Anyone tried to go non-erotic?

[LukasGrey]

Has anyone ever tried taking a story that you've written as an erotic one and tried to pull the sex out and PG-13 it up?

Were you happy with it? Do you think it's a good exercise?

I'm kind of toying with the idea that if a story can't be told without relying on sex is it worth being told?

Thoughts?

 

[ChloeTzang]

Has anyone ever tried taking a story that you've written as an erotic one and tried to pull the sex out and PG-13 it up?

Were you happy with it? Do you think it's a good exercise?

I'm kind of toying with the idea that if a story can't be told without relying on sex is it worth being told?

Thoughts?

I've done that with a couple of my longer stories and taken them in to writing workshops. I didn't so much remove the sex as scale it down a lot. It worked quite well when there was more to the plot than ten pages of hot sex.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I started a story that was supposed to be dirty, summer camp counselors getting nasty in the woods kinda thing, but 16 chapters in and they've only shared a couple innocent kisses!

Not sure if I will eventually get to some sex, keep it innocent or scrap the whole damn story for now!

 

[ChloeTzang]

I started a story that was supposed to be dirty, summer camp counselors getting nasty in the woods kinda thing, but 16 chapters in and they've only shared a couple innocent kisses!

Not sure if I will eventually get to some sex, keep it innocent or scrap the whole damn story for now!

Put it on watt pad instead. That's kind of what I'm thinking. Why waste the effort?

 

[LukasGrey]

So at what point do you just say you've written a novel...?

I've written two stories now that stretch out to 80-90k? Am I allowed?

That's novel length right?

I keep not wanting to say I've written a novel and keep being an ass and saying, "Novel-length stories" like saying I wrote a novel is being smug or something...?

Anyone, back on track. I've written two *cough, cough* novels and as I got to the end of the second one I really felt like I could challenge myself and go back and rewrite without the reliance on sex. I figured, hey, you've got 170k words, a compelling main character, some good plot, surely with even a heavy edit you can keep it in the 80k realm, right?

As I went back and re-edited I found I really liked the sex. I'm toning things down, less "he rubbed her breasts" and more "he ran his hands down her body" but I just couldn't bring myself to slash and burn!

I really am curious to see if anyone's tried it!

 

[CeasarBoobage]

I've tried to rip the sexy out of some of my stories, and I found that while they still were halfway decent they were lacking something... more. Well, yeah, OK, they were missing the sexy.

Instead of screwing up a decent (in my mind) story, I've tried writing non-erotic stuff from scratch. It's a lot slower for me because my muse is a nympho, but they still aren't half bad. They aren't things that I'd publish yet, but maybe.

There's only so many hours in the day, and writing smut is my secret hobby. With as little time as I have to write, I don't know that I want to write anything else.

 

[Axelotto]

Have you seen the old porn movie Dixie Ray, Hollywood Star?

They did exactly this to that porn film... they sold a non-porn version (sex implied/cut short rather than blatant) as "They Call it Murder, Baby"...

 

[Handley_Page]

Has anyone ever tried taking a story that you've written as an erotic one and tried to pull the sex out and PG-13 it up?

Thoughts?

Please forgive my ignorance, but "PG-13 it up" .
WTF?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

John O'Hara did it all the time.

 

[colddiesel]

Has anyone ever tried taking a story that you've written as an erotic one and tried to pull the sex out and PG-13 it up?

Thoughts?

There are thousands of stories on Lit with a ton of sex but not an ounce of erotica.

And a much smaller number of really erotic stories with little to no sex.

 

[ElectricBlue]

John O'Hara did it all the time.

Green E, James. So did you.

 

[OmnislashXX]

Sure. For characterization between erotic scenes, some chapters have been void of the horny stuff. Though I reward the reader with a juicy chapter afterwards.

 

[oggbashan]

I have non-erotic stories here. I have stories in which the sex is implied, not overt, and anon complains there is NO sex.

But if you can take an erotic story with significant sex scenes and make it into a normal non-erotic story? Unless you have to do such a major edit that it almost becomes a new story - then the original story wasn't good.

Why?

Because the eroticism and sex should be essential and integral parts of the story. If they are detachable and put in almost as if you had marked several places in the first draft "Insert sex here" then it wasn't a good erotic story.

I know because I have written stories with detachable sex. I have abandoned drafts because the sex was too obviously incidental and unnecessary. They weren't and aren't good stories.

 

[ChloeTzang]

John O'Hara did it all the time.

You're introducing me to all these writers I can't stop reading.. After you mentioned O'Hara and I read a couple of his stories I've been reading more and he did.

Because the eroticism and sex should be essential and integral parts of the story. If they are detachable and put in almost as if you had marked several places in the first draft "Insert sex here" then it wasn't a good erotic story.

If it's a good story, you should be able to scale down the sex and still make it erotic but in a softer way and keep the intent and theme and story intact. It depends how central to the story the sex is and just how much else there is. I have stories where if you stripped the sex away you'd be scaled back from 11 LIT pages to maybe one page ("Fingerprints on my Heart") and others ("Chinese Takeout" & "Strawberry") where if you took the explicit sex out you'd still have a really good story because the sex there is just a small part of the story. It could equally be written as a rather more mild romance without the explicitness.

I don't think there's any definitive answer to the question really, it's more of an "it depends...."

 

[ElectricBlue]

You're introducing me to all these writers I can't stop reading.. After you mentioned O'Hara and I read a couple of his stories I've been reading more and he did.

