If there's a quote I'm taking into my 48th year, I think this is it. Let's see how it manifests itself.

In other news, the lovely Marie Rebelle over at Rebel's Notes has run the Smut Marathon for a couple years now and this year she's spear headed an actual book about erotic writing called Enigma Variations. Marie used examples from the 2018 Smut Marathon to illustrate her assignments and I'm featured in one of them! I'm so pleased to be a part of this project and I encourage anyone who has an interest in erotic writing to participate in the marathon next year and also to buy this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Enigma-Variations-Marathon-Erotic-Writing-ebook/dp/B07WW7JB4S

If you aren't American, just google Enigma Variations and Smut Marathon and you'll find a online link via Amazon or Resonance Press..

I highly recommend the Smut Marathon as a writing exercise. I don't know of any other writing competition that takes writers through so many different challenges, gradually increasing the assignments in both difficulty and word count. I've competed against many really talented creators and I got to stretch my own abilities and write in ways that were fun and uncomfortable and difficult and rewarding and also incredibly useful.

I've participated in the marathon for a couple years, though I'm out of the competition for this year as of the last round. And though I'm not sure that I'll compete again next year (I have a month or so to think on that) I can say without any hesitation that I've written pieces I'm really proud of as a result of this competition. And I'm really so honored to have one of them find a home in an actual book. 

Thank you Marie for all your work on the marathon and on this book. It's such a pleasure to be associated with so many amazing writers.

Happy Wednesday everyone. XO

The fifth round of the Smut Marathon has come and gone. I thought the assignment of writing a story that takes place in the dark was ingenious. It's one of my most favorite prompts thus far.  

We're also into my sweet spot for erotica writing, the 400-700 word count range. Anything less than this is a struggle for me to tell a convincing story and anything much more than this is a struggle to spin out a tight tale that doesn't wander all over the place. The interesting thing about the marathon is seeing where other people's sweet spots lie. And of course, getting a chance to battle with the types of writing that don't come easily.

There's a lot of this game left to play. I wish all the writers much luck and inspiration as we continue. May your genius visit often. 

​Is this Heaven?
The closet door slams shut and his bony shoulders flatten against the wall. His heart hammers so loudly he can barely hear the muffled laughter and whispers on the other side of the door.
 
She rustles around beside him and something soft brushes his arm. A wool coat maybe? Or possibly a red gold curl from her ponytail?
 
“There’s so much stuff in here!” she says with a giggle.
 
His voice shakes. “Yeah,” he says. “It’s so small! Like not even big enough for two people!”
 
There’s a quiet pause. He’s such an idiot! Why can’t he be cool? Quick! Say something to make her giggle again! But now all he can think about is her pink lips and little freckles and the hot close darkness all around them. His cock hardens immediately, springing urgently through his shorts. Oh God no! He reaches his hand into his pocket and grips his rigid cock, pushing it down his leg and hoping she can’t feel him. Or hoping… 
 
He's gotta get out of here. But wait, is that bubble gum? Before he can stop himself, he leans forward to get a better sniff and his nose collides with soft skin. She gasps. He feels her warm breath on his ear and realizes that he’s touching her cheek. He freezes but he can’t back away. What is that smell? Flowery perfume? Lip gloss? Something in her hair? God, she smells so good.
 
“Are you gonna kiss me?” she whispers.
 
“Uh,” he stammers, “Um, I think… I mean… I don’t…”
 
She shifts and presses her soft chest against his arm, so close their noses are touching. He holds his breath and strangles his pulsing cock with his hand, trying to keep it pressed against his leg. Her damp breath washes over his cheek, throbbing in time to the heartbeat rocketing through his chest.
 
Oh God.
 
His eyes close as her pink freckled lips slide over his, her wet tongue curling over his bottom lip. Before he can open his mouth, it’s over.
 
His head sags back against the wall, his breath coming in big shuddering gasps with the sweetness of her bubble gum lingering on his lips. This closet is magic. He’s never been anywhere this magical. Ever. In all of his whole short life.
 
“Oh God...” he says. 
 
She giggles softly.

I just got my Smut Marathon reminder that I only have 3 days before my my Round 4 assignment is due. I have yet to read the Round 4 prompt or even start writing, I'll save that for tomorrow, but it seemed like the right time to post my Round 3 entry.  

Round 3 wasn't an elimination round, which is probably just as well because it's one of the hardest assignments in this competition. Last year when we got this same assignment we were further into the competition and had a higher word count option, which definitely made it easier but it wasn't any more fun.

