Women writing the erotic… thoughts of over 130 authors series by Emmanuelle de Maupassant
In this series (within the 130 authors survey), I’m sharing women’s views on exploring sexuality through fiction. If you haven’t already read Part One, it’s the best place to begin.
Here, we look at recurring themes within erotic fiction.
What do we find to challenge and empower us?
What motivates us to write within this often misunderstood genre?
Society seems to view exploring sexuality (and all the associated psychology/motivation) as vulgar, asking why we, as authors, fail to direct our focus to more ‘worthy’ topics.
Meanwhile, erotic fiction is closely associated in the public consciousness with ‘spicy romance’. In truth, though authors may write across both genres, the focus of each is very different: one exploring sex as a theme of itself; the other love.
Our fiction, alongside ‘spicy romance’, has a reputation for being poorly written, for reinforcing stereotypes, for being predictable to the point of being formulaic. It…
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