Questions of length and buildup

[WMDean]

Hello everyone, I've written a couple relatively short lit stories before (like 5 years ago) and after this long hiatus I've started a new one. My questions mostly concern what length/pacing is best for a romance sort of story. It's about 20 pages (MS word, 12 pt times new roman) right now.

The story is about two friends working at the same company who reconnect after some time apart and bond romantically over the tough times the company and they as individuals are going through. It's told from one character's point of view in first person. The first 2 pages are just framing the story, and I don't get to introducing the second main character until near the end of page 2. I'm not sure if this is too long. The main idea is to introduce the office environment and flesh out the protagonist's character a bit.

Then there is a bunch of build-up but no explicit sexual action up until page 14 (after that, it's into the "good part" basically until the end). Much of this is dialogue. The characters cuddle up, have a glass of wine and talk to each other, etc. and eventually one's feelings for the other come out the next day. It seems like the "friends to lovers" theme requires a bit of this to work properly--will people get through 12 pages (word pages, NOT lit pages hehe) of it OK?

Thanks for the advice and I hope to have this story submitted soon, I really like the direction it is going in so far but I want to be accessible to the romantics and the wankers both

 

[sr71plt]

First, it's best to talk in terms of wordage, not pages, as page lengths vary significantly (for instance, double spacing will cut the wordage in half over single spacing--and just mentioning pages doesn't cover the spacing used).

Second, yes, I wouldn't expect too many readers on a erotica story board to read through 13 pages of sitting and talking to get to a sex scene--as much because sitting and talking over wine is static as because the sex is delayed.

If that's what you want to write, though, go ahead and post it and have low expectations on reads/votes.

 

[poppy_cock]

Having just battled through the chapter from hell (I write under a different alt ) and finally got my characters to move from being friends to lovers, I feel your pain. Not easy to do at all.

I'm guessing with 20 pages you've got something like 9,000 to 10,000 words? So maybe 3 lit pages? It's hard to tell from your description, but to give you a guide, one Lit page is about 3,500 words.

If your story's written well and in the right category, then trust me when I tell you that it doesn't actually need to have any sex in at all. The readers of the romance category are a pretty forgiving lot and suckers for decent stories, in my humble opinion. So the fact that your characters don't get it on for 12 pages or so doesn't trouble me at all - so long as those 12 pages really really need to be there. If they're just wadding, then you'll lose your readers by the end of the first couple of paragraphs.

Also bear in mind that the Lit readership are an incredibly diverse bunch. You can't even hope to please them all. I had a comment the other day from a surgeon who was frustrated that my story didn't have a happy ending. Er, well, that would be because he was reading Chapter 2 and there will be another 7 or 8 chapters...

You will, from time to time, get completely horrible comments from people who feel the need to lash out at you just because they're having a bad day.

The great thing about Lit is that pretty much anything goes here. Trust in your story and just post it, okay? No one's expecting perfection (except that surgeon...). The more you write, the better you get. Do it for fun. Do it for you.

I'll keep an eye out for your story...

 

[WMDean]

Thanks for the advice--yep, it's about 7800 words now.

 

[sr71plt]

I would be more worried about 13 pages of sitting and drinking wine and having a conversation before anything happened.

 

[CWatson]

I can only speak for myself, but I don't really think you'll hit any issues with the length of the story, as long as you post it in the Romance category. People are used to a longer build-up there.

If you're still concerned with the speed, affix a prologue which sets the "hook". Establish what the end-goal of the story is, what it is you're working towards, in this prologue, and then proceed with the story at your discretion. It sounds simple, but it works well; Nick Scipio has had us hanging for almost 7 years, over a hundred chapters and more than 1 million words, waiting for the big payoff at the end. Why? Because he set a "hook" in his prologue. (Well, that and the fact that he's a pretty darn good writer. ;D)

Hope this helps. =)

 

[WMDean]

I would be more worried about 13 pages of sitting and drinking wine and having a conversation before anything happened.

Oh, stuff happens, there just isn't any actual sex in those pages. I don't know if that's what you meant.

Thanks for the advice CWatson, I do think I'm going to put this one in 'romance' as it seems to fit best there. I'm looking through Nick's site now trying to find the prologue.

 

[EricCalder]

You could do something like start the story with one or both of the character's having sex in a previous relationship, or some sort of dream fantasy of one of them. If you goal is to just put a sex scene near the front there are a number of ways to do it.

But if you story seems best to you the way it is now then just keep it at that. This is a place were people want the sex, so something that starts slow is going to be at a disadvantage. But if that is what you like to write, then go for it.

 

[driphoney]

Firstkiss posts in Erotic Couplings. Her stories are heavy on the story and romance and light on the sex. She sits near the top, or on the top of the EC Top List a large portion of the time.

I could be wrong, but even on a porn site, a good story seems to trump sex, sex, sex. Or rather, it might be more appropriate to say that a light sex story can at least complete well against it.

 

[poppy_cock]

Firstkiss posts in Erotic Couplings. Her stories are heavy on the story and romance and light on the sex. She sits near the top, or on the top of the EC Top List a large portion of the time.

I could be wrong, but even on a porn site, a good story seems to trump sex, sex, sex. Or rather, it might be more appropriate to say that a light sex story can at least complete well against it.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[neci]

while i do not write stories, i am an avid reader. in my opinion (just as a solitary book worm) lead up, when done with creative play and colorful imagination can heighten the intensity of the eventual physical, or in this case written, act. if writing your story hits strings of sexual emotion, then enjoy the creative process. there is always time to clean up and make things more presentable for the general public...

many writers and artists find that the shorter intense pieces are their calling
others discover that the layering of words and colors is what calls their hearts
the thing is that by pushing and experimenting with new media, one learns quite a bit in the process. i hope you are enjoying your time creating your work. i look forward to reading it

 

[Miss_Misaki]

Yeah, I feel your pain, man. I'm more verbose than Herman Melville when it comes to my stories, and my latest one's a behemoth. I'm sitting at 35 pages right now on my current story (that's 20,185 words, according to OpenOffice), and I'm only just now getting to the actual sex. Of course, the majority of the time before that is spent with the "protagonist" using deception and sneakiness to invent a pretense just to get in his love interest's house, and then do all sorts of naughty things to her before the actual love-making begins. :3 I've never had such a huge buildup to the sex before in one of my stories, and I'm going to have a hard time living up to it, to say the least. Mine's a romance story too (although it could just as easily fit in the reluctance half of nonconsent/reluctance), and the way it's going, it'll probably take up close to ten or fifteen lit pages.

I worry about my story length a lot, but in the end, what I worry most about is whether or not it's complete. I worry about whittling it down once I'm sure I've got what needs to be there in it first. ^_^;