Additionally, this year's assignment was even more stringent than last year's. This year we were asked to write an erotic/sexy conversation between two people where the dialogue took no less than 75% of the 180-200 word count. Because the Lovely Rebel is a rockstar, she gave us some logistical help and said that a 180 word piece would have 135 dialogue words and a 200 word piece would have 150. 

Ya'll, this assignment is two things:
#1: a very small word count in which to establish a story of any kind
#2: 4000% more difficult than average because only 45-50 words can set the place, character and tone without being spoken as exposition 

Sigh.

So, here's what I wrote:

Snap Shot
“What do u like” 
“I like complete words and punctuation.” 
His text bubble bobs on my screen. 
“Good to know what your mind likes but I’m more interested in what your pussy likes.” 
“Oooh well, my mind and my pussy both like precise communication. Especially the dirty kind…” 
“Precise and dirty? Intriguing.”
“You think you’re up for that?” 
“I’m up for a lot of things. Say, for instance, I asked you to stand up and take off your panties. You would…?”
“I’d do it.” 
“And put your panties in your mouth.” 
I stand and strip off my panties. “Ok.”  
“Put. Them. In. Your mouth.”
How can he know?? I shove the white cotton in my mouth. 
“Good girl. How do you taste?”
“Salty, sweet… a little slippery.”
"Mmmm... Why don’t you let me be the judge of that. Bend over the bed... spread your legs.”
My fingers find my swollen clit. 
“Naughty girl. I didn’t tell you to touch yourself.”
I spit the panties out. “Where are you? How can you see me??”
“Put those panties back in your mouth, turn over and look out your window.”
A flash of light.
Then darkness.

..................

I'm not much into analyzing my own work after the fact, especially since I was mostly pleased to have finished the assignment at all, and my piece again registered in about the middle of the pack, which was probably fair. But what I felt, and some other people commented, was that it was grueling to read all the entries and I didn't find many that stood out. There was a lot of "sameness" going on and some people even commented that they got tired of reading so many phone and text conversations. 

That's a fair complaint but given the difficulty of just following the rules of this assignment, I simply agreed with those complaints but didn't take them personally. It was a hard assignment and I salute all 63 of us for getting through it.  

Next week we'll see the entries from round 4 and I encourage all my readers to read and vote!

Meanwhile happy monday :) 

 
This week I submitted my smut marathon entry for the third round. Of course, that means that I made it to the third round, and since I haven't really dealt with the second round, or even talked much about writing in this marathon, I thought I'd do that today. 

The assignment for the second round was a repeat of one of my favorites from last year's challenge, to take someone else's entry from the first round and expand on the story. I really liked my entry last year, though very few other people did, and perhaps I'll post it next week. I feel it needs a particular kind of picture to accompany it. That might be a fun photo challenge.

Weirdly, this year I had a similar experience. Although I didn't like my entry as much as last year, it made about as much of an impression on the readers and judges. Which is to say: not much. It wasn't mentioned in the comments, it got enough votes to get through the second round - or maybe I coasted on my votes from the first round - and overall the reaction wasn't much of one. 

Here's the entry I used:
7) The Letter
Tanned skin, lean muscle, a mouth that curves with the hint of a smile: the new mailman delivers in more ways than one. He raises a hand and I picture it around my throat, pinning me down as we fuck. I smile and walk inside, leaving the front door open.

I liked this entry a lot because it felt very open ended. There were a lot of places it could go from here - and other writers felt this way as well since this entry was used several times.  It also reminded me of a good set up for a traditional porno.  I've always loved pornos where it's the mailman or the pizza guy or someone coming to the office to repair fax machines and then suddenly everyone is having sex. So I took that idea and wrote this:

That escalated quickly
“Your door is open,” the mailman said. He froze with his hand on the doorknob, watching my shorts hit the floor. I held his gaze, pinching my nipples until they’re taut and aching. My desperate cunt dripped, he smirked, I waited. Then, leaving the door open, he grabbed my hand and spun me around. I rubbed my ass against his rigid cock, moaning as he slid thick fingers between my slippery folds. ‘Yes, fuck yes,” I begged as he forced me against the wall, hot breath on my neck, slipping his thumb over my tight bud. His other hand came around to cup my chin and abruptly yank my head back as he growled, “This feels like a party. Shall we invite someone else?”

The story idea is embedded in the title, obviously, which could also be the title for every traditional porno ever made. I won't bother to critique this piece because I'm not that attached to it and the readers weren't either. It got me through to the next round so it did its job... and perhaps that's it? 

