perhaps this is why I am so very bad at writing porn.
Her: ...I find the porn I write hot.
Me: Ooo. I feel a poll coming on.
And then I realized that today I would be in need of distraction. So - here is that poll. And it's only for people who have ever written any kind of porn, of any stripe, except the last question, which can be taken by anyone.
For the purposes of this poll, "porn" doesn't have to be NC-17 or even R; it just has to be erotic in intent. And you don't have to have written a lot of it. Once is enough! And it doesn't have to have been fan fiction, either. And any manner of porn - boy parts, girl parts, a delightful mixture of parts, merman/centaur (no, do not ask where the merman keeps his parts, for that way lies madness), tentacles galore, whatever - is equally valid.
Pimping of this poll would be not only welcome but, given the topic, entirely appropriate. If you know porn writers, why not ask them to come on over? I'd appreciate it. Distract me, people! I'm begging. Nicely.
[Poll #948511]
no subject
- why are they 'Must Not Be Read'? How do you know???? (Yes, I'm writing an epic, so... slight unease here.) Is it because they are epic?
Nononono, not at all! Epics are fine! My Epics That Must Not Be Read aren't fine because they - wait, I have another poll on this topic. It's here (http://thefourthvine.livejournal.com/63953.html). Basically, I know they Must Not Be Read because - well, take my Buffy one. It's a long AU in which things develop very differently than they did in the canon, in which I change major characters' life arcs in major ways, and I do it entirely to please me. It suits my wishes for the canon so well that there's no way of knowing if it's even remotely in character or canon at all. It's essentially gen id porn, or wishfic, and it veers along that uncomfortable edge between narrative and fantasy.
- if you love them, how do you know somebody else wouldn't??
I don't know for sure. But let's just say - okay. I sent another Epic That Must Not Be Read out to beta, because I didn't realize it was an ETMNBR. That experience was beyond humiliating, despite how incredibly kind they were. So, you know, having exposed my id to authors I love once, I'm unlikely to do it again.
I did, at one point, have a bet on with someone - um,
But my point is, it's got nothing to do epic size. Epic size is lovely. It's just when you get into ETMNBR territory that things get - well, shameful, if you're me.
As it is, I don't know in what sense, or just how, they work for them; might be totally different from the way they work for me.
Often it is. At least, what I expect to work in my stories sometimes is and sometimes isn't what actually does work for readers. And, of course, what works varies from reader to reader. Sometimes they love best stuff that I didn't even notice.
The trouble there is also that there's so much else going on in those scenes that I'm usually more concerned about reader response to characterisation than to basic hotness, so that's what I'm more likely to ask about in excruciating detail.
Grill your betas! It's what they're for! (Seriously. It's a big part of what we do when we beta-read: answer the writer's nine million questions.)
Yes, it's intense, but so are scenes with arguments or battle scenes or angst angst angst
Ah. See, I have problems with all those kinds of scenes; I'm definitely a "cold prickly" writer, and partly that's because I shy away from any kind of strong displays of emotion in my writing. Even if I do have an emotional scene, I am likely to tell it through the PoV of the most repressed, least emotionally intelligent person present.
What can I say? I have issues. This is why I mostly stick to other kinds of writing. *grins*
no subject
Ah yes. I knew I remembered feeling this sinking feeling before. I read that post and responded; my comment was: "I've ticked 'Something else' for your second question. I am now eyeing my present project, which is certainly an epic, with great suspicion. Thank you for planting that idea in my head... I think." :-)
It's a long AU in which things develop very differently than they did in the canon, in which I change major characters' life arcs in major ways, and I do it entirely to please me. It suits my wishes for the canon so well that there's no way of knowing if it's even remotely in character or canon at all.
Um. Yeah, mine's an AU, too. *g* One canon point is different and it all moves on from there. But then, I always thought that was rather the point of AUs. And therefore, also, they no longer have to be 'in canon'. It's an alternate universe. ::shrugs; has no problem with this.::
As for 'in character', that's trickier, I admit. (Oh, my readers are going to love you when I tell them that you are the reason I'm going to be storming in their doors bleating "does the sex work? is it sexy? what about characterisation, does it still wooooork?" just when they thought I was ticking along nicely here.)
Xander in Hell sounds okay to me.
As for the cold prickly... I'm not really sure what kind of writer I am - it changes with the pov, I think, and it really has to; but I certainly tend to go for a toned-down approach when I can. I'm definitely a cold prickly reader, and you know, I'm getting really quite excited about the thought that there might be EPICS out there written in a cold pricky style....