Which Physical Appearance of Female Characters Is the Most Successful with Readers?

[Auden James]

Well, thank you for the many replies!

Though there might be some misunderstandigs here: I don't know why, but some of you seem to take the thread's question to imply that erotica writers should give as detailed a physical description of their female characters as possible. That's neither the point of this thread nor of any of my replies in this thread!

This misunderstanding becomes especially clear in the following post by Erozetta:

Having those details allows you to better relate characters to each other when writing them, it doesn't mean you have to include them in your actual story, just that you should be aware of those details for your character.

I have pages of notes on personality and appearance for some of the characters I've written novels about. About 1/10th of that actually makes it into the story.

And that's perfectly in line with what Dean R. Koontz, whom I had quoted beforehand from his book How to Write Best-Selling Fiction, says too (p. 152-153):

One of these dossiers will contain far more data about the character than you will ever use in your book. For instance, your story line and theme might never demand that the character reveal his sexual history; however, you should know his sexual history, for it will have a direct bearing upon other aspects of his personality which perhaps do appear in the novel, such as his attitude toward women and his views on love. Each major character is like an iceberg: the reader sees just the visible tip, but the author sees and fully understands the huge supporting structure beneath the surface.

The reason I quoted Koontz in the first place was NotWise's statement that physical description wasn't part of characterization which Koontz—doubtlessly an authority when it comes to successful writing—seems to rather disagree with.

Furthermore some of you seem to think that missing direct feedback from readers on one's female characters' physical appearances would render this thread's question void as becomes especially clear in the following reply by PennameWombat:

No one has told me. Nope, no one has specifically commented on my stories to say they liked or disliked my physical description of my female characters. So I can't and won't bother answering your question.

But again that's missing the point! The question wasn't limited to what written feedback by readers writers on here have received with regards to the physical descriptions they provided of their heroines, but what, if any, physical description of their heroines may have been the most successful with their readers! And apart from written feedback their are at least three other rather obvious measures for success with readers on LIT: voting scores, number of views, and number of favourites.

Of course, as has become quite clear in this thread, if one—as a rule or even rather typically—refrains from providing physical descriptions of one's heroines, answering the question this thread poses becomes rather difficult, to say the least. Still, though reaching far beyond the rather simple question this thread poses, it would be interesting to find out if erotica that eschews the physical description of female characters is indeed on average more successful with readers than erotica that provides readers with at least a minimum of physical descriptions of female characters. Does anyone know of a practical way to test this empirically on LIT?

But be that as it may, there seem to be at least some cases where physical description is indeed bolstering success with readers, as purpishly, Winter_Fare, NotWise, and YDB95 reported to differing degress and with regards to somewhat varied target groups.

However, I'd like to hear some more from others as well, for the general picture is still rather murky!

 

[LongDraw]

There are thousands of stories and thousands of different characters who populate said stories (and, potentially, those yet unwritten). But which description of outward appearance, which physiognomy or "body form" is the one most popular with readers?

Let's discuss this here for female characters!

What is your experience, fellow writers, whom do your readers like to read about the most? The blonde, the brunette, or the redhead? The big-titted, the fat-bottomed, or the anorexic female? What about hands and feet, noses and mouths, not to forget eyes and ears?

Rather seldom, methinks, writers on here dare to wax poetic about the pudendal details of their female characters' physical form. Why is that? Do our readers not like to read about beef curtains, blooming flowers, or serried clams?

I'm looking forward to your answers!

—AJ

I will say that as soon as an author starts describing a woman as small breasted, perky tits, thin waist, slender, etc, it is a major turn off for me. There is nothing remotely sexually exciting for me about a woman that has the characteristics of a child. That includes descriptions of their privates being shaved to resemble that as well.

 

[Auden James]

Thank you for this insight from the reader's perspective, LongDraw! Could you maybe state your preferences in a positive way too, i.e., elaborating on the physical descriptions of a woman that rather turn you on than off?

 

[8letters]

I have my main female characters be attractive, but their physical appearance varies from story to story. There's not one kind of physical appearance that is attractive. And physical appearance is just one piece of what makes my main female characters attractive. Their physical appearance really depends on the story. I have one story where the main female character is short and flat-chested. That's what fit the story. I've got other stories where the main female character is well-endowed. As someone who grew up reading porn stories where the main female character always had big tits, it has surprised me how willing Literotica readers are to embrace stories where the main female character has a more average-sized bust.

