A Project in Print
I write. It’s my thing, something I do because I love it and also for a living. Kind of convenient, that. And even if more and more content has moved to digital, people read. Don’t believe that publishing is dying, because it isn’t.
My longest writing gig has been working for the gang here at Empire. Fourteen years now. Since those early days (“Wow! These new-fangled DVDs are amazing!”), I have made, if nothing else, pen pals with a couple of porn stars. I want to know what it’s like; I have no illusions about glamour. In fact, I know fairly well how mundane it can be.
I thought of this because of the recent Elle interview with Belle Knox. Where she said all of these guys are getting off to her on screen, but no one will ask her out on a date.
That struck me as odd. Because I’d love to go out with her, get to know her, hear what she has to say. I want to know what she’s like. What her day is like. What she thinks. People fascinate me, and most every writer spends time capturing small bits of what it means to be human. This is something I’d love to understand more. So, Belle, dinner’s on me whenever you want.
One project I’ve always wanted to do, though, was to write about the experience of working in porn. Be on set, work the technical and marketing side, be in some scenes, go to Vegas. There are a lot of stereotypes out there, and it would make a fascinating book to see which of them are true and which aren’t. While I hold few illusions of what it’s like in the industry thanks to my years doing this, I think a book writing about the entire thing could be huge. Not thinking monetarily, but in the sense that a lot of people wonder just what it is that goes on in porn, and a look behind the curtain, at how it’s human at its core, is a major story.
The trick to me is that means no hiding. Out there in the open. Sure, I’m a guy, and that means the focus wouldn’t be on me as much—porn is as much marketed on what the female talent is doing as anything. But it is stepping out. It’s a project I really want to do.
What do you think? What would you do?
And no, I don’t know if I’m being serious or not either. It’s a big step. I’m trying to get another non-fiction project off the ground, and I’m shopping a novel. I didn’t think, for the longest time, that there was a story that would be problematic to tell. I was wrong.
