Brainstorm post

[aron_kristina]

Since a lot of people expressed interest in a 'guide to writing femslash porn', and interest in chipping in their thoughts I thought I'd start by making a brainstorm post. I won't have time to write up a proper post in a couple of days, so I thought this would be a good place to collect some thoughts.

Firstly, I thought that my post (if other people write/have written posts like this I will be very happy to link to them too) would have subcategories. Off the top of my head, in no particular order, these would be:
Bodies/anatomy/physiology
Writing porn and how it's not like describing people having sex (ie, porn is actually supposed to turn people on)
Terminology and various words you should and shouldn't use
Feminism (that is, the difference between porn created by women for women about women and porn created by men for men about women) (or something like it) (I thought this part could be at the end, so people who weren't interested could skip it)

Also, I thought I'd include some good examples and perhaps if I can find some nice links to stuff other people has written and so on.

So, what should be in the subcategories?

Bodies
A basic (and possibly quite dry) overview of the vagina with all parts marked out in medical latin. Also perhaps a bit about various orgasm, or the theories of various orgasm. Also perhaps something about how different people are. This is the bit my medical student heart is going to want to be really long and the rest of me is gonna try to keep really brief. Also, about transwomen, women with disabilites, FGM and so on. This bit I'm going to need help on, since I'm a bio-woman. Then, on the other hand, I'm quite good at reading medical literature. On the third hand (this is Zaphod's hand we're talking about), if there is anyone who wants to share first hand experience that would be awesome.

ETA: The Lesbian Sex 101-post is now up!

Writing porn
This is perhaps the most relevant part. What is porn? What is the purpose? Well, I would say that what makes porn porn is that you want to turn people on with it. You might not always succeed, but it is the purpose. It also doesn't have to be the sole purpose, but it has to be there. I do think some people disagree, so this is something to think on. Tomorrow, when I'm not so tired.

Really have to go to bed now. Feel free to discuss in the comments if you want.

ETA no 1: Techniques of how to do various things. I'm thinking of maybe making this a series, as was suggested, and start with a sort of 'lesbian sex 101', or something like it, with bodies and basic techniques. I'll probably steal a lot of stuff from my favorite book on the subject, which is in Swedish: 'Stora sexboken för tjejer som har sex med tjejer' (Big book of sex for women who have sex with women). It's not that I want to write sex ed per se, but I think that it needs to be done to establish a sort of baseline or common ground. Because this is supposed to be a guide to writing femslash, and if we (that is, I) don't do some sex ed, well, it's not really a guide to femslash porn but to porn in general, yes? Or maybe that's just me.

Comments

Turn ons of porn

[angel_negra]

For the porn section itself, it might help to discuss some techniques. Like some basic ways things fit together. (I'm remembering how some of the first How Tos on m/m slash tended to cover things like lube, prep, etc. Which, okay, spawned a whole generation of "one finger, two finger, three finger, cock" fics, but it gave people a starting point.)

Obviously not everything would work for every woman, but if there's a kind of base starting point, it gives people a foundation for further research/exploration and so when they do get more creative, they're not going to feel as overwhelmed by the amount of information out there.

Re: Turn ons of porn

[aron_kristina]

That's a good point. A starting point is always a good thing (and it gives me an excuse to go look up links to fun websites with info).

Re: Turn ons of porn

[angel_negra]

Always a good reason. :)

[dagas_isa]

My concern (and it may be unfounded here) is that from what you have above it sounds like you're trying to do too many things at once with this essay. You say it's a guide to writing femslash porn, but it also sounds like you're trying to also do sex-education and start a philosophical discussion about porn and raise awareness of social issues. So instead of trying to do all these things, figure out what you really want readers to take from that and then try to convey that message really well.

If it's going to be a porn-writing guide, then it should include what's most useful to writing porn and leave the what isn't relevant for another discussion where you can do the topic justice or link to outside resources that people can go for more information.

[aron_kristina]

I don't think it's unfounded at all, and looking at what I wrote yesterday now that I'm not quite as tired anymore I see that if I want to cover all of that I should probably make it a series of posts.

The problem is of course knowing what's most useful :p I think I draw from a variety of sources when I write porn, not least of all my own experience, so that's probably something I'm gonna need help with. Having said that I think that sex ed at least need to be adressed, because some people don't actually know the basics, and that tends to put me off, at least.

[dagas_isa]

Yeah, I think some would be useful if some of the worst anatomy mistakes were addressed. Things like the urethra not being the vagina, and the hitting the cervix as being more of an "Owww..." than an "Ahh..." (And yes, I swear I've seen both of these in f/f stories)

[solja_of_love]

I'm already taking notes...lol I enjoy listening to my friends discuss their sexual likes and dislikes because it's a great way of gathering information. Women are very open around each other when talking about sex.

I was surprised to find out so many of my friends enjoyed anilingus, having their anus licked but refused to let their boyfriends screw them in it because of the pain.

[dharma_slut]

I have been thinking on this same topic, quite a lot. And it occurs to me this morning, that at some point prefect accuracy isn't as important as establishing the tropes is-- for enjoyment's sake, in particular.

What we want to do of course is try to establish tropes that are more accurate than not, less abusive than abusive, and for fuck's sake get rid of the three-inch fingernails!

In that sense, here is a place for sexual education in porn. Knowledge is sexy. One finger, two, three, and in, for instance. Not every guy does it that way, but almost every woman who reads m-slash gets off on it. And as a buttfucker and fuckee myself? I gotta say adding fingers doesn't make the experience suck. Fingering is good!

I would love to follow along and contribute to this project of yours-- it's going to be a series of essays, I think.

[aron_kristina]

It's quite true that you don't want too much accuracy, because that would just take away the enjoyment. No one wants to read about the break you had to take while going down on someone because you got pubic hair in your mouth. Or had to go drink some water. Or when you couldn't be bothered to finish having sex at all because you got bored :p

Fingering is... yeah, that's a good example. Some people are very good at relaxing, some people not, and most people tend to vary, because people in general tend to do that. Personally it's not the hottest thing ever to read about, for me, because I sometimes remember that time I almost lost the circulation in my fingers...

[dharma_slut]

Oh, I've written getting the hair out of the mouth, once in a while! And my characters urinate, not always on each other.

But I never have written the one where everyone got bored and drifted away... Hmm. That could be very sweet, actually. I mean-- this IS porn, we have a duty to present everything gin the best light possible...

[saekhwa]

A fantastic idea! A series of posts would be wonderful, and I think one thing that should be addressed is that there is no one right way to a female orgasm.

In my own offline experiences, I often have to tell women (often college-age students) that not all women are the same. Some women can have multiple orgasms, some can't. Some women orgasm from vaginal stimulation, some women orgasm from clitoral stimulation, some women orgasm from both. For some women, it takes a really long time for them to come, and for some women, it's one finger, two finger, suck on clit and done. So femslash, of course, can have all the fun with this.

Oh, and also avoid the weird trope of screaming orgasms. I keep seeing more of that, and I'm like ???? I've experienced that once, which yay! Total ego booster, but at the same time, I've also had sex with women where there was ZERO VERBAL FEEDBACK.

Anyways tl;dr: THANK YOU FOR OFFERING THIS RESOURCE. :D

[cleo]

Loved the first post and just how frank it is. I found myself wanting a section on masturbation, but that might be something for a later post on more about the actual writing of porn. I'm not sure where it fits, but I think it's important, especially since it's different for every woman.

This is...such awesome work!