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.