Sex in Chapter 1?

[SimonDoom]

No, it's not strictly necessary, but I'd suggest asking yourself some questions:

1. What's the category?
2. How long will the chapters be?
3. What does sexually charged mean? What kind of activity?


Readers of the story will expect activity that satisfies the tastes of those who like the category in which it's published. So if it's an incest story, you don't need penetrative sex in the chapter, but it's a good idea to have some hot incestuous conduct of SOME kind.

Some categories are more patient than others, like romance or mature.

Some categories don't require sex, like exhibitionism. In exhibitionism, nude exposure alone can be enough to provide the reader satisfaction, although it's even better if there's some masturbation and orgasms.

 

[AchtungNight]

Some tricks I’ve used-

- characters engaged in lovemaking and then a recovering alcoholic who wants to tell them about his hot past affair with a woman he rescued from terrorists intrudes on them because he needs to talk about it _now_. (Debrief)

- opening with a rape rescue scenario and a couple who’s very into each other but she’s paranoid and he understands her need to confirm the mood is right for their relationship after he saves her (Ruleskirter).

- actresses who are going to shag each other eventually per my introduction discuss enticing roles they’ve played and their attitudes towards sex. It gets one of them hot enough to flee the conversation and then intensely masturbate while fantasizing about the others, then seduce her co-stars into a swap party over the next few chapters (Rendezvous).

- open with a nude photo shoot, then a one on one mutual ambush. Follow up with a car chase and a bisexual awakening (Fear, Lust, & Vanity).

- show a couple onscreen as married in several stories, then detail their first date (Leap of Faith).

- open with mysterious daring masked streakers in Tienamen Square (Beijing Streakers).

- have characters meet and get attracted to each other but they have to deal with organized crime gangs first (Inside Out, Saving Sandra).

All these are among my longer works and were well received by the majority of fans who gave feedback.

 

[ronde]

I have written a multi chapter story, and some of my readers were commenting that there was no explicit sex in Ch1, and that that was wrong.

I am contemplating writing another story to be posted in chapters, and again, I am considering a Ch1 without penetrative sex between the two MCs. The chapter will be sexually charged for sure, just no penetration, no orgasms.

What do you feel about this? Is sex mandatory for Ch1?

Any sexual activity in any story should go where it belongs as dictated by the characters and the plot. If you don't set up the characters and the plot in a way that the sex seems part of the flow of the story, it'll just come off as contrived.

I'm not a fan of disclaimers. To me, they disrupt the story and they're like a pre-apology that says, "Sorry if this isn't what you were looking for but it's the best I can do." To paraphrase John Wayne's character in "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", "Never apologize. It's a sign of weakness."

 

[samhasstories]

I don't think it's wrong to not include some kind of sexual payoff in chapter one - nothing is wrong if it's what you feel your story is calling for. But as with everything, it's a matter of setting and fulfilling (or subverting) expectations.

It's extra tricky, I think, with erotica. Characters' sexuality is sort of the ever-present Chekhov's gun. If I'm reading a story outside the world of erotica, I love a nice surprise if it's executed well. Expectations can be subverted to a compelling effect. But many people come to erotica for the sex, and might not appreciate that particular expectation being subverted.

So I would just suggest looking for ways to set that expectation early, if you want to minimize that potential disappointment. Author's notes have been mentioned, which would work, but I would be inclined to try to manage it with the text itself. A narrator looking back on the story they're relating could drop some hints, or you could make clear in the way the characters are interacting with each other that a quick payoff is unlikely. Subtle touches might elude some readers, but that's their problem.

 

[Mogrem]

I have written a multi chapter story, and some of my readers were commenting that there was no explicit sex in Ch1, and that that was wrong.

I am contemplating writing another story to be posted in chapters, and again, I am considering a Ch1 without penetrative sex between the two MCs. The chapter will be sexually charged for sure, just no penetration, no orgasms.

What do you feel about this? Is sex mandatory for Ch1?

Consider a prologue if you don't want to change the arc of your story but you do want to sate the readers.

Personally, although holding back can definitely be the right choice artistically, I think its fair enough for people to want to know if they like the way you write sex scenes before they commit to reading a novella. The prologue is therefore a kind of product sample.

