I write clean books.
Neither of the books I’ve published have anything graphic, sexually, in them. One is an inspirational romance and the other is a fantasy. Both are completely wholesome enough for your teenager or your grandmother to read. Even your priest, if he’s interested.
Does that make me weird?
Recently I did a chat on the Catholic Writers’ Guild. I was asked how I, as a devout Catholic, deal with my writer friends who write erotica. Do I see my friendship as an evangelization opportunity.
Well, I don’t. I see my writer friends as my writer friends, not as a potential mission field. I’m not shy about my beliefs, either, however. They all know that I write clean, and I think it shocks them a little that I know words like “erection.” Hello? Married almost 22 years, teach Natural Family Planning, have a kid??
The way I “deal” with the erotica authors is the same way I deal with this historical authors, except I probably won’t buy any of the erotica authors’ books. I have a couple of critique partners who write “a bit” hotter than I do. At least one considers herself an erotica author. She’s the one who’s been helping me the most on my current work in progress.
She asked me, jokingly, a couple of weeks ago, if I’d read her newest work for critiquing purposes. I said, without blinking, that I would. I won’t pay money for it, but I’d be happy to help her out as she’s been helping me.
Today our writers’ group had its annual Christmas lunch/party. One of our members brought a bunch of books to give away. One was a Love Inspired. I knew no one else would want to take it, probably, but I have so many books I’ll probably be reading them on the way to my funeral if I want to get them finished. I wonder if we can take books to heaven??
Anyway, I passed it to someone else and one member, unpublished, but well known for her legendary 40 page foreplay scene, took one look at it and said, “Oh, I can’t take an inspirational!” and passed it back to me.
I don’t feel comfortable writing sex scenes, even much less graphic than erotica. I don’t feel comfortable writing unmarried sex or even married sex scenes. I’m a big “close the bedroom” door writer, but right now I’m feeling like I’m going against the tide.
My latest book is not an inspirational. I have a little more sexual tension than inspirationals allow, but I won’t have my characters go to bed together and I won’t have them even remove clothing, but I think there are some “hotter” spots, if only because of their awareness of one another.
However, because it’s clean, it kinda makes me the odd “man” out among my writing friends, and frankly, I really HATE being seen as the one we have to be careful around because “she writes sweet.” I’m just a normal person, like they are. I’d never consider an erotic author to be “easy” or “a tramp” (to use a nicer word than the one I’m thinking). I don’t want to be considered the straight laced repressed schoolmarm.
I asked my husband if my writing choices make me weird, and in his own loving way he said, “You’re merely a Psychotic Puritanical Prude.”
What do you guys think?
I don’t think you are weird. Psychotic? mmmmaybe. 😉 Puritanical? probably. Prude? no. Minority? definitely! At least among your writer friends. I think that you can certainly lead a reader to use their imagination while reading and I personally prefer that to the more descriptive writing when it comes to sex in stories. We all know what happens during foreplay and sex. We don’t have to have it spelled out for us.
Now…just so you know that I am a waaayyyyy different person than you, I have 3 grown boys who, when they were very young, used to come sit on the toilet or tub and converse with me while I was in the tub. We’ve always been very open about nakedness, sex, etc. with conversations, questions, comments, opinions, innuendos, etc. So I would certainly not be considered “puritancal” in any way. I believe in God but am not what would be considered a “devout or strong Christian”. You are a strong Christian.
And I still don’t consider you “sweet” and think that I could probably have any sort of discussion with you on any subject matter. I somehow have the feeling that even though you are not comfortable writing erotically, you can be objective on a professional level as a writer, with your writer friends. Maybe you just need to let them know that you can be objective and discuss these scenes with them and if it comes to a point where you are NOT comfortable you will let them know.
hey, i’m the one who wouldn’t take the inspirational. i’ve read a few, but it’s not my cup of tea. and the to-be-read stack is getting higher and higher, so why waste it on a book i probably won’t read. my life is gonna run out before i have time for all the reading i want to do and i do hope there is reading in heaven, nancy. how could it be paradise if there are no books?
i’m somewhat offended that the questioner thought writers of hot books must no be christians or whatever religion, that they were in need of being saved. well, i’m a methodist, married to the same man for 35 years and still having hot sex with only him. i like doint it, writing about it and reading it and i think that’s the way God made me.
I might be misunderstanding and/or I might have been misunderstood. I was in no way implying that the women who write graphically are non-Christians. I apologize if that is the way it sounded. I was trying to make it clear that Nancy is WAY more Christian than I am and I prefer to have more left for my imagination. I think God’s intention was to pro-create and that’s why sex is so enjoyable but like Nancy, feel the “details” are for behind closed doors. Again, I apologize because I didn’t mean to make that implicattion.
I understand exactly what you mean. I’m a very open person and a very sexual person but reading it in books makes me so uncomfortable! I’d rather read about love and let the lust stay behind their closed doors.
As a reader and a writer (and a christian for that matter 🙂 ) I don’t think what or how you write should make you feel anymore “weird” than the rest of us. My first couple of writing groups almost fell into a dead faint at the mere mention of “genre” fiction. And then when I mentioned epic fantasy, well you can imagine. I think every writer is uncomfortable at one time or another as we all write different things, in different ways, and that is what makes us individuals. Most wouldn’t judge me for saying “I can’t read Hemmingway”. Personally cause I think he wrote like he was drunk and it hurts my head. I don’t know exactly where my rambling is going except, we all choose different food, drinks, and yes books to read. I do like a little self-imagination in my books. The whole show don’t tell thing, and the more your readers can imagine for themselves the more involved they are in the story. I don’t like every detail spelled out for me (and that would include overly detailed sex scenes). I’ve read some, passed on some.. But hey, again, that’s me. Write what you love, write what your called to write, but most important never stop writing. And whats so terribly wrong with being “sweet” anyway?