 

[NC_Coastal]

" She had a funny smile, sort of like she was up to something..."
Let the reader figure that out.

Or describe her in detail:

"My sister is 26, in her prime in every sense, an educated, successful woman who could have any man or woman she wanted, tall and tanned, blonde hair cut in a sexy short, blunt-chop style that accents her blue-grey eyes and falls softly on her shoulders, which she likes to reveal in most everything she wears..."

No right or wrong way.

 

[RejectReality]

Honestly, I've seen more difference between personality types than from physical description. I write a lot of MILF stuff, and I tend to make note in various degrees that she's not 22 an more. Gravity, stretch marks, a few extra pounds, etc. I don't see much difference in the level I stress those "imperfections" of age, but I can easily track the difference between a woman who's a little shy/reluctant vs. one who's more confident and sexually aggressive.

 

[oggbashan]

I tend to be very economical with my descriptions of characters, male or female. I leave it up to the reader most of the time to decide what type he/she wants

 

[windar]

So you cannot observe any difference in the popularity of your stories in relation to the physical descriptions of the respective female heroines? Interesting, to say the least . . . Have no readers ever commented on any of your heroines being "sexy," "hot," or anything even remotely comparable? Do none of them care about the physical appearance of your heroines?

Here's a little secret. No one, and I include professionals who run ebook sites, can tell you with any degree of accuracy exceeding that of Punxsutawny Phil the groundhog, why one story clicks better than another by the same author (considering that the quality and style of writing is similar). Certainly it isn't the physical charateristics of the female charatcters. That may be true in a video, but it isn't in stories. The setting and theme probably play a role, but the physical descriptions of characters, not so much.

That said, I usually provide a brief, very general description of all the characters. No bra sizes, heights, weight, etc.

Regarding Punxsutawny Phil, one of the weather dudes on our local channel reviewed his predictions over the last 100 years or so and found that he was wrong around 90% of the time. Truly a remarkable record!

 

[JGittes]

...

And that's perfectly in line with what Dean R. Koontz, whom I had quoted beforehand from his book How to Write Best-Selling Fiction, says too (p. 152-153):

The reason I quoted Koontz in the first place was NotWise's statement that physical description wasn't part of characterization which Koontz—doubtlessly an authority when it comes to successful writing—seems to rather disagree with.

...

Who is this 'Koontz' you speak of?

 

[Auden James]

Who is this 'Koontz' you speak of?

FYI: Wikipedia entry on Dean Koontz. From that same entry:

He has published over 105 novels and a number of novellas and collections of short stories, and has sold over 450 million copies of his work.

 

[oggbashan]

Here's a little secret. No one, and I include professionals who run ebook sites, can tell you with any degree of accuracy exceeding that of Punxsutawny Phil the groundhog, why one story clicks better than another by the same author (considering that the quality and style of writing is similar). Certainly it isn't the physical charateristics of the female charatcters. That may be true in a video, but it isn't in stories. The setting and theme probably play a role, but the physical descriptions of characters, not so much.

That said, I usually provide a brief, very general description of all the characters. No bra sizes, heights, weight, etc.

Regarding Punxsutawny Phil, one of the weather dudes on our local channel reviewed his predictions over the last 100 years or so and found that he was wrong around 90% of the time. Truly a remarkable record!

Not wholly true on Literotica. Incest by an author who doesn't normally post in that category will attract more views than other categories.

Some trigger words in the title will help: 'sister' 'brother' 'Mom' and 'Virgin' all increase the view rating in Incest.

 

[JGittes]

Does this person publish here, on Literotica?

 

[windar]

Not wholly true on Literotica. Incest by an author who doesn't normally post in that category will attract more views than other categories.

Some trigger words in the title will help: 'sister' 'brother' 'Mom' and 'Virgin' all increase the view rating in Incest.

Regardless, I will NOT be writing " My Sister and Brother Fucked Our Virgin Mom"

 

[RejectReality]

If I went purely by my numbers, I would assume that older women with witness marks of time and gravity are preferred over pretty little nymphs, because older woman/younger man almost always outperforms older man/younger woman in Mature. Mom/Son will also consistently outperform Bro/Sis.

However, I know it's about the dynamic rather than the woman's appearance.

 

[Auden James]

As someone who grew up reading porn stories where the main female character always had big tits, it has surprised me how willing Literotica readers are to embrace stories where the main female character has a more average-sized bust.