Probably this matters less if you have an established audience who are already comfortable with your style. But even then, Bond films always start with prologue for a reason: The studio feels the need to let the audience know what kind of action to expect. If they want us to anticipate garish 7' henchmen with steel teeth, or parkour, or massive explosions, or gritty realism knife-fighting, then they stick it in the prologue to prime you for it.

 

[AG31]

I have written a multi chapter story, and some of my readers were commenting that there was no explicit sex in Ch1, and that that was wrong.

I am contemplating writing another story to be posted in chapters, and again, I am considering a Ch1 without penetrative sex between the two MCs. The chapter will be sexually charged for sure, just no penetration, no orgasms.

What do you feel about this? Is sex mandatory for Ch1?

If I were into chapter stories (I'm not when it comes to erotica), I'd be just fine with "sexually charged." If you start off with penetration, where do you go? But I would want sexual charge. I have little patience for a lot of "character developing" back stories.

 

[Zootonius]

Write how you want the story to go. An advantage of being an amateur author is, in the end, you are beholden to no one except yourself. The caveat is if you want the ego boost of good rating, which, I confess, I like.

 

[Cagivagurl]

I have written a multi chapter story, and some of my readers were commenting that there was no explicit sex in Ch1, and that that was wrong.

I am contemplating writing another story to be posted in chapters, and again, I am considering a Ch1 without penetrative sex between the two MCs. The chapter will be sexually charged for sure, just no penetration, no orgasms.

What do you feel about this? Is sex mandatory for Ch1?

Sex is not mandatory. Full stop.
There are many wonderfully erotic stories within this site that have no sex at all.
A story does not require sex for it to be erotic.
If the story calls for it, then use it.
If not, leave it out.

Just my thoughts.

Cagivagurl

 

[pink_silk_glove]

There are many wonderfully erotic stories within this site that have no sex at all.

Well, there's not that many, but yea, I get your point.

 

[Abbafan]

I have written a multi chapter story, and some of my readers were commenting that there was no explicit sex in Ch1, and that that was wrong.

I am contemplating writing another story to be posted in chapters, and again, I am considering a Ch1 without penetrative sex between the two MCs. The chapter will be sexually charged for sure, just no penetration, no orgasms.

What do you feel about this? Is sex mandatory for Ch1?

There is no right or wrong when it comes to something like how quickly you prefer your characters to get to the hanky panky. That's completely a matter of personal taste. You have readers who actually enjoy taking it slower to really build a relationship in a more realistic way, I would think.

In the words of the late Ricky Nelson, "You can't please everyone, so you've gotta please yourself."

 

[Britva415]

I spelled out "Backstory, (almost) no sex" in the description field of my Chapter 0 story.

I think it worked well. There was a comment about "boo hoo, wah wah no sex" anyway, but fuck'em.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Well, there's not that many, but yea, I get your point.

I have 13 myself, all with red H's.

I haven't compiled a list, but among stories from some of the most popular writers on this site, I would estimate that there are hundreds to thousands of stories here that meet the criteria, "little to no sex", yet are still viewed as "erotic" by readers and score well.

The non-erotic category obviously has some, but take a look at Romance or Novels/Novellas and you will find many chapters and entire stories without sexual content. Readers in these categories have fewer expectations for sticky palms, I guess.

 

[Astrotrain]

I'm writing my first story and I realised I was taking a long time setting up the scenario and characters. I consider this vital to the story however, so I decided to move this bit to a chapter 00 prologue. I'm going to have an author's note on the prologue explaining that there's no erotic happenings in this chapter, it's just setting things up and if they want to get right to the action then they should skip to chapter 01.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I have 13 myself, all with red H's.

I haven't compiled a list, but among stories from some of the most popular writers on this site, I would estimate that there are hundreds to thousands of stories here that meet the criteria, "little to no sex", yet are still viewed as "erotic" by readers and score well.

The non-erotic category obviously has some, but take a look at Romance or Novels/Novellas and you will find many chapters and entire stories without sexual content. Readers in these categories have fewer expectations for sticky palms, I guess.

