A question for those of you who are into plot and character.

[AG31]

Note: Please don't read this as any sort of negative opinion about plot and character in erotica. Though I haven't written any (well... maybe one), I've certainly enjoyed good stories with good plots and developed characters, both here and in mainstream outlets.

Which brings me to my question. Do those of you who put effort into good plots and developed characters think of your stories as the same as a novel or short story at Barnes and Noble (or wherever) with a lot of hot sex scenes? Or is there some quality that makes them "erotica," where that hot novel would not be so classified? I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. I'm just curious as to how you see yourselves and your stories.

tia
ag

 

[onehitwanda]

Note: Please don't read this as any sort of negative opinion about plot and character in erotica. Though I haven't written any (well... maybe one), I've certainly enjoyed good stories with good plots and developed characters, both here and in mainstream outlets.

Which brings me to my question. Do those of you who put effort into good plots and developed characters think of your stories as the same as a novel at Barnes and Noble (or wherever) with a lot of hot sex scenes? Or is there some quality that makes them "erotica," where that hot novel would not be so classified? I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. I'm just curious as to how you see yourselves and your stories.

tia
ag

Most of my stories have less gratuitous sex and incest than Game of Thrones. I'm not sure if that's a helpful answer though.

As to whether I see them as a novel? No. A novel (generally) takes far more work, and unless you're extremely lucky it's far less rewarding than writing here.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think there are two sets of stories along these lines. One is stories that are not primarily erotic, but feature erotic scenes. The other is a story where everything, including plot and character, are developed for the purpose of exploring an erotic theme or creating an erotic effect. The Story of O, for example, is a novel-length story, but the entire story is erotica. There's no separate plot. These are the types of longer stories I usually like at Literotica.

In these types of stories, the plot and characters are developed so we get more invested in the erotic activity. The development, if done right, serves the erotic purpose rather than distracts from it. Some people, myself included, find that the slow burn and development can be just as erotic as, or more erotic than, the culminating sex scene.

I have a story where a reader wrote to me that they came the moment the male character touched the woman's panties. I felt I'd done my job right when I read that.

 

[StillStunned]

When I write plot-based or character-based stories (as opposed to sex vignettes), the sex is always there. It's very present in the characters' everyday lives and personalities.

The characters are sexual beings, and they see the world through sex-tinged glasses. Demons and other creatures use sex, or can be used by the characters for sex.

The sex isn't something that's added on to give the reader something to wank to. I don't do love stories with a sex scene to make it steamy. The love involves sex, or at least sexual feelings, from the start.

What I'm trying to say is that it's intrinsic, not cosmetic.

 

[SimonDoom]

By the way, a novel is usually regarded as about 40,000 words or more, which translates to around 11 Literotica pages. I think it's possible to write a short story that features good character development and some plot in much less than that -- 4 to 5 pages, maybe less with skill. That's "long" by traditional short story terms -- longer than the typical short story you'd read in The New Yorker, for example. Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, for example, is only 16,000 words, but long enough to give us a full sense of the two characters involved and the arc of their tragic relationship.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

This relates to my distinction between 'fiction with sex' and 'fiction about sex.' To me, plot and character are aspects of any fiction I write. Whether I employ them successfully is for a reader to decide, but I always try to employ them. What interests me about 'fiction about sex' is that in most human experience, in most cultures, sex is rarely discussed openly, or in detail. Making sex the center of a story can give it an intriguing plot, and allow for development of characters in ways that might not arise in 'fiction with sex.'

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Kinda. Considering I am writing novels and comparing my work here in a way, the only difference is there is more sex in what I have here, than in my novels, or really the fan fics I've written. If that makes sense. I don't really have any novel length work here, and in general don't really intend to do any free novel length works, the only exception being a few fan fics, and a lesser degree the two I have, that I intend to publish that have first draft out to read. I have more novelette or novella length and shorter, but the obvious difference is more sex and often the way the sex is written, to some degree.

 

[nice90sguy]

I never write erotica -- and rarely read it. I feel like I'm a faker posting my stories here.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I write primarily about relationships, how they are formed, developed, sometimes fail. I include sexual content because it is dishonest not to, it is an important part of life. Sometimes, it's the most important aspect of the relationships, sometimes, as I like to say, the story is the meal, and the sex is the spice.

