Top 10 Reasons Women Over 50 Should Write Erotica
Ever since I wrote Aphrodite’s Pen: The Power of Writing Erotica after Midlife, older women who haven’t yet written erotica have asked me to break it down.
Effectively, the question is “What’s in it for me?”
Here are my top 10 reasons women over 50 should write erotica.
1. Writing erotica is liberating.
Anything can happen on the page. When we write, we play master of the universe. When we write erotica, we play Sex Goddess. We capture our fondest erotic memories and write fiction about our desires. There is nothing more freeing than this kind of creative play.
2. Writing erotica is fun.
We can be as playful as we want to be – there is no need to judge ourselves.
Remember the dreaded Five Paragraph Essay in high school? This is NOTHING like that. Writing erotica is pure play, a journey through memories and might-have-beens. No judgement, no second guessing, only delight.
3. Writing erotica is a great way to express and empower ourselves, even when we write for our own enjoyment.
Even if you never show what you write to another soul, your own erotica will bring you joy. It connects you with wishes and memories as nothing else can. Going back and revisiting our own erotica is a wonderful way to bring back the details of precious moments and fantasies.
4. Older women have a huge store of experience to draw upon as we create story.
This is a great time of life to write erotica.
At our age we possess a deep understanding of human nature. We understand the desires and foibles of women and men, we know how conflict arises and how it resolves. This wisdom runs deeper than memory and informs all we write.
5. Starting an erotic writing group is a great way to encourage and empower each other – and build a community of writers.
Older women who write erotica are fun and creative mutineers. They are some of the most engaging people I know. Writing erotica together and sharing it is so fun that it must be experienced.
6. Writing erotica turns society’s expectations about older women upside down.
This is a good thing: We are far more powerful and creative than the culture gives us credit for. When we write about women who are confident in the sexiness of our older selves, we create a healthy alternative narrative about older women that is much needed in our world.
7. When we do decide to share our writing, we let younger women know that there is joy ahead, and that our erotic lives continue into our 60s, 70s and beyond.
When I read sexy stories to mixed age audiences, it is striking how many younger women (and men) are relieved to hear that erotic life does not stop at forty. The scarcity of older erotic role models in popular culture makes young people anxious. We can help.
8. Plenty of women and men want to hear about us as we really are.
Historically, it was easier to publish erotica if you were writing younger characters.
The more women over fifty who write erotica, the more of us who publish erotica, and the more readers engage with what we write, the more these outmoded barriers break down.
9. There could and should be many more older women writing.
Some older women are writing and publishing erotica – like Erica Jong’s Fear of Dying, or Joan Price’s anthology, Ageless Erotica.
Published Elderotica can be great inspiration for new writing. Check out Free Fall by Rae Padilla Francoeur, or Sharon Olds’ poems in Odes. There are many examples on the website. But more voices are needed – including yours; come and join us!
10. “Why erotica at this time of life? Why not? We’re not dead yet.”
The quote above is from my friend Billie Berlin; all I can say is Amen, sister. As the saying goes, “If not now, when? And if not us, who?”
Postscript: If you are Interested in trying erotic writing, why not try my free online sexy story writing course? It will guide you through writing a draft of an erotic story, with daily prompts every day for seven days.