For every one popular story that is light on smut, there are probably ten out there that are not popular at all. You just don't notice them because they're not popular and therefore they fade into bleak obscurity. But you write strong plot and you see your scores and you probably just assume that this is an accurate cross-section of the entire masses of lit readers. What's really going on is that only 20-30% of the total lit readership gives a damn about your plot but a good solid chunk of that 30% have found you. The other 70% don't give a fuck. If you think about it, if you have a story with 1000 votes (good or bad) that's a tiny percentage of the full number of potential lit readers out there, and 1000 votes is a good number of votes. The vast majority of lit authors never get a story with close to 1000 votes. So even the highest levels of readership never comes close to a majority of the lit readers. It's a niche.

Readers very much tend to read by niche and pretty much everyone here in AH agrees that tastes vary widely and they often state so. So theree are dozens and dozens of, heck countless niches and sub-niches. I doubt that there has ever been or ever will be an author on lit who comes close to appealing to everyone out there. The only way to be popular is to be popular by niche, concentrating on one niche only or dabbling in 2 or 3 or 4 that you are comfortable in or passionate about. There is just no way to please everyone. If you write a mindless stroker, the folks looking for actual stories will hate it. If you write a deep meaningful plot, the stroke readers will be fucking annoyed and move on. If you write incest, the incest crowd will love you and the non-incest crowd will ick right out. if you write gay or trans, all the straight guys will ignore you, etc. You can go on and on and on.

First, yes I have always conceded that the N/N category gains the author a little more leeway to include more plot and less sex. But the main reason that you have high success with your lower smut stories is that you have been around a while and have earned a following (and if I ever read your stuff in earnest I could probably find a couple of more reasons that you may be ignoring - maybe not, maybe you really are just that good). Yes, absolutely there are readers out there looking for story either in equal parts to or more than smut, I have always maintained that, but since lit is so overrun with mindless plotless smut (and the tag-based search features only help to sort kinks and are basically useless to help find good plot), it takes time for these readers to find authors who provide some meaningful plot with their sex. Once they find you, it will reflect in your numbers.

But for an unknown author, if you don't give ample doses of kinky smut or otherwise stick to the formula of category x, chances are far better than not that you'll be invisible. So invisible that no one will be able to find you as evidence to show the actual truth.

Many of us give these words of wisdom and encouragement to new authors all the time: keep at it, keep writing what you believe in and eventually your audience will find you. If you score well with plot-heavy stories, this does not prove that plot is popular with the readership at large, it just means that the minority plot segment of the readership has found you and approves. This is your reward for sticking at it and writing the stories that you believe in. And it's about all the 'success' that you could hope to achieve on lit. The max readership that one could possibly please here is maybe 20-30%. Even the plot-seekers might lean heavily sci-fi or heavily horror or something and if you don't provide some of that then you can't max out pleasing the 30% of those plot-seekers. And as for the stroke masses, they all divide by kink too, so pleasing all 70% of them is even more impossible. Connections on lit are made by niche. If you score well, you've simply found your niche.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

For every one popular story that is light on smut, there are probably ten out there that are not popular at all. You just don't notice them because they're not popular and therefore they fade into bleak obscurity. But you write strong plot and you see your scores and you probably just assume that this is an accurate cross-section of the entire masses of lit readers. What's really going on is that only 20-30% of the total lit readership gives a damn about your plot but a good solid chunk of that 30% have found you. The other 70% don't give a fuck. If you think about it, if you have a story with 1000 votes (good or bad) that's a tiny percentage of the full number of potential lit readers out there, and 1000 votes is a good number of votes. The vast majority of lit authors never get a story with close to 1000 votes. So even the highest levels of readership never comes close to a majority of the lit readers. It's a niche.

Readers very much tend to read by niche and pretty much everyone here in AH agrees that tastes vary widely and they often state so. So theree are dozens and dozens of, heck countless niches and sub-niches. I doubt that there has ever been or ever will be an author on lit who comes close to appealing to everyone out there. The only way to be popular is to be popular by niche, concentrating on one niche only or dabbling in 2 or 3 or 4 that you are comfortable in or passionate about. There is just no way to please everyone. If you write a mindless stroker, the folks looking for actual stories will hate it. If you write a deep meaningful plot, the stroke readers will be fucking annoyed and move on. If you write incest, the incest crowd will love you and the non-incest crowd will ick right out. if you write gay or trans, all the straight guys will ignore you, etc. You can go on and on and on.

