I know we're authors for Literotica...

[cawastedyouth]

Whose purpose is literary in erotic nature. So sex is what is important.

But maybe this is true for me being female, being naturally ambiguous about my gender orientation in real life, but not on line: sex doesn't do it for me.

So when I choose to read here, I'm looking for the story line. And if some graphic sex happens: great, I'll enjoy it!

I have my preferences in terms of what categories I like to read from. And interestingly enough: I don't generally like what is in the category I post the most in.

But is true sex: down and dirty through orgasm in any variation the only factor separating me as an author from getting and holding attention of my readers or is the fact that I am a literary erotic tease the turn off? (Outside of the fact that people don't like to read multiple stories, the readers don't like my topics of choice ie: lesbian, non-erotic, novellas, ect.)

What keeps a reader returning? I know I have a long way to go to continue to earn a spot here in Literotica, but I just want to have a reality check for myself: because frankly, I think I'm pretty good. And if I'm not, well I need to find out where the bar really is and reach it before I move on as an author into other genre.

 

[S-Des]

I have author friends who insist you score higher if you don't include sex scenes (one has a Romance story currently at the top of the top list with no sex). At the moment, I enjoy writing them. Not every chapter of every story I write will have an erotic scene, but so far every story has at least one. I enjoy the challenge of writing something that conveys that kind of emotion to the reader. The character interactions are easy for me, so I write what's difficult, hoping to improve.

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

Personally, I write for mysellf because I enjoy doing it. So far I have only two stories but there will be more. Since it is more fun to write dirty stories, that is what I write.

 

[Darkniciad]

One of Winter stories got slammed for having no sex, while the other gets applauded for having only semi-graphic scenes that mesh in with the nature of the story well. I get readers telling me they skip over the sex in Danica, while others are printing them out and reading them before going to bed ( I've even picked up thank you emails from two husbands who've never read a word of the stories themselves on this note *laugh* )

The story determines it for me. Danica, by nature, is heavy on graphic sex. That's the way it started, and that's the way it will continue. Casting had nothing other than suggestion until the final quarter. Grandfather Yule had only a single touch and some suggestion in the last paragraphs.

It really depends on what kind of readers you want, but you can't go wrong with nice helpings of sex within a good story. You'll snag a nice chunk of the demographic reading you that way. If you maintain an overall balance in every story you release, the strokers will read story, and the story readers will read the stroke.

I like writing the sex, so most of the time it will be in there. Lets my imagination run free for surprising the missus in real life, or I just draw on something that happened and write it. Luckily, we've got a lot of things to draw on in that regard *laugh*

Barring that, I'm hard-pressed to write anything that doesn't have at least some sexual suggestion. It is Literotica, after all. Those who don't come here to write sex are probably here to read it, that's the point.

 

[rgraham666]

Sex always serves a purpose in my stories.

In some it's the climax, literally and figuratively, the point that all the action leads to.

In others it's character and conflict building. Sex moves the story along.

In my short pieces of smut, it's all about the sex. No redeeming literary value at all.

 

[JamesSD]

You can't have erotica without sex.

Erotica can't be good without a good story.

For me, you can't have one without the other.

In terms of what readers want, there's a lot of category dependance. Romance and Novel readers are far more tolerant of sparse sex than categories like Group Sex.

 

[smy3th]

I was just thinking about this very question earlier today. I was noticing that in some stories with a strong plot, I find myself wanting to skim through the sex scenes quickly to get back the plot. In writing my holiday context entry, I actually found it hard to write the sex scenes even though all my previous stories had been basically just sex, but the plot in my story was the reason for it, and I found having to stop and describe sex in great detail to be almost a distraction. I actually wrote the story with just bare minimums in the sex scenes and then went back and "fleshed them out" later.

It did occur to me that if I wrote a story without sex, no one would read it. I could write a non-erotic story, but where would I post it? The only non-erotic stories I have bothered to read on Lit are some of the competing Winter Holidays entries. If it weren't for the contest, I wouldn't have bothered reading that category.

It seems to me there is a balance. There needs to be some sex in a story to make me want to read it, but if the sex over-rides plot it becomes just another description of sex, and there are only so many ways of describing it. The sex has to advance and contribute to the plot, but the plot alone without the sex would be dull. It would be like a turkey dinner without the stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy. The trimmings make the meal, but the main dish IS the meal.

 

[neonlyte]

I voted very important. That may come as a surprise to my readers as most of my stories do not contain graphic sex scenes, some contain only the hint of sex.