For an example, Queen of the Roller Derby takes place mostly in the 1950s, with the latter part of the story set in more contemporary time. Kitty, the main character, is a young girl growing up in a cold, not very happy home. One year, for her birthday, her father gives her a pair of roller skates. Skating becomes her escape, the most important thing in her life.

When she's older, she doesn't really understand why she doesn't fit in. After she graduates from high school, she has the opportunity to join a roller derby team, and there she comes to understand her sexuality, learn that there are other girls like her, and finds love.

I could have written that story without anything more graphic that a lingering kiss and some vague innuendo, but that would not be honest. That she finds sex joyous and affirming is important in her character development. As important, or more, than her rise to stardom in the derby. It's part of the story, but it's not the purpose of the story.

 

[nice90sguy]

...and that's the real reason I post my stories here -- I can write the sex that's appproriate for the story, and get it posted without pushback.

 

[AG31]

I never write erotica -- and rarely read it. I feel like I'm a faker posting my stories here.

Meaning....? I guess we're supposed to understand your personal definition of "erotica?" Is it maybe what you would call "a stroker" and I would call "simple erotica?"

 

[KitOwsley]

I like to imagine/delude myself that my series, In the Nest with Christie, could perhaps fool some highly discerning readers into believing its literary quality is at, maybe, like, the early Philip Roth level. I spent a lot of time coming up with incidents, imagery, word choices and transitional moments that felt resonant because they could mean more than one thing, and they touched upon a number of interconnected themes, but did so with a light and unpretentious touch that didn't jar the reader out of story immersion. But all the literary components served to make the kink that was sexiest to me feel natural and of a piece with kinks or turn-ons that other readers might give a damn about. The story is a slow-burn (too much so, I know), but even though the full-on sex doesn't happen until the last chapter, all of the non-sexual chapters are throbbing with a sexual charge, at least for me, even though they have other things going on.

What makes it erotica for me is that sex--the characters' sexual desire for/obsession with one another--was the main thing on my mind when writing every chapter, whether sex happened or not. The central underlying preoccupation isn't "The agony of existence weighed against the horror of non-being" or anything heavy like that. In a serious story, the main characters' preoccupation with sex would be an aspect of a bigger problem that would not be solved by, and would likely be exacerbated by, their decision to have sex. But it's erotica because, in my story, sex is the answer--it resolves the central problems of the story. The climax of the story=people climaxing; therefore, it is erotica.

 

[ronde]

Note: Please don't read this as any sort of negative opinion about plot and character in erotica. Though I haven't written any (well... maybe one), I've certainly enjoyed good stories with good plots and developed characters, both here and in mainstream outlets.

Which brings me to my question. Do those of you who put effort into good plots and developed characters think of your stories as the same as a novel or short story at Barnes and Noble (or wherever) with a lot of hot sex scenes? Or is there some quality that makes them "erotica," where that hot novel would not be so classified? I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. I'm just curious as to how you see yourselves and your stories.

tia
ag

My stories always have plots and I do attempt to define my characters to make them read like real people. I do not design the plot around the sex in the story. Rather, the sex is a result of the relationship between the characters of the story. In some of my stories there is little to no sex at all. Yes, I do think of my stories as something you might buy in a book store, much like you can buy Harlequin romances at the grocery store.

Perhaps the reason is I have a somewhat different definition of "erotica". For me, erotica is a story with sexual content that fits into the context of the characters and the plot. An example I particularly like is "Fanny Hill" by John Cleland. It has a lot of sex, but the sex is the result of the plot. Another, more modern example, is "Clan of the Cave Bear", by Jean Auel and the subsequent novels in that series. Sex figures prominently in those novels, but basically they're the story of a young woman rescued by a different people and then her journey to find her own people.

For me, the stories that are written around sex are better characterized as "porn". Another way of seeing the difference is to look at the Motion Picture Association. Movies rated as "R" or as "NC17" can have sex portrayed, but are regarded as being stories about the characters rather than stories about sex. The rating applied by the porn industry of "X" or "XXX" serves as an indication the main topic of the movie is sex rather than an actual story. Some of the early porn of the 1970's from Russ Meyer and others tends to lean more toward erotica than porn, but modern porn is all about naked skin and how often the characters can cum in how short a time.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I see my stuff as "Fantasy/Sci-Fi with sex in it." I spend about two-thirds of a story's run time on worldbuilding, characters, their conflicts and adventures and even when there's sex there is a good chance something plot-relevant happens besides the slotting of things into orifices.

