Kajakie Karr: Blog

I should have perhaps let people know earlier that the last chapter of ATWB will be delayed. There have been a lot of calls on my time these past few weeks and I haven’t been able to devote the time needed to finish the chapter. That said, I have written quite a bit of it so all is not lost.

Just to reiterate, this is book 1 of ATWB. The story is intended to have two additional books.

Joking aside, ATWB was always meant to be a “much sex” kind of story. I’d always intended to have a bit of set-up in the beginning but it took longer than I expected.

I am not coy or apologetic about writing a smut story. I just happen to think that the particular form of smut I am interested in, the long-form kind, is made better when there is a proper setting/character/plot foundation.

Chapter 10 of "At the Woodchopper's Ball" is now up. In this chapter, Rody, our protagonist, is confronted with a surprising development.

It was kind of strange and funny writing this chapter. I don't think what occurs will come as any kind of earth-shattering revelation to readers but Rody needed to be shocked by it.

But the thing is, poor Rody doesn't know he lives in a smut story... haha. He isn't aware of the tags attached to his life. He has no clue about the tropes of adult fiction.

Actually, that last point is not true. Rody is a consummate reader of adult fiction. There was something about that in an earlier draft of the story, but I took it out, intending to re-use it in book 2. Rody's favourite author of adult fiction is a certain "Admiral Draco". Here is an excerpt from what Rody has to say about him:

The heroines of Admiral Draco's stories were almost always improbably endowed and sexually ravenous. Fortunately, his heroes were up to the task. They could, at will, lay waste to a gaggle of them, leaving the girls in a state of ecstasy so profound they were rendered delirious if not unconscious. Often, little time would be wasted on any preliminaries and the young hero would briskly thrust his throbbing pike into the loins of his lover without preamble.

Admiral Draco is meant to be humorous (hopefully) hommage to a certain well-known and prolific author of smut on this site. I shall let readers decide who it might be.

Many thanks to people who have been kind enough to send me comments about my previous blog post. As I was reading them, it became increasingly clear to me that when we try and discuss the type of work posted online, we suffer from a lack of agreed, standard terminology.

Of course, it goes without saying that categorising creative works is often difficult regardless of what they are or where they appear. I think it is doubly hard when it comes to amateur, online fiction. By its very nature, authors are more experimental about mixing styles, genres and ideas than they might be in more mainstream works intended for commercial release.

I am also pretty sure I’m not the first to try this, but here it goes anyway.

The particular distinction I want to try and make is between “erotic” stories and “erotica.” These are terms I have pulled out of thin air, so please feel free to suggest other, more appropriate terminology.

To me, an erotic story is one where during the course of the plot/storyline, events which might be considered erotic (or sexually explicit) occur but they are not the point of the story. For example, think of a hardboiled-style detective story where the main character becomes involved with some alluring femme fatale with multiple, explicit sex scenes.

Erotica on the other hand is something conceived from the outset to deliver sexual gratification. I’ve seen people call these “smut” and “stroke” stories also. In this kind of story, the storyline serves to place characters in situations and circumstances where frequent (and hopefully vivid) sex scenes can take place.

This doesn’t mean that in erotica, there is no room for plot or character development. Believe me, I am not trying to be disparaging toward smut. In fact, I’m in the midst of posting/writing what I consider to be smut/erotica and there still hasn’t been an explicit sex scene nine chapters in (don’t worry though - it’s coming!). Particularly when it comes to longer stories (which is my preferred kind of erotica), I don't believe authors can ignore or skimp on plot, character development and all the rest.

But in erotica, at least to my mind, all this is in service of smut. If an author of erotica develops, for example, the character of a high-school cheerleader, it isn’t because they are interested in exploring what it means to be a teenage girl. It’s because a believable, relatable and properly realised character makes for hotter sex scenes.

I know there are many, many stories that (successfully) blur the line between these two positions. I certainly don’t mean to suggest there should be a rigid and impermeable distinction between the two kinds of work. But I think it might be useful for authors to be clear from the outset, at least with themselves, about what they are trying to achieve.

At first glance, the idea I am about to put forward may appear a bit silly. This isn’t about using the subtlety and nuance of the written word or leaving more to the imagination. It is explicitly about themes and subjects that authors should stay away from. I will argue that authors of erotic fiction should exercise greater restraint than is typical in mainstream media.

Madness.

Before I continue, I need to state the obvious: I don't imagine myself to be an arbiter of taste nor seek to tell others what to do. These are simply my thoughts and opinions, not things I want to see imposed as rules or guidelines.

Also, these ideas are really only meant to apply to a particular kind of long-form, narrative-driven erotica. There are so many different kinds of online stories that trying to say something that would encompass all of them would be an exercise in futility.

Furthermore, we need to agree on what constitutes “erotica,” to begin with. This is something I could spend several thousand words on and still not get anywhere. For the purposes of this post, let’s agree that the kind of stories I am referring to are those where the primary aim is to impart sexual excitement to readers. In other words, in contrast to stories that might include explicit or erotic depictions of sex scenes within a broader narrative.

So what am I talking about?

Death, severe violence as well as rape are topics that I often see appear in stories. My argument is simple: if a story is primarily intended to deliver sexual titillation, authors should stay away from these themes even if they intend to treat them seriously and with due care.

By the way, I am not talking about NC elements that are intended to be sexually gratifying. We live in an age where we are not meant to “kink shame” anyone. Still, I haven’t the slightest hesitation in turning my face away from people who enjoy that kind of thing.

I’ve no doubt that many will not agree with my point of view. They might point to storylines where rape happens offscreen, and the act and its consequences are not intended by the author to be gratifying to readers.

The argument I have seen made against such objections is that the “drama” and the “storyline” are what readers are most invested in and that authors should be free to “tackle” hard issues.

Firstly, if people wish to see serious subjects tackled seriously, then they should go read a book. Online erotica, it seems to me, is hardly an appropriate medium for such things.

I think the reason many of us think of big dramatic events like murders and rapes as appropriate fodder for narrative “drama” is that we have become desensitised to their impact. Their copious inclusion in everything from films to daytime soap operas has lessened their impact like cartoon violence. An author should be able to draw readers in and make virtually anything characters are experiencing dramatic. If a character’s “problem” is that he needs a bicycle and can’t get one, then that’s the drama. You don’t need to resort to storylines about their younger sister getting raped.

In my opinion, gunfights, murders and such are often a crutch for poor storytelling or a tool to prolong things when the author is struggling. More often than not, it is nothing more than a cheap trick to inject dramatic tension which could have been achieved some other way.

I really think we should dispense with the notion that erotic fiction is an appropriate medium for “tackling” anything of significance at all. I call this the “Lethal Weapon” fallacy.

“Lethal Weapon” is a great film, don’t get me wrong. For those who don’t recall, the film depicts characters experiencing the trauma of violence, the aftermath of loss and the consequence of sexual exploitation. But the film doesn’t “tackle” anything whatsoever. It’s Hollywood entertainment, and such things are simply there to be used to progress the plot line.

Any notion that mainstream entertainment should be a little more circumspect about handling such issues was lost long ago. However, strangely enough, in the otherwise free for all land of amateur online fiction, there are still many who feel a bit queasy about mixing erotic fiction with violence and rape. I would go as far as saying there is a kind of taboo about it.

Perhaps, when it comes to including plot lines involving death and sexual violence with stories otherwise intended to provide sexual titillation, there are some taboos we should keep a hold of.