details

[ronibarret]

How much detail to the sex is too much?:

 

[LongDraw]

This could have been easily answered by reading the submission guidelines.

 

[KeithD]

How much detail to the sex is too much?:

The point at which the reader begins to giggle.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

How much detail to the sex is too much?:

When it gets repetitive or boring. If you can keep describing it in a novel way, adding to the characterisation by how they react or what they say during sex, people will want to read more.

 

[TadOverdon]

How much detail to the sex is too much?:

Who is the reader?

There's an author here on lit who has close to 8,000 followers and over 150 "hot" rated stories who writes nothing but series of 100,000+words each consisting of little more than lengthy, detailed descriptions of sex including lingering descriptions of lingerie.

 

[Nylonian]

How much detail to the sex is too much?:

When you start describing the nature of the sweat dripping down their backs in 200+ words.

 

[SimonDoom]

I firmly believe there's no right answer to this. Authors are different. Stories are different.

I think the right way to think about it is that you should be mindful of every word you write. Every word should serve a purpose and be necessary. As long as that's true, there's no limit.

 

[yukonnights]

How much detail to the sex is too much?:

The question is somewhat vague and depends to a large extent on your own personal writing style. Also, there are many different ways that sex happens. I wanted to check out one of your stories, but I see that you must be working on your first.

I think that at this stage of the game, you should just wing it and go with your muse. Don't worry too much about the amount of sex portrayed. As others have said, try to make it move the story forward — the characters involved gain a more intimate understanding of each other and so does the reader. (you might be well served to find an editor or friend to read the story once it's done and give you their thoughts before submitting it.)

Bottom line; some stories have little or no sex portrayed and others are almost 100% sex scene. Both extremes can do very good or very bad with the reading audience.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The answer to such questions is almost always: if you enjoy writing it, somebody else will enjoy reading it, and you get paid the same here no matter what.

 

[Agiel]

How much detail to the sex is too much?:

To some readers there can never be too much sex detail.

Some readers only want: He entered the room, closed the door…fucked her for the next twenty pages…pulled his trousers back on, walked to the door, and gave her a smile before disappearing from her life forever.

 

[Comshaw]

This could have been easily answered by reading the submission guidelines.

To sate my curiosity, where in the guidelines does it say anything about the length of a sex scene? I don't believe I've ever seen that. But that ain't surprising. I miss a lot of things.

Comshaw

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I often have very detailed and long sex scenes. Not all the time, but my significant sexual encounters are often of considerable length, and nobody complains.

Except in Chapter 22 of Mike & Karen, where somebody complained that Countess Penrose was simply having too much sex. Not a long scene, just that she fucked too much.

What kind of a site do you think you're on? Jenny had exactly as much sex as Jenny wanted to have. She loves sex. Just not with people who think there's too much sex.

Can sex scenes drag on? Yes. If you're going to have a long sex scene, keep it engaging, keep a rhythm or theme, and make sure the end is gratifying for the devotion to read. Not every lengthy scene will be a hit, but that doesn't mean you rely on only brief encounters.

 

[ElectricBlue]

To sate my curiosity, where in the guidelines does it say anything about the length of a sex scene? I don't believe I've ever seen that. But that ain't surprising. I miss a lot of things.

The guidelines cover what you can't include in a story, not what you can. Not sure what LongDraw is referring to, frankly - I don't think you missed anything.

 

[RejectReality]

Like everyone is saying, there's no right answer. The readership is broad enough to accommodate every level of detail. It also varies by category. People don't necessarily expect as much sex ( and even comment that they skim sex scenes to get back to the story ) in Sci-Fi & Fantasy as they might in Anal. Romance readers are more concerned with the chase than the culmination, as opposed to say Group Sex.

There is a wrong answer, though. If you aren't enjoying the level of detail you're putting into it, then it's wrong for you. Write what you enjoy writing. Maybe challenge yourself to crank it up or tone it down once in a while. But if you're not enjoying slogging through where the various body parts are for 2k words, or you get bored writing scenes that are only a paragraph, then it's going to drag you down. It will mostly likely show up in the response, because you aren't going to do your best work when you're fighting your instincts. It will almost certainly kill your desire to write eventually.

 

[LexxRuthless]

I'll take a stab at this one from a different angle. The level of detail depends on your writing style, your strengths at writing that sort of description, and the kind of story you want to write. There are some stories on this site that spend the bulk of the story (as Agiel alluded) describing the sex scene in intense detail. Some of those are fantastic, others...not so much. There are many stories on this site that earn a "Hot" rating without having any explicit sex at all.

If you want to write a 50-page "how to" manual, you can. Just be aware of your limitations before you go there. The flip side is that if you don't include enough detail there will be readers who will complain about it.

Let's face it, though, there will always be snarky readers who will complain about any story no matter how amazing the rest of us think it is.

 

[lovecraft68]

If your story is a quick stroker with characters that are no more than names and physical descriptions, then a short sex scene would work in tone with the story.

If you're going to spend a few pages developing characters and building conflict and getting the reader excited for the upcoming event, then a longer one would be needed, again to match the tone of the story.

My opinion, anyway

 

[Voboy]

As ALWAYS?

Write what you'd want to read.

Put in as much detail as you like. Someone else will like it too, guaranteed.