Mills & Boon - How To Write Erotica - A Mills and Boon Guide

Some would argue that erotica is essentially about the beauty of sex, but beauty itself is an aesthetic judgement and what one person finds attractive or exciting, another might find repellent or simply dull. And just as well, otherwise we would all be chasing the same conventionally gorgeous individuals and the vast majority of humanity would be left making do with what they considered second-best. Besides, tastes change over time and those things that other eras and other cultures find alluring—the glimpse of an ankle beneath a heavy Victorian petticoat, the sight of a young woman’s nape in sixteenth-century Japan—are not necessarily going to get our motors revving today. Erotica serves today’s needs and, if nothing else, provides wish fulfilment. It should always aim to be positive and upbeat. Everyone gets what they want in the end, especially if in the end is where they want to get it.

So while the main difference between pornography and erotica may be in the eye of the beholder, here is a brief rundown of the main points on which most modern observers of erotica seem to agree:

Erotica appeals to readers who like their minds to be engaged sexually, as well as their senses.

Erotica is balanced and egalitarian, even when power-play is involved.

Erotica celebrates sex as mutually rewarding for both sides.

Erotica offers a deeper, more satisfying experience than pornography.

While porn frequently ignores plot, erotica is mostly built on plot.

Erotica is always (and must always be) consensual, even when it is edgy and transgressive.

Erotica is a stimulus to sex rather than necessarily a substitute.

Erotica seduces.

Erotica is classy.

Erotica celebrates sexuality.

So while erotica is seeking to turn the reader on and get him or her into a randy frame of mind, the means by which it tries to do that are radically different from pornography.

The pornographer crams everything into the mix without caring too much about whether it is relevant, appropriate, or even plausible, and leaves nothing to the reader’s imagination. The writer of erotica, on the other hand, is more of a humanitarian, approaching her task with rather more elegance and style, treating her readers with respect and allowing their own fantasies to play a part and contribute to the experience. Where the porn writer will call a spade a spade simply because he lacks the time or the wit to think of anything better, the writer of erotica will find a way of conveying the sense and shape and heft and concept of spade in a variety of ingenious and subtle ways without ever having to use the word ‘spade’ at all. Often what’s sexy is what you don’t say: never underestimate the power of the reader’s imagination.

We will add at this point that none of the above should be interpreted as making any value judgements on the intrinsic qualities of the various types of material out there. Erotica, if it tries to become too high-falutin’, can crash and burn with spectacularly comic results. And nothing is more likely to puncture the erotic mood more effectively than a misplaced laugh. (These days they even give prizes for the worst sex scenes in books and competition is fierce.)

Erotica should fire our aesthetic sense as well as our libido and this means respecting the finer points of the writer’s craft. These include precision in vocabulary, perfect grammar, a sense of rhythm, a sharp eye for detail and a keen ear for levels of language. Good erotic fiction should also contain a strong plot, external conflict, plenty of drama, with pace and a sense of proportion. The actions should be in keeping with the background. And the characters should be rounded, sympathetic, on a human scale, and not simply black-hatted villains or mistresses in scarlet underwear.

Basically, in order to write good erotica it is first necessary that you can write good prose. But assuming you can already do that, let’s now examine how we can turn that skill towards the specifics of producing engaging, stimulating, banging-hot erotica.

YOUR KINK OR MINE?

If you’re unsure what specific area you might like to aim at, there’s no better way to gauge the market than to read widely around the subject. Human sexuality is a complex thing, and there’s no accounting for what people get off on. But one thing’s for sure: if you’re into it, the chances are that someone somewhere has written about it. Most book shops these days have sections devoted to erotica, and the Internet of course provides an even broader and deeper well to draw on. Plunge in.

The simplest way to explore your potential market is to think of some of your favourite kinks and type them into a search engine. Be shameless, and honest, and go after the stuff that excites you the most and that you think you could do well. If you’re going to be spending a lot of time and effort working on a book, do make sure your subject is one you’re genuinely interested in. Not only will this prove more enjoyable for you to write, anything that is less than interesting to the author often becomes obvious to the reader. Your boredom or embarrassment will communicate itself through the page.

If you’re new to the game, you might like to start with the Mills & Boon Spice list of erotica. These days the typical Mills & Boon heroine is a lot feistier than she used to be, and frequently makes the sexual running herself. Best of all, she’s found that she doesn’t have to keep one foot on the bedroom floor any more. Indeed, sometimes those feet can be found pummelling the hero’s buttocks as he pounds into her, if they’re not actually manacled to his bed post. There are so many titles available that if you read enough of them, you’re bound to get a good idea of the breadth of experience accepted (and now deemed acceptable) within their pages.

Such research will also help you avoid that most typical of tyro errors: unoriginality. There may be some erotic mileage still to be squeezed out of the hoariest old situations—the artist and the model, the waitress and the millionaire, the lady and the highwayman, the highwayman and the other highwayman (!)—but the chances are that whatever modifications you may come up with on the familiar old theme, someone somewhere has got in first. The rule is, if you have an idea, before you set to work examine it carefully to make sure it is as original as you can make it, and not just a subconscious memory of something you once came across elsewhere.

The good news is that erotic fiction is a very broad church and anything goes, or has gone, or will return to come again. And not only are there definite favourites, there are also the more extreme areas of the market, which are often called ‘niche’ to differentiate them from the mainstream. How niche is niche, of course, depends on your own tastes, and again whatever suits one may not suit all. We would certainly recommend you don’t shy away from exploring the further reaches of the erotic market, if only to expand your own ideas of what the human mind and body and psyche are capable of finding stimulation in. However, be aware that the more niche a concept, the less commercial it becomes as its potential audience is therefore smaller. Prepare to be amazed and amused and, in some cases, completely flabbergasted. You might even come across something that you didn’t know existed before but which, now you think about it, sounds rather fun. (Love eggs, anyone? Or how about a quick golden shower before you leave for the office?) And while even the ‘safer’ niche areas may be more specialist or rare, that doesn’t mean that anything written for this market shouldn’t obey the same rules of good composition that apply in all other writing.

And if your darkest fantasies seem a bit extreme to you, or you think you would feel awkward or embarrassed admitting them to strangers, remember that you’re engaged on a work of the imagination. As the nation’s favourite old lag Norman Stanley Fletcher so tellingly pointed out, ‘Dreams is freedom’, and inside your head is where you can do all your best living. Besides, no one is daring you to go through with any of your most private fantasies in real life, and if for whatever reason you can’t put your own name to the book when it’s published, you can always use a pseudonym. A healthy percentage of all erotica is written by women, though not necessarily under their own names, and some authors have a whole gallery of noms de plume to suit whichever kind of book they’re writing. Queen of Crime Agatha Christie wrote romance novels under the name Mary Westmacott, and if it’s good enough for the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple to adopt different literary personas for different facets of her endeavour, it should be good enough for the rest of us.