Your thoughts on putting major sex scenes in the middle of a story

[HeyAll]

Let's assume the story is 2-3 pages, and there's a major sex scene half-way through.

I've always avoided this because my fear is that the reader will get-off, and there will be far less motivation to read the story until the end.

However, I've noticed that many of the top stories (either score of views) do this. (put lots of sex)

Do the authors here have any experience with written such sexually charged stories? Does the vote/view ratio remain high? Are the comments even better? More favs?

Thanks

 

[CeasarBoobage]

I've always avoided this because my fear is that the reader will get-off, and there will be far less motivation to read the story until the end.

If the story/scene is good enough to make the reader happy, but they leave, there's a good chance they will bookmark or favorite it to come back for the rest.

I've got a few stories with more than one sex scene and the scores and views didn't seem to suffer.

 

[Handley_Page]

I believe the trick to be getting a good story together and THEN putting some decent sex in it.

 

[sr71plt]

I put the sex scenes wherever they fall in the story. I let the reader worry about getting off where/when/how. I just hope they do.

For the world of me I can't understand the obsession with "the" mythical "reader" that I keep seeing pop up on Literotica.

 

[PennLady]

I tend to put the sex where it seems like it should go. So sometimes it's in the middle, and sometimes it's toward the end. I suppose it depends, for me, on whether getting the characters to have sex is the goal of the story or something on the way to the goal of the story.

And as sr71 says, there's no one reader. Some people will want nothing but sex, some will want a build up and some just won't care so long as it all fits together. That's why you need to write your story and figure out where all the pieces go.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm still chuckling over the concept of just one sex scene in a story.

 

[49greg]

I believe the trick to be getting a good story together and THEN putting some decent sex in it.

That's what I do too. Usually I want to stay with the main story, so I keep on writing. I just leave a marker in the story with a few of these things >>>> then a note like 'sex scene here' possibly a little more, for example: 'on the kitchen table'. The plan is to go back when I'm more in the mood and write the scene.

A big fear is that I'll miss going back to all of them and get a story posted with a 'sex scene here' note in the middle.

As Sr71 and Penn Lady say, the best place for a sex scene is where it best fits in the story. If for any reason after a reader finishes with a sex scene and is no longer in the mood to read, he/she will probably just bookmark it and come back later. If not, well then I did bring some joy and stress relief into their life.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't think I have ever skipped over a sex scene and gone back and inserted it. If it didn't fit with the flow of what I was writing, if I didn't feel compelled to write it right then because of what the story was building up to, I think I would have questioned whether it belonged there at all. I write from beginning to end.

I'm sure the mileage of others varies, though.

Might deal with the "sex scene is the conclusion you are building up to so goes at the end folks" while I'm at it. A short story is based on there being a dilemma begging for some change (which is what propels the story). That dilemma can jolly well be that two (or more) people had sex that, for a variety of reasons, provides the dilemma of the story. In which case, you could legitimately have the story open with a sex scene (and I sometimes do). There's no "one place" where a sex scene is "supposed to" be put in a story.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

It'll depend on what you're writing. If it's stroke, then the main sex scene will be the story climax. There's no need for a post-scene finish up, because the story is what it is, and when the last load drops, there's nothing to tie up. If you're gunning for a "Letters to Penthouse' style story, the sex should be at the end, as there is only sex, and rarely any further story.

If you're writing a story with sex in it, where the sex occurs but the plot exists aside, then the sex has to fall where it has to fall (if there needs to be sex at all).

On a side note, if you're trying to figure out where to put the sex in terms of the story, it sounds like you either have no plot, or do not have a plot yet. In either regard, you'll find if you ever write something that the placement of.. well, everything within the story limits is less in your control than you might expect. If you're already trying to control it, before you put pen to paper, this story could wind up being a fiasco.

Q_C

 

[sr71plt]

It'll depend on what you're writing.

Again, where are these silly limiting notions coming from? A stroke story can begin and end with a sex scene and have one or more in the middle too. I can't fathom where folks are picking up these limiting notions of how/what to write.

 

[lovecraft68]

I put it where the story calls for.

I have opened with sex but usually between a maon character and someone other than the other lead to set up something.

