Is it okay if a submission in a series doesn't have sex in it?

[Bound_Vixen]

New Author here. Taking a break from both my other projects because when inspiration hits... Well shit. It's hard to ignore. I'm writing a series and I'm submitting chapter by chapter but I feel pressed to include sex in each chapter, but I don't know if it's always going to fit. So back to the original question.

If I'm posting a series, can one chapter not have anything explicitly sexual in it, or do I have to work it in somehow?

 

[stickygirl]

No harm in that at all. I've done it myself and if all the other stories in the series fit in one genre category, then do the same with that one, for continuity.

 

[NotWise]

There's no rule that you need sex in every chapter. A chapter without sex will probably need something to hold readers' interest and get them anticipating the next chapter.

 

[Bound_Vixen]

No harm in that at all. I've done it myself and if all the other stories in the series fit in one genre category, then do the same with that one, for continuity.

Thanks so much!

 

[dombledore]

I'm going to say yes because it's convenient to me. I've put a shitload of work into the buildup to a story I'm working on, and no one has fucked yet. I suddenly realised it's the first part of a longer series. Chapter 1 just happens to have no fucking in it. Sometimes that happens.

That isn't to say that the text is not sexy. It is. But there's no actual fucking in it.

 

[NightPorter]

You can expect chapters without sex to score lower than chapters with sex. That's just the nature of the beast on an erotic story site. If you don't want a view drop off, you also better be at the top of your game to keep the viewers invested in the story.

 

[Mastered_again]

Yes, it's okay, but as pointed out you may lose some rating points and some viewers. The important point is you remain true to yourself, your characters and your story..
If you contrive to put in sex, it will probably come off that way

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yes, it's okay, but as pointed out you may lose some rating points and some viewers. The important point is you remain true to yourself, your characters and your story..
If you contrive to put in sex, it will probably come off that way

You can't please everybody with everything you do. I ended a series with a sexless break-up scene between a younger man and an older woman. It was obvious that it was going to happen eventually.

One person disliked it because I put it in Romance, but I don't think they'd like it wherever it went. Yet some guy was impressed because it was set at Garret Mountain in Paterson, NJ. "So strange but good to read a story about a place I use to visit in my youth, around the same time frame as the story takes place!" So a loss and a win.

 

[SimonDoom]

Of course, it's OK. There are no definitive rules that govern this sort of thing. The number 1 most important consideration is your own personal and artistic satisfaction. Do what works with your artistic vision.

Having said that, as a practical matter, if you have sex in chapter 1, but no sex in chapter 2, then it's likely you will lose some readers for chapter 3. That may or may not matter to you. If it does, it's something worth considering.

My personal approach to writing chaptered stories is to maintain a consistent erotic focus, and to make sure that every chapter provides content that is consistent with that erotic focus. I think that's what readers want. But whether or not that influences what you want to do is up to you. Your vision may be different.

 

[KeithD]

Yes, it's OK to have a chapter without sex. The kicker is that there's absolutely no control over who reads and responds to any one story at a given time here, so you may or may not get criticism for doing it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

No harm in that at all. I've done it myself and if all the other stories in the series fit in one genre category, then do the same with that one, for continuity.

Seconded. I've done this once in the middle of an ongoing series, once in the intro chapter. I think I put a brief note at the top to avoid disappointment, but I posted them to the same category as the rest of the series, and readers were fine with it.

 

[shakna]

I'm going to go with the others and agree that it's fine, but then go against the general sentiment - in my experience, if you've reached a point where there are invested readers and there's no sex because of the plot, it hasn't effected the ratings one bit. In point of fact, where I've done that, the ratings have been among the highest for the overall tale.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I have a chapter without sex - though lots of sexy conversation. It was rated 5 (other chapters 4.4-4.8) until I mentioned it here, when it plummeted...

