What Exactly Do I Write?

So the biggies are covered - Fiction and Romance. I also have a pretty good grasp of a sub-genre - Interracial Romance. All of my romance stories to date star an African American female and a White or Hispanic male.

So what type of romance? I think my stories are sweet. Boy meets girl and falls in love. She is everything that he has ever needed and they get their happily ever after.

However, the couple usually has some awesome sexual encounter that leads them both to this realization. Do I write erotica?

As a definition from About.com: Erotica is a genre of literature that includes sexually explicit details as a primary feature. Unlike pornography, erotica does not aim exclusively at sexual arousal. Though the distinction is blurring in modern works, erotica traditionally contains more sexual details than romance novels.

Hmmm. There are more sexual details in my stories than in the ones you'd pick up at your neighborhood Walmart. But that's not my primary goal. I'm trying to show real people falling in love and with that comes a myriad of preferences.

I found the term Erotic Romance on the Passionate Ink website: Romance in which erotic elements are integral to the plot and take the book beyond traditional romance boundaries. The erotic elements (in the context of any traditional or non-traditional romantic relationship) play a major part in plot and/or character development, and the end of the book is emotionally satisfying and optimistic.

I think this is me. I write Erotic Romance. So who else knows about this?

Tags: Erotic, Romance, Writiing

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Comment by Teicha Hill Mailhes on July 18, 2012 at 5:17pm: Dariel, thanks for commenting and letting me know I'm not alone. I let the couples decide their interludes and I accommodate them by coming up with a heat level later! (BTW - Stopped by the first leg of your tour. Your book sounds awesome!)

Comment by Dariel Raye on July 18, 2012 at 10:06am: We have a lot in common, Teicha. I write MC/IR paranormals that "border" on erotica :-) I say "border" because I usually don't have the "number" of sex scenes in my books as erotic romance novels, but they are explicit, sometimes a bit kinky. I don't do manages though. That seems to be a big thing these days in erotica, but personally, I'm a Leo/Scorpio rising, and extremely possessive. I don't like to share, so I don't like to write about couples sharing. I really base that on the characters and their situations. Like you, If the love scenes fit, I go for it, but I don't like writing them just for the sake of adding another sex scene.