How do YOU write erotica?

Whoo, first time posting here!

I suppose the common theme for me in crafting almost all of my stories is that I generally start with a character (or character type) and build the story around them, to showcase or explore the elements that caught my imagination. Sometimes this character is already in the middle of a particular situation, or sometimes I know I want to highlight a particular character trait, so that dictates the direction of the story.

At this point, my erotica writing process differs quite dramatically from when I’m writing more mainstream prose, because with the latter, I move to the outlining phase almost before anything else and then work on that pretty rigorously before starting into the prose itself.

With erotica though, I tend to start writing that particular scene that triggered my inspiration, and will ride that compulsion for as long as I can until the Muse departs and I have to step back for a while. At this point, I let the story germinate in my mind as I work on other things. This probably accounts for the depressingly-long pauses in between my submissions, but because the material comes from a much more impulsive place, it’s hard for me to “just buckle down” and make it happen.

I usually spend at least a couple of weeks adding scenes here and there as I feel moved to write them, until a larger picture comes into focus. Then it becomes about connecting the dots. This is both the most satisfying and most grueling part for me, since it involves a lot of re-reading and continuity editing, not to mention making sure that I keep things as interesting as possible in between those more spontaneous scenes that I’ve already gotten down.

When the story (or chapter) is complete, I let it sit again. I have to make sure I’ve left it for long enough that when I come back, I can look at it with fresh eyes and make sure that I have the objectivity to cut the weak or boring parts, and flesh out or adjust the ones that remain. By this time, I have a mental architecture in place (I guess it would be considered any unofficial outline) of where I want the story to go, and it’s my task to make sure that what I have written is in line with that.

There’s one more waiting period (usually a day or two) after the previous step before I go back again and do any last tweaking. I do some hand-writing of my stuff, but most of it is digital, so I’ve been spell-checking as I go. I’m also pretty strict on myself about repeated word usage, and have a thesaurus on hand to minimize the effects of this. Sometimes, repetitions can’t be helped, and I don’t know that anyone other than me would notice, but it makes me feel better. This final pass is really just to make sure that the revisions of the previous step are holding up, and then it’s time for posting!

Now, I will say that the exceptions to this process are those story ideas that I get from my dreams. Those are usually pretty character-oriented also, but they tend to come forth much more fully-fledged than my waking offerings, and it’s an interesting exercise to race my own memory in documenting as much of them as possible before they fade. Once that happens, I shift back to my established process and it’s back to waiting for my Muse.

In terms of my writing mood... This has varied over the years. When I first started, I was eighteen, single, and a virgin, so I definitely used erotica as a way of channeling some sexual tension. Nowadays, I usually start a sex scene with a fairly clear head (trying to think about what the characters have already done, what would be interesting or distinct about the particular scene I’m trying to write) but I have been known to get myself a little hot and bothered by the end of it. ;) It’s hard to say if it helps or not; sometimes it just happens. Jezzaz summed up the mechanics of it perfectly though:

One thing worth pointing out is that, for me, the hardest bit to actually write is the sex! The thing is, there only so much variation on the actual act you can do. At the end of the day, Tab A goes into Slot B. Making that interesting and not something that everyone else has already done is actually much harder than you might think. I try and do it by making the reason for the sex be different, and to explore the different kinds of sex out there.

The last thing I’ll say is that while I don’t personally use an editor (perhaps to my own detriment), I can certainly see the benefits as listed here by several authors, and might have to give one a shot myself.

P.S. Apologies for the Wall o' Text.
 
Lit.com bond stories for me usually announce themselves before I start writing. I know it's going to be a story that's told because of the sex. For most of my posts, to one degree or another, I'm pretty good about that, too.

My format is simple - the main character is going to have a sexual experience that changes them. Simple elements of plotting.

I've written character intense stories and I've written stories more "character neutral." Seldom am I writing an intense character study.

So, how do I write the erotic part? I almost always start with the erotic part in mind. I know I'm looking forward to describing XXX. The XXX can be most anything. Part of the fun is getting people into those positions.
 
The other day I snagged a vid of a woman whose snatch is so stretched a fence post will go inside it with room to spare; in fact, her lovers had her uterus in hand, and were filling it like it was a thermos bottle. And I thought, THATS DIFFERENT. Lotsa strange stuff out there that's interesting reading.

Novel means NEW, and I read somewhere that something new is what novel writing is all about.
 
Wow! Thanks everyone!

Wow. So many ways of doing things. So many opinions.

Thanks to everyone who bothered replying.

I guess the only conclusion I can come to is that writing erotica is pretty much like having sex...

1) The experience is different for everyone,
2) You just gotta keep going till you reach the end, and
3) It helps if someone else is involved!

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your insights. Now I have a hot little story I just need to polish up a bit before I point it at a volunteer editor...
 
Except that you don't need to take your word-processor out for dinner or pretend to listen to it for hours while it talks non-stop about it's feelings...

