Publishing Erotica Part 5 – Writing Erotica

Click here for Publishing Erotica Part 4 – Pen Name

So now you have your pen name, your software, you understand what you can and cannot write and still publish on the major vendors, it’s time to get to the nitty gritty and start writing your kinky, nasty, filthy erotica. Let’s stat out small with short form erotica. So that’s a story between four thousand (4k) and seven thousand (7k) words. You can go over, of course, but don’t go under. 4k is enough to get a basic story and a hot sex scene in place. I shoot for between 6k to 7k with my futa stories, and 7k to 8k on my serials, but those are story driven.

First, you’ll need inspiration. Luckily, there are a lot of ways to get it. Watch porn, ready other dirty stories, and close your eyes and imagine. Find out what other people like and enjoy. Go on Pornhub and see what’s popular in the searches, or check out free erotic story sites like Literotica and see what other people write. You can get a Kindle Unlimited account and read erotica off Amazon for $9.99 a month to check out the competition. Understand the kinks you want to write and what makes them sexy.

Then add your twist to them.

Don’t be afraid of getting turned on by your ideas. That’s a good thing. If your fantasy doesn’t excite you, how can you excite someone else. Brainstorming breaks are very important. And by brainstorming, I mean masturbation.

Author, you need to love yourself. Let all those dark, dirty fantasies boil to the surface. Explore them, follow where they go for inspiration to your story. Capture the feelings bursting inside of you as you plot your erotica.

Then get ready to write it down.

Now before you start, you need to do a little prep work. Notes. You’re going to have only a few characters in an erotica. Generally, in short form, you write from a single person’s POV, usually the woman, but don’t feel you have to. The man’s POV can be just as hot and if you’re writing in bisexual or gay, well, you’re writing as the man anyways. So determine first who the story is about. Who is the person experience and being acted on? Whose fantasy is being played out? That should be the person you write about.

So create notes. Jot down your characters names, their physical characteristics, any personality traits or background info that will be necessary. You don’t need a lot, just enough to make them feel like a real person. Then you should outline your story. You should know how your characters are going to get into the sexy times. What are the circumstances leading up to it. How are you going to build to the climax (which will be literally in the case of erotica).

Write a short outline. I recommend this at first. You may find you don’t need an outline. I don’t to write most short-form erotica. I’ve written enough to have a feel for when I need to move the story to the various stages and bringing it in at my word goal. But starting out, you might not. Plus, it will help you to have direction and make sure your story is going somewhere. Have an idea for the kinks you want the characters to experience and the various sexual positions they will employ. Will there be foreplay (always a good idea) and how should it go. Should you have toys or props. Should there be a change in the power dynamic between the couple (or the threesome) and when should that happen.

Knowing this ahead of time will help smooth the acutely writing and, hopefully, make it go a lot faster so you can get your work written, edited, uploaded, and making you money.

Now here is the next important thing—you should set aside at least an hour everyday to write. I know this can be a challenging proposition. I found it very hard when I decided to write seriously. You have a life, a job, probably a significant other, and maybe you have kids or pets. All these put demands on your time. Adding another hour seems impossible.

If you want to be a writer, you have to find the time to write. This goes for whatever genre you’re writing in. If you want to be successful, writing has to be a priority for you. So carve out the time. Force yourself to write. It’s a discipline that can take you a while to develop.

Another problem you might face is lack of motivation. Sometimes you don’t feel like writing. You have the time set aside and you know you should be writing, but you’re feeling lazy. Or maybe you’re not sure what to write. You might tell yourself, I’ll just take a break today. And then tomorrow comes and maybe you take another break. That is a mistake. If you want to be successful, writing must be a job. And you know what, how many times have you felt zero motivation to go to work.

A lot.

It will happen with writing. That doesn’t matter. You need to sit down in front of your keyboard or with your notepad and force those words to flow. If you’re stuck, go take a quick walk around the block. Think about what you want to write. Ideas often come when you do activities like walking, bike riding, showering, gardening, or driving. If you don’t like the project you’re working on, take a break by writing something else.

Just. Write. Something.

Keep it up. Don’t let yourself stop. Don’t let yourself make excuses. You don’t have a boss breathing down your neck to keep you doing your job. You are your own boss. So you need to be a hardass and keep yourself in line if you want to be successful.

Writing is not the easiest job in the world. Writers do not lounge around all morning sipping cocktails on the beach then popping into their office to spend a few moments writing down a few chapters of their book. The reality is so far from that. It is hard work.

It requires toil and sweat, dedication and determination, motivation and perseverance. Those that find success do so because they treated their writing as a job. They kept their focus. They kept working. They kept producing more and more words. When they get writers block, they keep on writing anyways. They put something down on the page. It might be terrible. That’s fine. Rewrites and editing are for polishing your manuscript.

Right now, you just need a manuscript to polish. So get it written. Churn out your first short. Then write the next one and so on.

Next time, we’ll talk about rewrites and editing.

Click here for Publishing Erotica Part 6!

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