Just venting

[Statius]

This is the kind of thing writers think and talk about all the time, and everyone kind of has to find their own way, maybe even different ways in different parts of works.

At one extreme would authors like Hemingway, who rarely included anything that didn't need to be there. A lot of people love that. At another extreme would be authors like T. H. White, who I mention because I remember a passage in The Once and Future King where the narrator described a medieval castle in great detail using all kinds of vocabulary that no ordinary modern reader knows. I think it was meant to be kind of comic or fun, and I personally enjoyed it for giving me a glimpse of a lost world, but I was reading that book with four other readers and they were all pissed off about it because it was like three dense pages that they couldn't understand and added nothing to the plot. So basically White was writing for readers like me, not readers like them, and that was okay (with me).

Another interesting story is the guy who wrote The Martian. He assumed only a very small number of people would be interested in what he was doing. His real interest was in all the minute scientific details. He had no intention of making money and was continually surprised by his story's popularity.

My literotica writing experience is like that. My most popular story in terms of "favorites" has a lot of critical comments and a low rating. (One of my hobbies is responding to vitriolic comments as if they were meant as praise. Fun for me. I'm weird.) The people who favorited it are the people I was writing for. My highest rated story has a very small number of views because it's really just a religious allegory about a girl being seduced by the devil (with ironic allusions to 50 Shades) and not many people really care about anything like that, but the ones who do really dig how different it is.

So I'm definitely on the "I do what I want to do and no one has to read it or like it" end of things. I'd advocate for that. If you want to be popular, I'm obviously not the one to talk to.

Popularity would be nice in one sense. I mean I would love it if my stories were more popular. However after 2 yrs and not being popular for various reasons (one being my work isn't usually polished- my own fault and I am changing that), the popularity thing is def falling off for me, as in who gives a fuck. It does seem that stories I thought would do better haven't, and some I thought wouldn't have beaten my expectations, so who knows, right?

 

[big_cane_sugar]

Popularity would be nice in one sense. I mean I would love it if my stories were more popular. However after 2 yrs and not being popular for various reasons (one being my work isn't usually polished- my own fault and I am changing that), the popularity thing is def falling off for me, as in who gives a fuck. It does seem that stories I thought would do better haven't, and some I thought wouldn't have beaten my expectations, so who knows, right?

Exactly. Every story is a lottery ticket I guess.

 

[Britva415]

it seems I've lost interest in writing about sex. That's a huge problem especially for the novel which revolves around succubi.

What are the stakes?

Is there a point of going overboard though?

in a first draft? Sure, why not. I mean, there’s not necessarily much point in censoring oneself before getting the first draft of the story down on paper.

 

[Statius]

What are the stakes?

in a first draft? Sure, why not. I mean, there’s not necessarily much point in censoring oneself before getting the first draft of the story down on paper.

It revolves around a human woman being seduced by a succubus. So sex pretty important

 

[Britva415]

It revolves around a human woman being seduced by a succubus. So sex pretty important

Why though? How so? What I mean is, what are the stakes to each of the characters? What is driving them, motivating them, challenging them, regarding the act or whether they do it or not? From an in-universe point of view.

What are the consequences of doing it? What would the consequences of not doing it be?

For the writer to be clear with oneself about knowing the stakes, that creates impetus to write it. If writing the sex scene isn’t motivating, maybe it’s because it’s in fact unnecessary in the story?

What, if anything, must be present in the particular scene which is about more than just the utterly superficial descriptions of the physical mechanics of it? Is the succubus afraid she’ll die without it? Is the (ostensible) victim in love or in fear? How does “after sex” look and feel different from “before the sex” to the characters involved? Do they have thoughts or feelings about other characters while they’re doing it?

The three-why’s can work here, too. When you’re stuck or unmotivated regarding writing a particular sex scene, ask “what are the stakes?” And to that answer, ask “why” or “so what?” And then to that answer, again, “why” or “so what?”

I suppose I might also invite you to question how necessary a graphic scene is. What if you didn’t write it and you did “fade to black” instead, just to establish that it happened? Does the seduction you’re talking about happen during the sex or separately from it? Is the sex the result of the seduction or the means by which the seduction succeeds? What does “success” even mean, here?

Write the scene which fills in these blanks for the reader. It might not necessarily depend on graphic descriptions of sex acts. And if it doesn’t, then, it’s OK to leave them out. Lit audiences will still appreciate seduction, especially in a supernatural-themed story.

You don’t owe them a half-assed, un-inspired sex scene you weren’t interested in writing. But you might also find yourself becoming interested in writing it, if you do a little exercise in knowing what the stakes are and determine how to convey them to the reader through the scene.

Do you see what I mean? Each sex scene could have some specific, unique stakes. If there is one which doesn’t, and it really is as simple as just “well, the succubus has to fuck, duh,” then you could fade that to black with no great loss.

i mean, it’s Literotica. There are tons of zero-stakes sex scenes and complete stories with zero stakes beyond “hehheh, we nutted” around here. But if you’re struggling to be motivated to write the sex, then, you actually have permission not to, and/or, you could find the motivation by exploring the stakes.

I wrote a couple of stories where, in the first-draft process, I put in fade-to-black placeholders until after the end of the story was written. Then I went back and “brought the lights up” on the sex scenes, so to speak, knowing what the stakes were based on where the story wound up going.

At the time, it was much more motivating to write the sex in this way rather than struggling to complete a sex scene when I wanted to kind of “just get on with the story” at the time. Like, the sex was part of the story, and my stories are really just frames for the sex scenes, but, fitting a sex scene into an established story can sometimes be easier than wrapping a story around established sex scenes.

It also makes the overall story more erotic, because the erotic charge doesn’t get spent and dissipated on a sex scene before returning to the narrative frame. That erotic charge goes into the narrative frame itself, with the sex scenes serving more of a function of completing a promise rather than trying to carry all the weight. But, you know, even a fade-to-black can complete that promise, if the story is erotic enough. Graphic scrutiny of sex acts are not required, and Lit has tons and tons of stories which almost completely skip them entirely other than just establishing that “sex happened.”

So give yourself a break Write the parts you’re inspired to write, and, whether the interest in writing about the sex comes back or not, you’ll have a good, Lit-worthy story.

 

[old_prof]

Even in a very sex driven story, I sometimes just say <<<sex happens >>>. Sometimes I include more specifics about what sex happens

 

[NuclearFairy]

You could also try out my favorite questions, "What if?" followed by "How would that work?"

In this case; What if, the succubus seduction attempt led to night long cuddles talking and the occasional grope and kiss. How would that work out for the succubus?

 

[Statius]

You all have been more helpful and insightful than you realize. My gratitude is deep. I'm realizing the potential for certain things as I read these comments. So thank you all for that. I also think my writing is in transition. There is a noticeable change from my previous published works to my current drafts. Like a line has been drawn. It's a good thing but I am still trying to figure it out and get a feel for it if that makes sense. One problem, other than what I've put down already, is I am not quite confident in my new mode yet. It's made me indecisive. But I will work through that. Thank you all.