;)

You don't? Damn, I've been doing it wrong for years. :eek:
 
I sit down at my processor late at night. I type random words on the keyboard. Somehow a semblance forms before my eyes, and a lusty theme protrudes from the screen. Hurriedly I type up to the climax with a short finish. I polish it up after letting it stew for awhile. Then I submit to my editor.
 
What methods have you found that work for you?

Once you've had an idea, do you let it swill around in your mind for hours/days/weeks and then actually write the story in one glorious thrash? Or do you write in several sessions, building the story up scene by scene? Do you write it beginning-to-end, or in separate out-of-order chunks?

I do let an idea percolate for a while. Usually my ideas start with a setting. For example, the current story I'm working on started out with me wanting to write something involving pirates, cuz that particular cliche is hot for me. So then I mentally chew on a plot for my pirate story.

While I do have some simple ideas for some stand-alone short fap-fest stories, I generally enjoy reading a good plot with some hot sex that's relevant to the story, so that's what I end up writing. I always feel like my plot needs a minimum of three factors: 1) a fish out of water - the hero/heroine in some situation that is abnormal for them, or where they are the odd one out, 2) a conflict - something to test the hero that must escalate to a very trying peak before it is resolved at the end, and 3) the hero must extricate him/herself from the trouble on their own, so the reader can enjoy rooting for the character to have a win. And since I prefer to write in 3rd person past tense, and I like to head hop between characters from scene to scene, I also like to use this to give the reader information that another character doesn't know so they can have the mental experience of yelling at the screen in the movie theater, saying "Don't go in there! He's got an axe!"

When I have some decent idea of plot, I do one of those brainstorm/cluster/mindmap things. I've been using a free online site to do that, and I put down all of the information about my characters, their back-stories, the sex scenes I want to include, other relevant plot scenes, flashbacks or internal monologue that I think needs to happen, and in the case of a story like the one I'm writing now, I save a ton of links to the historical data and other information I need to make the story seem legit. I've had to learn a lot about all things nautical, the political climate of 18th century Great Britain, the details of clothing worn at the time so I don't sound lazy when I describe characters disrobing. Most of that research I do to satisfy my own anal retentiveness, plus I'm hoping to avoid most of the nitpicking in the comments about such things being inaccurate.

Once I feel I have all of my relevant information (ingredients) together, I do make an outline, and I use Excel so I can move things around if I need to. Then I can put all of the scenes from my mindmap in an order that makes sense to the plot and get a better feel for the chronology of things.

Then when I start writing, I have the outline open at the same time and I just flesh it out with words. I don't get bored because I know where I'm going and I love making the simple ideas come to life and be filled out with all of the sensory details. The outline keeps me on track with the story arc. I feel like if I just sit down and write and let things go where they may that I'm just going to meander and spend way too much time on some part of the story that is only interesting to me, and forget that I have a reader who needs to be kept interested and wants the story to move along. I want to keep a sense of "What happens next?" and not have them get bored, and the outline helps me stay on track.

And what about editing? Do you just spellcheck and hit submit? Do you edit as you go along? Or do you do multiple passes over the story, improving it a bit each time?

I self edit for spelling and grammar as I go, and then I reread and self-edit again for the same things again plus for issues of consistency, oversights of things that may have been left out that need to be mentioned for the plot to make sense, and dialogue flow - I read semi-out loud to myself to see if the words are flowing naturally.

THEN I send it to my editor, because you can read your own story a million times and you are still blind to a number of problems. Usually my editor points out areas where I need to describe a character's reactions or feelings about a situation a bit more clearly for the reader - I end up "knowing" the characters so well that sometimes I take for granted that other people implicitly understand how that character is feeling about a situation.

I get it back from the editor, make the changes based on his/her notes, and that I read it again and see if there's still anything else I want to adjust. Then I submit.

I don't submit chapter 1 of a story until the whole story (all chapters) are written, edited, and done. I don't want to put up chapter 1 and then find out that an edit in chapter 3 means that I should have written something differently in the beginning.


What sort of mood are you in when you write? Does being hot and bothered help you write hot sex scenes, or does being more detached and even clinical help you find the right words?

I'll write in any mood, but sometimes if my mind is in a million places at once it goes slower since I get distracted. When I do it I'm obsessional about it. I usually don't have to be in a sexy mood to write sex scenes because I already have my outline and I know exactly what I want to see happen between the parties involved, but usually as soon as I'm in the middle of writing the dirty stuff I get all riled up just from thinking about the particulars of how I want to paint the scene, especially dialogue turns me on. I like to listen to music that suits the mood of the current scene I'm writing.
 
Hi everyone. I've been a lurker on Literotica for a couple of years now (under another name), and I've decided to make the transition from audience to author.

I just thought I'd introduce myself and take the opportunity to ask a question that's been bugging me.