Well, I've just done a quick tags search, and searching for "small tits" gives me five pages of results, whilst searching for "big tits" gives me seventy-seven pages of results. So, at least to my mind, the LIT writers seem to be rather fond of embracing well-endowed female characters!

How come you think that the LIT readers have rather different or more varied tastes in tits? Do the LIT writers simply miss some audience demands here? Or do your female characters with a "more average-sized bust" still have big tits (just not huge ones)?

 

[NotWise]

On the search page you can find a list of "popular searches." I think those are what the readers have been searching for, not what the authors have been using for tags. Refresh the page, get a new list.

I see a few appearance-related searches. "38DD", which would probably describe a rather fluffy woman, was one. Most of the searches are for acts and relationships, not appearance.

 

[8letters]

Well, I've just done a quick tags search, and searching for "small tits" gives me five pages of results, whilst searching for "big tits" gives me seventy-seven pages of results. So, at least to my mind, the LIT writers seem to be rather fond of embracing well-endowed female characters!

How come you think that the LIT readers have rather different or more varied tastes in tits? Do the LIT writers simply miss some audience demands here? Or do your female characters with a "more average-sized bust" still have big tits (just not huge ones)?

I'm not surprised by your findings on "big tits" vs "small tits". In so much of the porn I've read, the attraction is purely physical. She's got big tits, he's got a big cock, and that's all they need to be have great sex. In my stories, it's about two ordinary characters falling in love. I've gotten several comments saying that they liked that it was normal people and not a girl with massive tits and a guy with a donkey dick. My two top-rated stories have FMC's with "nice-sized tits" that I wrote imagining that their tits were above-average in size, but not overly so. Say a C cup.

 

[NotWise]

I'm not surprised by your findings on "big tits" vs "small tits". In so much of the porn I've read, the attraction is purely physical. She's got big tits, he's got a big cock, and that's all they need to be have great sex. In my stories, it's about two ordinary characters falling in love. I've gotten several comments saying that they liked that it was normal people and not a girl with massive tits and a guy with a donkey dick. My two top-rated stories have FMC's with "nice-sized tits" that I wrote imagining that their tits were above-average in size, but not overly so. Say a C cup.

I just did a quick search, and as of 2013 the average bra size in the US was 34DD. The cup size went up to DDD shortly after that. Don't know who's size system they're using.

 

[Auden James]

I see a few appearance-related searches. "38DD", which would probably describe a rather fluffy woman, was one. Most of the searches are for acts and relationships, not appearance.

That may be so, but I didn't say that the physical appearance of fictional characters was the only deciding factor when it comes a story's success with readers. The question this thread poses is implying only that descriptions of physical appearance may not all be equally successful with readers, hence this discussion to clear up which ones may be more or less successful!

Besides, in some five tries I've got quite a few appearance-related popular searches: "10 inch dick," "bbw," "shave," "short," "tight pussy," "elves," "monster cock," "huge tits," "tanning," "tattooed."

 

[SamScribble]

I don't think that I have ever had a reader comment on the appearance of any of my characters.

 

[TxRad]

hence this discussion to clear up which ones may be more or less successful!

It is a nice thought but there is no way to know which ones work best. Too many variables and too many different type stories.

 

[PennameWombat]

Well, thank you for the many replies!

<snip>
Furthermore some of you seem to think that missing direct feedback from readers on one's female characters' physical appearances would render this thread's question void as becomes especially clear in the following reply by PennameWombat:

But again that's missing the point! The question wasn't limited to what written feedback by readers writers on here have received with regards to the physical descriptions they provided of their heroines, but what, if any, physical description of their heroines may have been the most successful with their readers! And apart from written feedback their are at least three other rather obvious measures for success with readers on LIT: voting scores, number of views, and number of favourites.
<snip>

No, I didn't miss the point.

Yeah... views, votes, rating, favorites, comments, feedback... And I was fully aware of them when I wrote my previous answer. But, still, I provided you the answer I did. You asked "which are the most successful."

And... before I made that previous answer and tried to map all of those variables to the various sorts of physical descriptions in stories... they're ALL OVER THE PLACE. The only way *I* can know if a physical description was a linchpin is if a reader tells me, because I have a range of physical types in all of my stories, and per earlier, sometimes they're sketchy and sometimes not.

