This is a community for erotica writers to discuss the many aspects of creating and selling erotic fiction.
What would you like to see here on Writing Erotica?
As of today, Writing Erotica has 61 members! Isn't that lovely? I want to welcome all the new people, whether you're planing to post or just lurk.
Now that we have a fair few members, I want to ask: what sort of content and activities would you like to see here? I want this community to be like good sex: shaped by what the active members need and want. So let me know.
XoXo - Ayla Adore




Probably going to end up lurking, lol.
But ideas wise, maybe a trope / kink / discussion topic of the week? Where people discuss it. Share resources, links and experiences. A helpboard/agony aunt/uncle thing. Debates on Cock Vs Dick. Balancing fantasy vs reality. Making people aware of Erotica related awards.
TBH, I'm open to all of it - be it serious smut, or wtf à la Chuck Tingle.
Those are all really good ideas, thank you for sharing them! Of course all contingent on more member activity, but one has to start somewhere. I will try to make a list of weekly topics/kinks so we can start that Monday, and I will go through my bookmarks to share some of the resources I've used.
How would a helpboard work in your view?
Helpboard/agony aunt/uncle would be a tag people could put on posts asking for help - to get over writers block, to get from point A to point B - or just to complain about story things. "Ugh, my reunited-at-last scene is more dirty than sensual, how to fix the mood," or "dick appears 10 times on one page alone - I don't know if this is too much or too little." Kind of a venting space, that can, but doesn't have to, lead to a resolution.
It's tough getting people involved in the beginning. Polls are kind of handy that way - everything is laid out clearly to see, you don't have to read too much, and if you have something to say you can add it in the comments.
Ah, I see what you mean. I'll add a tag like that. Might just call it help, for simplicity's sake.
That's a good idea, about the polls. I will keep that in mind going forward. Thank you.
I'd also love weekly discussion topics like how the tropes comm works. Also 'share your hints on X' type posts.
I was just lurking at the Tropes comm and it does seem rather nice and well-structured. I will try to set up something similar here.
I'd like to see more mutual support of members. People reading and reviewing each other's work. People reading WIP and offering suggestions. Just an idea.
Seconding this. It's a struggle finding decent feedback/critique/beta on erotica, since there's far more readers than writers. Readers are great and all, but if they're not also writers, ime, getting feedback from them on something like structure, character arc, or other esoteric elements of the craft is sometimes less than useful.
But there has to be bonds of trust there - trust that your opinion is good and also trust that you're not going to savage someone's work
No argument on that, for sure. On the other hand, a well articulated crit that explains the critiquer's issue(s) with the story can help a lot even if it is nothing but shredding the piece in question. Really, it all comes down to whether or not the author of the story is able to use the crit to improve their work.
Personally, as much as I like getting praise for my writing, it doesn't actually help me tell a better story. Praise helps a lot when you're starting out, but when you've been writing for almost 30 years, I don't think it's something to actively seek out. Tell me what works for you, tell me what you think could be done better, and I'll take it into consideration during editing. If it helps make the story better, great. If not, I'm not going to worry about it.
Note that I'm not denigrating readers. I just haven't found a lot of I'm-only-a-reader feedback to be very helpful in what I look for in a critique. ymmv
Beta swaps and things would be a good thing. The question is if we need to formalize that somehow or just add some tags to encourage people to do them.
Oh! and also, I'd like encouragement requests to be posted somewhere so we can encourage people to keep on writing :)
Interesting idea. I wonder how this could be executed... A "request" tag is one thing of course. Maybe a re-occuring "erotica I'd love to see" thread. What do you think?
Yep, just a "check in" is great
It's a good idea. What do you think is a good frequency? Monthly maybe?
I think just post one, and then if it gets filled up we can open up another?
That sounds fair. I can keep it pinned!
Commenting because I feel creepy lurking facelessly.
I have no ambition to publish original work, but the discussions and topics look interesting and sharing resources is always good. The idea of hooking up with betas for critique seems a good one for this space because it can be safely said that everybody here is expecting nsfw - no sudden surprises! The best thing that ever happened for my writing was a short and very tactful concrit on my very first fic which bloomed into a wonderful friendship and a huge learning curve which is far from over.
Thank you for adding your comment! Hopefully we can get some beta partnerships going.