My Stories Always Build Slowly

[Miss_Misaki]

I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to break out of a pattern with slow, careful buildup of the plot and characters before a big booming sex scene at the very end (the quality of which has probably been grossly overstated here, but you get the general idea). I can't say exactly that I want to write outside of this pattern, but it worries me that it's become a kind of comfort zone for me, and I don't like feeling confined in anything I do creatively, writing included.

Does anyone else write stories in this vein? Do you do it intentionally, or did they just kind of leap off the page that way? I'm kind of a trailing writer... my stories and characters just kind of lead me along and let me record their antics like some kind of court reporter, and most times I don't really feel as though I'm the one in control at all. It's like a subconscious form of story flow that only registers as it's written on the page. Because I feel so detached from the origination process, it makes it harder to control the pace of the story, I think. Then again, maybe it's some kind of psychological cop-out. o_0

Sheesh, I must be tired. I'm rambling hopelessly. I guess all I'm trying to say is that I'm writing what I think could be the best erotic story I've ever written, and I'm starting to worry that it's building way too slowly. I've hit the 26-page mark and they're still in the middle of foreplay.

 

[slyc_willie]

I like to have some build-up in my stories, and some go on and on for pages before it gets to the dirty stuff. Others begin with a sex scene and then backpedal.

How about trying to write in reverse? Start at the climax of the story, then explain how the characters got there.

Just a thought.

 

[JackLuis]

If you do want to change how you are writing, then try to outline and block out the story in your head. Take a note book and sit outside in the early morning, block out the plot and the Characters. Develop the Character backstories, then take your outline notes and sit down to write.

You seem to be using the buildup to form your characters, once they are in your mind, then you can "climax" the story.

I do the same thing, it is okay if the purpose is character development, but if you are using a Story formula which has a definite objective, you are perhaps using too many words to accomplish your goals.

Short stories demand a parsimonious use of words, but it depends upon the objective of the author, rich scene development can lead to immortal characters, or short vivid descriptions of the scene can make the dialog stand out in the readers mind. Know when to say "enough" helps too. LoL.

It's Okay if your disregard my advice.

 

[CWatson]

I think that, inevitably, you're going to have a build-up to a climactic sex scene at the end of a story. We're sort of condemned to it if we post on Literotica. A good story requires a building action, and a good sex story requires the climax to involve climaxes, so... Whoops on us. Most stories will end with sex. Thus, I think the real question is what happens in the meantime.

Here we get into issues of longer, more complicated stories. I've never read your work, so I don't know what your favored length and duration is; if it's just a short & sweet Erotic Couplings-style encounter, you obviously aren't going to have a lot of development time. But if you start to build out for a longer tale, one that involves more than one segment or chapter, all sorts of possibilities become available. You can have multiple peaks, multiple releases of tension, as you continue to build towards the larger and most important explosion at the end of the story. Each chapter should have a rising action and a climax... and, each chapter's rising-action-and-climax should fit into the story's overall structure, which is the same thing. Overall, the tension should ramp up like a set of stairs.

The longer duration also makes it possible to start in different places, because you can tell different stories when you have more space. During this calendar year I've thus far written two stories that start right after the main character loses her virginity. In one of them, she breaks up with her boyfriend immediately after (like, still-naked after) because they're both young and immature and too stupid to keep their tempers. The other, involving different characters, starts the next morning, when she wakes up next to the man she married yesterday and has to face the fact that she didn't enjoy sex at all--that her strict wait-until-marriage policy has left her completely unprepared for the idea of actually having sex. Loss of virginity can be a huge emotional moment... But they're not what either story is about, so I don't even have to show it, just establish that it happened. Thus, in these stories, sex isn't the last thing to happen: it's the first. (Technically, it's the zero'th.) I can do that because these stories are about more than just sex, more than just the physical occasion of it; they're about what sex means. It's when you start moving beyond the basics of a he-and-she-get-together-and-do-great-sex story that more complicated approaches become appropriate.

I don't know if any of this is helpful or if it even made sense, but hopefully you'll get some mileage out of it. Good luck.

 

[fastandsloppy]

I usually have a build up to a climactic scene but include a few detours into supplementary sex scenes on the way. It is exactly as CWatson just said above about multiple peaks and releases. I couldn't have put it better. In my favorite story I have a sad, pent-up female character who feels strong attraction to the two much-younger college kids next store and in the course of working up her courage and confidence she has several (sometimes awkward) encounters before the big pay off at the end.

But what you (Miss_Misaki) said about letting your characters lead you into the story reminds me of three successful authors I saw speak at a charity event. They were Stephen King, John Irving and J.K. Rowling. Someone brought up this very question. King said he writes like you. He has no idea where a story is going to take him or how long it will be or if he will even finish it. He compared it to an interesting looking thread that he'll pick up and he will just follow it where it takes him. Irving says he has to map everhthing out well in advance or he can't deal with the task of wrting a coherent story. He needs to know what is going to happen to every character and when before he starts writing. Rowling agreed with Irving. She said she'd had the outline of what happens in the Harry Potter series years in advance and had actually written the final chapter of the final book a long, long time ago.

So, apparently there is no right way, it's whatever works for you; and you are a Stephen King.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I like to shot introduction of the characyers, move right into a sex scene, and then build up for a while to the next one while revealing even more about who the characters that we are dealing with are.

 

[sr71plt]

No, I don't usually write stories for Lit. that way, because I don't think it's pleasing to the wide range of readers reading at Lit. I generally start with a bang (which is what it seems a large segment of the readership is looking forward to) and then do the greater story work, build to a climax--but then I try to put a twist or surprise on the ending.

That said, I agree with the "write and post 'em as you enjoy them" school. This isn't a pay site; you needn't worry about the readership if you don't want to. (It's just that you shouldn't expect it all ways--both ignoring the readership when you write them and expecting applause from a readership whose tastes you have ignored.)

 

[fastandsloppy]

Well played sir

No, I don't usually write stories for Lit. that way, because I don't think it's pleasing to the wide range of readers reading at Lit. I generally start with a bang (which is what it seems a large segment of the readership is looking forward to) and then do the greater story work, build to a climax--but then I try to put a twist or surprise on the ending.

That said, I agree with the "write and post 'em as you enjoy them" school. This isn't a pay site; you needn't worry about the readership if you don't want to. (It's just that you shouldn't expect it all ways--both ignoring the readership when you write them and expecting applause from a readership whose tastes you have ignored.)

Exactly correct.

We write this stuff for fun, but part of the fun is writing it so others have fun reading it.

 

[penandpaper]

My thought would be to write your story as is; slow build-up, and then see if you can work a sexy scene into the beginning of the timeline. It may be a scene you already wrote, or a new scene that seems appropriate and not out of place.

In this way, you are still holding true to the way you write, it's just that in the editing portion you're doing some rearranging. Hollywood movies and sitcoms do it quite effectively. That's actually, all reality tv is - editing scenes together.

The reason I suggest this is because maybe you need the build-up. Perhaps, your body and mind wants the build-up, and if you jump straight to a sex scene, then it's possible it won't be as sexy, climactic or romantic as you could make it.

Just a thought. Hope that helps and good luck.