I'm certain my stories classify as erotica since when sex happens, it gets treated with the same amount of detail as the non-bedroom stuff, which is to say "pretty graphic". The lone mainstream publisher who wanted to read the first 3k words of "Express Delivery" (which only had a pretty tame strip club sequence) asked if there was a "much, much less sexually charged" version of it because he liked the sci-fi.

There isn't and I am lucky enough to get read even without having to compromise, so I thanked him for his opinion and went my merry, unpublished way.

 

[intim8]

Note: Please don't read this as any sort of negative opinion about plot and character in erotica. Though I haven't written any (well... maybe one), I've certainly enjoyed good stories with good plots and developed characters, both here and in mainstream outlets.

Which brings me to my question. Do those of you who put effort into good plots and developed characters think of your stories as the same as a novel or short story at Barnes and Noble (or wherever) with a lot of hot sex scenes? Or is there some quality that makes them "erotica," where that hot novel would not be so classified? I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. I'm just curious as to how you see yourselves and your stories.

tia
ag

I think of most of my stories real stories, like what could be on the shelf in a bookstore, except the whole plot is about sex, graphically described.

I'm thinking about branching out from that, though. Stories that aren't about sex, but have it in them. Maybe graphically described, maybe not, depending on what a given scene needs.

'Aces' is kind of on the cusp of that, and the follow up series to it that I have gestating in my brain probably even more so.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Erotica is fundamental to my stories. If I took the sex, but more so the slow arousal burn, out of my stories, there'd be no story. Paying for a coffee is erotic, in my world.

 

[SamBomb]

Note: Please don't read this as any sort of negative opinion about plot and character in erotica. Though I haven't written any (well... maybe one), I've certainly enjoyed good stories with good plots and developed characters, both here and in mainstream outlets.

Which brings me to my question. Do those of you who put effort into good plots and developed characters think of your stories as the same as a novel or short story at Barnes and Noble (or wherever) with a lot of hot sex scenes? Or is there some quality that makes them "erotica," where that hot novel would not be so classified? I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. I'm just curious as to how you see yourselves and your stories.

tia
ag

I think sex scenes are only hot if they are built up with characters and stories around it that make them hot.

I have no desire to watch or read a sex scene without context around it, so that is how I write.

 

[intim8]

modern porn is all about naked skin and how often the characters can cum in how short a time.

Or about how many times the woman can cum while the man holds out through a 20 minute blowjob followed by a round-robin of every camera-friendly position known to man.

And they never talk, except to demand a body part or to tell us how hard they're cumming. Oh, and tits are entirely forgotten once they've been flashed to get thing started.

 

[StillStunned]

And they never talk, except to demand a body part or to tell us how hard they're cumming.

Have you ever watched any German-dubbed porn? It's like the voice actors are being paid by the word. They have long conversations the whole time.

(Not as bad as Russian-dubbed porn, where you have one man tonelessly saying all the characters' lines.)

 

[intim8]

...and that's the real reason I post my stories here -- I can write the sex that's appproriate for the story, and get it posted without pushback.

Posted, and even appreciated. I'vw gotten comments on how much people liked the story, qua story. Not a lot, but enough to keep me encouraged.

 

[intim8]

Have you ever watched any German-dubbed porn? It's like the voice actors are being paid by the word. They have long conversations the whole time.

Everything in moderation, I say, including moderation.

 

[AG31]

Erotica is fundamental to my stories. If I took the sex, but more so the slow arousal burn, out of my stories, there'd be no story. Paying for a coffee is erotic, in my world.

Is your cafe real? I think you've answered this somewhere, but I forget.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Is your cafe real? I think you've answered this somewhere, but I forget.

Every one. If you knew my city, you could probably figure out which streets they're on, which suburbs they're in (except I change the name of every street and every suburb).

I have a story set in Canada - one of my readers who knows my content really well made this comment:

And despite the new setting it was classic electricblue. Only you could evoke a crowded café scene in the middle of the Canadian wilderness.

 

[AG31]

I was trying to Insert Quote and failed.

And despite the new setting it was classic electricblue. Only you could evoke a crowded cafe scene in the middle of the Canadian Wilderness.

@ElectricBlue
I wish I could have alerted the author of that comment.

 

[stickygirl]

Every one. If you knew my city, you could probably figure out which streets they're on, which suburbs they're in (except I change the name of every street and every suburb).

I have a story set in Canada - one of my readers who knows my content really well made this comment:

Were there beavers and bears as customers?