Question for all authors

[SexyJedi]

I have tried to write an erotica story and can't get into it. What do you guys do to get motivated? Are there any tricks that works for you? Thanks!

 

[3113]

I have tried to write an erotica story and can't get into it. What do you guys do to get motivated? Are there any tricks that works for you?

Do you mean you can't get into the story period, or can't get into writing the erotic part of the story? Because an erotic story is often like any other story. You get into it just like you get into any other story--by starting on the day or moment when a character's life changed or was changed.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Have you tried to write non-erotic stories?

 

[glynndah]

You don't always have to start at the beginning. Write what you have and then work the story forward and backwards until everything fits.

 

[oggbashan]

Write a little every day even when you don't feel like writing.

Og

 

[Weird Harold]

I have tried to write an erotica story and can't get into it. What do you guys do to get motivated? Are there any tricks that works for you? Thanks!

For me, here is no "getting into it" there is only "a story beating on the doors trying to escape" and a cute idea that just won't work.

My brain traps a lot of ideas that I think must have been floating through the ether enroute to some other author because those ideas simply don't work for me no matter how brilliant they seemed when they popped up.

When you think of an erotic story that you're meant to write, youwon't have to ask how to get/stay motivated, you'll be wanting to know "how do I shut the Muse up long enough to eat dinner!"

 

[TE999]

I am unsure if your problem is being unable to write a sex scene--or crafting a story in general?

Engaging in writing exercises--describing a day or an event in your life for instance--also jotting down thoughts and ideas is helpful.

in re: Erotica--write about a sex experience or a fantasy you have had in the most graphic terms possible, then weave a story around it.

Then avail yourself of one of the numerous volunteer editors on this site for constructive criticism.

Good luck with your writing.

 

[Boxlicker101]

If you are thinking of writing stroke, sometimes a porno movie or clip will help. I have gotten inspiration for quite a bit of my smut from such sources.

 

[mrklin]

I find that I can't just sit down and write. I have to let an idea or storyline come to me on its own. I can't just do it at the drop of a hat. When it does come, then Katie bar the door. It just flows out of me and into the word processor with relatively little effort. I lose track of everything around me, and things just leap onto the screen. I don't hear or see anything around me other than this keyboard and monitor. I know things are going on around me (TV playing or my wife talking to me) but I don't "hear" it. I'm focused, and that's all there is to me. The house could catch fire and I wouldn't notice it.

If I am somehow interrupted for very long, I can't get back into that "writing zone." I've lost it, and that's that. I have a folder on my PC that's full of unfinished things that I can't get back into - I've tried many times.

I can get up long enough to hit the bathroom, grab a snack, get a drink, or something like that, but my mind is still working the keys. I can sit back down and run with the idea I was forming, finish a scene, or whatever else with no problem. I can't get up and drive to the store, eat a meal, or go to bed and leave it until tomorrow - once I'm out of that zone, it's gone, and I can't bring it back. If I start something, I have to finish it or it won't get finished.

I can't force a story. I can't write on command or by request. If someone asks, "Oh, can you write me a story about _____?" I'm dead - I can't do it - I've tried. All that comes out is contrived garbage - Watching From The Shadows being the only exception to that rule. I wasn't asked to write it, rather the seed was implanted in my mind, and it sprouted over the course of a couple of days. I sat down at the computer one morning, and it was finished in an hour. The ideas marinated for a couple of days, but the story itself was actually written in a very short time. It just flowed...

Perhaps you're similar to me? Perhaps you need to let the ideas come to you and not try to force them out of yourself? Perhaps, simply put, you're just trying too hard?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Ok, look. Writing a story is just like building a fence, a deck or a house. The first thing you have to do is gather together all the materials. That means CHARACTERS - they come first. Not the plot. Not the setting. Not anything else.

Create good, solid characters. Make them real in your mind. Give them real personalities. Make them so real in your mind that you actually know them. But you don't need to describe them physically in any exact way. The point is to create them in your mind so you have an image of them as real people.

Then give your characters some minimal plotline and let them play with it. Maybe they don't fit the plot. So change it. Maybe you need more characters. Create them.

Eventually you will come to the point where you have a number of characters prancing around inside your head and you can pick and choose the one that's right for what is developing to be a story.

And don't push it. The characters will write the story for you. The best stories I've ever written have been done this way.

 

[human_male]

Get yourself all lathered up and then try.

 

[oggbashan]

You could try typing one-handed - or use a battery-operated device...

Og

 

[Carnevil9]

I find it's a lot easier to write sex scenes when I'm not gettin' any. Once I'm satiated, the words stop flowing.

 

[SlickTony]

Of the vast array of thoughts that run through my head, a large portion of them are erotic ones. It's just a matter of marshalling some of them together to form a story. Other than that, I have an internal world peopled with a variety of characters, and I just wait to see what happens to them and what they decide to do. I imagine William Faulkner did the same with his Yoknapatawpha County, not that I put myself in his league. But that's just me. Some of my stories have their nucleus in people I know that I find myself having erotic thoughts about. It absolves me from guilt when I turn them into fiction.