I'm much more concerned with the emotion of relationship (thus I write plot centered stories) and sex is a key component of emotional entanglement. The build up to sex, the desire and craving can create a greater sexual tension in a story than describing the act of sex.

That said, I experiment endlessly with both sex and relationships in the stories I write and post on Lit. At opposite ends of the scale, in my stories, 'The Blow Job' - obvious from the title - is the thoughts inside a womans head as she performs the act, and sex on the bidet, from 'Amy' (toward the end of the story) is about the most sexually explicit, and unusual, sex scene I've written. 'Painting the Nude' is unique (in my and my readers opinions) there is no sex in the story - which is only about genetalia, and yet it is highly erotic.

You can write sex any way you choose, but for me, it has to have a plot to render it meaningful.

 

[amicus]

"...I know we're authors for Literotica...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whose purpose is literary in erotic nature. So sex is what is important.

But maybe this is true for me being female, being naturally ambiguous about my gender orientation in real life, but not on line: sex doesn't do it for me...."

~~~~

I read through this thread once and passed on by as I was not certain of your intent or purpose or real question. Or whether you were talking literature/writing in general, for Literotica only, or just had a personal thing abut gender ambiguity.

Anyway, CAWastedYouth, welcome to the forum, I don't recall seeing your SN before and I hope you enjoy the banter here.

So, I wonder what your query really is. Sex plays a role in just about everything we humans do, or so says Sigmund and his cohorts; it is at the core of most of our thoughts and activities.

I neither read nor write pornography, I find it boring and uninspiring. But I do find the natural and inherent sexuality of my fellow humans to be quite diverse and interesting, and I gain some pleasure from both the writing and reading of such fiction.

Our western heritage, from the Persians and the Greeks, had some pretty sexy peeps, even way back then, and the Bard, well, he knew them all.

Hmmm, another thought, disjointed...I find most peoples lives dull, boring and uninteresting and certainly not worthy of writing about, so I create my own characters and scenario's, in which, I make them exciting, interesting and sometimes unpredictable.

Pretty much depends at what level you want to write. I think someone else said about the same thing.

good luck...


amicus...

 

[TxRad]

If you read the first line of my sig you'll find my thought on character, plot, and sex.

A pc on my story "A fishing trip" stands out for me.... Basically it said, "I finished the first two lit pages and there was no sex. Surprisingly I found myself going to the third page because of the interplay of the characters only to be blown away by the sex scene i found there. The long build up is what made it work so well."

I write for myself so the stories have to be whole and realistic. The sex drives the story in some cases and the story needs the sex in others. It's all in how you mix it.

 

[amicus]

JamesSD, neonlyte, rgraham666, SweetPrettyAss

I never voted before on these things, geez, what a motley crew I have joined!

egads...

amicus...

 

[Weird Harold]

But is true sex: down and dirty through orgasm in any variation the only factor separating me as an author from getting and holding attention of my readers or is the fact that I am a literary erotic tease the turn off? (Outside of the fact that people don't like to read multiple stories, the readers don't like my topics of choice ie: lesbian, non-erotic, novellas, ect.)

I write Stories -- first and foremost is the Story and only the story. I post at Literotica because I write about people and people have sex -- not alway and not all the time -- and if they're not having sex, they're thinking about sex or talking about sex and basically trying to have sex. Literotic lets me tell that part of the story without worrying about offending some prude.

I think that a well written story will lead the reader to the end of the story I want to tell no matter how I describe, or fail to describe, the Sex. If I write a good Story, the reader may not even notice there isn't any explicit sex.

I generally don't worry about what the score is, whether I stirred enough feelings in the readers to cause them to vote on the story is my goal.

 

[angelicminx]

I voted for either way. I've written some things (not yet submitted) that have no sex at all, but most of my stories have at least some sex in them. It really depends on the story. I find my stories write themselves, and my characters tell me if they want to have sex or not.

Sometimes I'm just looking for a stroke piece to read... first category I browse is Gay Male. I've found some interesting stories there, in addition to some hot stroke.

Sometimes I just want to read a good story and hot sex is just a bonus. First category I browse for that is Non Erotic.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

I admit it: I write stroke. Beyond the basic essentials of good clear prose and characters who you care about this involves two things. First, a very erotic situation/plot. All my stories have a first-time thing going, because for me that is the easiest thing to make erotic. Second, tons of highly detailed sex. It's work to write those parts, and the non-sex parts are more like play, but I want to deliver good value to my readers. It doesn't bother me that most of them probably read my stories for just one reason - hey, this is a porn site, what do you expect?

