Less is more

[NoJo]

This is sort of feedback post, on quite a few stories I’ve read on this site since I became a member last week.
I admit it. I don’t know what erotica is. Some of the “stories” here (I won’t mention titles) are really just a sequence of verbal images of stuff that gets us turned on, so we can jerk off. And I admit that requires skill and imagination to do well. They have almost 100% sex. I can jerk off to them, the way I do with jpeg images on a porn site. But for me, the jpegs are more effective.

Some other stories are (sometimes brilliant) descriptions of a sexual encounter, a type that reminds me of looking at an mpeg file on a porn site. You might read (and re-read) it and imagine you’re one of the protagonists. They’re also 100% sex I suppose, but with a structure that resembles real sex: Build up, climax (maybe two or three if you’re lucky), followed by denouement.

It seems that a only a few stories here are really STORIES, which have maybe 10-20% actual sex: The other 80-90% sets time and place, motivation and character. I can get REALLY turned on reading this stuff, even if it has only a paragraph or so of "real sex."

For me erotica is about people. Not about anatomy, not even about sexual acts. I’d like a bit more story, a bit less sex. That would give me a lot more jerk-off fantasies.

 

[NCmVoyeur]

Perceptive

You've done a pretty good job of summarizing the content here.

There are stories which would (or almost) stand as good stories even if the sex scenes were removed. Those, however, are rare. (KillerMuffin's 'Coming Home' and Nitengale's 'Paris: City of Light and Lust' are two that I recall offhand that meet that criterion.) But, in the main, people come here to read sex, and in the voting popularity the more sex that is stuffed in the higher the votes.

But I share your general view. So if you find other noteworthy examples, please post them (or e-mail me).

 

[nitengale]

Thanks for that recognition NCm!

 

[Axeltheswede]

You are making some fairly broad generalizations after reading for such a short time. I think you are doing yourself, and many authors a disservice.

You will find the amount of "sexual" content varies from category to category. Get a taste of each category from the respective top list. If you like more build-up, fine. Try multi-chapter stories or novels and novellas. You will get more developed characters and more intricate plots.

The beauty of Literotica is the diversity of stories. Use the tools available, like the story search. Come back on this forum after a few months. Draw your conclusions from a broader base of information.

 

[NoJo]

Axel, I guess you're right, the sheer number of stories on this site is pretty daunting, and there's obviously as much variety on this site as there is sexual and literary tastes in general.

I admit that I haven't really read much of the multi-chapter stuff -- I like to read on the screen. Obviously with longer stories you don't need to cut to the bedroom so quickly.

I came to this forum because I've read quite a few of the top-rated stories and gave up trawling through them to find what I liked -- most (but NOT all) were too descriptive, and frankly were not very original in style or concept. I know that there must be a lot of great stories here which would suit my taste, it's just that they don't seem to be that well representated in the top-rated stories.

As I said, I admit don't really know what "erotica" is. For example, the story Grind is very erotic to me, but is classified as Non-Erotic!

So which Story Categories do you think are generally lower on"raw" sexual content? By the way I don't consider "soft-core" sex, e.g. romance , as being lower in sexual content.

Joe.

 

[Axeltheswede]

In very general terms, I think "Erotic Couplings" and "Mature" tend to be more character and story driven than most other categories.

Another option is available to find stories you like. Read authors you like. You can go to the Search Engine. Type the name of an author you have enjoyed. You will get a chronological list of their posted stories.

There is another benefit to this practice. You can see how an author has developed over time.

Using this search feature can also lead you to some real gems. Some good stories fall by the wayside. Reading an author can lead you back to them.

 

[Star of Penumbra]

Oops. Wrong thread.

 

[JerseyBoy]

Another option is available to find stories you like. Read authors you like. You can go to the Search Engine. Type the name of an author you have enjoyed. You will get a chronological list of their posted stories.

Thanks for pointing this out. It seems this is the only way to get a chronological list. Just looking at the profile only gives an alphabetical list with no dates at all!

-ws

 

[NoJo]

Finding the stories you want

What you said is true, WifeSeducer & Axel. I'm now quite a bit better at picking out the stories I like.
Actually, the most reliable shortcut to finding what I like is a recommendation from someone whose taste I know to be like mine. I've found a number of posters who pretty reliably recommend stories I like.

What do you put for a story's keywords when you submit?
I fall into an old habit from my web-site design days of stuffing certain words in: e.g. I might put BDSM FEMDOM TITFUCK TITFUCKING MILF FACESIT for keywords (which may not be indicative of the bulk of the story, but only represent one or two sections). Do you think that would increase the hit-rate for searches?
What do YOU put in when you're searching using keywords?

A good idea for the site would be to be able to view the stories listed, but inclding the first sentence or two of stories (my Outlook program does this with "Message Preview" view. Unfair though this might seem, I find that simply reading the first paragraph gives me a good idea of the style and genre of a story.

 

[damppanties]

Re: Finding the stories you want

A good idea for the site would be to be able to view the stories listed, but inclding the first sentence or two of stories (my Outlook program does this with "Message Preview" view. Unfair though this might seem, I find that simply reading the first paragraph gives me a good idea of the style and genre of a story.

There is a sentence, next to the story, which describes it. A paragraph is too long to appear after every story. Then there is the category into which the story is placed. By now you get a pretty good idea of what you're getting into. The style of the writer can not be known beforehand but you can always back out of a story after reading the first paragraph if you don't like it.

-DP.