Hi, I’m a copyeditor and I am currently working on an erotica novel for the first time. It’s not too different from editing any other genre, except my lack of experience as a reader of erotica makes it a little hard for me to judge the author’s language during sex scenes.
This author uses the term “hole” instead of vagina, as in “his hand slid toward my hole,” “…the skin between my hole and my clit…” To me it seems…jarring and not fluent to say hole instead of vagina and I am tempted to recommend that the author consider changing it. She only specifically mentions hole/vagina twice in the book, just in this one scene, so I can’t tell for sure if it’s a deliberate style choice or whether she was just kind of writing this scene hastily with whichever word sprang to mind.
So my question is, does “hole” stand out as weird to you, too, or this a nuance of dirty talk that I’m missing due to lack of experience in the genre? I just don’t want to sound like a prude by recommending an overly clinical term.
Source: reddit.com/r/Erotica/comments/aojqt8/commentary_can_i_ask_you_guys_a_question_about
It’s doesn’t sound off to me. When I’m writing i use ‘opening’ with an adjective before it.
Ex: His fingers slid towards my wet opening as his tongue circled my clit.
I sometimes see the word “sex” in the place of “vagina”, “hole”, etc.