Orgasms Per Page

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

New writers often ask about story length, but I want to know about story density. More specifically, how do you go about pacing multiple sex scenes (and multiple orgasms) in a single submission? I'm at an inflexion point with a draft at the moment, where the first big sex scene has just happened. There's a definite pause to dispense with some story points, then a blowjob that results in a climax, then straight into a full-blown sex scene. It feels very dense, but I went back to some stories I've generally enjoyed (and others I've enjoyed a lot), and they sometimes sustain a pace of at least one orgasm per page.

My concern is this: Let's assume the first sex scene is very hot (mission accomplished), the reader gets what they want from it (sploosh), and then...? They're either still horny (possible, but not super likely) or they skip over the next sex scenes as their brain might want to complete the narrative, but no longer cares about getting off.

The end goal is to achieve a relentless pace (I'm trying to shake things up a bit), but I'm puzzled by the logistics of it.

 

[Bamagan]

Authorial intent with regard to items like pacing is one of the easiest for readers to ignore. If they need or want a refractory pause between sex scenes, they'll take it. If they find the sex lackluster but the story compelling and decide to skip every instance, or find the story boring but the sex hot... well, there's not much anyone can do to stop such reader behavior.

 

[Purechicanery]

Orgasms Georg is throwing out the average.

 

[norafares]

My current WIP has a sex scene in the first chapter. And then, I spread out three more over the course of the 47k word story, along with lots of banter and flirting in between. The way I see it, your writing needs to carry you, not the sex. Yes, sex sells, but if that's all you're selling, people aren't likely to stick around to buy anything else.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Lately I've taken to putting in a mid-story sex scene, sometimes an unsatisfying one. That seems to help hold readers interests. I don't write strokers, so my theory is it helps keep the interest of readers who expect a stroker. Ideally, I think stories should build up tension to one big final scene.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I actually like to be judicious with the climaxes. At least the female ones. Guys always cum of course.

Orgasms are like the word fuck. If you say fuck all the time (like I do - blush), no one gives a fuck when you say fuck. Orgasms in a story are the same thing. An orgasm doesn't have any impact if you're passing them out like leaflets from the Mormons or Jehova's Witnesses in the street corner. Those things are going straight into the trash.

So I actually like to have sex scenes where the girl doesn't climax, Then when she does climax, it's a momentous plot event.

Of course I don't write porn and porn is what's popular, hence I am not popular, so if you want to be popular, throw unrealistic orgasms around like confetti. You'll probably score really well.

 

[Djmac1031]

My concern is this: Let's assume the first sex scene is very hot (mission accomplished), the reader gets what they want from it (sploosh), and then...? They're either still horny (possible, but not super likely) or they skip over the next sex scenes as their brain might want to complete the narrative, but no longer cares about getting off.

I went exactly through this process while writing my latest story, Air E&V

I'd written a full sex scene between the two main characters but realized quickly that the other more voyeuristic and teasing scenes i had planned for the story would be anticlimactic after.

And so I had to rearrange events so that the voyeur / tease scenes built up the sexual tension then ending the story with the climactic full sex scene.

 

[anthrodisiac]

It's very dependent on what type of story you're writing. It's also going to depend on how long your sex scenes are. I realize I've kinda fallen into a bit of a pattern (oops), but a popular one, of escalating sex acts leading to climax, single encounter. If someone does orgasm, it's usually from oral, give them a bit of a pause, then go into full sex, maybe one or two possitions, depending, and ending it with usuall a mutual orgasm (which kind of annoys me because it's hard to do in real life, but I'm writing stories with anthropomorphic humans, so I think I'm owed a little bit of suspension of disbelief).

But if we're talking multiple sex encounters in a single story, it kind of depends on how much focus on the story there is. Generally, you'll want to have escalating intensity with the sex scenes, for exactly the reason @Djmac1031 said: you don't want to have your ultimate sex scene be anticlimactic (I appreciated that pun).

Now, that doesn't necessarily mean you pull out all the stops for that sex scene, but it has to be the most impactful sex scene. Whether that's through sheer sexiness, character development, or plot point is totally up to you.

If your concern is that the readers will skip the sex scenes, then make sure to wire the sex scenes into the plot, so they have to read them. A sex scene in and of itself with no real value outside titilation is emminently skipable, regardless of whether the person wants to use it as a masturbatory aid. But a sex scene that also includes story and/or character development? Well, then they're not reading it purely for the purposes of getting off but for the same reason they've read the rest: because they're interested in the story.

 

[Djmac1031]

Generally, you'll want to have escalating intensity with the sex scenes, for exactly the reason @Djmac1031 said: you don't want to have your ultimate sex scene be anticlimactic (I appreciated that pun).

I actually wrote a What I Wrote And Why: Air E&V to break down the process of that story in detail, if anyone is interested, as it does fit in with the topic.

But in a nutshell; i tried to set the story up with escalating sex scenes - a topless woman starts it off, followed by a fully nude woman.

From there we get a handjob by a lake, later a Voyeurism scene with him watching two women through a keyhole.

The next morning there is a CFNM scene between him and the maid, followed by another tease where he applies sunscreen to a nude young woman.

All that finally escalates to a full blown sex scene between him and the female lead he's been attracted to the whole time. Then to cap it off he gets a double blowjob from her and the maid.

If I'd left that sex scene between the two leads where it originally was, the other scenes would not have been nearly as impactful. Nor would the sex scene itself, because i hadn't built any tension or lead up to it.

But by moving things around, the other scenes could hold their own while also serving as as stimulating stepping stones to the main event.

 

[SkyBubble]

"Orgasms Per Page" (OPP) sounds like the sabermetrics of erotica.

 

[Djmac1031]

"Orgasms Per Page" (OPP) sounds like the sabermetrics of erotica.

or...

 

[big_cane_sugar]

This is a great question. Cum to think of it, probably the question I struggle with the most. Sometimes I want to write strokers, and they wind up turning literary on me, and I wonder what I want to do about that. Just abandon the stroke? Other times I want to write something literary and non-erotic but I'm not sure I should bother.

 

[TheDok]

I don't even think this way. Some of my stories contain a lot of sex, and one romance I wrote contains none but has a score of 4.6. Although only 6500 people have clicked, it has provoked some nice comments, and I enjoyed writing it. My advice is to write what you like. If I were writing commercially, I might think differently