…does things to me…
I haven’t published anything in a while. That’s not to say I’ve not been writing, I’ve got several stories out for consideration by publishers and am still beavering away at the novel I keep promising to write. But it’s probably also fair to say that I’ve been struggling with a bit of writers’ block.
It’s not the plot, or the dialogue. It’s not setting the scene or conjuring atmosphere, at the moment it seems to be one thing that’s holding me back:
How do you describe the indescribable? How to you put into words more articulate than “Ungh!” the feelings that come from being hopelessly and instantly turned on by a word, a person, a feeling, a smell, a sensation?
I feel like I’m grappling with the fundamental impossibility of erotica, of expressing something that simply is and the words just come out wrong. It feels like I’m gluing back together the pieces of a mug, in the vague hope of remembering the taste of coffee.
EDIT: Innocent Loverboy has kindlypointed me towards a post he wrote following an Eroticon 2013 workshop on this very topic.
You should’ve been at Eroticon 2013 – Kristina Lloyd did a really good ‘sex machine’ workshop where we all thought of how to, as you say, describe the indescribable.
I find it easier to just concentrate on verbs – go with the action itself and let the reader fill in the blanks – but that’s also easier said than done!
Innocent Loverboy recently posted…You’re not as fly as you think you are