On writing erotic stories

[Brandie69]

I am new here as a writer and volunteer editor, but not so new as a lurking reader.

As I have finally come out as a writer and shared some stories and fleshed out some story ideas that have been in me for a long time, and even more as I have read some things here that I liked to varying degrees, I thought I would toss in my own $0.02 about how to write what I, anyway, like to read in the way of erotic stories.

First and foremost, I think that a truly good erotic story has to begin with real desire in the writer. This could be real desire to do the things that the story will relate, or just real desire that happens when the writer imagines them. If imagining the events you write about does not make you tingle, it will be hard to write about it in a way that stirs your reader. Find your true desire, and write about that. If you and your college ice hockey team could right now do the hottest thing you could imagine, imagine it! And write about it. Leave all of the other ideas that you think you "should" write about on the back burner.

Second, I find that I value a certain depth of realism. It may be a good idea to bang out a rough draft of a story and then come back to it later to work on this. An important part of writing for me is what I call "putting your feet up." Go back to your work later, but keep your hands off the keyboard (grin) for the most part. Put your feet up and slow down and take some time to imagine yourself being each of the characters. What would you be feeling, doing, thinking, hearing, smelling, and saying? Feelings, in particular, deserve special attention. I can not emphasize this enough. While pornography and even erotic writing are about acts and actions, sex and sex drives and sexual desires are about feelings. What we feel in our own selves and what we think (if we do) about the feelings of our partners.

And I might as well mention it here: for dialogue, say it out loud (if it won't freak out your roommate -- otherwise, imagine actually saying it out loud). If you can't quite imagine yourself saying "oh yes, Gerald, I get so moist imagining you plowing in and out of me," then don't write it. If you were there, and Gerald were plowing in and out of you, what exactly would you be likely to say? Write that.

The final point I would mention is one that has already had a lot of coverage here. Don't rush it. Mind you, I'm not saying that you should write 20 pages about economic conditions in Europe before the couple gets down and does the nasty, but some erotic tension before you thrust Arnold's baseball-bat-sized cock into Maria's tight little quim is what makes a story worth reading, to me. Bang out that first draft, put your feet up like I said before, and ask yourself how you can tease your reader, making the reader wait for the main course, even beg for the main course, before you deliver.

These are just my thoughts, more as a reader than a writer; meant to provoke a discussion.

 

[RodenAddison]

I think you have some very good thoughts there. I think though descriptions can get so detailed that you can lose the flow of the story. I'm not sure that's what you meant by realism though and I agree. There has to be some semblance of believability - even if it's reactions to unbelievable circumustances.

As to putting your feet up, I think of it as fermentation. I've also been known to use things that have been through fermentation for that process.

Glad to have you here.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Hi, Brandie, and welcome to Literotica and the Authors' Hangout. If you have been lurking for a while, you probably know this is a very friendly place, once you get past the political threads and the castigation of certain alleged authors and others.

The idea of writing about what I like to do won't really fly too well, unless I want to severely limit myself. For instance, I have some pretty granddaughters, but I woule never consider any of them as sex objects. Nevertheless, I wrote Eating Christine, and it was fun doing and has been well received by readers. I have never been an 18 year old girl and, if I had been, I would not have been interested in sex with my grandfather. I am not and never have been a t-girl, but I write about Angel Jones and my stories are well received by the readers and the t-girl I am writing about. Those are some examples, and I can probably think of more, given time.

 

[Hubs_in_hose]

I like to have a rough outline of ideas and if I have several characters a sheet that lists the attributes that I have given each of them.

 

[David39]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[estragon]

Brandie, you've given a good exposition, and food for thought. While we all know that one size never fits all, it's always good to share what works. Welcome to Lit, where the lunatics have taken over...but you know the rest.

 

[oggbashan]

The usual desire in a writer is the desire to write.

Many writers start with what they know and produce autobiography or stories based on their own experiences.

But once you have confidence in your own writing abilities, IF you can write, you should be able to write about almost anything after some basic research.

I do not desire to experience some of the things I write about. I am still stalled on "South Indian Women's Hairy Armpits" which fetish apparently has thousands of aficionados in the Indian Sub-Continent. I'll finish the story sometime, post it where it can be read by those fans and wait for the abuse, or not.

 

[Brandie69]

Thanks to everybody so far for their replies

oggbashan, I laughed at yours. I will confess that there are writers who can make the Muslim lesbian Mexican in Arizona story work. Those writers, however, need no advice from me.

B

 

[Brandie69]

estragon,

Brandie, you've given a good exposition, and food for thought. While we all know that one size never fits all, it's always good to share what works. Welcome to Lit, where the lunatics have taken over...but you know the rest.

I just read your "quibbling" post yesterday and posted a reply over there. I'm glad you reminded me to check on that. I actually thought about you at work today.

