I am absolutely thrilled that the guest post today is from writer I J Miller about a fascinating topic - writing an erotic mashup. I only recently discovered this genre when browsing on Amazon and was keen to find out more. I have always considered Wuthering Heights to be a BDSM classic (without being sexually explicit) and IJ explores an approach to re-imagining the story. Wonderful!
by I.J. Miller
Taking a classic novel and combining the story with a completely
different genre to form a single narrative has become popular these days. Mashups
have been common in music for quite some time, with artists sampling older
classics in their new rap song or pop hit.
In literature, Seth Graeme Smith’s Pride
and Prejudice and Zombies made the first big splash in 2009. With the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey, publishers soon got the idea that erotic mashups might have an
appeal. This past August I was
commissioned by Grand Central Publishing to tackle Emily Bronte’s classic Wuthering Heights. Once a book is in public domain, you can use
original sentences, but if you are just going to use a lot of verbatim text and
periodically throw in a few sex scenes here and there, what is the point?
Having a strong background in screenwriting probably most tailored
my approach. I looked at the project
less as an addition of sex to an old story, but more as an adaptation of the
original work with an erotic interpretation.
Interpreting the story, rather
than rehashing it makes it much easier for the erotic parts to become organic
and not stick out like a sore thumb, or for erotic readers used to heightened
sensuality, a small penis.
These classic works are usually longer than the final book a current
publisher would want in the erotic romance genre. In addition, you’re adding material. To make it work, you have to break the story
down to its core and have a plan.
Identify the true theme and through line of the book. What it is about? What is it saying?
The better you can emulate the voice and language of the original
the more your new scenes will flow.
In order to reduce the book to a manageable length, look to
consolidate scenes as much as possible, as one would do for a screen
adaptation. Write the single best scene,
or scenes that carries the broader drama in the liveliest way.
Very often these classic books have a lot of subplots and many minor
characters. Only use what is important
to the through line of your erotic story.
The entire book will usually need to be streamlined and restructured to
get the most out of the romance, love, and lust that is there.
Be creative in your approach to erotic scenes. The more they carry the story line, the more
they reveal character, the more interesting they will be.
For Wuthering Nights, my erotic
mashup, I got rid of the narrator, Lockwood, who hears most of the story in
flashback from Nelly the housekeeper. I
went with an omniscient narrator to get into the heads of both Heathcliff and
his love, Catherine. After all, Nelly
couldn’t be present in every sex scene!
I went with a straight, linear narrative, starting at the beginning,
finishing at the end.
This was a wonderful book to retell, because the characters are so
complex. No one is above reproach. There is intense love and romance, but also
bitter revenge and dark hate. It allowed
for complex and varied erotic scenes, from deeply loving, to vengeful, to
manipulative, to rough dungeon sex with Heathcliff as the ultimate
dominator. The passion always fit what
was happening in the story.
I adapted the book to three parts (the original had two long,
sprawling sections), emulating a film’s three act structure. I developed the set up of the story and took
it to its breaking point. Then, as in
the original, I brought Heathcliff back with a longer middle section that
continued to escalate his conflict of trying to win Catherine back while getting
knocked off course with his intense thirst for revenge. The last section, as in the original, uses
the second generation of the two families to resolve the story. I limited the focus Bronte had on Catherine’s
daughter’s relationship with Heathcliff’s son (Linton), which was ultimately unfulfilling
and not passionate in the original, and added a greater focus on the love story
between Catherine’s daughter and Catherine’s brother’s son (Hareton) to bring
about a more interesting and fulfilling end for a romantic love story, which is
different from the more tragic, dark last parts of the original.
One of the things that usually make great books classic is the
wonderful language and writing. There is
no reason to lose the great description or dialogue if you don’t have to. Find passages that will add meaning to the
new eroticism you are adding. The combination
might be very close to what might have been if the original had been written
this way, with a beautiful and interesting result. For example, Heathcliff ends up marrying
Catherine’s sister-in-law, Isabella, in order to make Catherine jealous and as
an act of revenge. It is clear in the
original that it is an abusive relationship and that Heathcliff has changed
Isabella from a noble lady to a “thorough little slattern,” as Nelly observes
in the original. I eroticized this
dynamic by making Heathcliff a dominant, with BDSM inclinations, who breaks
Isabella down completely in his dungeon.
