Question on Starting a Story - Content before the Main Attraction

[LonRivers]

I enjoy a good backstory to give readers a chance to get to know a character or characters, but what is too much backstory? I have written and re-written numerous stories, got to about 6-9 pages in before I even got to the a sex scene. When I do this, I get on a roll and just write, but then stop when I realize I may have written too much, and I think it takes away from the story.

 

[AllenWoody]

I'm sure I won't be alone in suggesting that you give your readers a tease before getting too deep. It isn't so much about getting to the sex as it is getting to the point.

 

[AlinaX]

While you don't *need* to rush into sex in a story, especially in a long story, most readers are going to get impatient unless you write very well.

It may be worth pausing and asking how you could introduce some secondary theme or character to the story that would lead to erotic incidents.

 

[LonRivers]

I'm sure I won't be alone in suggesting that you give your readers a tease before getting too deep. It isn't so much about getting to the sex as it is getting to the point.

I try to add in little bits here and there , but I still wonder if it is not enough or too much. I have scrapped quite a few stories because of this. I keep them, but I file them away in hopes of going back to them at some point.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Like a lot of questions here, it depends. Romance readers like a longer story with the slow build. I've got a 16k word romance where nothing sexual happened for 3/4 of the story.

Don't force it in just because you think something has to happen. Stick it where it fits.

 

[AlinaX]

Also, it's far more fun to introduce backstory through dialogue. Even to have characters discussing and arguing while having sex.

 

[LonRivers]

While you don't *need* to rush into sex in a story, especially in a long story, most readers are going to get impatient unless you write very well.

It may be worth pausing and asking how you could introduce some secondary theme or character to the story that would lead to erotic incidents.

I try to add in details that might keep a readers interest, and if it works or not, I don't know. I always get those annoying rude complimentary feedback comments, and never about how well I wrote a story other than "great sex" or "I banged my sister once".

 

[AlinaX]

Only once? I guess she wasn't impressed...

 

[LonRivers]

Also, it's far more fun to introduce backstory through dialogue. Even to have characters discussing and arguing while having sex.

I think that is another issue that I have. I add in backstory and dialogue and it adds to the amount of work that I put forth. I think though that I need to spread both out more

 

[NotWise]

I wouldn't worry. Quite a few of my stories don't get to the sex right away, and the readers mostly approve.

 

[Britva415]

When I do this, I get on a roll and just write, but then stop when I realize I may have written too much, and I think it takes away from the story.

Don't stop! It's OK to over-write. It kind of sounds like you haven't learned to revise, which is a part of the creative-writing process when you critically re-work an earlier draft.

The Chekov's Gun principle provides an extreme but useful (and not the only) answer to your question, "how much is too much."

What parts of the backstory are necessary to frame the Main Attraction? What parts of the backstory contribute to the tension in the story which the Main Attraction resolves? What parts don't?

It's OK to have some atmosphere details which aren't Chekov's Guns. It's OK to draft an excessive flood of words. Can you trim them judiciously while revising? With a critical eye to judging "how does this word or sentence or paragraph or page contribute to, enhance, or make inevitable the Main Attraction?"

So yeah, don't feel like you have to stop. Just be prepared to trim, afterwards.

 

[LonRivers]

Don't stop! It's OK to over-write. It kind of sounds like you haven't learned to revise, which is a part of the creative-writing process when you critically re-work an earlier draft.

The Chekov's Gun principle provides an extreme but useful (and not the only) answer to your question, "how much is too much."

What parts of the backstory are necessary to frame the Main Attraction? What parts of the backstory contribute to the tension in the story which the Main Attraction resolves? What parts don't?

It's OK to have some atmosphere details which aren't Chekov's Guns. It's OK to draft an excessive flood of words. Can you trim them judiciously while revising? With a critical eye to judging "how does this word or sentence or paragraph or page contribute to, enhance, or make inevitable the Main Attraction?"

So yeah, don't feel like you have to stop. Just be prepared to trim, afterwards.

