How much description is good in a story line?

[ScaryJames]

Hi,

I am writing a multi-chapter story (my first here.. not yet posted) about a young woman who is smart, beautiful, and successful. She got married two years ago just after graduating university. Over the last two she dedicated a lot of time to her business at the expense of her husband. She discovers he was/is cheating and decides to take action by <various methods>.

My question: How long is too long in erotica lit before reaching sex scenes? (or how descriptive and contextualizing/drawing the personality of a character is too much?)

Chapter 1 (4 or 5 pages long) is so far focused on building and describing the characters. My goal was to end it at a point where she discovers he is cheating and decides to make a plan. Then subsequent chapters would branch off of there.

 

[NotWise]

I doubt that anyone could give you effective guidance. If your story and your delivery engage the reader then the lead-in can be long. If it isn't very engaging then the readers will click away. No one is going to reach out and slap your hands for writing a long lead-in.

 

[tomlitilia]

Do you mean 4-5 literotica pages? I'd say that's far too long for most readers, including this one. And either way, starting with a long background usually comes across a bit boring. A different strategy would be to just jump into somthing more interesting, and build up the back story as you tell the actual story. Just a thought.

 

[NotWise]

I took the 4-5 pages to mean printed pages rather than Lit pages. The OP says it's his first story here and it hasn't been posted yet, so he may not have a way of knowing the size in Lit pages. I take a Lit page to be about 3500 words.

The only series I have up goes 12 printed pages before there's any sex. That's 5500 words -- less that two Lit pages. I think it's pretty common for stories to go that long without sex.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Hi,

I am writing a multi-chapter story (my first here.. not yet posted) about a young woman who is smart, beautiful, and successful. She got married two years ago just after graduating university. Over the last two she dedicated a lot of time to her business at the expense of her husband. She discovers he was/is cheating and decides to take action by <various methods>.

My question: How long is too long in erotica lit before reaching sex scenes? (or how descriptive and contextualizing/drawing the personality of a character is too much?)

Chapter 1 (4 or 5 pages long) is so far focused on building and describing the characters. My goal was to end it at a point where she discovers he is cheating and decides to make a plan. Then subsequent chapters would branch off of there.

I've learned this the hard way. Start your story with sex otherwise few will read it.

Lots of description is always good but weave it into the story as part of the story instead of dumping in all in one sentence or paragraph.

Lastly, my biggest bitch is forget about the story, develop your characters. Allow your characters to show the story. Your characters and not the plot is what makes a good story a great story. Readers will remember your characters more than your story.

The reason why I routinely write in 30 of the 35 categories is because of character development. Once I develop my characters, once they stand up from the page to move behind my chair to whisper in my ear what next to write, I hand them the keyboard and allow them to write their own damn story.

Even though I never had anal sex, am not into bondage, aren't gay, lesbian, or a cross dresser, or have any fetishes other than exhibitionism, I can write stories in any category because I develop my characters.

For the best character development, you must go beyond using just mere descriptions, use imagery and use all five senses. Make comparisons. Use celebrities and/or movies and songs for your characters to come alive in your readers' minds.

Good luck.

 

[lovecraft68]

It all depends on the reader. People here for quickie one handed reads want to get right into the sex.

People who enjoy a story with their smut are more patient.

So for stroker types, the answer is always very little. They only come here for the hot stuff.

For the story type? As long as you can hold the readers interest there is no limit. I have a couple stories here where nothing happens until page 6 and they've done very well.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

LADY PILOT writes the best stories.

From I'M SO TEX

I walked into the party like I was walking onto a yacht
My cowboy hat strategically dipped below one eye
My ascot was apricot
I had one eye in the mirror as I watched myself gavotte
And all the boys dreamed that they'd be my partners
They'd be my partners!

 

[HandsInTheDark]

If the story itself is interesting, you cam put off sex for a long time. Older romance novels would put off the sex for the first third of the book, sometimes longer.

But you're not writing a romance per se. None of the characters are likely to be all that appealing or deserving of sympathy from the sounds of it. So I'd get down to it in the first 2-3 pages (before 10,000 words, say).

 

[Weird Harold]

My question: How long is too long in erotica lit before reaching sex scenes? (or how descriptive and contextualizing/drawing the personality of a character is too much?)

If you're asking the question, then you're probably there.

