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Q&A How to tell people you write smut/erotica/porn

The big question here is: What is your purpose in telling people about your writing. Some people, some forums, and some audiences, will absolutely appreciate that writing erotica is a skill, a cra...

posted 5y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T20:06:07Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45197
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:53:57Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45197
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T11:53:57Z (about 5 years ago)
The big question here is: **What is your purpose in telling people about your writing.**

Some people, some forums, and some audiences, will absolutely appreciate that writing erotica is a skill, a craft, something that people enjoy -- and you can just straight up say "I write erotica."

Other people, forums, and audiences won't have that appreciation, and may very well look down on you for erotica. (Or just might be heterogeneous enough that you don't _know_ what reaction to expect, but assume that _some_ of them will be offended and/or condescending.)

In this second case, the question is: _why tell them about your writing at all?_ Is this a social situation ("So, tell us what you do for a living!"), a professional conversation ("Hey, can I join this writer's group?", "Sure, what do you write?"), something else?  
The answer will depend on the situation, and on what you're trying to accomplish -- for lots of these, the easiest solution is just to keep your writing to yourself around people who won't appreciate it.

You sound like you want to thread a really fine needle where you _do_ tell people you're writing, but don't tell them _what_. This isn't about phrasing, because honestly, people know what erotica is (or have very firm preconceptions about what erotica is...), and there isn't some magic phrasing that's going to make them go, "Ohhhh! I'd normally be really dismissive of erotica writers, but _this_ one is _different_!"

I may be misunderstanding your intention here -- maybe you _want_ people to know what you write, _and_ you want to explain to them that it's worthy of respect. Maybe you want to fight the stereotype and the preconceptions. Maybe it's something entirely different -- you're, I dunno, applying for a scholarship, and you want to show experience but also avoid a bad impression.

**What you want to tell people** depends on **how you want the interaction to go,** what you want them to know, how you'd like them to respond. If you want to add more detail to the question, you might get more specific answers, but I hope that as a general principle this is helpful, particularly with the various examples the answers have offered :)

Best of luck!

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-05-16T06:19:31Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 2