I think that is one of the reasons why I hold onto them. My stories may change as I start to write them over again, but key areas or ideas stick with me. I do revise as I go along, and I do eliminate a lot, but obviously I need to do more to the point where I myself am happy with the final draft.

 

[AllenWoody]

I think that is one of the reasons why I hold onto them. My stories may change as I start to write them over again, but key areas or ideas stick with me. I do revise as I go along, and I do eliminate a lot, but obviously I need to do more to the point where I myself am happy with the final draft.

It's natural for your story to take its own direction. The story that you think you want to write becomes something unexpected but better. It's the same with characters. The one dimensional antagonist who you think is just a necessary evil to start the action turns out to be the most nuanced character in your story.

For backstory, to me, eight or nine pages is a lot. I don't want to read that much exposition. Start the action, then like @AlinaX suggests, expose the backstory with dialog, or at the very least, shorter sections of exposition.

 

[Bramblethorn]

IMHO, what matters is that readers can tell where the story is going. Not in a "this story will be about the life and times of Molly, who's born in a prison and works as a hooker, gets married five times including once to her own brother, gets jailed for theft, gets released, makes her money, and settles down" kind of way, but they want to know whether it's going somewhere interesting.

I've read published books with something like 200 pages of setup before the payoff, because I trusted the author to deliver something worth the wait. On Literotica, if I don't know the author, a long backstory is liable to have me thinking "is this actually going somewhere, and if so, is it going somewhere that interests me?"

It's often preferable to drip-feed the backstory, but if for whatever reason you can't do that, look for a way to answer that question early on. For instance, one of mine does involve several pages of backstory because the MCs have seven years of history before they end up sharing a bed. But I made a point of beginning with a couple of paragraphs set at the point where that "sharing a bed" starts to fall into place, before jumping back seven years for that backstory, so readers have some idea what all that is working towards.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I enjoy a good backstory to give readers a chance to get to know a character or characters, but what is too much backstory? I have written and re-written numerous stories, got to about 6-9 pages in before I even got to the a sex scene. When I do this, I get on a roll and just write, but then stop when I realize I may have written too much, and I think it takes away from the story.

I wouldn't say there's a hard and fast rule. Unless you're just writing a quick wanker, a good story is important just like good sex matters. Just make sure the story doesn't get in the way of the sex and the sex fits the story.

 

[Voboy]

Each story is different. If you let the characters drive the plot, and those characters end up more tentative or cautious than you thought they'd be, the payoff might take longer than you planned.

That said? This is an erotica site, and unless you're writing in one of the non-sex categories, you owe your readers a certain amount of spice. FOR ME (and everyone writes differently), if my characters haven't at least contacted each others' genitals within the first 10k words? That's a clue that my story might not be viable for this site, by my own metric.

 

[Cagivagurl]

I enjoy a good backstory to give readers a chance to get to know a character or characters, but what is too much backstory? I have written and re-written numerous stories, got to about 6-9 pages in before I even got to the a sex scene. When I do this, I get on a roll and just write, but then stop when I realize I may have written too much, and I think it takes away from the story.

Every story is different.
You write the story, and if it leads you down a path, all you can do is follow.
The story will dictate the flow, the pathway. It will give natural highs and lows.
There is no magical plan...
As a writer, your mission is to release the story. If it is a long twisted path, then so be it.
Changing the flow of the story, just to insert a sex scene is a tragic mistake I've seen in many stories. All it does for me as a reader is break up the story. I usually back out when that happens.
Write your story, don't break it up chasing some mythical audience which may never appear...

Lesson from the lessons learnt pile. "You can't please everybody."

Cagivagurl

 

[LonRivers]

Thanks to all of you for the comments and feedback. I do appreciate it. I have been writing since the 90's, and have only been publishing on LIT since 2023. I am trying to put out some good stories that just happen to have sex in them, or more than a few sex scenes. Right now I am working on building the outline for a series that I hope to get going. It's just going slow since I keep changing things around. Which is not bad since I haven't published any of it yet, and working out the details and getting the right start is always a plus.