Write whatever you need to tell the story you want. Lit does have a non-erotic category so you don't need any sex at all. Other categories would fit an extended tease/erotic torture without consummation. If you tell the story well, or write well, or both, you'll find readers here. If you're a bad storyteller and/or can't spell and have lousy grammar, it won't matter how much sex you put in the story.

 

[Bramblethorn]

In my experience, if you write the story that you'd enjoy reading, you'll probably find an audience.

I have several stories that run for about 3 Lit pages (10k words) before getting to a sex scene; in some cases that scene is very brief and vaguely described. Those ones still did quite well with readers, because of the buildup and the other stuff that was happening along the way.

 

[sr71plt]

What NotWise posted.

Also, can't resist noting that there aren't 35 categories at Lit.

 

[Hypoxia]

Sometimes I start with sex. Sometimes I end with sex. A high-scoring historical romance's only explicit sex is one blowjob 4/5 of the way through a 5-LIT-page story. A low-scoring but much-read LW satire is almost nonstop fuckfests.

How much sex, and where? Whatever works. Whatever feels right. Whatever the voices in your head direct.

If you feel you started with a too-long arid setup, throw in some salacious flash-backs or -forwards. Unless they don't work. Then, don't.

Look at your favorite LIT stories. How long till the sex starts in them? Use those as models for your own writing.

 

[OliviaM]

I think some categories are more forgiving than others - Romance, Sci-Fi, some Non-Consent. Some of my favorites here have no sex for the first third or half of it. Romance seems especially forgiving of long, drawn out intros. Most of those stories have a note at the beginning warning readers that the sex comes later, however.

 

[sr71plt]

Sometimes I start with sex. Sometimes I end with sex. A high-scoring historical romance's only explicit sex is one blowjob 4/5 of the way through a 5-LIT-page story. A low-scoring but much-read LW satire is almost nonstop fuckfests.

I often start with sex and I sometimes end with sex and I always have sex in the middle.

 

[Hypoxia]

I often start with sex and I sometimes end with sex and I always have sex in the middle.

Yeah, that's a winning formula. Or sometimes I promise sex up front and in back, but fill in-between with fuckfests. And I usually throw in some snarky shit because obsession. But some plots can get away with nothing explicit, everything suggested. That's merely a different exercise.

Everything needn't be strokers. But many should.

 

[i_would]

Start with a hot sex (related) scene, that satisfies the wankers. Do make sure that from the get-go you throw in some mysterious hints about how there is more than meets the eye, to grab the real readers' attention. Then flash back to a point in the story where you can start to build up your characters and have them do their things, maybe coming back to the starting scene either as end or mid point in the story.

Something like:
It all started to come together for me. I was still a bit in a daze, but her naked presence got me back to my senses, and definitely got my attention. (continue to write about what the naked girl is doing with the first person).
As I lay there, recovering from the mind blowing orgasm I just had, my thoughts went back to the events of the past month, specifically since I landed on this island - billed as a holiday paradise, but anything but. (And here you start building up the real story).

 

[Hypoxia]

My current quick project is a trio mini-anthology of tales told in a club, accounts of being fucked by three relatives. It begins with a guy finishing an anecdote of his three daughters blowing him and will end with a woman starting to tell of her three nephews doing her. In between will be one-LIT-page shorts of other triple-pile-ons with nieces, sons, and sisters. Sex, sex, and more sex. It works.

Many readers here want instant sex with improbable anatomies and superhuman skills and endurance. Many readers want involving dramatic and/or romantic tales of ordinary people who might get laid but that's not the main focus. We get fist-fucks, face-fucks, mind-fucks, holy-fucks, revenge-fucks, and no-fucks.

Hmmm, one type I haven't seen is from the POV of the fuck itself. A FUCK'S TALE -- could be fun.

 

[TamLin01]

There's just no way to quantify the answer to a question like this. It depends far too much on both the story and the reader. I suppose it's like the old saw about how long a story should be: Exactly as long as necessary, but no longer.

You certainly should get to the action as soon as you can. But "as soon as you can" may well be a while, if other things simply have to happen first. Since pacing can be one of the most difficult things about putting a story together, anyone who comes up with a reliable, repeatable formula for it is liable to become a millionaire in short order, and probably won't share the secret with the rest of us. (The wanker...)

 

[dlcalguy]

I don't mean to be flippant, but the three lines you used in your OP to describe the scenario are perfectly adequate. Flesh it out later, if you must.
It also allows you freedom while you develop your story chapters. If you invest in a lot of backstory, it could inhibit what your characters might reasonably do.