There are a surprising number of porn games out there that are also solid metroidvanias, and while the porn doesn't bother me, the fact that they almost invariably go with the standard "the monsters fuck you when you get a game over" bit does. Like, if we can't figure out how to incorporate fucking into actual gameplay in a metroidvania, I feel like we're just not trying.
All I'm saying is the Metroid franchise establishing "solving this environmental puzzle involves interacting with this giant, weirdly buff alien birdman statue in some slightly non-intuitive way" as a standard trope of the genre is a gift whose value has not heretofore properly been recognised.
Have the save points replenish your energy in bracingly direct fashion. Their lore entry in the game's compendium explains that they're plants adapted to exploit metroidvania protagonists as their primary pollinator. An optional side quest involves routing to transfer pollen between save points without it getting knocked off along the way.
This looks so fucking weird lmao but this actually makes sense because Iâm pretty sure during arousal they move around and guide the sperm towards the cervix. ISNT ANATOMY COOL???????????
"Porn artists have it easier because they don't have to draw clothing" I once watched an artist have a full-blown creative crisis because they couldn't decide what colour a space alien's dick should be.
Iâve bought a lot of my toys through Etsy, including some of my favorites like Adventurer from Masterwork Toys and Cyerce Symbiote from Xenocat Artifacts. Itâs been an easy way to browse and find new sex toys. For a number of years, it was a great, quality marketplace where you could reliably find indie silicone toys.
Over the past couple years, though, Etsyâs thrown their handmade products commitment to the wind. Now, after years of providing an online home for independent makers (and profiting from the platform fees), Etsy is shuttering all of that and leaving makers with only a month to scramble for a plan B.
Some sex toy shops exclusively hosted on Etsy will shut down. Some sex toy shops that are cross-hosted on Etsy will shut down; some have indicated that the vast majority of their sales come from Etsy and theyâre not going to be able to make up the difference.
Is Etsy banning sex toys as an easy way to wipe dropshipped sex toys without employing enough staff to identify whatâs handmade vs. whatâs not? Are they trying to reduce risk across the board? Are they concerned about getting caught under any of these age verification laws? Are they facing pressure from payment processors and credit card companies?
I donât have the answer, but whatever the cause, the problems extend beyond Etsy.
Etsy is banning the selling of adult toys (i.e., insertables, penetrables, etc), erotic art/literature, and other "adult" goods come July 29th: https://www.etsy.com/legal/prohibited/
They're taking the Tumblr route with it. From the above link:
Examples of What is Allowed:
- Illustrative (i.e. non-photographic or photorealistic) artwork depicting female nipples [included is a painting of a woman with her bare chest facing towards the viewer, standing casually. her lower body is dressed in layers of skirts]
- Illustrative artwork depicting buttocks [included is a watercolor painting of a nude man from the back, his buttocks unobscured]
- Illustrative depictions of genitalia without sexual context [included is a photograph of orangish transparent penis-shaped lollipops]
They go into more detail on the guidelines on this page: https://www.etsy.com/legal/policy/adult-nudity-and-sexual-content/1269612959532?ref=list
The page defines what it considers pornography ("Printed or visual materials that explicitly describe or display sex acts, sex organs, or other erotic behavior for the purpose of sexual arousal or stimulation") and then covers any methods people have used before to get around this or comply with it, such as:
This policy applies even if the above body parts are only partially visible, including through very tight, sheer, or mesh clothing, or through insufficient use of blurring or âcensorâ bars.
The adult toys and accessories section:
Etsy prohibits the sale of adult toys that are:
- Inserted into the body
- Applied to the genitalia
- Designed for genitals to be inserted into them
This includes adult toys such as dildos, vibrators, anal plugs, sex dolls, and fleshlights.
Etsy allows the sale of non-insertable and non-penetrable adult toys and sexual accessories, as long as they meet our requirements for sale on Etsy. This includes items such as restraints, handcuffs, nipple clamps, body harnesses, sex furniture, and BDSM accessories.
Permitted adult toys and sexual accessories may not be shown in use or worn by human models in listing or review photos. Consider using a mannequin or flat lay photography instead.
The final section on this page covers the banning of "mommy" and "daddy" branded mature items.
As always with these types of policy changes, it's going to hit LGBTQ+ creators harder than anyone else. There is a thriving adult toy/mature art community on Etsy and smaller creators are going to struggle greatly with finding a new platform and audience. Many of these merchants also sell gender-affirming items such as packers, artificial nipples, breast forms/padding, and specialized undergarments. While these weren't explicitly mentioned in the above rules, they're still going to be affected by these new policies.