Do what works for you. I did put a quick recap explaining this is two old friends catching up, not a stroke piece. IME people read new chapters if they like the title,tagline and maybe tags, no matter whether they've read previous chapters.

 

[Bound_Vixen]

There's no rule that you need sex in every chapter. A chapter without sex will probably need something to hold readers' interest and get them anticipating the next chapter.

Absolutely.

You can't please everybody with everything you do. I ended a series with a sexless break-up scene between a younger man and an older woman. It was obvious that it was going to happen eventually.

One person disliked it because I put it in Romance, but I don't think they'd like it wherever it went. Yet some guy was impressed because it was set at Garret Mountain in Paterson, NJ. "So strange but good to read a story about a place I use to visit in my youth, around the same time frame as the story takes place!" So a loss and a win.

That's good advice. Can't please everyone all of the time. It's about the story for me. It's in my head and I NEED to get it out. This is just the best place for it.

 

[pumpkindice]

Yes, I think it's fine, with one caveat: if you're going to have a submission in a series without any naughty stuff in it, there needs to be a strong plot justification for that decision. In other words, I'm not sure not having good stuff in a chapter posted on an erotic literature site works unless there is a compelling reason for that design choice.

I can think of lots of such compelling reasons, by the way. If I killed a character off in a chapter, especially if it was a beloved character, I would be very unlikely to also include a sex scene in that chapter, as there would be a tone clash that just wouldn't work.

This site gives a lot of creative freedom to its writers and there are precious few rules. What I think is just what I think, and you're absolutely not bound by it. If a chapter is good, I'm likely to vote high on it because it's good, whether it has naughty stuff or not, but that's just me.

 

[jehoram]

I'd agree with what people have said earlier. In many of my own stories, the first chapter or two don't have as much sex in them, and they get lower ratings. (In "The Yearbook Girl," the characters started trading orgasms in Chapter 2, but didn't actually get it on until Chapter 3.)

But a lot of that has to do with the fact that if a reader is actually invested in the story to the point where he or she actually gets past Chapter 1, that reader is more likely to give subsequent chapters higher scores.

 

[windar]

I have written stories where long strings of chapters have no sex. When you're trying to solve a crime or escaping from Nazis, sex is kind of out of the question. No one has ever complained and often I get as many or even more positive comments on those chapters than on ones where the characters fuck. Mostly these run on other sites, though in my one multi-chapter story here, the chapters with red Hs mostly have no sex in them.

Look at it this way; in real life, what percentage of even a very sexually prolific person's waking hours involve having sex? If I said 5% that would probably be an over-estimate. People have to work, eat, shop, watch sports, all that stuff. So, if a story is 50% sex that is already way beyond reality, though acceptable for erotica. If a story is 100% sex, I generally find it boring. But that's just me.

 

[jehoram]

Look at it this way; in real life, what percentage of even a very sexually prolific person's waking hours involve having sex? If I said 5% that would probably be an over-estimate. People have to work, eat, shop, watch sports, all that stuff. So, if a story is 50% sex that is already way beyond reality, though acceptable for erotica. If a story is 100% sex, I generally find it boring. But that's just me.

Well, we are writing erotica, after all. We're creating worlds where sexual activity is the focus. The trick is to make those worlds seem at least a little bit credible. That's where the 100% sex stories fail for you and me, because we like to know some of the characters' backstories.

 

[yowser]

Well, we are writing erotica, after all. We're creating worlds where sexual activity is the focus. The trick is to make those worlds seem at least a little bit credible. That's where the 100% sex stories fail for you and me, because we like to know some of the characters' backstories.

Agreed. Of course good erotica can be done, and sometimes well here. Lots of efforts on Lit don't appear to be anything more than plain spun out (or not) fantasies, and that seems to work for many, writer and reader alike.

But it is so appealing to try for a bit more than that.

For windar, here are a couple thoughts from others on this business of sexual imbalance:

David Lodge
“Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children; life's the other way round.”