This marathon experience is a curious one, though. On the one hand, I write for an audience a fair amount in my regular life so I have a good sense of my own story-telling abilities and my own voice and I'm continuing to learn what resonates with other people. This trust in myself makes it easier for me to put material out there for strangers and not to get too fussed about criticism but also to pay attention when a few people are saying the same things.

If I could give a couple pieces of advice to anyone in this marathon or considering this marathon it would be to trust your stories, read all the entries, take note of the ones you admire as much as the ones you really really don't like and then read all the criticism. A lot of times the criticism is all saying the same thing and some of it may apply to you even if the comments don't mention you directly. However, maybe it doesn't. And that's where the trust of yourself comes in. I've had people criticize my work and sometimes they're right and sometimes they aren't. It's ok. This is all a learning exercise and should be treated as such. I do this so I can learn to be a better writer, in general.

I don't do this, however, to only write better erotica. I feel that's a really narrow goal for this marathon. It's a writing challenge first and an erotica challenge second. Good story telling is incredibly important and it's even harder with constraints of word count and prompts. But that's what makes this marathon a challenge.

I will also say this about my process, which may or may not help anyone else: I don't spend a tremendous amount of time on my entries. And I do that because I have learned to trust my instincts and I know that if I spend too much time on the entry, I often overthink it. I want to craft something, check it for typos and word count and make sure it abides by the rules and then let it go. I find that working quickly in this challenge also means I can be a bit more objective about the end result. So perhaps if you're feeling really emotional about your place in the marathon or really vulnerable about the criticism, I might recommend that you set a quick time limit and then send the piece on its way.

Here's what I do: I wait to the last minute. I get my first warning from the Lovely Rebel when I have a week left, I clock that time frame in my mind and with these short pieces I wait until 24 hours or less before the deadline. Literally the day before. That's the first time I open the email, read the prompt and start writing. I do not read the email until I'm ready to write. 

Sometimes I have one idea right off. Sometimes I write a few different things down and then choose one. Often it's pretty clear which way I want to go and then it's all story and word count. But sometimes I really struggle and the initial write up takes a while and I don't love it. But either way, I always write something and finish it. Then I let it sit for a hour or a couple hours or over night before I read it again. Sometimes it all comes together, sometimes I've gotten too attached to a particular piece and I have to ditch it and write something else. And there were a few rare occasions last year where I wished I had more time and had started earlier. But for the most part, the pressure of the deadline and trusting my instincts works for me. 

This year's round three assignment was one of my least favorites prompts. It's something incredibly tough for me to do but for that reason it's really important for my writing skills. But I liked my entry so we'll see how it does. You'll get to read all those entries tomorrow and make your own judgement.

I hope this is helpful to some of you out there. I'd be very interested to know how everyone else treats this marathon and what your own processes are. 

xo

I really wanted to add text or a drawing to this picture but everything I put on it just detracted from it's simplicity. I do enjoy the edit and filter though. I've been playing around with Snapseed and this is their "Frozen" tutorial. I love the way my skin looks like frozen metal.

But more importantly, it's the first round of results for the Smut Marathon. When I participated last year, I didn't do any cross posting to this blog. I think I posted only one of my entries because I happened upon the perfect picture to accompany it. 

I'm gonna change that this year for as long as I last in the marathon so here's my first entry:

Blind Date
He burst into the pub with a snow flurry and she sat up straight, nervously smoothing her hair as he scrubbed his glasses with his tie. Then his blue eyes caught hers. The busy pub went silent, her cheeks flushed and his warm smile spread over her like a sunrise.

And here's my assessment of that piece of writing: "meh." It's ok.

It's got some nice moments, it fits the prompt but there's nothing about it that really stands out. And fittingly, I'm in the middle of the pack in the voting round. Which is just what I deserve. But what's hilarious, and also happened last year, is that the comments are polarized about my writing. Some commenters liked the sunrise simile, some hated it and thought it was trite. And honestly, while I always vote for myself out of principle, my smut marathon votes rarely line up with the judges so there truly is no accounting for taste when it comes to writing and erotica. Even and especially my own. Which is part of what makes this marathon so interesting. 

I found this prompt really difficult. Writing flash fiction or any sort of story in under 100 words is not my strong suit and I admire anyone who does it well. Here are a couple shout outs to the other pieces I voted for because they were far better than mine.  
Losing Everything by Sorcha Rowan.
Ok, Cupid by Zebra Rose 

And now we're on to Round 2. Good luck to everyone who decides to keep participating.
Also happy sunday.
​XO