That's the advantage your youth has over us old farts, Chloe. You still have a whole world of writers to discover and read for the first time, whereas us old buggers go looking for the bright young things who have something refreshing about them.

In that context, have you read Marina Keegan? You should. A young spirit your age, sadly killed in a car accident, but goodness me, such beautiful writing.

 

[ChloeTzang]

That's the advantage your youth has over us old farts, Chloe. You still have a whole world of writers to discover and read for the first time, whereas us old buggers go looking for the bright young things who have something refreshing about them.

In that context, have you read Marina Keegan? You should. A young spirit your age, sadly killed in a car accident, but goodness me, such beautiful writing.

I'd read her essay on whales, which I thought was really good. Have to read her others now. I just discovered John Burdett, reading "Bangkok 8" last night. I call it research for my "One Night in Bangkok" story but I'm now hooked on Thai detective novels. Couldn't put it down.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Has anyone ever tried taking a story that you've written as an erotic one and tried to pull the sex out and PG-13 it up?

Were you happy with it? Do you think it's a good exercise?

I'm kind of toying with the idea that if a story can't be told without relying on sex is it worth being told?

Thoughts?

Yep. My first story here, I pulled all the sex, leaving just the story. It was received well. Since then I have written many a non-erotic story. Check my sig.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Has anyone ever tried taking a story that you've written as an erotic one and tried to pull the sex out and PG-13 it up?

Were you happy with it? Do you think it's a good exercise?

I'm kind of toying with the idea that if a story can't be told without relying on sex is it worth being told?

Thoughts?

I have one series, Chosen, in Non-erotic. I did a lot of work on it, and in the end, all the actual sex is either off screen, or is relayed without a ton of detail. There wasn't a lot of either, and the chapter with the most rated the worst. Very few people have read it - Non-Erotic is nearly a ghost town on this site - but chapters rated from 4.68 to 4.88. I'm personally very happy with it, maybe because I actually worked on it, rather than just typing what came to mind.

Most of the comments came from familiar names, my usual fans. My guess is if it wasn't for the handful of people who regularly follow my writing, it wouldn't have been noticed much of any. So if you write in that category, you're writing for yourself, or possibly to signal to some future publisher that you know how to tone it down.

 

[LukasGrey]

You're introducing me to all these writers I can't stop reading.. After you mentioned O'Hara and I read a couple of his stories I've been reading more and he did.



If it's a good story, you should be able to scale down the sex and still make it erotic but in a softer way and keep the intent and theme and story intact. It depends how central to the story the sex is and just how much else there is. I have stories where if you stripped the sex away you'd be scaled back from 11 LIT pages to maybe one page ("Fingerprints on my Heart") and others ("Chinese Takeout" & "Strawberry") where if you took the explicit sex out you'd still have a really good story because the sex there is just a small part of the story. It could equally be written as a rather more mild romance without the explicitness.

I don't think there's any definitive answer to the question really, it's more of an "it depends...."

As I worked on this project I found myself doing more of this. For me, I like the characterization of the characters and I found a ton of that got tied into the sex scenes. Scaling down the explicitness of the sex kept the story fun and kept a lot of the voice of the characters while still being a challenging exercise.

 

[GoldenCojones]

Has anyone ever tried taking a story that you've written as an erotic one and tried to pull the sex out and PG-13 it up?

Were you happy with it? Do you think it's a good exercise?

I'm kind of toying with the idea that if a story can't be told without relying on sex is it worth being told?

Thoughts?

I've never done that, but I have taken a non-erotic story and dumped a bunch of gratuitous sex into it. I had to switch it up a little to support all the nasty but it is actually my second highest rated story. I'll let ya'll guess which one As if you gave a damn.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

Put it on watt pad instead. That's kind of what I'm thinking. Why waste the effort?

I might!
I do have a wattpad account.My 14 year old daughter writes there so I made an account so I could follow her and read her stuff.

 

[49greg]

I've posted three stories in the Non Erotic section. There's no sex or eroticism, actual or implied in them. Two just barely squeeked into the red H territory. I wrote them from the start without sex. Just a fun exercise for me.

That said, there's comparatively few votes or views.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Green E, James. So did you.

I like to learn what makes things tick. in most cases the same person who casts a spell over us, soon turns us off. All erotic is autoerotic.

 

[legerdemer]

I'd read her essay on whales, which I thought was really good. Have to read her others now. I just discovered John Burdett, reading "Bangkok 8" last night. I call it research for my "One Night in Bangkok" story but I'm now hooked on Thai detective novels. Couldn't put it down.

Aside: I absolutely loved his first three - couldn't wait for them to come out. I haven't kept up but he's got at least another two or three in the same series. His characters are so vivid and quirky, and I love the setting. He's terrific!

 

[legerdemer]

Please forgive my ignorance, but "PG-13 it up" .
WTF?

Honestly, searching these things isn't too difficult when you're on internet. Just copy-paste it in Google or another search-machine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association_of_America_film_rating_system

PG-13 – Parents Strongly Cautioned
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Parents are urged to be cautious. Some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers.

Those ratings are not universal - HP is from the UK, and I can't blame him for being confused. The UK, we discovered, has somewhat different movie rating categories - not in itself an issue, but we were surprised that under no circumstance would we be allowed to take in our 10-yr old daughter to a movie that was the equivalent of NC-17 in the US (one of the comics with some racy language and some violence). We were rather annoyed but washed it all down with some decent pub grub.