Plot vs. Sex Scenes?

[RachelPost]

OK, I am working on a new story about a woman CEO and her personal assistant. The plot involves both desiring the other. There's an amount of plot setting before anything sexual takes place. Here's the question, should the plot include sex scenes, or should the sex scenes drive the plot?

In porn, many times it seems there is little if any plot. I think that a believable story needs plot, character development, and sex as the "natural" outcome. What sayest thou, ye more learned and experienced than I?

 

[Voboy]

Either way can work. I find it depends on how you portray the characters. Simply put, if they're interesting people who do interesting things, and also fuck, then by all means the plot should drive the sex.

If they're not all that fascinating aside from their genitals and what they do with them? Then the sex should drive the plot.

I'd rather read the first kind of story, but you'll find readers either way.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Have her immediately attracted to the other, and the other somewhat afraid of her. I don't know if it's a lesbian, straight, or bisexual story, but you can build the tension and have lots of erotic build up before the scenes. They can fantasize about each other and then have flirting, slowly building the tension until you get to the fucking. IMHO. Be sure to have fun with it.

 

[Euphony]

It is about motivations and goals. A lot of erotica readers (and thus writers) use sexual activity as key factors in the narrative but it doesn't have to written that way.

Other authors write people with outside interests, flaws, motivations, and a totally different climax. Yes, they do have sex but it is an logical outcome from other factors and needs being met.

You get to choose by how you write it.

*edit* Both can be wildly successful in how they tell their story. The default is many will push a "literary" look, setup, etc. but there's a certain art to writing an exception, sex as a significant pivot story.

 

[TheRedChamber]

The first thing to say is to tell the story you want to tell in the way you want to tell it. Think about what you would like to read on this site and then fulfill that brief. The truth is there's a ton of different categories and thousands upon thousands of readers all with different likes and expectations, so there's very rarely a concrete should with story telling.

That said, you should pay careful attention, I would say, to making the right promises to readers early on and making sure you're progressing those promises. It doesn't matter if your couple don't hook up until page 10 as long as the reader is excited by the promise of them hooking up and you keep the story flowing in a way that suggests they are indeed inching their way towards the bedroom (or the boardroom table). In other words, make the desiring (nearly) as hot as the having and you should be fine.

 

[Djmac1031]

I'm gonna go with my usual suggestion:

CHARACTER should drive the story.

Whether you're writing a plot heavy story with some sex, or a sex heavy story with an outrageous plot, or not plot at all, if your characters are boring, so is your story.

Character becomes even more important in stories with less plot, because there's only so many ways to write a sex scene and keep it interesting.

And again, if I don't care about your characters, why should I care whether they fuck? No matter how hot you write the scene, I can just go watch porn instead if all I wanna do is get off.

 

[Zootonius]

To paraphrase a joke about lawyers, If you have a plot, pound it. If sex scenes are on your side pound the sex scenes. If you have neither, pound...

But seriously, I admire those writers who can create a plot that keeps the reader engaged.

 

[Zootonius]

I'll add something I like to do. Show the characters' internal dialog. Their desires, their fears, their angst, their lust! For me, I can use it to drive a story with a simple plot.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Without people, you have no plot. Without people, you have no sex.

So write about people, and the others will follow. That's when it becomes a story, rather than a set of instructions.

 

[GlennJenko]

That said, you should pay careful attention, I would say, to making the right promises to readers early on and making sure you're progressing those promises. It doesn't matter if your couple don't hook up until page 10 as long as the reader is excited by the promise of them hooking up and you keep the story flowing in a way that suggests they are indeed inching their way towards the bedroom (or the boardroom table). In other words, make the desiring (nearly) as hot as the having and you should be fine.

I definitely agree with this. Especially in a story that has a lot of seduction and will they/won't they like the one OP is describing, the "chase" to get the sex is as important (imo) as actually writing the sex. As another person put it, if you just write the sex, the person may just be like "well I'll go watch porn instead" but with erotica, everything that combines to make the sex thrilling is what drives it.

I would also stress what you said in that the promise needs to be put in early. You can take 10 lit pages to get to the sex, but do NOT wait that long to get the flirtation and/or seduction really rolling because readers will get bored and click off.

 

[Djmac1031]

That said, you should pay careful attention, I would say, to making the right promises to readers early on and making sure you're progressing those promises. It doesn't matter if your couple don't hook up until page 10 as long as the reader is excited by the promise of them hooking up and you keep the story flowing in a way that suggests they are indeed inching their way towards the bedroom (or the boardroom table). In other words, make the desiring (nearly) as hot as the having and you should be fine.

Exactly.

I started a series called The Jenna Arrangement. While there was plenty of sexual thrills per chapter, the two main characters didn't actually go all the way until chapter 12.

