Character Study
I started the Porn Project earlier this week, and it’s going pretty well–I’ve discovered that I absolutely must know my characters before I start writing, or their motivations and behavior will be unclear. No-one likes a murky character, Mrs. Frampton.
But one roadblock I’ve stumbled up against is the use of various euphemisms–as I told both the Delightful Phone Friend and the Pennsylvania Princess, if I type “quim*” in any seriousness at any point in this ms., I will bust out laughing, which will obviously translate into the ms. And lord help me if I accidentally mention my heroine’s “juicy slit” (the PP told me of reading a story where the couple is lying in a puddle of fluids. Sexy? God, no. And the errant housecleaner in me would wonder just who’s going to clean that up, Mister?)
So I think I’m writing a super-sexy novella, not erotica, because my sense of the absurd just can’t handle it. I know other authors have accomplished it, but I don’t think I can.
Megan
*The pic is of Portuguese footballer Joaoquim Quim
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February 7th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
How funny that the footballer’s last name is Quim! I wonder if he knows what that means in English? One of our members has a great book about writing super sexy novella’s that has a whole thesaurus in the back of all the naughty words that one can use.
February 7th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I tried for “quim” once, just because it was historically accurate. I couldn’t do it.
Also, slit? …it just sounds wrong, somehow. Like it’s a wound. I have read where some authors pull it off, but I just can’t.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
That is a problem. I know what you mean. You’ve got to go about 5 steps past your comfort level and chill there. I think you can do it. When I read silly words like that I just gloss over them. I say stay romantic. The setting, the emotions and the action can take the reader over the top without all the stupid vocab. Written correctly, words like tongue and glide and slip and slide can do the trick.
Just my 2 cent.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Megan -
What a LOL blog entry! “Quim” is something I never really came across until I started to read Ellora’s Cave books. I think the all-time winner for me, though, of the most ridiculous nickname for the quim is used many a time in Colette Gale’s horrendous Unmasqued. And that word is “pip,” which has ruined Gladys Knight for me entirely.
As for “slit”, I am bothered by that too; it was such a problem for me in a Jillian Hunter book that it lowered the grade from a B+ to a B.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
The euphemism is a problem for me, I might just have to go for the cunny, like Sabrina Jeffries does (the sly dog!). And Laurie, I had never seen “pip” in that context until Colette’s book either. I kept thinking of oranges.
February 7th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
“And the errant housecleaner in me would wonder just who’s going to clean that up, Mister?”
Exactly! You have me laughing out loud. You know quim doesn’t bother me. Maybe you need to sit and say it outloud for about an hour until you feel comfortable. Let me know how that works for ya
Slit reminds me of knives and since I’m a klutz I instinctively flinch in pain.
Cunny is too close to funny.
Never seen pip.
Cindys
February 7th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Quim is a pretty good word, actually - not that I’ve used it myself as of yet. So is cunny. Good old-time porny words.
Please just stay away from “passage” or “tunnel of love” or “core” or any of the other awful phrases that get used so much. And “pip” is not erotic at all.
As for the housecleaning - whenever I read a scene with sex outdoors, I always think of ants and errant twigs on the ground sticking into one’s bum. I can’t help it.