Smut Leeds: rope and dice and hugs

This was maybe my fifth or sixth Smut event, and it was as lovely as always. If you’re an erotica writer (newbie or veteran) they are well worth checking out: friendly, funny and interesting days where you can take part in writing workshops that (hopefully) inspire your future work, listen to other authors reading extracts from their favourite or newest books, and win yourself a prize or two on the tombola.

Jennifer Denys gave us a workshop on ‘What author shape are you?’ which adapted some standard personality-type quizzes to show us which category of writer we mostly fitted into, then gave us a group task to see if we ran true to type. (Er, yup!). There were a couple of reading slams, and I did a session on using random factors like dice and cards to get your story moving, or start you off if you want to write but can’t think what to say. Of course, there was some audience participation, and we all agreed that we would just leave the last round of options written up on the blackboard for whoever came in next to see – what they would imagine we had been doing is probably a story in itself. (If my handwriting defeats you, it says: 1 Lights go out 3 Farts 5 Wild animal.)

We also had a session on bondage, using a very nice set of nylon hogties, and some rope – and I will always be in the front row when there’s the chance of a bit of rope-related fun. The venue was the sort of proper, righteous, strange indie art space that I am always so glad to find a still-standing example of, given that so many of the ones I used to haunt in London have been turned into coffee chains or blocks of student accommodation: it had a sparkly backdrop for the stage, a nice little bar area and intriguingly vintage loos.

And, once we were done for the day, I got to spend the evening with a couple of pals, a lot more rope and a variety of interesting toys that I just happened to have in my bag. I’m a big fan of hands-on research – and anything hands-on, really.