 

[LonRivers]

OK. Here is another question, and rather than post another thread, this will help me with my current works as well.

What do YOU prefer to see from an author? Thirty plus chapters scattered around LIT of the same story or characters from the same series in stand alone stories?

 

[Voboy]

OK. Here is another question, and rather than post another thread, this will help me with my current works as well.

What do YOU prefer to see from an author? Thirty plus chapters scattered around LIT of the same story or characters from the same series in stand alone stories?

I like a long, well-told story of about 20-40k words. I usually avoid series. I like characters with depth.

 

[LonRivers]

I like a long, well-told story of about 20-40k words. I usually avoid series. I like characters with depth.

I prefer stories rather than chapters. I can go for a long story too as long as it is good and well written. Heck, even if it is just good and keeps my interest. I tend to avoid series unless they are just a few. Anything over three and I am passing them by. But a series of stand alone stories with the same character is what I am talking about. Sort of like the old Gunsmith novels where each book was a different adventure, had a different title, but it was in a series.

 

[Cagivagurl]

As a reader, I prefer to get the story in one go. I tend to leave series stories unless I trust the writer.
If it is a series, then to keep the audience, leave them in the same category.
If the theme of the series is going to change, then perhaps post as stand alone stories. The fact that the characters will reappear in other stories is not a distraction.... The category and tags will direct readers on whether it's their thing."

Just my thoughts

Cagivagurl

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm not sure what you mean by "backstory." Backstory and buildup are two completely different things. Backstory is a narrative or account of things that happened before the main timing of the story, to help explain where the characters are at the beginning of the main timeline of the story. Buildup is whatever it takes to get the main character or characters to the climax, which in erotica usually means some kind of sexual experience or encounter. It sounds like you might mean buildup.

With backstory, I think it's better not to spend too long on info dumping at the beginning, but to weave in backstory only as necessary to explain the ongoing story.

But with buildup, I don't think there's a rule. It all depends on the story. If you like lots of buildup, then write it that way. I personally feel that the buildup to the sex can be just as entertaining as, or more entertaining than, the sexual climax of the story.

 

[LonRivers]

I'm not sure what you mean by "backstory." Backstory and buildup are two completely different things. Backstory is a narrative or account of things that happened before the main timing of the story, to help explain where the characters are at the beginning of the main timeline of the story. Buildup is whatever it takes to get the main character or characters to the climax, which in erotica usually means some kind of sexual experience or encounter. It sounds like you might mean buildup.

With backstory, I think it's better not to spend too long on info dumping at the beginning, but to weave in backstory only as necessary to explain the ongoing story.

But with buildup, I don't think there's a rule. It all depends on the story. If you like lots of buildup, then write it that way. I personally feel that the buildup to the sex can be just as entertaining as, or more entertaining than, the sexual climax of the story.

In my story, at least the one I am working on now, I tend to start telling their backstory of who they are, where they came from and add in bits and pieces to direct the reader to where I am going. But I tend to add too much I think. For example, I start to talk about their life growing up, the relationship(s) they have with others, events that are in-between and after awhile, I am looking at a lot of pages. I have received some pretty good advice in just this thread, so I am doing what I can to correct my issues, but at the same time, keep writing the more important things.

 

[SimonDoom]

In my story, at least the one I am working on now, I tend to start telling their backstory of who they are, where they came from and add in bits and pieces to direct the reader to where I am going. But I tend to add too much I think. For example, I start to talk about their life growing up, the relationship(s) they have with others, events that are in-between and after awhile, I am looking at a lot of pages. I have received some pretty good advice in just this thread, so I am doing what I can to correct my issues, but at the same time, keep writing the more important things.

I think you can (and probably should, although I can't say for sure without reading the story, which I haven't done yet) cut backstory down to what's needed. You may have fun working out your characters' previous lives, but your readers don't need to know more than what is needed for the immediate story.