Writing About Naked People

It's been two weeks since I first threw my debut erotic novel, Best Friends With A Naked Girl, out into the world of Amazon Kindle.

Sales have exceeded what I expected (in that I have sales - I fully anticipated that nobody would ever buy a softcore niche-fetish coming-of-age lesbian love story from a first-time author with no experience of selling or marketing a book), and I've been working where I can on raising the book's profile with potential readers using social media.

To that end I've spent rather too much time in the world of naturism on Twitter.

Why naturists - or as some would have it, nudists?  Well, I admit that the majority of naturists wouldn't consider reading an erotic lesbian coming-of-age story about exhibitionism (or at least, wouldn't admit to it!), but there are certain themes in my book that cross over a little with that particular world.  Becky identifies as a nudist as well as an exhibitionist, after all - and there's a strong philosophy about accepting nakedness, about being proud of who you are and about problematic societal attitudes to women who choose to not be covered up all the time.

So I've been seeking out particular Twitter figures who promote naturism and pro-nudity stuff to try and subtly make people aware of my work.

There's another reason for this; I'm a little more familiar with that world, having been involved in social nude recreation for several years now, having first become interested in it in my mid-20s.  Although I choose not to apply the term naturist to myself, I'm not averse to doing naturist things, in particular nude spas, beaches and social events.  I keep the writer side of myself away from these things (hence the pen name) because there are some in naturism who would not approve of the fact that someone who writes sexy stories about naked girls might also be taking part in a nude social event - while I feel both my writing and my nude recreation are compatible, I know others don't share that view.

But regardless, I've found myself suddenly putting my view across about nudity and nakedness, and naturism, on social media, rather than just focusing on my writing.  I do have certain opinions about these subjects; many of which I try to communicate in my fiction.  I try to give a sense of fun and enjoyment of nudity; try to depict social and casual nakedness as well as the sexual side of what is enjoyable about being nude; and try to present a very "body positive" viewpoint from my characters.

I use nudism in my work too because it's a useful short-hand explanation of why a character might have no compunction about taking off their clothes in front of friends or family or even a stranger.  It's an established trope, showing why a character might not have a taboo about nudity even when others around them do.

I also use nudism in my work because I enjoy writing characters, especially women, who have a certain amount of self-confidence.  If you're someone who routinely gets naked with or in front of other people, you are likely to be someone who has confidence in yourself, and that is the sort of person I like to put in my stories.

What I don't like to do is what some other authors of erotica do, which is to use nudism and nudists in an absurdly cartoonish way in their fiction; for example, writing a story about a "nudist camp" which is full of partner-swapping swingers, group orgies and even incest.

That's not interesting to me as a writer, it belongs to the past, to 1970s sex comedy films full of "naughty nudists".  I don't think it's very sex and I also find it very unrealistic.

What interests me more are modern day, 21st century attitudes to nakedness and nude recreation.  My characters are usually young people aged 18-30, they aren't really interested in the seaside-postcard, holiday-camp version of naturism.  They're more aware of things like Instagram body-positivity, the neo-hippy movement, and general changing attitudes to body shame that are happening across their generation.  How do these people explore their own identity within these type of ideas?  How do they explore their sexuality with them?

Sex and sexuality is often a taboo subject in naturism, for the simple reason that naturism seeks to break the instant linking of nudity and sex, arguing that mixed gender, cross-generational nude recreation is perfectly natural and not likely to produce any more sexual feelings than socialising clothed would.  That's not something I disagree with personally, and I can support that with my own experiences.

But I'm also writing about sex, a lot of sex.  The main narrative purpose of my books is to describe sex and relationships, and the main thing people are reading them for is the sex.  I hope they also enjoy the characters and the plot but, well, it is erotica, there's going to be some fucking in there and they're going to be disappointed if there isn't.

As it happens, I think the sex in my stories is fairly soft-core.  It's smutty, sure, and descriptive, but it tends to just be quite mainstream in terms of what the characters get up to.  Many excellent erotic writers take their wagon far down the roads of kinky, explicit, hardcore filth but I'm happy hanging out in the parking lot.

But is the association between characters being nude and identifying as nudists, and them being described having (relatively soft-core) sex something that means my work gives a version of nakedness which naturists would find objectionable?

I would hope that it would not, and that people with an interest in both the innocent, positive side of being naked, and the fun and sexy side, find something in my work they like.  Ultimately, I write what I want, but it's nice to think some people at least enjoy and appreciate it (and of course, buy the book!)

Best Friends With A Naked Girl can be read now on:
Amazon Kindle
Smashwords

'Best Friends with a Naked Girl' is now available

If you've enjoyed my fiction and come to this blog because erotica themed around exhibitionism, public nudity and nudism appeal to you, I have good news - you can now read my very first complete novel, available to buy on Amazon Kindle for the low, low price of $2.98 (about £2.21).

