***My apologies for missing last week’s blog post. I was sick with a horrible chest cold.
AND...
HAPPY LABOR DAY!!!
Right now I have a dozen writing projects on the table. All in various stages of completion. I haven’t been writing for a few weeks now because I’m in the process of moving, and therefore I’ve had to travel right much in order to find a house. Plus the packing has been a much bigger job than I ever believed possible. But once I’m moved and settled in, I’ll be back to writing and whittling down the work in progress pile for sure!
As we all know, ninety percent of all romance readers---from sweet to erotic—are female. One of my unfinished works is aimed for the male audience—the straight male audience. I’ve been told that I do male POV quite well. And I honestly think I do. However, I’m still a female writing for men. So there is always room for improvement, isn’t there?
Just as we crawl into the heads of our female characters in order to portray them accurately, we must do the same with male characters. And that’s a big job. It’s more than giving the dude a swagger and having him spit on the sidewalk. LOL It’s a completely different way of thinking.
The story I’m working on is erotica—not erotic romance. You see, even though I write romance and sometimes have my heroes do incredibly romantic things, I don’t really envision men as being all that romantic. But that’s how I see them in MY head. When all is said and done, the way I write this story will be based on MY perception of men. And that’s not to say that erotica can’t be romantic or have romantic elements. It can. But when I write it, the tone tends to be very edgy—gritty.
The top ten sexual fantasies for men and women really aren’t that different. Men want to involve anal in their fantasies while women list forced seduction. But that’s pretty much the only difference, although men do fantasize about giving up control.
Since Ellora’s Cave announced the launch a male erotica line, I’ve been reading blogs here and there and paying close attention to what the male commenters have to say. I’m seeing everything from men who want lots of description to men who say they want more sensuality. Then there are a whole lot of guys who just want to read hard-driving sex.
There’s a fine line between erotica and porn. I’ve read all kinds of books claiming to be erotica and just shake my head because they’re really nothing more than porn. So what IS that fine line? And is the line for men different than the line for women?
Yes, I think that the lines for men and women are different. Emotion and characterization seem to be the line in general. Not so much storyline/plot (although there can be), but simply making your characters real and giving them emotions. And yes, I think the lines for men and women are different. What do I mean by that? Hmmm…good question.
Well…here it is…
I think women have a much bigger ICK FACTOR. We’re not as forgiving when it comes to certain taboos. But that doesn’t mean we women are prudes and don’t embrace our sexuality. Not at all. Think about it. Women writers put the erotic romance/erotica industry on the map!
So I think with male-targeted erotica, we can expect to see more taboo sex, dialogue that is harder—grittier, and maybe, just maybe, we women will learn something from these books. I’ve always said that if men read romance they’d have a much better understanding of the wants and needs of women. And the same holds true of any book that a man reads, of course.
I'm looking forward to reading male erotica from my fellow EC authors. Nobody can do it the way Ellora's Cave can! Woot!!!
