A Cock by Any Other Name [adult language] When I was first starting out writing erotica I hesitated to use words for it. But with time, after asking advice and reading other erotic romance books it seemed to me that this genre (especially m/m) generally opts for the word 'cock'. It looks a little aggressive to begin with but pretty soon you get used to it and focus more on what the cock is doing than its preferred mode of address.

However, a thread over at the absolutewrite.com forums suggested that (with some regional variation) most men actually opt for dick. Is this true? Because it really is a rather silly word and I would have some trouble using it in a sex scene without making the whole thing sound a bit ridiculous. Cock, fine. Penis, occasionally--even sometimes shaft, rod, staff etc etc..... But to me 'dick' is right up there with winky or pee-pee as a word for the phallus no grown man should utter during an intimate moment.

On the whole, in romance I am not too heavy on the nouns but sometimes you really do need to specify Tab A and Slot B (or C-F) and it seems to me that the term used needs to be both tolerably authentic for the view-point character, and relatively benign to the reader. So it has me wondering, what is your noun of choice?

Labels: terminology

  ¶ posted at 1:31 PM by Emily Veinglory 5 Comments