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As a writer, you've already felt the pull of your work, the tug at your inner self as it encourages you to say all that you're holding inside. You know how much of yourself colors your work without you even having to be aware. It's the natural process of transferring our individual thoughts outside of ourselves to be heard. It's communication at its core, attempting to make your writing as good as it possibly can be.
This process of putting ourselves onto the page is sometimes agonizing and sometimes rejuvenating. It's the ebb and flow of art. And the same occurs when we pen erotica but on a greater scale. Sex writing reveals humanity in one of its purest forms and extracts more of our creative and personal energy.
It's only natural that we guard ourselves a bit, just step back from what we're writing and the feelings and inclinations it's conjured up, and hold ourselves back at a safe distance. After all, we still hear in the back of our minds, if not right in our ears from outside sources, that sex isn't wholesome, that it's not a substance you could spoon into your mouth for breakfast to sustain you all day long. Sexual stimulation, we're told, is just a tonic, not really stemming from a necessity or natural part of ourselves but simply a desire we made up along the way to satisfy some frivolous urge. We're such insatiable creatures, always wanting more...
Regardless of the outside influences, the ghostly memories of our childhood tutoring, and the little angel and devil sitting on our shoulders, we owe it to our readers to give fully of ourselves in exchange for their interest and time. More important than just "good writing," we introduce new ideas and open minds by injecting more of ourselves into the words we arrange. And we change and improve ourselves in the process.
Writing sex is challenging. It opens up new doors for judgment from others without the extension of a personal invitation. The act not only includes our more popularly known social and ideological personalities but also our most personal and primal personalities. As the writers of erotica, we have the enviable privilege of having an audience for our most questionable and objectionable thoughts. We have the opportunity to affect minds in a unique and integral way. All writers help shape the future; sex writers have the luxury of doing so by burrowing intensely deeply into the now, pulling out the essence of life and letting it swim from our open palm and drop onto the page to mingle with our words.
Write the most wretched or righteous arrangements of words you can muster, but do it with boldness and bravery. Write what is real from within you in order to help others find themselves. Don't hesitate or pause to ponder. Keep up with the flow until you're completely spent. Then, step back and watch the effect of your work on the world, and smile with pride.
Essay originally written April 13th, 2005
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Sex Writing 
