Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Toning it Down

Toning it Down

A reader wants to participate…this is the reason they read prose…they want to be placed in an exciting situation where they can use their imaginations to participate vicariously….

If you accept this, half the art to writing is knowing when to stop…knowing when to lighten up…knowing when to dial back on the adjectives, adverbs and graphic language. Sensual erotica is designed to let the reader get into the mood of the story…to make an emotional connection. it isn’t like porn which is designed to stimulate the physiology and provide self-gratification… It might be a subtle distinction, but it's an important one for a writer to grasp. Most people moved on from this mode as other outlets opened in their social development…for those that remained static, the preferred media is magazines and blue movies.

As a consequence you don’t want the reader to see your prose as the equivalent of a video wrapped in black plastic. .If they get this impression, most will lay it aside. On the other hand a touch of the sensual can turn a piece of bloodless prose into something that stirs inside and helps connect the reader to the written word…but it needs to be used as a spice, an accent and not the main course, as many have come to see it.

The question is how much is enough…? and the answer deserves a pragmatic response. If sex in our lives consumes a half hour in our day…. (A generous estimate)…then that is about one fiftieth or 2 percent… That is about how much a writer should sprinkle on their prose to give the stew a little taste. A good cook knows what I’m talking about.

There are many writers however, who don’t use the spices at all and their brew suffers as a consequence….that is where the classes at writing.com offer an aspiring writer an opportunity to learn sensual prose and apply it effectively to their other genre works….Now I know that reading their beginning efforts is sometimes as painful as watching a preteen daughter experiment for the first time with make-up…but you have to start somewhere…If you can follow a character artfully behind the bedroom door your prose can rise to a whole new level.