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How much emphasis should be put on character motivation?

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warmAmber

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Jan 26, 2008
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A friend challenged me to put romance aside and go for an out and out sex story. The kicker is that the story should be about a wife having an affair with the single woman next door which ultimately leads to a 3-some with the husband.

I'm getting so wrapped up in why the wife would have the affair on the side that the whole story is bogging down. Can I have the wife think... "When I saw Jane move in next door she reminded me of my college roomie and the sex we used to have" and leave it at that? If the sex part of the story is good enough, how much does her motivation matter?

Thanks for any advice and help. - Amber :confused:
 
The question is, as the writer, how do you feel the character needs to behave? It's your character and your story, so what makes it interesting to you? Personally, I find sex stories that don't have any character development to be (forgive the phrase) limp. Is the wife doing this to get back at the husband? Is it because he's not enough (but maybe he evolves during the story)? Is she seduced, and finds that she has desires she never considered? If the story feels like it's bogging down, it's probably because you are getting stuck in the minutia of discussing and describing her world. As a reader, what I want to read about is what she's going through as she makes her choices. We're all voyeurs in the story, so finding ways to feel something about her (lust, sympathy, anger, pity) will allow us to experience the sex on a much more personal level.

Without it, you have the description of a porn movie. Some people will like that (especially if you're good at writing the scenes), others won't...but ultimately the story will be forgettable.
 
Personally, characterisation is the building block upon which my stories rest. Out of character comes motivation and the 'why' grows to outweigh the 'what'. I can't easily write any other way. It sounds a little as if you're trying to jump-start the sex. That's not necessarily a problem. To 'satisfy' Lit readers, go 'sex-reflection-explanation-sex'. To help readers who get queasy over the two middle stages, do 'em naked, in bed, in the shower, on the beach.
 
I think my problem is I want to like all of my characters and in this scenerio I simply can't! So, as the author I guess I need to realize that some of my imagination is not so "like-able". Thank you for explaining your desires as a reader. It helps even if it makes me struggle more! - Amber
 
Yes, I am... thinking to just write a "letter to Smut Magazine" or some such. Will consider the pause and reflection. Thanks for your input! - Amber
 
Write whatever you like. That said there should be some boundries. Don't write what you are either not familiar with or anything you are not comfortable with.

For example, I would never even consider writing a BDSM story. I not all that familiar with the life style and it stretches my comfort zone way too much.

As far as a pure sex story (AKA Stroker) there are very few that I find interesting. There are a few, but not many. For most of them they seem to lack something. Sometimes plot development, sometimes character development and often there is no motivation so the character's actions just don't make a lot of sense.

Liking characters or not liking characters is all part of writing. Some you want to hate because they are bad people. I rather like writing characters that I love to hate. I find them much more interesting than the guys in the white hats.
 
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I have been thinking about this, and the trick to stroke isn't to eliminate the motivation, it is to work it into the sex scenes. Don't have a lot of build up, but stick in an aside from time to time telling why they are doing what they are doing. Or, just play out the first sex scene, then give some back story, and then skip back to the sex, and so on and so forth.

Lesbian sex
Why they had sex
The view from the husband and how he feels about it
The husband joins in
The thoughts and feelings of the neighbor about the husband joining in while having sex with him

Just a simple outline, but you see how you can keep it stroke and still tell an involved story.
 
warmAmber said:
A friend challenged me to put romance aside and go for an out and out sex story. The kicker is that the story should be about a wife having an affair with the single woman next door which ultimately leads to a 3-some with the husband.

I'm getting so wrapped up in why the wife would have the affair on the side that the whole story is bogging down. Can I have the wife think... "When I saw Jane move in next door she reminded me of my college roomie and the sex we used to have" and leave it at that? If the sex part of the story is good enough, how much does her motivation matter?

Thanks for any advice and help. - Amber :confused:
Click to expand...

I think the pivotal element is where you are in the character's back story, ie, does she do this a lot or is this a first time? If she does this a lot (perhaps she has an open marriage), then little or no motivation besides horniness is required...as long as you make this clear to the reader.

If it's a first time, then there really should be some precipitating incident to move her out of her comfort zone. Doesn't have to be major--boredom, repressed bisexual leanings, seduction by the neighbor, fight with hubbie, surfing the internet and coming (you should pardon the pun) upon a lesbian sex site--but I think there has to be some reason for people to behave in a way they never have before.

Otherwise, it has all the validity of "I saw this guy walking down the street. He stopped in front of me, unzipped, and pulled out this huge schlong. So, I dropped to my knees and sucked him off."
 
warmAmber said:
A friend challenged me to put romance aside and go for an out and out sex story. The kicker is that the story should be about a wife having an affair with the single woman next door which ultimately leads to a 3-some with the husband.

I'm getting so wrapped up in why the wife would have the affair on the side that the whole story is bogging down. Can I have the wife think... "When I saw Jane move in next door she reminded me of my college roomie and the sex we used to have" and leave it at that? If the sex part of the story is good enough, how much does her motivation matter?

Thanks for any advice and help. - Amber :confused:
Click to expand...
Yup, even a lowly stroke writer like me knows that motivation is important.

Thankfully for us, though, pure lust often pushes all rationality aside. So in fact a person needs to be motivated by little more than desire for the story to work.

I think your story would work if A) the wife has a bisexual side that she has somehow repressed (maybe she had one hot girl on girl encounter in her youth that she tries to forget, but can't) and B) the single woman next door is more sexually aggressive and simply seduces her.

Hope this helps.
 