As in the original, she is both addicted to and repelled by him. I used Heathcliff’s exact dialogue from the
original that did not necessarily refer to his sexual relationship with
Isabella, but fit perfectly right before a dungeon scene:
“She would
rather I seemed all tenderness before you; it wounds her vanity to have the
truth of her taming exposed. No
brutality disgusts her. I suppose she
has an innate admiration of it. I’ve
sometimes relented, from pure lack of invention, in my experiments on what she
could endure, and she still creeps shamefully back.”
There is no magic formula, but a thoughtful approach will allow one
to use eroticism, to use what was not a viable alternative back in the day, to
heighten all of the powerful emotions in a classic, while producing a story
that pays homage to the great writing of yesteryear and is still powerful and
interesting enough to stand on its own.
c copyright, Ira Miller, 2013. This piece first appeared on Ashley Lister's site. Here is the link:http://howtowriteeroticfiction.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-to-write-good-erotic-mash-up.html?spref=tw.
c copyright, Ira Miller, 2013. This piece first appeared on Ashley Lister's site. Here is the link:http://howtowriteeroticfiction.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-to-write-good-erotic-mash-up.html?spref=tw.
EXCERPT FROM WUTHERING NIGHTS
The more she rubbed, the more she rotated her finger at the bump of
her pleasure, the more clearly she saw, and felt the presence of Heathcliff. She
liked that he was so available to her, that she was not locked in her room,
that they were not stealing time in the fields, that this was not a clandestine
visit to the garret. No one else was around and they were free to be who they
wanted to be, and do what they wanted to do. She rubbed more vigorously and
Heathcliff looked up from his whittling and smiled with happiness: happy to be
alone with her, happy to see her begin her pleasure so freely. There was so
much contentment right now within them both. They were with each other in a way
that had never been possible before. Heathcliff undid the buttons of his
trousers and removed his erect cock. This stirred her mightily, for she enjoyed
everything about his cock: the salty taste, the musky scent, the beautiful
curved vision of it. She rose to her hands and knees and crawled on all fours
to Heathcliff…up close, her face soon between his legs. She took a moment to
sniff his member, then she took turns alternating the brushing of each cheek
along the sides of his shaft, like a cat purring for affection. She kissed his
ball sack, then up along the bulging veins, around the swollen head, tenderly,
before she took this glorious specimen into her mouth. Completely without
thought, she sucked, fingers still gyrating against her clitoris, applying deep
pressure, as Heathcliff’s cock penetrated her mouth, and a passion grew within
her body that she had only come close to feeling on that beautiful Christmas
night. There was a temptation to quicken her pace with both her hand and mouth
and give them both the pleasure they sorely needed. But this was not enough. Christmas
night had not been enough. She rose to her feet, pulled her dress over her
head, swivelled slightly so Heathcliff could enjoy the sight of her body as the
golden flames from the fireplace reflected off it. He leaned forward and kissed
her stomach. He said, “Catherine, you are the most beautiful woman to walk this
earth.”
BIO FOR I.J. MILLER
I.J. Miller is the
author of five, distinct, literary, erotic works of fiction: SEESAW was translated into two
languages, with over 130,000 copies in print; WHIPPED appeared in both English and German; SEX AND LOVE, a collection of short stories, made its debut in the
summer of 2011; CLIMBING THE STAIRS,
a novella, was released just a year later.
His latest novel, WUTHERING NIGHTS,
is an erotic retelling of Emily Bronte’s classic, Wuthering Heights, and is published by the Grand Central Publishing
imprint of Hatchette Books. It is
available now as an e-book and will be in bookstores in trade paperback on
April 23rd. Miller has a Master of Fine
Arts from the American Film Institute and has taught creative writing and
screenwriting at the university level.
Links:
Amazon (includes cover blurb):
http://www.amazon.com/Wuthering-Nights-Retelling-Heights-ebook/dp/B00AG0VMWO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1361370808&sr=1-1&keywords=i.j.+miller+wuthering+nights.
Website: http://www.ijmiller.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Heathcliffian
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ij.miller.5
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