Some creators that I follow have independently run stores alongside their Etsy storefront. I highly recommend supporting these artists and creators while you can and subscribing to their socials or the email newsletters on their independent stores before they have to close up on Etsy. It is extremely difficult finding creators like this due to how algorithmsâeven on sites like Twitter that allow nsfw artâand search engines actively reduce visibility on posts by nsfw creators or by independent merchants.
I present to you a - probably quite incomplete, Iâm sure Iâm missing a lot of speech sounds - reference list and a bit of a guideline for the different ways one can describe the sounds your characters make whilst writing smut. Iâll definitely be referring to it, because I sometimes get stuck on exactly how to describe a particular noise. (aka, âhe canât groan again, he just groaned last paragraphâ)
Combine a descriptor and a sound for best effect - for example, âneedy moan,â âpleased hum,â or âsudden scream.â You can even use two: âlow, rough grunt,â âsweet little cry,â âdesperate, filthy noise,â as long as you donât repeat a word that means the same thing, unless you really want to emphasize it. Avoiding repetition is pretty key here. You donât usually want to say âhushed, quiet gaspâ except on rare occasions when itâs very important how soft the sound was.
Use your own common sense, as well; some sounds and descriptors donât generally work well together. âDeliberate shriekâ probably wouldnât work well, and neither would âlanguid grunt,â but again, this is all very situational - play around! Have fun.
Feel free to add to my lists, use for your reference or pass them around. It would be fun to see a randomized generator made, too, Iâm just too lazy to do it myself. ;)
gonna do bullet-points of things i tend to live by when it comes to smut (this is just my opinion):
don't switch styles: the way you write the smut has to be consistent with the way you write the rest of the story, so if your story is more comedic or romcom-y in nature, the way you write the smut should have those stylings. i personally find it very jarring when authors decide to break the format for the smut, almost like the story has to stop for the sex intermission; if you're writing a horror story, the smut must be informed and influenced by that genre, and if you are breaking genre for the smut portion, tell us why you're suddenly switching gears (it has to be an aesthetic choice you're making on purpose). likewise, if your style in that story is more lyrical, the smut has to be somewhat lyrical too, or if your story is more cormac mccarthy-esque-cut-and-dry, the smut can't suddenly involve an effluvia of purple, sappy prose. integrating the smut in the story and treating it like any other part of the story is key to me. too often i've seen ppl switch to this anonymous pornified style when they get to the smut
which brings me to specificity. i'll talk about het sex, since that's what i tend to write most: not all men are going to be fingering or eating pussy the same way, not all dicks are big and they shouldn't be, not all women immediately get excited by fingering, not everyone moans the same way or makes the same sounds. you're writing about particular characters so it has to be particular to them. i know this is very old advice, but i think it bears repeating
there isn't an exact formula or sequence you have to follow, there aren't precise steps, you don't have to go "well, first he has to kiss down her neck, then reach the boob area, then play with the nipples, then put the nipple in his mouth, then slowly go down on her, then prepare her for entering her etc. etc. etc." this can get boring and repetitive and you start thinking of your characters as these mechanical dolls who have to fuck for your audience. and that can be a vibe too, if you do it on purpose. but sometimes you can get stuck in a porn routine (and ofc, having only the guy show initiative can also get boring)
in order to break that, insert some character moments. what are the characters thinking during this? sometimes they might be thinking of something completely unrelated on the surface, but which has a thematic relevance that can make the scene hotter. likewise, maybe they're doing smth that seems unsexy on the surface, but which, within the context of the story might be really hot. sex doesn't just involve, well, sex, but so much weirdness and humanity and creativity. two bodies (usually) are trying to do this really awkward thing together and they might have a lot of baggage and history to inform it. there's a lot you can do with that.
don't make it glossy and clean, where everyone smells of strawberry shampoo and there is never anything out of sync. the most boring smut tends to be the kind where no one makes any mistakes and everything is super efficient. i imagine it feels like using an industrial pump to milk various farm animals.
and you know what? you can make that hot too. you CAN write a kind of robotic efficient smut and make it really interesting based on the context. let's say you're writing a 1984 AU fic where ppl are forced into intimacy only to procreate and their sex drive is diminished. you can play with that premise and lean into the dehumanizing industrialization of sex, but you have to mean it, aka your narratorial voice must be conscious of these factors.