 

[Munachi]

for me, i write most and best when i don't feel good. lack of sleep and the feeling my life is crap seems to bring forward the best story ideas. in the case of erotic stories, the motivation is sexual frustration.

so, i guess the reason i hardly ever write lately is that i am quite happy and have lots of sex. blame my bf. hehe.

 

[SlickTony]

for me, i write most and best when i don't feel good. lack of sleep and the feeling my life is crap seems to bring forward the best story ideas. in the case of erotic stories, the motivation is sexual frustration.

so, i guess the reason i hardly ever write lately is that i am quite happy and have lots of sex. blame my bf. hehe.

I once asked a doctor why Zoloft seemed to remove all erotic thoughts from my head--I couldn't keep in a one of them. He said something like neurologically, fear and anxiety and sexual feelings follow the same pathways. So that makes sense to me.

 

[Oblimo]

The inspiration fairy takes a dump on my head, generally when I'm driving.

 

[Frank Noir]

I once asked a doctor why Zoloft seemed to remove all erotic thoughts from my head--I couldn't keep in a one of them. He said something like neurologically, fear and anxiety and sexual feelings follow the same pathways. So that makes sense to me.

Ack! I'm not on drugs, but in therapy, trying to get rid of fears and anxieties. And my therapist keeps talking about "pathways".
I wonder whether losing my fears will also spell the end of my stroke-writing career?

 

[emap]

Dang I gotta stop reading in here, again I feel like a fish out of water. I am so different from ya'll.

For me writing is almost like breathing, I'll get an idea at any point, watching porn, having sex, doing the dishes, doing laundry, watching some show on TV, well except Simpsons, oddly enough never get an idea from that. CSI gives me idea's every thirty seconds or so, I never watch it though, mostly because it's boring, though the constant sex idea's didn't help.

I can't just sit down and start writing it though, I gotta let it percolate for a while, the time required varies, sometimes a few hours or days, other times, months to years. I admit I am a teensy scatterbrained so it doesn't help much. Generally why I will start a thread about an idea in the Story Idea's section, I get stuck on a good one and nothing else is coming up or it's bugging me.

Now sexy perhaps you are not able to write the story because you are trying to soon. When I hit a wall on a story I am actually working on, I will either start an idea thread to get that percolating one loosened or stop trying and go do something else for a day or a week or more. Usually best to pick something rather mindless, or get out and about, hang out with your friends and whatnot. The mind being an incredibly complex thing will work through any problem if you let it.

I've found the hardest nuts to crack simply fall apart when I stop thinking about it. Let your subconscience have a crack at it and the solution will come to you eventually.

Now if you are unable to write a good sex scene, really the best thing to do is find stories that get you going and use their style of describing it as a basis for your own. Besides, this is not a site of great novels, this is a site with an occassional awesome writer and alot of very basic poorly written stroke stories.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I agree with Ayn Rand.

The unconscious is truly a dedicated, motivated, inspired, eager to please servant. And the conscious part of us is a chamelon that cant find the right mood. So the unconscious patiently waits for the conscious part to decide what it wants.

 

[sr71plt]

I think when you are ready to write, you will do so. Trying to force the issue won't help much. When you get the urge and something pops into your mind, go to the computer and just let it flow. Doesn't matter whether or not it comes out in story form. If you are going to reach the story level with it, that will come in time. In the meantime you will be releasing your thoughts and emotions (and the act of release very likely will add strength to your ability to write it).

In my case, I was writing a scene in a perfectly mainstream murder mystery novel two years ago and the scene turned into a torrid sex scene on its own while I was writing. I couldn't use it in that book, of course, but I enjoyed it so much that I've been writing the erotica on the side ever since. And I don't have any blockages in writing that, because my mind tells me when a story is about ready to flow through me to the computer and I just sit down and let er rip.

 

[cantdog]

... Besides, this is not a site of great novels, this is a site with an occassional awesome writer and alot of very basic poorly written stroke stories.

A crucible burns off the dross, but we keep it all here. Getting so you need a native guide to find the good stuff. But we have those, too.

 

[Guest]

try to start by writing your fantasies down. and then try to turn them into a actual story with some plot and then work on other stuff like character development and symbolism etc

it gets easier after a while i'm told

good luck to you

 

[secretme]

Don't realy know...

Actually I've always just written stuff. My mom found a crazy journal I apparently kept as a kid with poems and stories about my teddy bear from when I was first able to start writing anything. I've had people ask me questions like "where do you get your ideas". I don't really know. It just sort of comes out when I sit down with a pen and paper or when I sit at a keyboard.

Hmmm... It's just the way my brain works. Running narrative. I've almost always got a story running through my head. Like a running monologue continually.

I know that probably doesn't help. You ever consider a writing class?

 

[The_Darkness]

It's pretty much just like writing anything else, as has been said. You pretty much just need to find your zone and have at it.

Writing a little bit every day is a good way to start...even if it's complete and total non-sensical crap. Just something to get the thoughts flowing from the brain to the pen.