You can always do this as a backstory, as has been suggested. The advantage of the backstory is you can bring it in whenever. If you wish, you could open with the main charrie already in the throws of sex with the neighbor, and say...as she's being eaten out...reflect upon what brought her to this...then come back to present day and continue on...
 
Is the main character initiating the sex? I'm thinking you could have the neighbor initiate it, so that it would come as a surprise to your main character. That way, you don't have to explain her motivation. It would be a spur-of-the-moment thing where neither of them has given it a lot of thought.
 
warmAmber said:
A friend challenged me to put romance aside and go for an out and out sex story. The kicker is that the story should be about a wife having an affair with the single woman next door which ultimately leads to a 3-some with the husband.

I'm getting so wrapped up in why the wife would have the affair on the side that the whole story is bogging down. ...
Click to expand...

Perhaps you're suffering from the lack of a villian? Perhaps it isn't the wife's motivations that's bogging your story down, but the neighbor's?

Just who is motivating the affair and threesome and why?
 
tickledkitty said:
Is the main character initiating the sex? I'm thinking you could have the neighbor initiate it, so that it would come as a surprise to your main character. That way, you don't have to explain her motivation. It would be a spur-of-the-moment thing where neither of them has given it a lot of thought.
Click to expand...

That's true, TK. In fact, it's a more traditional way of doing it. But I kind of like the idea of the main character initiating the threesome.

But then, I'm "quirky" :D
 
Motivation is important if you want rounded characters. Lots of stroke doesn't have rounded characters. Lots of stroke isn't very satisfying.

I don't think your problem is whether motivation is required (as you seem to want or need it to be) it's how to include that motivation or feelings/thoughts about the situation without laying it out.

You've come to the same quandary which has been discussed no end of times here. Lists, measurements and infodump. Or more concisely: showing not telling. And the partial answer is that it works in almost exactly the same way in stories as in RL.

We find out bits and motivations about real people as we go along or as relationships develop, very rarely all at once.

An example of motivational show don't tell might be the difference between:

After the row that morning Anne decided that she would get her own back and succumb to their new neighbours recent advances.

Not very "tell" but enough for the present purposes. And the show might be:

She knew the arguement was ridiculous and petty but in her present state couldn't resist what she knew he hated to hear.

"Sitting on your fat arse all evening when I have the kids to see to and dinner to make doesn't exactly help you know. I've been working too."

"Working? Watching TV and eating chocolate and... and..." Stephen spied the empty pizza box in the kitchen "Ordering in pizza, no doubt delivered by that smarmy little fucker with the tight jeans."

"So I'm fucking the delivery guy? What about the postman? That 10th grade bag boy at the store? Am I fucking them too?" as the hot tears fell Anne ran for the door.

"Yes. I'll bet you are." he shouted through the slamming of the door.
 
I think that identification is the key to a stroke story. A character's motivation can be no more than "I'm horny" if your words get the reader to think "I know how that feels" or, depending on the stroke, "I'd hate to feel that."

Personally, I think identification should occur before the steamy stuff, although a couple of sentences can do it. If you identify with a character, you get turned on when the character gets turned on, etc.
 
Oblimo said:
I think that identification is the key to a stroke story. A character's motivation can be no more than "I'm horny" if your words get the reader to think "I know how that feels" or, depending on the stroke, "I'd hate to feel that."

Personally, I think identification should occur before the steamy stuff, although a couple of sentences can do it. If you identify with a character, you get turned on when the character gets turned on, etc.
Click to expand...

Like: "Jesus! You're a horny little bastard... then continue with the sex?
 
neonlyte said:
Like: "Jesus! You're a horny little bastard... then continue with the sex?
Click to expand...
That would work for me!

I'd want to know why the partner was surprised by that, and maybe how the horny little bastard feels about the comment. But both of those items could be shown in the context of the sex;

"Horny little bastard, huh? I'll show her horny little bastard!"
 
neonlyte said:
Like: "Jesus! You're a horny little bastard... then continue with the sex?
Click to expand...

Hmf. :p

More like, um:

American Airlines canceled nine-hundred flights last Wednesday. Mine was flight number nine hundred and one, but don't let that fool you into thinking I lucked out. Flight schedules became totally jacked. I had an hour delay that the unsmiling attendant kept extending every forty-five minutes until the sun set and I was stuck in the airport overnight.

And that explains why my ass was angled over the plastic armrest welding two chairs together when the entire Beaver College girl's soccer team stormed into the terminal behind me...
 
bonfils said:
I think your story would work if A) the wife has a bisexual side that she has somehow repressed (maybe she had one hot girl on girl encounter in her youth that she tries to forget, but can't) and B) the single woman next door is more sexually aggressive and simply seduces her.
Click to expand...
In full agreement with this! This is the occam's razor answer to the question. It's simple, direct and, hey, it even rings true. I know a lot of bi-sexual women, some of them married, who have never been with a woman--they're in denial or scared or there hasn't been an opportunity--but if the right one came along, and especially if that right woman was seductive and aggressive enough, they'd give it a go.

As said, lust is really all the motivation you need. She doesn't even have to stop loving the husband, just finally needs to give into this other side of herself. And I'd say this works far better than if she'd already done it before and sated her curiosity. Curiosity, like lust, is a very powerful motivation. Didn't you ever hear the song "I kissed a girl" by Jill Sobule? Charming song about girls talking about their boyfriends...and the one gets kissed by the other, her first time kissing a girl, and is totally taken and excited by this new experience.

Don't over think this. Lust and curiosity is all you need. If the wife is very attracted to this woman, and gets kissed by her, the rest will follow.
 
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