Exploring the emotional weight of erotica scenes

[Timewaitsfornone]

To my mind, the most important, and often most difficult, aspect of writing is conveying the emotional content of a scene. Not only what the characters are feeling but also in our efforts to elicit an emotional response from the reader, i.e. to get them invested in the story on a deep, personal level.

With erotica, we have an expected default response of lust, of course. Nothing wrong with that. Scratch that itch, baby.

But to move beyond the purely physical "how" dynamic of feeling horny and into the deep waters of "why" - that to me is a horse of another color entirely. One that I am constantly fascinated and challenged by.

Recently, I wrote a chapter in my THaBA series where the main character was furious with his woman, even as they were engaged in a sexual act. In a short story I recently added, I explored aspects of guilt and regret.

What unusual emotions have you explored in your writing?

 

[Bramblethorn]

What unusual emotions have you explored in your writing?

Great topic! Some that I've explored:

Horror. When you're at your most intimate and naked (literally, figuratively) and you realise the person you're with isn't who or what you thought they were.

Horror, a different take: if you overthink it, ordinary human sex is really creepy. Growing a new creature inside somebody, with part but not all of their DNA, that's going to hijack their body systems for its own benefit, until eventually it bursts out in a mess of blood... that's some "Alien" shit.

Don't really have a good word for this emotion: two people who are on different trajectories, sharing one moment of connection before the paths they've chosen tear them apart.

Predation/protection: one of the tensions in my current ongoing series is that the narrator is never sure whether she's protecting her partner or taking advantage of her.

Defiance: my first story begins with a woman who's angry at her boss, seducing his daughter.

 

[Timewaitsfornone]

Interesting! The ambiguity of that predation/protection conflict sounds like a fun one to explore. As to the two people on different trajectories... hmm, I see your difficulty at defining it. Bittersweet melancholy is the first thing that comes to mind.

 

[NotWise]

Aside from lust, love and/or fascination are the most common emotions behind the sex in my stories. Control (in many forms) is important both as a standalone need and as a sidelight to the first two. Otherwise, I've used sex for revenge, shelter, academic bonding, and as a final goodbye in a long relationship. I imagine there are a few others, too.

 

[HeyAll]

I'm not sure if this answeres the question to this thread, but one of my more recent (as in past few years) rules of writing erotica is that the main character should have a goal outside of just having sex.

For instance, a detective desperate to crack a case. A student willing to learn something. A reporting on the verge of a big break.

I find that if I add that emotion of a character wanting something badly, and it collides with hot sex, then the story is so much better than simply a character feeling lust.

 

[KeithD]

The need to be controlled to be in control.

 

[yukonnights]

My first thought in conveying the emotional content of a story is; How is it being conveyed?

This turns as much to the question of style as it does word choice. I remember well that one of Lit's most well known authors once told me the First Person POV is the most vibrant of our choices for evoking intimacy between story and reader. First person is easier to help the reader get inside the story — and thus inside the head of the character.

So, "…conveying the emotional content of a scene. Not only what the characters are (physically) feeling but also in our efforts to elicit an emotional response from the reader …" really should include thought regarding the point-of-view we write in.

 

[NotWise]

My first thought in conveying the emotional content of a story is; How is it being conveyed?

In my stories the emotional content or purpose is typically part of the plot or conflict. For my own stories, I don't think that one POV is more effective at communicating emotion than another.

 

[visioneer]

Great topic, Timewaitsfornone. When I write erotica, I strive to show the physical sex as a means and not an end. The characters are after something -- for better or worse, and to varying depths and intensities -- emotional. Ultimately this the "story" that I am trying to tell. I find getting this into words is the most frustrating and challenging part of the process.

 

[SimonDoom]

In my stories I think there are two different emotional themes in particular I've explored, along with basic lust.

One is pushing against and breaking the boundary of a taboo, a social barrier. The combination of reluctance and thrill. It gives an erotic story an extra erotic zing.

The other, as KeithD suggests, is the issue of control, and the subtle dynamic between controlling and being controlled. I think that's a very interesting and complex emotional dynamic.

 

[Timewaitsfornone]

Yes. I agree entirely! Especially fun is when that secondary motivation collides with the first. For example, someone you don't much like as a person but lusting after them anyway. Or it goes against a character's principles but is drawn to the encounter by circumstances beyond their control. Big fun in writing scenarios like that.

 

[Timewaitsfornone]

In my stories I think there are two different emotional themes in particular I've explored, along with basic lust.

One is pushing against and breaking the boundary of a taboo, a social barrier. The combination of reluctance and thrill. It gives an erotic story an extra erotic zing.

