First or third person style.

[damppanties]

Well, yes, if the narrator was the one having the experience (in which case it would be in first person).

The narrator would be having the experience of watching (and then describing it). But I get what you're saying. Narrator wouldn't be able to tell the reader what a tight fit it was, etc.

 

[sr71plt]

The narrator would be having the experience of watching (and then describing it). But I get what you're saying. Narrator wouldn't be able to tell the reader what a tight fit it was, etc.

That would be a separate experience from those having the sex. It was having that experience I meant--although I can see that the narrator might be having an erotic voyeur experience at the same time. (But, in relation to that experience, it would, again be first person). Describing someone else's experience, I think, just can't be as intense and specific in third person as it is in first person. But then, it's had to write up someone's death in the first person, I guess . . .

 

[slyc_willie]

That would be a separate experience from those having the sex. It was having that experience I meant--although I can see that the narrator might be having an erotic voyeur experience at the same time. (But, in relation to that experience, it would, again be first person). Describing someone else's experience, I think, just can't be as intense and specific in third person as it is in first person. But then, it's had to write up someone's death in the first person, I guess . . .

Oh, I don't know. I have an unfinished story about a guy who comes back to life whenever he dies, and it's written in first person. Granted, I pretty much have autonomy when it comes to describing the experience, since no one can quite tell me I'm wrong.

 

[Dyslexicea]

The main issue with erotica and first person, I think, isn't character development--it's conveying directly the sensory aspects--what the senses actually experience and the emotionalism of it without any translation, distillation, or interpretation between the character and the reader.

You may be right as for a male audience but I think we need, characters we can have empathy for or even hate. Which takes character development. We also need plot. We also need emotions. Add in the sex to make it erotica. These are the types of erotic novels women buy.

These types of stories are far a few here at Lit, which is why male readership here is most likely 100 to 1 over female readership.

 

[MichaelWest]

You may be right as for a male audience but I think we need, character we can have empathy for or even hate. Which takes character development. We also need plot. We also need emotions. Add in the sex to make it erotica. These are the types of erotic novels women buy.

Part of that is the limitations of a short story. Character development gets compressed along with the action. And plot often gets simplified to a single scene. But I find characters in erotic literature more empathetic when I read from first person. I get to experience the narrator's emotions and sensory experiences, and I learn about the other characters from that person's interactions with them. This replicates real life, I see the world through my eyes and only know others from their actions and words, first person puts me in the driver's seat rather than the backseat so to speak.

 

[Dyslexicea]

That would be a separate experience from those having the sex. It was having that experience I meant--although I can see that the narrator might be having an erotic voyeur experience at the same time. (But, in relation to that experience, it would, again be first person). Describing someone else's experience, I think, just can't be as intense and specific in third person as it is in first person. But then, it's had to write up someone's death in the first person, I guess . . .

Yes watching someone else having sex, at least for most of us, doesn't have the same intensity as having sex ourselves. But it can still be quite lustful, very arousing and if the experience leads to the 1st person having sex, a story can be even more erotic than just the 1st person having sex. If being so aroused she has sex with someone she shouldn't, like her girlfriend's mother, not only do we have erotic sex scenes but we also built in conflict as well. The plot thickens! Might even make an interesting story.

 

[Dyslexicea]

Part of that is the limitations of a short story. Character development gets compressed along with the action. And plot often gets simplified to a single scene. But I find characters in erotic literature more empathetic when I read from first person. I get to experience the narrator's emotions and sensory experiences, and I learn about the other characters from that person's interactions with them. This replicates real life, I see the world through my eyes and only know others from their actions and words, first person puts me in the driver's seat rather than the backseat so to speak.

Yes it is hard to do in a short story but there are here at Lit many good authors, both women and men, who do so.

 

[oggbashan]

When I'm in doubt whether to write a story in 1st or 3rd, I do it as one, save it, then edit a copy into the other POV.

I use whichever works best.

 

[sr71plt]

When I'm in doubt whether to write a story in 1st or 3rd, I do it as one, save it, then edit a copy into the other POV.

I use whichever works best.

I usually find it out belatedly. I'm tooling along in one voice (I think) but realize that I've shifted over into another one when my mind is fully invested in the write. That tells me I made the wrong choice to begin with.

 

[sr71plt]

Yes watching someone else having sex, at least for most of us, doesn't have the same intensity as having sex ourselves. But it can still be quite lustful, very arousing and if the experience leads to the 1st person having sex, a story can be even more erotic than just the 1st person having sex. If being so aroused she has sex with someone she shouldn't, like her girlfriend's mother, not only do we have erotic sex scenes but we also built in conflict as well. The plot thickens! Might even make an interesting story.

What would be interesting, I think, would be a sex scene in the perspective of a voyeur and then switch over to the perspective of one of the ones engaged in the sex. I'd do both in the first person, though--just different characters in different sections of the story.