somebody told me « I literally started taking notes on your comment; it's one of the most informative ones I've seen on the site » on AO3 and this was my reply
honestly it wasn’t that great of a comment but i do know how to write a sex
this was preceded by a lengthy demonstration
trying to write a smut without thinking about sentence structure is like trying to film a porn without thinking about camera angles
@Lady sentence structure is also a fantastic avenue for fucking WITH your reader, which I also wish more authors understood
@Lady smut fans 🤝 horror fans
weird sentence structure
@coriander i keep trying to convince people that smut, romance, and horror are more similar genres than different
@Lady A lot of people compare horror and comedy, which is technically also accurate but has gotten boring, but THIS is a very good take
@coriander yeah i mean
romcom
so i GUESS i’m including comedy in this too, but it’s a lot more than just situationalism and setup and delivery; the whole genres have a certain affective sensibility to them; your goal is to make your audience feel things in a way which is both immediate and mysterious
@Lady Yeah, the horror/comedy comparison seems mostly to focus on moment-to-moment stuff, gags etc (like there IS a reason we call jokes and scares "gags" both), but I think looking at them with a broader scope and bringing in the stuff you mentioned does bring it more in line with romance stuff
@coriander it’s a real shame there aren’t more horror/romance crossovers like either it’s a monterfucker fic OR it’s a spooky scary fic but i want BOTH
@Lady You would THINK there would be more good crossovers, like
Just going straight from one heightened emotional state to another would be incredibly smooth and also you could create so many interesting reactions in your audience if you did it right
@coriander do you have any good horror novel recommendations maybe i should study up to write them
@Lady It's an incredibly bog-standard answer but honestly some old-school Stephen King is a fantastic place to start. Something like The Shining or 'Salem's Lot.
House of Leaves, of course, if you haven't already read it. I truly consider it the greatest work of art of the 21st century and yes I am well aware we are only 22 years into it. We won't see it topped.
Let The Right One In is great and despite focusing on children I think actually does come the closest I've seen to being a true horror-romance.
@coriander i’m a top so these are the same thing to me
it did have the great line « as a writer you only have so many avenues for fucking your reader and sentence structure can be one of the more visceral » and wow do i wish more authors understood this