The other, as KeithD suggests, is the issue of control, and the subtle dynamic between controlling and being controlled. I think that's a very interesting and complex emotional dynamic.

I do agree that both make for an interesting dynamic. However, I would argue that neither "control" nor the confrontation of taboos is an emotional response. That it is a byproduct of emotion.

Which is why I find emotions so challenging to accurately convey in fiction. Too often, I see an author (myself included) write something like "Spanking her makes me happy." and thinking happiness is the emotion when it is actually the response. What the author should be asking is, why does spanking her make the character happy? Why does my character need to be controlled/in control? Therein, in my humble opinion, lies the emotional truth of the scene.

 

[ElectricBlue]

What unusual emotions have you explored in your writing?

Intimacy.

So many stories here don't have it, they treat sex as war. I don't understand that.

 

[KeithD]

I do agree that both make for an interesting dynamic. However, I would argue that neither "control" nor the confrontation of taboos is an emotional response. That it is a byproduct of emotion.

If you can't see that falling into being controlled physically as a means of attaining control emotionally as involving emotions or how the resulting tension triggers and thrumbs emotions, I don't understand what you're asking or accept your framing of what involves emotion and what doesn't. *shrug*

 

[NotWise]

To my mind, the most important, and often most difficult, aspect of writing is conveying the emotional content of a scene. Not only what the characters are feeling but also in our efforts to elicit an emotional response from the reader, i.e. to get them invested in the story on a deep, personal level.

I do agree that both make for an interesting dynamic. However, I would argue that neither "control" nor the confrontation of taboos is an emotional response. That it is a byproduct of emotion.

As I understand your question, you were looking for the emotional content of a scene, not entirely about the emotional response it evoked. Control and confrontation of taboo are both part of the emotional content of a scene.

I don't know what kind of emotional response I'd expect from the reader. Normally I expect the response to be somewhere in the spectrum of revulsion to adoration, but it's really difficult to predict how a reader will respond.

Readers all respond in their own ways. For a story with a big emotional content, I would just hope for some emotional response from the reader, without necessarily being able to predict where it falls in the spectrum.

 

[Timewaitsfornone]

"For a story with a big emotional content, I would just hope for some emotional response from the reader."

Amen to that.

 

[NotWise]

"For a story with a big emotional content, I would just hope for some emotional response from the reader."

Amen to that.

A beta reader for one of my more emotional stories told me something to the effect of "I had a hard time staying awake in the first scene, and I skimmed the rest." It was pretty evident from his comments that his skimming of the story didn't give him the emotional content at all. He probably didn't want it.

I accept as a fact that a lot of our readers aren't looking for emotional content, and that's fine with me. Other readers want it, and for those readers, we can pack a lot of emotion into a sex scene.

Actually, you don't even need sex. You can pack a lot of emotion into sexually charged stories, and the sex doesn't need to happen, or need to be explicitly described, to carry off the emotional impact.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I think that, one way or another, almost all of my stories deal with insecurity; am I good enough, can I give her/him what (s)he needs and desires, is this what (s)he wants, is this what I want, what about the rest of the world, ...

Mine too, as a starting point. As soon as you have two characters and a possibility of sexual action, you have the question 'are they interested in me' and, especially for same-sex or kinky stuff, 'will they want what I want and what will they think of me if they don't?'

Though often I get the basic plot in my head and just start writing, and some of my emotions I didn't know I had start spilling out. I wasn't intending my April Fool story to be about the effect of AIDS on London's queer community and thus the central characters, but it ended up that way. And a better story for it.

 

[yukonnights]

In my stories the emotional content or purpose is typically part of the plot or conflict. For my own stories, I don't think that one POV is more effective at communicating emotion than another.

I didn't interpret the question to be so much about the content of the plot. —> To my mind, the most important, and often most difficult, aspect of writing is conveying the emotional content of a scene. Not only what the characters are feeling but also in our efforts to elicit an emotional response from the reader, i.e. to get them invested in the story on a deep, personal level.

It seems to me that it is the "conveying of the content" that is difficult. This is much different than picking a certain plot or conflict, or even a certain action by a character. If poorly written, even a great plot idea is not going to convey the intended emotional content envisioned by the author. It's quite similar to the 'show don't tell' principle — there's a effective way to craft a story and also non-effective ways to craft a story.

Poorly written power dynamics, for example, have little chance of "conveying the emotional content".

So, I have to respectfully disagree that POV has no impact on how content is conveyed to the reader. To me, that's like saying "grammar" has no impact — or any of the other tools of the trade.