My user name is MyGuiltySecret. Originally, my secret was that I read erotica. Now it's that I'm trying to write the stuff (and the two stories that I'm working on at the moment are incest-themed, so another secret that I don't want the outside world to know is that I find the idea of incest hot). Having said all that, you can call me John, since that's my name.

I've written lots of short stories in the past (mainly SF and a bit of horror). Never been published, but I do have an interesting array of rejection letters.

Anyway, I've started writing erotica, and I'm finding the process a lot harder than I expected!

So, here's the question: how do you, as an individual writer, go about writing erotica? I've read loads of the howto posting on this site, but I'm more interested in the techniques of the writer rather than the writing, if you see what I mean.

What methods have you found that work for you?

Once you've had an idea, do you let it swill around in your mind for hours/days/weeks and then actually write the story in one glorious thrash? Or do you write in several sessions, building the story up scene by scene? Do you write it beginning-to-end, or in separate out-of-order chunks?

And what about editing? Do you just spellcheck and hit submit? Do you edit as you go along? Or do you do multiple passes over the story, improving it a bit each time?

Outlining. Do you bother or not?

What sort of mood are you in when you write? Does being hot and bothered help you write hot sex scenes, or does being more detached and even clinical help you find the right words?

My own writing process is still developing, but at the moment seems to go like this. First pass is for the 'plot', writing how the characters get into bed in the first place (or the kitchen, or over the boss's desk or wherever), and the ending. I use pseudo-XML tags like <blowjob here> or <lots of fucking> as placeholders for the actual sex scenes. I do another pass to fix wording and typos, then write the actual sex scenes. Then I make another pass to add detail and descriptions - sights, smells, sensations. Then one last pass to fix any repetition. (While writing, I use words 'cock', 'cunt' and 'cum' far too much, and I have to figure out which ones to replace with synonyms). By this point, the damn story has stopped being sexy to me at all, so it must be time to ship it out!

So, is this anything like your workflow? Complety different?

Let me know how you do it. I'm dying to hear!
I guess I have to say that I don't write erotica. I write stories - some of which contain erotic elements, sometimes graphically described and sometimes merely implied. That being said, when I am inspired to write a story, I know from the beginning whether there will be a role for erotica in it, and to what degree.

I keep a single Excel file with a separate "sheet" for every story I write. On this sheet, I develop the characters, events, timelines, and nuances relevant to the story as it progresses and sort of storyboard them. This helps me with the continuity within the particular story as well as with other stories I have written that might have some tie in to this one.

If your only desire is to put in written words the sexual activities of two or more people, find some porn movies you like and reverse write the script. Or, as many successful authors do on this site, simply let your imagination run wild.
 
What methods have you found that work for you?

Once you've had an idea, do you let it swill around in your mind for hours/days/weeks and then actually write the story in one glorious thrash? Or do you write in several sessions, building the story up scene by scene? Do you write it beginning-to-end, or in separate out-of-order chunks?

Do you just spellcheck and hit submit? Do you edit as you go along? Or do you do multiple passes over the story.

Hello.

So I’ll tell you how I started, how I progressed and what works for me, but do bear in mind I’ve only been writing erotica for just over 2 months.

I first started by wanting to write a sequel to prolific author Spector_Dugan’s “Like the Devil with a Deal”. I had no idea what I was doing in terms of sex-writing so asked to co-author it with him. He didn’t want that but encouraged me to work the sequel anyway and it has been a baptism of fire and an amazing learning curve. I’ll try and help by telling you what I know.

1. Get it written, don’t get it right. In terms of the sex, try and get it down and get it down right, but don’t worry if you don’t. Some scenes will just work with very little effort or editing (the scene with a truth-machine game that I wrote was a straight pass beginning to end with very little changes) but some scenes will take many passes (one threesome scene took several times to get right).

2. Spell check, spell check and spell check again …but do accept you may miss some and don’t beat yourself up over it if you do.

3. At the end when I was writing my finale I got to know the words I used a lot so would immediately go to a web thesaurus to look for alternatives. This was a SUPERB bit of thinking and transformed the work on the final part of my story. DEFINITELY do this.

4. And finally, when you have alone time walking the dog, doing dishes, or mundane jobs, run scenarios and plot ideas through your head and get stuff down. I even write on NOTES on my phone on the train to work, because if it’s wrong I can correct it later.

Just try and be descriptive enough to put the reader in there, but not too flowery as it becomes unsexy.

I hope this helps.

Best o luck.
 
I don't recall the exact age I was when I first wrote erotica, but I was definitely writing it at age 20. I used to write these erotic stories then pass them around to my male friends. Apparently it was good.
I started writing regular poetry as a young girl. Now I love writing erotic poetry.
When I came to find LIT last year, I came to read the stories. Not write any. But that changed quick..

I like to think of a sexy scenario. I'll Invision the scene played out somewhat in my mind. I like to set the scene, describe things, etc.
The characters in my stories are based on people I know..
I feel I can write pretty good, but it's the best feelings to write about what really sexually excites me.
 
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