Lord Chesterfield (18th century)
"Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable."

All worth writing about...

 

[gunhilltrain]

Agreed. Of course good erotica can be done, and sometimes well here. Lots of efforts on Lit don't appear to be anything more than plain spun out (or not) fantasies, and that seems to work for many, writer and reader alike.

But it is so appealing to try for a bit more than that.

For windar, here are a couple thoughts from others on this business of sexual imbalance:

David Lodge
“Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children; life's the other way round.”

Lord Chesterfield (18th century)
"Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable."

All worth writing about...

You've got to wonder where Lord Chesterfield was taking his dates for dinner if that's what he was talking about. I guess Lords don't go Dutch. Then again, merely being a Lord must attract the ladies.

"The position is ridiculous." Had he ever tried a reverse cowgirl? I assume it was known in the 18th Century although of course it wasn't called that.

 

[shakna]

You've got to wonder where Lord Chesterfield was taking his dates for dinner if that's what he was talking about. I guess Lords don't go Dutch. Then again, merely being a Lord must attract the ladies.

"The position is ridiculous." Had he ever tried a reverse cowgirl? I assume it was known in the 18th Century although of course it wasn't called that.

Cost of dates probably wasn't what the lord was talking about...

If you weren't providing enough pleasure or material needs, it was acceptable for a lady to "withdraw herself from the bed", and find a nice virile stud to meet her needs. So long as she wasn't too obvious about it, then anyone who found out would look down on the lord, not the lady. (His fault she needed to look afield.)

However, he might also have been referring to the whores 'n trollops that a lord was pretty much expected to indulge in. If you found a decent one, well... She could expect similar treatment to your wife, especially if you went and gave her a child. Mistress was a title of respect, and was often a public title.

As to the reverse cowgirl? He probably actually had! There was a rather famous set of paintings collected as "I Modi" that a lot of lords either viewed, or managed to get a personal copy of. Two of those, titled "Angelique and Medor", and "Julia the Elder", depict the infamous position.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Cost of dates probably wasn't what the lord was talking about...

If you weren't providing enough pleasure or material needs, it was acceptable for a lady to "withdraw herself from the bed", and find a nice virile stud to meet her needs. So long as she wasn't too obvious about it, then anyone who found out would look down on the lord, not the lady. (His fault she needed to look afield.)

However, he might also have been referring to the whores 'n trollops that a lord was pretty much expected to indulge in. If you found a decent one, well... She could expect similar treatment to your wife, especially if you went and gave her a child. Mistress was a title of respect, and was often a public title.

As to the reverse cowgirl? He probably actually had! There was a rather famous set of paintings collected as "I Modi" that a lot of lords either viewed, or managed to get a personal copy of. Two of those, titled "Angelique and Medor", and "Julia the Elder", depict the infamous position.

I did suspect that he was being a bit tongue-in-cheek about the whole thing. And the concept of "dating" as we know it probably didn't exist then. He was married, however - I assume he had the resources to meet at least the material needs of one Melusina von der Schulenburg, the illegitimate offspring of King George I. It did occur to me that he may have been referring to prostitutes and mistresses too, although I haven't yet been able to confirm his activities in that direction.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

You can expect chapters without sex to score lower than chapters with sex. That's just the nature of the beast on an erotic story site. If you don't want a view drop off, you also better be at the top of your game to keep the viewers invested in the story.

I was putting a fan fic on here, and two of the chapters that had no sex, had RedH's.

 

[Bound_Vixen]

I was putting a fan fic on here, and two of the chapters that had no sex, had RedH's.

This is the second reference I've seen of Red H's, what are those?

 

[yowser]

This is the second reference I've seen of Red H's, what are those?

When a story listed achieves a star rating over 4.5 (with sufficient votes to qualify) the Red 'H' magically appears, implying a 'Hot' erotic story, but more accurately an index of popularity .

It is a curiously strong fetish amongst the writerly crowd.