Personally, I believe that interior thoughts/emotions are more important than physical descriptions in pulling the reader into the scene — and thus into the story. Doing this well is much trickier that typing out the words describing what's going on physically. And thus, POV does come into play because there is a different response to an emotion told "by the character in first person", than there is an "emotion told by an omniscient imaginary wizard who sees and knows all".

Caveat: Yes, I know all readers are different — so no need to go there

 

[SamScribble]

I think the writer's first step in conveying the emotional content in a scene is the set-up: creating characters to which the reader can relate.

I confess that I don't read that many stories here; and of the stories that I do start reading, I probably abandon at least half of them within the first 500 or so words. Occasionally, my departure is prompted by having to pick my way through truly atrocious writing. But usually it is because I am asked to invest in cardboard cutouts. While I'm laughing at Sonny-Jim's truncheon-sized wanger and his mom's 48HHH breasts, I find it difficult to concentrate on any emotional interaction between the protagonists. But, that said, some of this fantasy trash scores very highly.

What do I know, eh?

 

[yukonnights]

I think the writer's first step in conveying the emotional content in a scene is the set-up: creating characters to which the reader can relate.

I confess that I don't read that many stories here; and of the stories that I do start reading, I probably abandon at least half of them within the first 500 or so words. Occasionally, my departure is prompted by having to pick my way through truly atrocious writing. But usually it is because I am asked to invest in cardboard cutouts. While I'm laughing at Sonny-Jim's truncheon-sized wanger and his mom's 48HHH breasts, I find it difficult to concentrate on any emotional interaction between the protagonists. But, that said, some of this fantasy trash scores very highly.

What do I know, eh?

Truly, I'm as perplexed as you. But, I think you actually got pretty close when you said "fantasy". I doubt we who call ourselves authors — I even shy away from that and say I'm a hobby writer — we who try to understand the concepts and accepted rules and proven techniques, too often fail to realize/remember that for a lot of readers it is precisely the "fantasy" they're seeking. It shocks our sensibilities that not everyone is into 'my well developed and inspired masterpiece'.

Nope, they just got home from a hard day at work, haven't scored a date in a month and just need some relief ! Screw the 'emotional weight' crap! It's either Pornhub or a Lit 2 pager, and then hit the sack

Who's that one guy — Kieth something — always saying there's no average Lit reader

And now to make the circle complete; I write to make me happy, so I write what makes me happy

 

[ElectricBlue]

Truly, I'm as perplexed as you. But, I think you actually got pretty close when you said "fantasy". I doubt we who call ourselves authors — I even shy away from that and say I'm a hobby writer — we who try to understand the concepts and accepted rules and proven techniques, too often fail to realize/remember that for a lot of readers it is precisely the "fantasy" they're seeking. It shocks our sensibilities that not everyone is into 'my well developed and inspired masterpiece'

There's nothing strange to figure out here. Literotica is one huge sample of an on-line smut community, both readers and writers. It wouldn't surprise me at all that any analysis or assessment of likes and dislikes, schlock and gold, whatever and whatever, is going to fit into the classic bell curve.

The only issue then is where you choose to place yourself as a writer on that bell curve. I, for example, have no desire to write for the great unwashed masses (does Lit need another incest writer? I don't think so) - call me a snob, do I care? - and with that comes an expectation for a similarly inclined reader base. I'm content to be an outlier, and I get the outlier reader base. It works for me, and it works for my readers.

I inhabit a penguin free zone .

 

[SimonDoom]

I do agree that both make for an interesting dynamic. However, I would argue that neither "control" nor the confrontation of taboos is an emotional response. That it is a byproduct of emotion.

.

I'm not sure what you mean by "emotional response."

Someone who confronts a taboo or social barrier experiences anxiety, distress, worry. These are all emotions. Conflict is what makes a story zing, and emotional conflict, internal conflict, is (just my opinion) the most compelling sort of conflict. Erotica presents great opportunities for conflicting emotions, because on the one hand you have desire, lust, whatever, and on the other hand you have fear, anxiety, worry warring with it.

In an exhibitionist story, for example, if the protagonist sheds her clothes at the drop of a hat and is happy to be naked in front of people, it's not interesting. It's interesting when the compulsion to exhibit herself is in conflict with one's worry about breaking the taboo, or about the consequences of her exposure. This sort of emotional conflict can exist in almost any type of erotic story.

I think control and surrender are very much emotional responses that come from deep within. For some, the feeling of surrendering to another person is an extraordinarily powerful, and satisfying, emotional response. Yet it conflicts with our emotional instinct for self preservation and personal integrity. So, there too, you have a very satisfying form of emotional conflict.