I have done middle and end as well. Whereever it goes it goes. I pay attention to the muse not the reader.

I will say that in incest I usually wait until the end because I don't write stroke incest and like to build to that taboo crossing of the line. But that's me it doesn't mean its right just right for me.

 

[Hypoxia]

I'm still chuckling over the concept of just one sex scene in a story.

Indeed. That might work for a satirical or teasing piece. But fucks are like potato chips. Can't stop with just one.

I have just one story (so far) with only one sex scene, and it was rejected. I've resubmitted it with that sex scene smoothed slightly. Now, the girl cums multiple times before the pharmacist injects a fast-acting growth hormone into his dick that expands rapidly (while they're joined) so she explodes.

So far, my highest-ranking stories start with sex, end with sex, and have hot sex in the middle -- except for the best (THAT'S MY GIRL), which starts and ends with drama and has a myriad of sex scenes scattered throughout the tale's interior.

I now have a neat trick for attracting favorable attention, but it's a secret. Discover it yourselves.

 

[patientlee]

I think it depends on how horny your characters are.

 

[JagFarlane]

Like most of the others, it comes when it's called for and often enough more than once. I don't think there's a mythical special time for it, if someone likes the story enough they'll stick around for the end.

 

[slyc_willie]

Most of my early stories were sex-centered, with dialogue and plot mainly there to get character A's tab into character B's slot. I tended to be pretty heavy-handed with the sexual descriptions, too.

Most of my more recent stories are more concerned with the plot outside of anything sexual, with the sex scenes put in where they feel, to me, they should be. It's been a while since I've felt the desire to write a story that was mainly about the sex.

So I suppose I echo what a lot of others have said: write whatever the hell you want, the way you want it.

 

[JKendallDane]

As far as one-off strokers, I tend to keep the sex in the latter portion of the story even if there are multiple, seperate scenes. Not a rule by any means...just what works for me and seems to make the target audience happy.

But when it comes to chaptered series, all bets are off. I've had a main character masturbating by the third sentence in chapter one; the only hot sex in another chapter happening midway through; an almost "too mild" coupling finally showing up in the final paragraphs of a three-page chapter; and 10,000 word chapters where it's sex, sex, and more sex.

The only real rule of thumb I would suggest, is to pay close attention to the plot bunny hopping around on your desk as you write. He'll start twitching his nose constantly and wiggling his tail uncontrollably when he is ready to be fed the carrot.

 

[Weird Harold]

A big fear is that I'll miss going back to all of them and get a story posted with a 'sex scene here' note in the middle.

I've read a lot of stories that would have been better with such a note instead of a sex scene that was gratuitous.

Stories should have sex scenes wherever the story needs one; the sex scenes should be only as graphic as the story requires.

Since every Author, Reader, and story are each different, there can be no "magic formula" to describe when a story needs a sex scene, or how graphic any sex scene needs to be. Just because Literotica is a "sex story site" doesn't mean every story has to have graphic sex -- many stories in the romance category do fine with a "fade to black at the bedroom door."

 

[StrangeLife]

None of my mine are "stroker stories" (unless you are kinda weird), so I belong to team "put the sex where-ever it's relevant"....

 

[DirtyAllie]

So far anything I have done has been in the end. Oh....that didn't sound right!

All my sex scenes so far have come in the end of the story.

I like to do a lot of lead in for a build up, but can't see why it would not work anywhere depending on the people in the story. If it is out of character for the people to jump right in the sack then early on ruins the story for me. I like consistency.

 

[sr71plt]

So, you stick to the missionary position, I suppose?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Someone I admire uses her first, and sometimes second, chapter to build her plot-- and also build up to the sex scene which comes in at the beginning of the next chapter. The rest of the chapter is the buildup to the sex which happens at the beginning of the chapter after. It's her version of a cliffhanger. it's pretty effective!

 

[sr71plt]

And she does this each and every time? That can get dull real fast for a writer (and the writer's readers as well).

So, another one who sticks to the missionary position?

 

[DirtyAllie]

Missionary does nothing for me.

Okay, I guess Tribbing can be considered sort of missionary.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I'm a big fan of tribbing in missionary position.

 

[patientlee]

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.