# Where to go from here...



## Xeans (Sep 6, 2011)

Hey everyone.

So, I write. So far all my stories are pretty much work-safe setting aside some violent combat scenes. Problem is these past few months I've been considering diving into the far murkier waters of the less work-safe material. I'm not considering it strictly as a attention-getting measure, but more as something to try and broaden my horizons. I've been having a hard time focusing on something as of late and I feel a bit of experimentation into the adult fiction might help me work out some of the issues in my writing.

My question is this: is putting out a few tastefully written but slightly kink-laden short stories worth the potentially permanent label as 'another writer who does porn' in your opinion? Will the broader reader base actually help my feedback process?

Thanks for taking the time to read!


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## M. LeRenard (Sep 6, 2011)

The stigma is slightly less about 'another writer who does porn' and more about 'another writer who does terrible porn'.  And it sounds like you're not going to do 'porn' so much as just something with mildly erotic overtones.  And that stigma only exists in a small subset of people on the site.  Sex is popular with the standard audience, and there are quite a few writers who use erotic themes as a literary device and so don't carry any sort of stigma at all (except amongst total prudes who think sex is dirty and wrong no matter what the context is).
Basically what I'm saying is, the situation is more complicated than you're trying to make it.  Just write what you feel like writing and don't worry about all that shit.  I mean... what crowd are you trying to hang with that won't accept you for dabbling in erotica, exactly?


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## FlynnCoyote (Sep 7, 2011)

Le Renard has a good point. Art is for you first and foremost and audience second. 

However you always have the option of posting a link in the critique section and asking for technical feedback there.


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## kitreshawn (Sep 7, 2011)

M. Le Renard said:


> The stigma is slightly less about 'another writer who does porn' and more about 'another writer who does terrible porn'.



This.

Honestly I think you should do it, if for no other reason than it is a good exercise.  Nobody says you have to post what you come up with if you dislike it, and if it is half way decent it might get some people to give you a look who wouldn't normally.


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## Poetigress (Sep 7, 2011)

As kitreshawn said, just because you write something doesn't mean you have to post it for everyone to read. I would say try a story or two, see what happens, set them aside for a few weeks, and then decide about sharing them or not at that point.

As for the stigma, my problem isn't with writers writing adult material; it's with the ones who do sell out and write it for the attention (actually fairly rare, I think), with those who start writing it because they figure no one will care if the writing sucks as long as the sex is hot, and/or with those who claim some kind of moral/intellectual superiority because they write it. *shrug* Anyway, write first, worry about potential audience reaction once you have something to share.


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## Xeans (Sep 7, 2011)

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll give it a go


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