First, yes I have always conceded that the N/N category gains the author a little more leeway to include more plot and less sex. But the main reason that you have high success with your lower smut stories is that you have been around a while and have earned a following (and if I ever read your stuff in earnest I could probably find a couple of more reasons that you may be ignoring - maybe not, maybe you really are just that good). Yes, absolutely there are readers out there looking for story either in equal parts to or more than smut, I have always maintained that, but since lit is so overrun with mindless plotless smut (and the tag-based search features only help to sort kinks and are basically useless to help find good plot), it takes time for these readers to find authors who provide some meaningful plot with their sex. Once they find you, it will reflect in your numbers.

But for an unknown author, if you don't give ample doses of kinky smut or otherwise stick to the formula of category x, chances are far better than not that you'll be invisible. So invisible that no one will be able to find you as evidence to show the actual truth.

Many of us give these words of wisdom and encouragement to new authors all the time: keep at it, keep writing what you believe in and eventually your audience will find you. If you score well with plot-heavy stories, this does not prove that plot is popular with the readership at large, it just means that the minority plot segment of the readership has found you and approves. This is your reward for sticking at it and writing the stories that you believe in. And it's about all the 'success' that you could hope to achieve on lit. The max readership that one could possibly please here is maybe 20-30%. Even the plot-seekers might lean heavily sci-fi or heavily horror or something and if you don't provide some of that then you can't max out pleasing the 30% of those plot-seekers. And as for the stroke masses, they all divide by kink too, so pleasing all 70% of them is even more impossible. Connections on lit are made by niche. If you score well, you've simply found your niche.

When I see all of the threads and comments not advising, but stating categorically that smut is virtually a mandatory ingredient within the first few paragraphs of a story here, I have to take exception to them.

Yes, there are all types of readers and all sorts of niches that they tend to favor. I have never denied that, and encourage people to write what makes them happy, even if that includes no sex. There are many, as evidenced by their comments, who would swallow their keyboards before downplaying the importance of smut in a story here. I am not one of those.

I don't believe that being around here for ten years puts me in the same league with some of the legends on this site. I only have around 1300 followers and 27 stories posted, which is minuscule compared to many others. My very first story from back in 2014 found an audience, won a monthly award when published, and it continues to bring new readers to my catalog of stories, including the 14 stories that do have sexual content in abundance.

This site is not "one-sizes-fits-all", for readers or writers. I think that you understand this and hope that the advise of others will reflect it more in the future.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

This site is not "one-sizes-fits-all", for readers or writers. I think that you understand this and hope that the advise of others will reflect it more in the future.

So we agree pretty much 100% on the whole matter.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

So we agree pretty much 100% on the whole matter.

Who in their right mind would not agree with you?

 

[Codoc24]

Just write the story you want to write. I have seen it done very well both ways.

 

[KeithD]

In the eras prior to the e-book revolution, when everything was going to be in print, if offered at all, the pulp erotica publishers did counsel sex in every chapter and most certainly in the first chapter. Buyers were buying for the sex, not for Pulitzer Prize winners.

With that in mind, I do provide sex or at least the anticipation of it early. Readers here vary widely, though, and you aren't going to please them all, so, as has already been advised, write it as you like it and live with the knowledge that there will be disagreement over how it should have been structured.

 

[VallesMarineris]

I have written a multi chapter story, and some of my readers were commenting that there was no explicit sex in Ch1, and that that was wrong.

I am contemplating writing another story to be posted in chapters, and again, I am considering a Ch1 without penetrative sex between the two MCs. The chapter will be sexually charged for sure, just no penetration, no orgasms.

What do you feel about this? Is sex mandatory for Ch1?

I look at it this way:

1) Every writing book gives the good advice to start with a scene that will grab the reader’s attention.

2) Readers of this site expect something that will turn them on.

So start your story with the first scene that turns you on (explicit or not). Fill in the minimal backstory and circumstances needed to keep the reader informed about what’s going on and why (but no more). This includes your characters’ emotions and personal history.

When that scene ends, move on to the next scene that turns you on. Fill in the gap from the first scene as needed (minimal again) to connect the scenes and keep the story moving.

Rinse, repeat, staying aware of the story arc, until the climax, which will satisfy both you and the reader.

Elmore Leonard said it best: try to leave out the parts that readers skip.