Victorian Erotica

[Landy]

I have to admit I have a thing about Victorian Erotica (quite a large collection in fact) which I believe stems from the fact that the first literature I was exposed to with proper sex in it was a collection reprinted from a publication called "The Pearl" from that period.

I have just started writing what could be a comprehensive series off tales inspired by these readings and this set me wondering what inspired other people to write in a particular style or genre?

[mysecretlife11]

"my secret life" is now available as an ibook, and it is the complete 11 volumes!!!! you can get the first 2 volumes or so for free on the web, but they are riddled with typographical errors and hard to look at.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/my-s...21089495?mt=11

[ImmortalBeloved]

I've got The Pearl, in fact was browsing it again for first time in ages a few nights ago.

Your question, Landy, about what inspires people to write in certain styles and genres - to some extent I guess it has to do with our own kinks. I think also, for me, there is a world of difference between one or two pages trotted out in a night to dump on a website as opposed to something I'm working harder on for my own satisfaction. The former of those two I think has to have a real kink factor to have any impact. The latter I'd be far more intent on trying to develop storyline and characterisation, purely for my own satisfaction above anything else.

My first love of reading is still non-erotic "non-genre" ("literary") stories, and it's what I'm veering more and more in my own dabbling. And, although I haven't written much erotica in ages, when I look back at what i have written in the past, the ones that have kind of "stayed with me", that I can look at three years later and think, "Yeah, that's got the basis of a quite good story, actually tend to veer towards the "soft-erotic" end of the scale.

In time I think a lot of us go through a kind of transition. Years ago I could happily dash out stories with all kinds of themes, right through to quite hard-core BDSM. It was fresh and a thrill. After a while it begins to feel repetitive. I eventually went right off writing erotica, even though a lot of other writers were telling me to try and get published. Even those Victorian stories such as Pearl feel very similar after a while (man they were obsessed by spanking young womens' bums).

Although I'm not good at it (yet), my own satisfaction would be in writing something more literary. For example, I like a lot of Anaias Nin's works. The erotic appeal of her works is not so much to do with masses of flailing body-parts, and intricate descriptions thereof, as the underlyimg eroticism of an unusual story she is telling and the characters she describes.

Everyone's different though. That's just where I'm at.

[Brigit Astar]

I have written about twelve erotic stories over the past nine years (I began writing when I was sixteen); I have to stop writing every now and then and take about a six-month break to recharge my batteries. It's becoming more and more difficult to write anything erotic and be original, because most everything has been written about.

[Landy]

I have loads of plots and ideas waiting to be worked up but I just don't find my self in the mood to write on the rare occasions I have the time, so its all on ice just now.

[Brigit Astar]

Sometimes I have to force myself to write, but other times--like now--I get in the mood and stay in it for awhile. I'm currently writing a group of stories--most having to do with nonconsent and incest. I'll continue to write until the energy leaves me--which may be a month, or may be a week. I'm also working on my series Darling Daughter. I've worked out Chapter Three in my head, and I will begin writing it soon.

[ilguy_77]

Why do I write the genres I do? Because I have a story brewing inside me for that genre.
Now, granted, I haven't posted a ton of them here, cause most of them are still inside me.

I get hit with almost a compulsion to get words to the screen. I'll type like a fool for a time, and then...as quickly as it came on me, its gone.

I try and get as much out of me as I can while the fire is burning. But, judging from the literally 3000+ pages of handwritten and typed stories I have around my house (not of this stuff, mostly hack fantasy work) actually finishing anything is a challenge for me.

Its sort of why I first found this place. It was a place to get out some of the wacked out shit I kept buried inside. And a way to try to burn off the excess thoughts in my brain so maybe I can focus on the ones I really want to finish.

I can't say its really worked, but hey, a guy can dream right?

[Alice Bluegown]

My genre (if you can call it that) pretty much evolved of its own accord. When I was very young (about 6 or 7) I was passionate about ecological themes and also very interested in various aspects of history, so it made sense - to me, at least - to try and weld them together. The interest in erotica came later (though not much later - precocious brat that I was, I attempted my first work of erotic fiction at age 12), and eventually out of that weird mix came projects like 'The Extinct Song' and 'The Serpents Wake' (plus many others in various stages of planning). Basically, I write historical erotic fiction about whatever interests me, which is a very wide range of subjects.