That's why I highlighted Asha and Tracy. It's made clear Asha is tall, curvy, classically beautiful; Tracy is short, thin, hardly any figure, and due to a brutal physical assault that shattered bones, the left side of her face is slightly uneven with the right side, enough so that it gets noted by PoV characters (and when she's PoV, she doesn't shy from it, she adjusts her hair to fall over it a bit, etc). That series is quite popular, but as I said, what feedback I *have* is around their friendship (and mushy peas, since they make an appearance in the third story). But given their physical differences, how would I judge? They're so radically different, how the hell would I make a conclusion? Or, should those two archetypes be in all of my stories? And, I have other stories that are just as popular (going by views, votes and rating), but with many other physical descriptions (some sketchy, some Koontzian.)

One reader did tell me that she really liked my female exhibitionist in another story who wore, and flashed, her butt plug in public, said she wore hers like that as well. But that was behavior, not appearance.

So, okay. An answer that maybe fits into your definition: Based on my own stories and the attributes by which I can judge, I have zero information that I can correlate whether or not my physical descriptions are linchpins and which ones are key.

Edit: You're tracking searches, and yeah, those are there. So, um, what? Record the top terms as they vary for a day, then make sure to put whatever shows up all into your next story. Then there's no reason to ask us. And... 'elves.' Yeah, elves implies a certain appearance, but it also implies a kind of story. But go ahead, put some elves where the females have massive tits and the males 10-inch cocks (or, hey, I've seen 'futanari' show up in the top search terms, so... massive tits AND 10-inch cocks AND vaginas) in your next story and you'll be golden. There's a recent thread here around "popular tags" and "how do readers find stories" and, as usual, it's all over the place. Hey, just go to any porn site and look at their 'categories,' "big cock," "big tits," and such are going to be there. But so will "small tits" and "petite"...

But, here, you're asking us authors what we do. I did put a futanari in a story (well, she had massive tits but only had a nine-inch cock), and that story does ok, but never quite made the H. Maybe it was that she was a bot, not human. I don't know . But the point, we're telling you what we do, yet you don't seem to accept the answers.

 

[NotWise]

Besides, in some five tries I've got quite a few appearance-related popular searches: "10 inch dick," "bbw," "shave," "short," "tight pussy," "elves," "monster cock," "huge tits," "tanning," "tattooed."

Now you have all you need to build the physical profile the readers are looking for. So far she's a short, elfin bbw with a tight, shaved pussy; she's tattoed, has huge tits, and wants to get a tan.

 

[yukonnights]

I keep it vague, but not a blank sheet. Mostly I write females in a the way I like them best — I do write for a hobby after all (and I have very good taste ). As said above; too much detail pointing to a trope of some porn body type gets a back button real quick — numerical breast / cock sizes gets an even faster rejection. IMO, emotions are the most important element in erotica — the self-doubts, the unknowns of what the other person thinks, the ecstasy of a perfect union, the feelings of love, etc. Bottom line, beyond the category I don't even think of a specific audience when I write a story.

 

[LexxRuthless]

I figured there are enough stories here with enough data attached that we could conceivably come up with a statistically significant response to the OP. Unfortunately, the story tags won't help as much as I had initially hoped. Most of the stories in the "Most-read" and "Most-favorited" lists were published before the tags were introduced. When I first read this thread, I immediately thought, "Duh. Big breasts. Put in the tag, 'big tits,' 'huge tits,' or 'busty' and you're going to rack up the views."

As far as the actual physical description within the story, I agree that being a little vague helps readers make the story their own fantasy. I recently explained that to one reader in a rather lengthy e-mail. He'd asked if I could write a story featuring a woman with "truly monumental breasts, like T-cups" and I explained why I almost never included bra sizes. If I use a term like "huge breasts" in the story, readers can then fill in the size that suits their fantasy. If I had instead said "F-cup breasts" there would be some readers that would immediately think, "Oh, that's too much. She must be fat." (I've gotten comments to that effect, even when I didn't put in precise measurements.) Other readers would have been disappointed that I hadn't gone bigger.

I'm willing to admit that my snap response may be completely wrong, though. Many readers have "felt a special connection" with female characters in my stories who weren't that well-endowed, lacked self-confidence, but came across as sweet and vulnerable. If someone has the time and inclination to actually do a statistical analysis on female character descriptions within Literotica stories and reader response, there might be a doctoral thesis in Psychology to be had there...