Blog Assignment #4 - Great Sex & Bad Writing

So by now, the whole world has heard of 50 Shades of Grey.
E. L. James wrote a literary masterpiece that will stand the test of time...

Okay, so that was a joke. The truth is, 50 Shades is not well written and the story itself is just okay. So why all the hype... Because James shocked the world by making porn seem literary.

To those familiar with literary genres, this piece of writing would normally have been tucked away in the erotica section, and the lack of great writing skills would've buried it. But that didn't happen. Why?

Because where the story was lacking, James made up for it with great character development and steamy (oddly enough, well written) sex scenes. Hell, I fell in love with Christian Grey.

But the popularity of 50 Shades created a serious problem. More and more poorly written stories are being published, with well written sex scenes. And they aren't being buried in the erotica section. Nope, they're hanging out in the supernatural romance, gothic thrillers, dystopia, medieval romance and fantasy sections. They're veiled as really good genre pieces, then uncovered as smut in literature's clothing.


I recently read a book on my kindle, called Awakened. I have no clue how it got there, but I figured, "Why Not?" I'll tell you why not. Because it was "Crap in Literature's Clothing". As I began, I thought, "This is okay. Characters aren't too bad, and the story has a decent start." About 50 or so pages in, and I started thinking, "Where are the vampires? Isn't this book a part of the Vampire Awakenings series?"

By page 59, I was slightly angry. Why you ask? Because by this page, there is a pretty steamy scene, and yet the first book of the "Vampire Awakenings Series" still hadn't given me an actual vampire. Sure I suspected, but it wasn't until page 172 that the big reveal happened.

So here we have a book with okay character development, the story layout is horrible, and the plot is just okay. So why would anyone ever recommend this book. Because the sex scenes were pretty awesome. I'm not going to lie. Those scene were written very well, just like E.L. James did with 50 Shades. And as a writer, it makes me furious.

Mostly because there are great works not being published, due to a lack of sex. And yet this dribble can get published because someone got aroused when they read the manuscript. It's enough to make any writer worth their salt want to spit nails.

Luckily for me, I can be a well rounded writer. I can write a steamy sex scene, but it's usually embedded in a not so bad story with awesome character. So I hope some day to prove that Great Sex doesn't have to be tied together with
Bad Writing.