When is a book\u00a0too graphic and when is it not graphic enough?<\/p>\n
Erotic is in and these days, many if not most, romance novels feature some hot and heavy, sweating to the friction kind of action.\u00a0 Authors handle the sex scenes differently.\u00a0 But in one way or another, in books that are going to get down and dirty and in others where they'll hold out 'till they have papers on each other,\u00a0 all of the writers will have to deal with the bleep factor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I got\u00a0criticized by some publishing professionals early on for not calling it a c*ck or a p**sy.\u00a0 Call it what it is, they said.\u00a0 These days, readers want it straight up, no-holds-barred, graphic.\u00a0 So,\u00a0 I edited early work and used the terms in later stuff.\u00a0\u00a0Later, I ran some of that work by groups of readers and other writers who said the terms jerked them right out of the stories.\u00a0 Before I published anything, I had to reconsider this issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I realized that some writers use the terms and use them effectively because those writers are comfortable with the language.\u00a0 I was a wee bit uneasy at some of the terms, but mostly, I missed the creative opportunities, the out and out fun, I got from not calling\u00a0it a bleep.\u00a0 If I don't use the word, then I get to describe it or make up my own terms that can fit with what else is going on in the scene.\u00a0 I decided graphic terms, whether they're for body parts\u00a0or to describe the groping and grubbing sessions, work for the reader if they work for the writer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to come off all prim and proper here. Heck, my day job is being a lawyer.\u00a0 I've used the word d*ck for my hubby's package, sure enough, but I've also used it\u00a0when describing certain other lawyers, judges, and\u00a0the occasional client.\u00a0 I've used it outside the office for the guy or gal who cuts me off in traffic and for the idiot who slows me down in line at the grocery store.\u00a0 Those words fit real life occasions when I'm a little too stressed to be creative.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In my writing,\u00a0I\u00a0have more fun\u00a0not\u00a0using those terms.\u00a0 And if I have more fun, I hope my readers do too.\u00a0\u00a0So this time, I think Shakespeare got it right.\u00a0 A bleep by any other name is still a bleep.\u00a0 It's just that sometimes, by another name it can be more and do more - it can make you smile, or make you think or sometimes, just sometimes, it can do both.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No matter how much it will upset my college\u00a0professors\u00a0to hear an English major say this, I don't always agree with Shakespeare.\u00a0\u00a0Like all that stuff about killing lawyers...not so much.\u00a0 But hey, maybe that's just me\u00a0 -- and all those I practice with, in front of or for, d*cks\u00a0included.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let's save the in-your-face reality\u00a0for the real world, when we need to be a little more graphic.\u00a0 When we pick up a book, or better yet, a Kindle or a PC, (let's pick up lots of those) then we can\u00a0enjoy the heated encounters, the\u00a0dirty deeds\u00a0and\u00a0the knock-down, drag out fights by calling them what they feel like at the time.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe some of those creative terms can find their way into our daily lives.\u00a0 The next time somebody cuts you off in traffic or slows you down at the grocery store\u00a0 try calling them a re-fried frog instead of a bleep.\u00a0 At least, it'll make you smile.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
And let's not kill ALL the lawyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When is a book\u00a0too graphic and when is it not graphic enough? Erotic is in and these days, many if not most, romance novels feature some hot and heavy, sweating to the friction kind of action.\u00a0 Authors handle the sex scenes differently.\u00a0 But in one way or another, in books that are going to get ...continue reading \"A Bleep By Any Other Name\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}