B

 

[Brandie69]

Thanks, Boxlicker

Hi, Brandie, and welcome to Literotica and the Authors' Hangout. If you have been lurking for a while, you probably know this is a very friendly place, once you get past the political threads and the castigation of certain alleged authors and others.

I have been lurking on Lit.com for a long time, not so much on the message boards.

 

[nicecthulhu]

Hi Brandie69

I agree with some of what you said, but I find walking away from a story and coming back to it later leaves me out of tune with the story.
For myself, I crank out a first draft with whatever comes out of my crazy little mind. Then I come back to the story (full reread and edit) at last three times. If I don't find it entertaining in each of those consecutive rereads then it needs some serious rewriting.
As for writing what I desire, it just doesn't work that way with me. Before I posted my first story here I gave writing a fantasy novel about Norse characters a try. After 4 or 5 chapters I found I was forcing myself to continue. So I remembered reading a couple of stories on this site once and figured, well why not try to write an erotic story?
I find I don't necessarily write about things I want to do or that I've done. I write about people that I find interesting. I test them and tease them and see what makes them tick. They have sex, because real people have sex.
It sounded so dull, when I reread what I just typed...
Interesting conversation starter, Brandie69.

 

[topace]

When I get an idea, I write it down. I usually set up a situation and ask myself "What happens next?" then follow it to the most logical conclusion. It's the main reason I suck at one-shots - I always have big ideas which cannot be contained into a single chapter - no matter how long. My last attempt at a one-shot (it was a Pokemon Advanceshipping fan fic) was critisized for being too fast in the pacing. I'd link to the story as it's a good example of what I mean, but I've temporarily taken my fan fiction stories off the web.

 

[Brandie69]

That's interesting, nicecthulu

I'll grant that everyone's creative process is different, but in my professional life (where writing is a big part of what I do) and here, I absolutely have to sleep on it and rewrite at least once. In fact, I like the adage I've heard somewhere that writing is never actually finished, it merely becomes due under some deadline.

B

 

[Harry Leg]

I'll grant that everyone's creative process is different, but in my professional life (where writing is a big part of what I do) and here, I absolutely have to sleep on it and rewrite at least once. In fact, I like the adage I've heard somewhere that writing is never actually finished, it merely becomes due under some deadline.

B

Every piece will let it's author know when it is complete. We just dont always listen

 

[estragon]

Harry, would that it were otherwise! Unhappily, some authors don't listen to the point where it becomes painful to the reader. Neitzsche was right: "Every artist needs someone standing behind him with a hammer, to hit him over the head when he's gone too far."

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Ninety-nine outta 100 writers dont have a destination and dont know when theyve arrived.

Bernstein is correct, every word must be inevitable and go from Munchkin Land to the Emerald City....or maybe Kansas.

No story is supposed to be a wallow or a bad eruption of happy feet at the state home for the senile.

 

[oggbashan]

Every piece will let it's author know when it is complete. We just dont always listen

Some let us know that we shouldn't have started.

For example, from my incomplete story The Sheep of Doom:

The land agent carried out the landlord’s orders except for one cottage that was occupied by Annie Blacksmith who was old and expected to die soon. The agent thought she would survive but a month or so and it wasn’t worth turning her out to starve. When the landlord saw that Annie’s cottage was still occupied he disagreed. His agent tried to explain and was dismissed for failure to execute the eviction.

On the day that Annie was to be removed from her cottage she got out of her bed for the first time in several weeks, dressed herself, and sat on a bench outside the front door. As the landlord approached with his bailiffs she stood up and shook her fist.

“Sheep is all you want,” She yelled, “Sheep you shall have. Sheep will bring you pelf. You and your heirs will answer for what you have done to the people of this land. The sheep of doom will come. That fate you cannot evade.”

Annie swayed on her feet.

“The sheep of doom will come…” She said before falling dead across the threshold of her cottage.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Ogg has a valid point!

There is a cliché, 'The onlooker sees more of the game'. The writer is in the middle and needs an outsider to look at the story and give advice on whether it works. Whether editors or beta readers, they are precious and guard against navel gazing.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I know what you mean about writing out of desire, but I don't think 'desire' is the right word. I'd hate to think that all the people who write incest, non-consent, or abject sex really desire to do what they write about.

A better way of saying it is that you have to write out of emotion. You have to have some emotional involvement in what you're writing about, whether it's excitement or amusement or even disgust. To my tastes, the best writing comes from the heart first and then the head, and the worst stories on Lit are the ones that are emotionally flat. Conveying emotion through character action is what the art of fiction is all about.

Feelings, in particular, deserve special attention.

