It's something fairly recent and new for me. I've mentioned this a few times in some of my live streams so there are people who know about it online and in real life. I get questions from curious people about what it is like as an asexual author when writing specific genres relating to romance and the smuts.
Today, I hope to answer it all.
Patreons to credit: -This could be you. Join now.-
Q1) Do you only write Asexual characters in your stories?
Hell no! That would be absolutely boring. I write ML, FL and BL on top of fan fiction so I can't only write about asexual characters. We are a minority, not a majority of the population the world encompasses. I might have some asexual main characters such as Zero from Ball of Nothing and Rino from Monarch of Solitude. My preference for main characters in non-romance genres is asexuals but they don't always have to be.
Why do you think my speciality ranking on Webnovel is in the no-romance category? I vibe with it more than others and it shows. However, as I am a minority type of writer writing for minority type of readers, I don't earn a lot or rank very high on the charts.
Do I regret not making my main characters heterosexuals for more reads? Absolutely not. I honestly don't see the appeal of creating harem stories where the main character is sidetracked by their need to bang for more than half the time in a story rather than making preparations to save the world.
Q2) How can you write bedroom scenes if you're not into it?
This is a matter of skill and not experience. Of course, I do not prefer writing bedroom scenes to action scenes or fluff moments. However, as a writer, I understand the importance of certain developments to push a plot along and keep my readers happy.
Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you can't be good at it. I don't like working but I'm good at my job when I was working in the finance industry. It's the same concept here. The only downside is how soul-draining it is to do something you dislike even if you can do it.
If you're in my discord server with specific roles, you'd sometimes see me making close to no progress in my writing especially if I need to be the spicy moments. However, whenever I don't have to do scenes like that and am in the zone, you'd see me easily achieve over 10,000 words in a day.
Q3) How do you write romance novels when you don't experience sexual or romantic attraction?
I'd like to clarify that there are many kinds of asexual people. I'm more towards the aversion of participating in the physical act of sex but not necessarily the fantasy aspect of it. For instance, I cannot watch a 3D or live action adult video and go "This is the fire!". However, if I saw some kind of anime art style with the right type of voice acting that falls in my artistic appreciation zone, I can dig it and go "That's sending me to hell if I die tomorrow."
As for the romantic aspect, that's aromantic for people who don't feel any romantic attraction to others or even feel it but with much difficulty. Personally, this is something I have yet to confirm myself. I can feel the desire to find a person on the same wavelength as myself to spend my journey side by side. However, I believe there are many types and forms of love.
According to Sternberg's theory, these are the types of love. I researched this for Time Cross Academy's After Stories (only available for Patreons).
You can see that romantic love is only one type of love that are mostly portrayed in teenage novels like Twilight. It has a lot of hot action as well as some crazy desire to just possess the other person on both sides. The difference between the kind of romance novels I write and the mainstream romance novels would probably lie in the lack of 'instant connection' aka 'love at first sight' element.
I might identify myself as a demiromantic person which means I take a long time to actually decide to 'love' someone regardless of their gender and that's merely the emotional aspect of it. The romance stories I write typically reflect a long build-up of characters based on mutual respect and two people coming to admire each other's strengths while accepting their flaws without judgement. This is my version of love when I write romance novels and the end goal is a journey hand in hand which is what I desire as a person as well. This falls under the "Companionate Love" category, typically seen in old couples who had been married for over fifty years and still enjoying each other's company.
So I guess it is possible for asexual authors with no sexual or romantic attraction to write a 'romance novel' because romance novels are not limited to only romantic love. It is a broad category that would accept any type of love between two individuals with or without sex scenes.
Q4) Do you get biological reactions reading or writing any spicy materials?
This is a tough question to answer. To be more precise, it would depend on my physical health and my mental state. As mentioned above, I am able to appreciate certain types of spicy scenes but most smut scenes seem to trigger my PTSD and even if it doesn't, I could be physically unwell which would take that arousal away while I write. Most times I write with a deadpan expression full of dread and stress. Other times, I try to protect the remaining brain cells I have left from searching the internet about synonyms to replace the word "cock" after writing it 500 times.
However, that doesn't mean I cannot fan girl over the naughty materials I wrote. In fact, I enjoy sharing it with other writer friends to see if it made them squirm. I'm the type of BFF that will accompany you to a horror house or escape room just to see your reactions because that's more entertaining than all the predictable jumpscares and plot twists.
On the rare occasion that I'm physically well enough and the scene that I'm writing doesn't trigger my PTSD, yes biological reactions are perfectly normal and does happen although the number of times it happened is so rare that I have nothing to boast about. I think many FL writers who are married and write smut can attest to better love life with their husbands. Unfortunately for me, my relationship status is currently fixed as "Forever Alone" because after discovering my asexuality, I think "Single" is simply too optimistic.
Q5) What's the key difference between your stories and stories of writers who are not asexual?
I can't believe this is even a question. The fact that I'm Destiny Aitsuji should already make everything I write automatically different from others. Why is my sexuality even a factor?
In conclusion...
Just because I'm asexual doesn't mean I suddenly changed my entire personality after the discovery. If anything, my writing style is forged from my experiences as a person even before the discovery of my sexuality. Nothing has really changed for me because I'd always been a little different from the beginning.