woe is me

[xparrot]

I am just not cut out to be a slash writer. I can't write smut! I want to write smut. But the chars, they want to talk. For 8 pages! The hell, Lex? You want Clark. He wants you. What is the problem here? Just get down on your knees, boy. Geeze. It's not that difficult.

For some reason I can only write smut very late at night. Four in the morning when I'm supposed to be asleep, then I'll have all manner of sexy bodies in my head, writhing together under the sheets/against the wall/over the desk/in the mud/what-have-you. The rest of the time, might as well be a lost cause. Talking, though. I can write endless discussion anytime. I ought to stick to gen. But I like slash, too, darn it! If only it weren't haaaard...(and not in the good way.)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I am quite possibly the worst slash fan ever, in that half the time I don't even read the smut; I skim the sex to get to the juicy bits, which for me is the...talking. And angst. And cuteness. And basically all the relationshipping that happens in between. This is probably why I can be both a slash and a gen fan without much mental dissonance. Though it doesn't explain why I have pairings like Clark/Lex which I simply cannot see as gen (even when I don't always read and can't hardly write the slashy bits.)

Comments

[stitcher2ficcer.livejournal.com]

Smut is one of those things, I think, that the more you read of the well-written variety, the more comfortable you become writing it. But as almost every commenter above has pointed out in one way or another, "slash" and "smut" are by no means synonymous, and one needs little to no smut to write great slash. And you, my dear, DO write great slash, giving us all wonderful insights into the relationship dynamics, feelings, and thoughts between partners, and always in the context of engaging, enjoyable plots, often with wonderful plot twists.

And along the way... what smut you do write, regardless of how short and how absent the body part words, always seems hot enough to me in the contexts you build for it. If you want to experiment with being more explicit, try reading, with closer attention, a few pieces by authors that do manage to bring it off well--and the best, I think, manage to develop character and feelings simultaneously--and eventually I'm sure you'll master that as well as you've mastered every other detail of style that you've worked at... Although in the case of writing m/m smut, it would be nice helpful to read some tasteful, well-done stuff by guys who actually engage in it to get a better sense of the mechanics. One can manage some level of translation from het experience to theoretical gay action--an experienced het woman should know rather a lot about what pleases a guy, and some of it's the same; but there's a point beyond which we ladies really can't go without treading questionable ground. But then, is it necessary to our stories to go there? Probably not.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I think it must be "the more you write" rather than the more you read, because I've read a lot of it - I only skim about half the time, like I said; if you factor in how much fic I read, that's a lot of not-skimming! But it still doesn't come easily to me. Fortunately as you say there's more to slash than that, but some of my stories might be better served if I could go into more detail, as the case may be...

The problem isn't so much that I can't so much as that I don't want to! If I put more effort into it, I could probably do more, but it would take more effort than I'm usually willing to give fanfic! Except really late at night, but then it's difficult to actually write it properly, so...