by Giselle Renarde
If readers assessed me based solely on my posts here at Oh Get A Grip, I'm not sure they'd realize what dirty, filthy smut I write. I don't tend to talk about erotica here, do I?
But today I will. Today I'll delve into the nitty gritty of word choice in erotic fiction. Lisabet already talked cocks (pricks, actually) earlier in the week. I'm more interested in cum. Or come? Jizz. Ejaculate.
Maybe I should clarify: cum is not a personal interest of mine. I'm just talking about words, here. When I saw the topic "Dirty Words I've Taught the Computer," I didn't think I'd taught my computer anything. I'd planned on talking about how writing erotica professionally made me a better person, but I've written that post a billion times times already already. So when I was tip-tap-typing away this week and the autocorrect turned "jizz" into "jazz" I was like... EUREKA!
JIZZ
Am I the only person who uses this word? I remember reading a post on Alison Tyler's blog that said something along the lines of "Don't send me submissions containing the word jizz." Why not? I like it. Reminds me of Jiz Lee, who is soooo cool and smart and stuff. Gush, gush, gush.
Are there connotations I'm missing? I like the way it sounds. Jizz, like fizz. Is that gross? It's got a streamy, streaking feeling to it.
CUM
This is my go-to word for describing ejaculate as a noun. The rule I go by is cum as a noun, come as a verb. Turns out a lot of anthology editors and publishing houses don't share this rule. Come is always come. Many of my cums become comes, but that's okay. I'm not married to cum.
Wow, you've drained me. What other synonyms do I use? Oh, "cream" sometimes. "Hot cream." I don't tend to go on and on about cum, but it's best to have a solid vocabulary.
In the interest of building my sexual word-power, I asked my girlfriend to shoot me a couple words for cum. Here's her response:
I sometimes use "spunk" (in fact, I just used it in a poem), also if I'm writing something historical, "spend". I rarely use "jizz" but "jism" shows up in my work now and again.
ReplyDeleteAnd in case you've never read anything by Giselle, her stuff is truly filthy - in an inspired way!
"It's best to have a solid vocabulary." Definitely. Good point about "come" vs. "cum." I never thought of spelling the noun differently from the verb.
ReplyDeleteAnd I bet you know some juicy words in French too, Giselle. (Someone on another list explained to me the various meanings of "baiser" several years ago. I had no idea.)
In New Jersey when I was a teen, we called it 'jit' but when I've used it in writing, people have said WTF? -- use 'jizz'.
ReplyDeleteAnd then Word always turns 'cunt' into 'count'. That always makes me crazy when writing about The Count and Countess of Cunt, County pointing. Damn! Now it won't let me say poontang!
I did actually use the word jizz recently in a story, but most for the phonetics. I think about sounds a lot.
ReplyDeletegarce
I'm sorry if I missed this reference, but whenever Coming and Cumming come up (heh) I want to tell people to read Susan St. Aubin's outstanding piece in Herotica 4. The write-up: Susan St. Aubin's ``Coming and Cumming,'' a seductive growing-up story featuring a teacher who instructs one particular student in far more than the rules of grammar.
ReplyDeleteYour post made me search my blog for jizz. None. Not one post! And then my hard-drive—85 hits, including a story by Giselle. Generally, I'm not against any words if they work. But there are some I personally avoid. Spooge comes to mind.
I had a "you suck" contest on my blog a few years ago. Maybe it's time for another... http://alisontyler.blogspot.com/2009/04/five-who-swallow.html
XXX,
Alison
Fun link, Alison.
ReplyDeleteI like the whole idea. Maybe I'll steal it!