Maybe the thing I always felt most compelling about my young lesbian friends, as a mostly-straight-because-that’s-easier young woman, was how little they were concerned about conventional physical attractiveness. I haven’t read much lesbian erotica or it’s more traditional porn successor lately but the ‘90s/00s books I did read reflected that intellectual and emotional focus towards attraction. I’m wondering if someone has a word for this, not quite an aromantic/romantic scale but a word for finding people sexy by their minds more than by their bits.
When I write smut, I typically don't describe my characters' appearances at all. Race, skin color, eye color, weight, breast size, hair length, none of it. When there's any description at all, it's usually either texture (how someone feels to the touch), scent/flavor, or, rarely, something relative that implies a characteristic like height (one character might lean down or reach up to kiss another character, allowing a reader to infer that one is taller than the other, and which is the taller, but are they both over 6' tall? Both under 5' tall? Both in the average range? Who knows!)
I usually have some vague idea of at least a few of these qualities. For instance, it's helpful to know if someone has very long hair, because then I might have to describe getting the hair out of the way of an interaction. But even I don't have much of an image of how the person appears.
I like it that way. Without any idea how the people involved look, I can't write anything that's too focussed on appearances. Instead I have to focus on other things, which usually makes for a better story.
That is pretty awesome. I like the idea that the reader can imagine the people they would like to imagine. That world that is created between the book and the reader can be so much more meaningful to the reader that way.
I have read quite a bit of porn in my time. I wish I could come up with a really fun scenario…but I leave it to you truly creative writers to make even a so-so idea come to life marvelously
"about riding bareback on wild horses and the inventor of the atlatl"
Having read "Clan of the Cave Bear" I can't decide if you mean the books are about the inventor of the atlatl, or about riding him bareback, but honestly the answer is yes.
Maybe the thing I always felt most compelling about my young lesbian friends, as a mostly-straight-because-that’s-easier young woman, was how little they were concerned about conventional physical attractiveness. I haven’t read much lesbian erotica or it’s more traditional porn successor lately but the ‘90s/00s books I did read reflected that intellectual and emotional focus towards attraction. I’m wondering if someone has a word for this, not quite an aromantic/romantic scale but a word for finding people sexy by their minds more than by their bits.
When I write smut, I typically don't describe my characters' appearances at all. Race, skin color, eye color, weight, breast size, hair length, none of it. When there's any description at all, it's usually either texture (how someone feels to the touch), scent/flavor, or, rarely, something relative that implies a characteristic like height (one character might lean down or reach up to kiss another character, allowing a reader to infer that one is taller than the other, and which is the taller, but are they both over 6' tall? Both under 5' tall? Both in the average range? Who knows!)
I usually have some vague idea of at least a few of these qualities. For instance, it's helpful to know if someone has very long hair, because then I might have to describe getting the hair out of the way of an interaction. But even I don't have much of an image of how the person appears.
I like it that way. Without any idea how the people involved look, I can't write anything that's too focussed on appearances. Instead I have to focus on other things, which usually makes for a better story.
That is pretty awesome. I like the idea that the reader can imagine the people they would like to imagine. That world that is created between the book and the reader can be so much more meaningful to the reader that way.
I have read quite a bit of porn in my time. I wish I could come up with a really fun scenario…but I leave it to you truly creative writers to make even a so-so idea come to life marvelously
"about riding bareback on wild horses and the inventor of the atlatl"
Having read "Clan of the Cave Bear" I can't decide if you mean the books are about the inventor of the atlatl, or about riding him bareback, but honestly the answer is yes.
I did not read Clan of the Cave Bear and I had to look up atlatl. I’m miffed that I did not get this reference or the double entendre.
It's nice to have one's double entendres appreciated.