You'll find it on sale here:
'Best Friends with a Naked Girl' by A D Rowen on Amazon Kindle

If you'd told me at the start of 2017 that about 12 months into the future I would have an entire novel written and published (even self-published on Amazon Kindle), I would never have believed you.

I've tried before to write novels.  Non-erotic ones, these, since I was maybe 16 years old.  I've deliberately sat down at my computer, made lists of characters, plotted out what is going to happen, written a few hundred or even a few thousand words... then gotten bored, bored of filling in the necessary plot between the few scenes I had imagined in my head.  My approach to writing long-form fiction was a little like making a film trailer from a film that didn't exist - everything looked very cool but there was nothing of substance behind it.

So how did it come to be easier to write an erotic novel?

Well for a start, my book is hardly an epic.  At about 300 pages, it's the "right" length for a decent read, but it's hardly The Lord of the Rings.  By curtailing my ambitions for something more achievable, I managed to overcome the sense of being daunted by how much there was still to do, which I always found put me right off the experience.

Also, I never deliberately set out to write a novel.

'Best Friends...', as I may have mentioned, began as my first ever sequence of short erotic stories, the 'Lisa & Becky' series.  The idea had come to me to tell the story of an exhibitionist and her friend, who wasn't.  I'd enjoyed stories about exhibitionism, public nudity, and the CFNF (clothed female/nude female) trope, but I wanted to put my own twist on those themes, and focus not on the exhibitionist herself, but tell her adventures through the eyes of a friend whom she had managed to rope into being a bit of an accomplice to her developing kink.

As the idea evolved it became apparent to me that things would be more amusing and fun to read if the two protagonists had some unresolved sexual tension, that was going to be exacerbated by the fact that Becky was always taking her clothes off in places where she shouldn't.  So, in a way, it became both a story about exhibitionism, and also about a young woman developing a very real crush on her best friend, and all the emotional baggage that might entail.

I'd already got too much material for one story - I planned for the two girls to have a series of adventures - but I never envisaged it as a novel.  Instead I was interested in publishing the stories on the website Literotica, and I favoured a model there where the stories can be read as individual ones, but are also part of an overall sequence.

So part one had Becky and Lisa going camping, part two had them doing other stuff (such as Becky stripping off in the cinema) and then I'd planned a part three where the two would meet up at university and more exhibitionist fun would ensue.

That was as far as I got.  My ambition outstripped my ability and I quickly found it hard to feel enthusiasm for the characters, who seemed stuck in a bit of a loop and not a happy one.  Part three never got published, and I'd no idea where they would go in part 4 and how long I wanted to drag this nonsense out for.

Flash forward a year.  I'd written some other stories on Literotica, singular short stories about exhibitionism, public nudity and naughty nudists, which had been well received and which I had enjoyed writing.  I decided to try and come up with a longer story, which as time went on, crossed the finish line first for novella and then full-length novel.

That novel was called... 'Brave Nude World', about a version of our world in which public nudity becomes legally permitted but is not yet fully socially-acceptable, and it will be out later in 2018!

But what of Becky and Lisa.  Well, confidence given a boost by the feedback I'd been getting and by the fact that I'd actually managed to write something long enough to be called a novel, I decided to go back to my earliest work with renewed enthusiasm - and no small amount of changes I wanted to make.

Gone was Lisa's narration which, while fun, forced the action to take place only when she was around and with frequent and repetitive intrusions from her own psyche.  Instead I opted for still telling the story from Lisa's point of view, but in third person, giving me chance to divert away to other things happening (such as the prologue chapter, which tells the story of an encounter with the girls from the point of view of a third party, or very late in the book, which relays an experience of public nakedness from Becky's point of view).

Gone too was the notion that Lisa was constantly embarrassed and/or exasperated with Becky.  While that had been fine as an initial concept, in practice it just led to stories where the two were practically on the verge of falling out - especially because it made it seem as though Becky was always incredibly self-interested and oblivious to her friend's discomfort.

In this new version, Lisa actively encouraged Becky in many ways, only becoming doubtful when she feared their activities might have gone too far (and this was something Becky acknowledged too, making her more aware of how her exhibitionism might affect others).

Those two major changes helped inspire me to write a great deal more of the girls' adventures, now flowing together in a much more natural way and, before I knew it, I had a novel on my hands, and no difficulty taking it towards a natural conclusion.

So it seems that I might not be a great novelist on purpose, but I can accidentally at least come up with something I'm proud to put my (pen) name to and enjoyed creating!