if you're writing dubcon, make the dubious part present, make sure you draw out the ambivalence and ambiguity. if you're writing noncon, the character whose consent is being violated has to be transformed by this in some way. it can be forced pleasure, for instance, but not only. it has to be a journey for them too, some kind of spiritual pit, or a form of access to terrible knowledge. i know this is a personal thing, but noncon doesn't work for me if the character being noncon'd is just sort of *there*, suffering passively. i think that sort of dead passivity can be done very well too, but the narratorial voice has to persuade me.
that being said, don't be afraid of fear in consensual sex. terror and vulnerability are a part of consensual sex too, imo, and again, depending on the story and the characters, there's a lot you can explore there
i personally find it really hot when the narratorial voice starts discussing some of the ideas that the story wants to convey during the smut. so like, you can characterize person A and outline their worldview and their plans while they're ramming person B, and the thinking & fucking are thus entwined. idk, i dig that
speaking of which, smut can convey world-building details and social/philosophical ideas, not just emotions and character beats
not all smut has to end with mutual orgasm or even one-sided orgasm, it depends what you want to do or where you want to go. again, you don't have to follow a sequence. plus, it's fun (and hot) to write about frustration and failure too.
if you want to mix up the descriptions, resort to the story & characters. you'll find it's easier to describe someone fondling a boob in a new or at least interesting way if you're thinking about that particular character in that particular story, and not just Man X from planet porn (sorry to be snarky, but mainstream erotica is soooo guilty of this)
screaming & really intense reactions are cool but they have to match the characters and the situations
sometimes, it's hotter if an effect is mild or negated, if the usual outcome doesn't happen; mix up the order of events, toy with the usual reactions. it's not about being original, it's about finding out what works for your characters. writing about sex is, in a way, a performance of it, an attempt to go through the sexual motions, to find out what works and doesn't, to engage with the erotics of text (roland barthes entered the chat)
if you are bored by your own smut, that's a problem. i know we all talk about how hard we find writing smut, and IT IS hard, and sometimes it's not enjoyable, because writing itself is often not enjoyable, but even when it's painful and annoying, it gives you that little intellectual kick like "huh, i'm creating this and making these people do this, and ohh look, i can maybe put this unnamable thing into words". but if you become bored, that's a sign you have to look at the language & characters and figure out what's not working for you
last thing i'll underline: pay attention to your narratorial voice. in this ordeal, you are the seducer. not the characters. you have to seduce us with words and context. your voice matters the most. you can persuade us of anything. but you have to be confident in your weirdness and particularity. this is your bedroom (so to speak), so invite us in.
Weâve had questions for your OCs, but what about YOU? Talk about how you craft your sex scenes with this ask game! Remember to send an ask to the person you reblog it from to make sure everyone gets to play!
Note: when a question says âsexualityâ it refers to sexual desires and feelings, not sexual orientation.
đ Whatâs your favorite part about writing sex scenes?
đ€ Whatâs your favorite kink to write?
âïž Whatâs the most difficult part about writing sex for you?
đ Whatâs a kink youâve never written, but youâd like to?
đ Do you struggle to write sex scenes and/or certain kinks, even if you like the idea?
đ What do you put sex scenes and/or kink in your story for? Eroticism? Character development? Thematic exploration? Something else?
â Are there aspects of sex and/or kink that youâll never touch with a ten-foot pole?
đ Do you want to be known for your sex scenes or would you rather they slip into the background?
đ€ Have you written any non-sexual or platonic kink scenes before?
đ How deeply do you develop your charactersâ sexual preferences and history? Is it all planned out, or are you throwing darts?
đœ Do you enjoy writing non-human sexuality? What about it speaks to you, versus human-on-human sex?
đ How comfortable are you with people you know reading your sex scenes?
đ Is there a particular kind of sex scene that bothers you to read? How would you improve it?
đ„° Which characters are your favorites to write sex scenes for? This can be a specific OC, a personality type, or a character dynamic.
đ When youâre coming up with a romantic plot or subplot, how important is developing their sexual compatibility to you?
đ What is, in your opinion, the best sex scene youâve ever written? Best is subjective hereâsexiest, most emotional, well-written, etc. It means anything you want it to mean!
đ€ Whatâs one aspect of sex and/or kink that youâd like to improve in your writing?
đ What do you hope readers get out of your sex scenes?
đ If you could give one piece of advice about writing sex and/or kink to your fellow writers, what would it be?
đș Do you prefer explicit sex scenes, where everything is captured in loving detail, or the more subtle, metaphorical sex scenes, that are more about the feelings and atmosphere than the act itself?
đ Wild card! Ask any question you want!
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