That should be taped to the top of everyone's monitor when they write. An emotional imagination and the empathy to know what each of your characters is feeling is essential. That doesn't mean you have to tell the reader all that, but you do have to show it. You can put all sorts of fantastic bullshit in your stories, but if you get the emotions wrong people will stop reading.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Ninety-nine outta 100 writers dont have a destination and dont know when theyve arrived.

Bernstein is correct, every word must be inevitable and go from Munchkin Land to the Emerald City....or maybe Kansas.

No story is supposed to be a wallow or a bad eruption of happy feet at the state home for the senile.

That's one way of writing. Another is the method described by Stephen King, where you just start with a situation and write to see where it takes you.

Eudora Welty, one of the premiere short story writers of this century, said she sat down to write without a clear plot or story in mind. She said she wrote 'to see what happens.'

Mark Twain was stuck in the middle of Huckleberry Finn without a clue how to proceed when he suddenly decided to have them take a raft trip.

Me, I can write a whole porn story without knowing what it's really about, just concentrating on the sex. Then when I'm done it'll occur to me: "Oh, he falls in love with her!" or "Oh! She wanted him to seduce her!" And then I go back and reshape it to fit this meaning.

If you're writing something with a lot of plot and action, then you need planning and an outline. If you're just writing a porn story where sex is the main feature, I can't understand not being able to keep it all in your head.

 

[oggbashan]

PS to Dr Mabeuse's post above:

John Buchan once described his technique of plot making for his adventure novels.

He thought of three apparently random scenes for example one of which, for The Island of Sheep, was a woman sitting in a Scandanavian saeter spinning, and then devised a way to link the three scenes together in the most unlikely way possible.

I have tried it but failed to emulate his skill.

 

[Brandie69]

I know what you mean about writing out of desire, but I don't think 'desire' is the right word. I'd hate to think that all the people who write incest, non-consent, or abject sex really desire to do what they write about.

A better way of saying it is that you have to write out of emotion. You have to have some emotional involvement in what you're writing about, whether it's excitement or amusement or even disgust. To my tastes, the best writing comes from the heart first and then the head, and the worst stories on Lit are the ones that are emotionally flat. Conveying emotion through character action is what the art of fiction is all about.

Feelings, in particular, deserve special attention.

That should be taped to the top of everyone's monitor when they write. An emotional imagination and the empathy to know what each of your characters is feeling is essential. That doesn't mean you have to tell the reader all that, but you do have to show it. You can put all sorts of fantastic bullshit in your stories, but if you get the emotions wrong people will stop reading.

Well said.

 

[susurrus]

Like several of the people who've responded to Brandie's initial post, I agree with the great majority of it.

Something I wrote on this board years ago is something that I still believe:

To write, you must read.

And when I say read, I'm not actually talking about reading stories here at Lit or other (mostly) non-professional sites. Go out and find yourself an author at an actual bookstore and sit down and read it. Pay attention to how this person puts together his sentences, pay attention to which details are included and which are left out, pay particular attention to what the characters are doing, how they act, how they speak. If at all possible, take a try at writing like this person. Each author has a voice as unique as the one he speaks with. Then, find another author and do the same thing.

I've read responses from writers on this site and others saying, "I'm just writing stroke stories. Why should I have to follow all those rules? It isn't like I'm a professional writer, I shouldn't be held up to those same standards."

Just because you're writing "stroke stories" doesn't mean that the rules of language don't still apply. Yes, English is a language that's pretty screwed up at times, but there are still rules that have been there for centuries, the ones that everyone received starting in grade school and continued getting them as they progressed... They don't go away depending upon the genre in which you're writing.

Going to Brandie's post, she mentions some of the things that are contained in a good erotic story. The important part of those final two words is "story." Erotic or not, it has to truly be a story. As I've said before (but too long ago for anyone else to remember, most likely), there're only so many ways to write "Insert Tab A into Slot B," so some effort should be made to create something relatively interesting around whatever sex there might be.

And the bit about speaking the dialog out loud is a good one. In fact, when you get to a certain point, read the whole story aloud if possible. If something sounds weird to your ear, it's likely that it'll sound strange to someone reading.

I could blather on about my takes on writing, but I think I've dug myself into a deep enough hole for now.

Welcome to the world of the author, Brandie. I hope you have a thick hide...

 

[Brandie69]

How thicke is my hyde

I'm grateful for your response, sus.

Here's something that I've been thinking about. Iambic pentameter.

Seriously.

I am by no stretch of the imagination a student of literature, but when I'm in what I would describe as "the zone" of writing, I will tweak a word here or there to get the rhythm of a sentence just right, and I'm afraid to say that what that rhythm seems to be trying to approximate is iambic pentameter.

Has anyone else thought about this?

B

 

[PayDay]

And I might as well mention it here: for dialogue, say it out loud (if it won't freak out your roommate -- otherwise, imagine actually saying it out loud).

Lol @ roommate.

Seriously: This feels like a lecture.