Feeling unable to permit any reference to the biting of lips in erotic fiction (frivolous thread about writing)

[SolidGoldBrass]

I have to expunge it every time I write it, at least. Will allow it when copy-editing other people's work especially when they are a bit rubbish anyway but I just can't use the phrase any more after the whole 50 Shades thing when she bit her lips every five minutes to the point where she must have had a face like a butcher's dustbin.

And this annoys me, a little, because people do bite their lips when they are thinking hard, or confused, or put out.

[joanofarchitrave]

Yes it's shit. IMO biting lips = desire is one of the few crossovers between shit porn and shit romantic fiction.

[SolidGoldBrass]

Joan: Yes, true, but people are more likely to bite their lips when they don't know what to say (about non-sex-related stuff) or they realise that actually they have, or nearly have, given away some information they should have shut up about. THe phrase has been ruined forever.

[andubelievedthat]

What ,like the lady that ,once having fallen out taxi ,post "hot date" shows her knickers ,like her ? she big on a bit of lip chewing! seems to work ,she nailed that guy(lucky her !)

[TeWiSavesTheDay]

Yes, that annoys me too! It ought to be okay to write it occasionally, because some people do - except it just looks wrong and fake now.

[TeWiSavesTheDay]

Confession: I am an anxious lip biter. I will concede that the fact this makes then bleed semi-regularly doesn't make me look or feel super sexy.

[SolidGoldBrass]

Gaah, found another one last night and blocked myself for about 15 minutes trying to find something else the character could do to indicate that she was embarrassed and not sure what to say...

[SirBoobAlot]

She could say, "Oh my!" SGB...

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

or 'oops'

[GoldiChops]

She could breathe. Or flush.

'Oh my' she breathed, flushing.

Makes me imagine the exchange is in the bathroom.

[FreyaSnow]

If you make it clear that the person doing it is doing it for reasons of embarrassment, anxiety or confusion, can't you break that link with desire (which I didn't know existed!)?

[SolidGoldBrass]

at Goldichops. Thank you so much. Put me right in the mood for writing erotic fiction, that has...

[SolidGoldBrass]

My inner goddess shat itself BTW.

[McNewPants2013]

We aim to please.

[GoldiChops]

Urgh the inner Goddess stuff reminds me of a bad self-help book. I write erotic gubbins, for fun not commercial (may occasionally pop up on literotica!). Any biting of her lip is done by him, in my stories!

Oh and if she has an inner Goddess, does he have an inner God? Like an inner Thor, or the beardy one. Crikey.

[SolidGoldBrass]

Goldi: the Inner Goddess is another 50Shades cliche...