My dirty little secret: I don't read much porn. My entertainment reading runs to novels that I get from the library.


Edited to add: Just read TX reporting a PC commenting that the first two lit pages of a story had no sex. Notwithstanding the above, one of mine goes three lit pages without sex (I inform readers of this in a foreward ). It's a fantasy of a different sort, a "millionaire" story of a virtuous downtrodden woman who is delivered from penury by a magnificient gift from a billionaire. And at the end of it - there's six lit-pages of non-stop sex.

 

[tanyachrs]

On Lit, I write stroke and read stroke. It's kind of what it's for, to me.

I do think the non-sex stories rate better but that's because they're filed in Romance or Novellas where they get a different audience. The people looking for stroke know to skip them. I have a feeling that people who choose to read Romance are generally sweeter than some of the rest of us.

 

[cloudy]

On Lit, I write stroke and read stroke. It's kind of what it's for, to me.

To each his own, I believe, but I also believe it's named Literotica for a reason.

 

[PAUL C]

depends on the story

in my serial stories the sex tends to be incidental to the story but in my one off shorts then it tends to be the aim.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

My dirty little secret: I don't read much porn. My entertainment reading runs to novels that I get from the library.

I wonder (not to hijack the thread) if this is true of a lot of us? I honestly don't read much erotica, here or otherwise...

maybe I'm too busy writing it?

 

[smy3th]

Actually, I came to an obvous but sudden realization a couple of months ago in looking at contest winners and top rated stories. I read one of the Halloween Contest winners that just really, really moved me emotionally. It had some sex in it, but not a lot, in fact, I can hardly remember the sex scene. I read that story and thought "Wow! That was really great writing - a beautiful story - the Lit in Literotica!" and I realized what it was that won contests and got high ratings. The sex is almost (but not entirely) incidental. There are some very highly rated Non-Erotic entries. If the story is good and the writing really pulls you in, you can get through the story before you ever think, "Where's the sex?"

But on the other hand, I don't usually read stories in Non-Erotic, and I often skim through a story to see if it has hot sex before I decide to spend my time reading it. But then, I'm a guy, and we only want one thing. Still, after I read a Non-Erotic story on Lit, I am left wondering: "Why post that here? Aren't there more appropriate venue's for that?" The answer? I don't know. Probably there aren't. I expect there are lots of non-erotic story websites, but they probably get about three readers each.

 

[smy3th]

I wonder (not to hijack the thread) if this is true of a lot of us? I honestly don't read much erotica, here or otherwise...

maybe I'm too busy writing it?

Why did you start writing it? Wasn't it because you had read it and liked it?

 

[ungenderless]

I wonder (not to hijack the thread) if this is true of a lot of us? I honestly don't read much erotica, here or otherwise...

maybe I'm too busy writing it?

It's true for me. I began writing at the request of my partner, and discovered that it was someting that I really enjoyed doing.

I think that how important sex is to you depends on what kind of person you are or even just what kind of mood you are in. Perhaps someone comes to get a quick stroke story one time, then later searches for something a bit more romantic. Both meet needs, after all.

 

[tanyachrs]

Still, after I read a Non-Erotic story on Lit, I am left wondering: "Why post that here? Aren't there more appropriate venue's for that?" The answer? I don't know. Probably there aren't. I expect there are lots of non-erotic story websites, but they probably get about three readers each.

I've seen a couple of critique sites that seemed to work pretty well but they were specialized - one was SciFi and the other was children's. Then there are fanfic sites. But general story publishing where you occasionally even get non-authors to read and comment? Not that I'm aware of. Would be interesting to hear of any people know about - a Lit without the erotica, so to speak.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Why did you start writing it? Wasn't it because you had read it and liked it?

No... I've always written... I started writing erotica because a friend directed me to this site, and I saw a contest... with my competitive nature, I just had to give it a shot...

here I am, 260 stories later...

 

[Weird Harold]

Why did you start writing it? Wasn't it because you had read it and liked it?

I started writing erotica because I did NOT like what was available -- or more precisely how poorly the majority of what was available was written.

I'm one of those motivated to write erotica by 'I can do better than that crap.'

 

[rachlou]

I like to write sex into my stories but I don;t see it as the main part of the story, or not unless the piece is a short smut story which is basically just a shag fest.

I prefer to build up the characterisations and plot; sex happens when the story requires it and my characters need to get laid for whatever reason. I save those scenes for when i'm feeling that way myself, cos i enjoy the writing more!

On a side note, I used to read erotica voraciously. Now I find I spend so much time writing, I just don;t have the time to read much of anything!