Meanwhile I had not ONE reader complain about it and many, MANY compliments on the "slow burn" pacing.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Sex is a function of following the plot, right?

 

[Zootonius]

Exactly.

I started a series called The Jenna Arrangement. While there was plenty of sexual thrills per chapter, the two main characters didn't actually go all the way until chapter 12.

Meanwhile I had not ONE reader complain about it and many, MANY compliments on the "slow burn" pacing.

The very first work I published was chapter 1 of an incest story where I practically drew neon signs where the plot was headed. And had one comment complain about the first chapter, "There was no incest!"

 

[Djmac1031]

The very first work I published was chapter 1 of an incest story where I practically drew neon signs where the plot was headed. And had one comment complain about the first chapter, "There was no incest!"

I suppose we need a caveat for I/T.

Less plot. More mother fucking.

 

[intim8]

should the plot include sex scenes, or should the sex scenes drive the plot?

Both. They should arise naturally out of the plot, and in turn, move the plot in some way. Though as others have pointed out, characters are what really drive everything.

Yeah, sometimes sex is the climax of the story. Some stories are just those kinds of stories. Boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy pounds the hell out of girl. But even there, the kind of story you're talking about, getting the sex means the character has to learn something, change his/her self somehow, get some courage, whatever. Or sometimes it means two characters have to work out some issue they have, or both learn something.

And then sometimes, the sex is how they learn something, or gain courage or confidence, or whatever their story is about. Or sometimes, the sex creates a conflict that goes beyond just in bed, and that becomes the story.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Motherfucking mother fuckers, fucking their mothers without love or any motherfucking manners.

I suppose we need a caveat for I/T.

Less plot. More mother fucking.

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Motherfucking mother fuckers, fucking their mothers without love or any motherfucking manners.

That's a whole lot of motherfucking.

 

[SamBomb]

Plot and character over everything.

 

[Djmac1031]

That's a whole lot of motherfucking.

Dare I say it? At the risk of yet another smackdown from @onehitwanda , I dare:

The mother load of mother fucking.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Girl can't even make a joke without getting piled on!

 

[Stimtheone]

I'm facing an issue that my new story may be lackluster in sex because we're gonna cycle through a lot of characters that people will not have time to get attached to. Heck, it might seem more prudent to post this elsewhere since there's barely enough sex in it to call it erotic. But it counts.

But, on the subject, people LIKE plot. Even when they say they don't, sex feels so much better when it has significance, when you know who is fucking who and why. Even a paper-thin plot is often good enough to show why the sex happens.

 

[ronde]

I'm facing an issue that my new story may be lackluster in sex because we're gonna cycle through a lot of characters that people will not have time to get attached to. Heck, it might seem more prudent to post this elsewhere since there's barely enough sex in it to call it erotic. But it counts.

But, on the subject, people LIKE plot. Even when they say they don't, sex feels so much better when it has significance, when you know who is fucking who and why. Even a paper-thin plot is often good enough to show why the sex happens.

There are characters and then there are characters. You need at least two well introduced characters that readers can at least somewhat identify with, and maybe a couple others if they're relevant to the story. The rest are just the "extras" in your story. They can be nameless and without any description except for where they fit in the story, like "the janitor" or "the convenience store clerk".

As far as a story having enough sex to qualify as erotica, remember that erotica is a thing generated in the mind of the reader from the words you write. It isn't necessary to write paragraphs describing the mechanics of sex. It's only necessary to give the reader an idea of what is happening. The reader will fill in the details.

My experience is that a story without plot doesn't get very far with most readers. It's more important to know why the sex is happening and what leads up to the sex than a detailed description of body parts and multiple positions. That's called the "plot".l

 

[RachelPost]

I sure asked my question in the right place. So many responses, and so many differing opinions, yet all are relevant to developing the story. Thank you.

 

[Zootonius]

Motherfucking mother fuckers, fucking their mothers without love or any motherfucking manners.

Salacious sibling sucking each other silly?

 

[Stimtheone]

There are characters and then there are characters. You need at least two well introduced characters that readers can at least somewhat identify with, and maybe a couple others if they're relevant to the story. The rest are just the "extras" in your story. They can be nameless and without any description except for where they fit in the story, like "the janitor" or "the convenience store clerk".

As far as a story having enough sex to qualify as erotica, remember that erotica is a thing generated in the mind of the reader from the words you write. It isn't necessary to write paragraphs describing the mechanics of sex. It's only necessary to give the reader an idea of what is happening. The reader will fill in the details.

My experience is that a story without plot doesn't get very far with most readers. It's more important to know why the sex is happening and what leads up to the sex than a detailed description of body parts and multiple positions. That's called the "plot".l

Er.... this story is about an empire's growth over a time of like 300 years.

But maybe you have a point that I could set up "dynasties" to be the focus. Because the only character immortal here is the hero of another story.