Sex in a Story, or Stories about Sex

[Guest]

There are a number of ways to approach erotic writing and I'm betting most if not all of them have been explored by the authors here. What's your preference -- do you like a story with sex in it, or a story with sex as the object?

Do you prefer to read one kind and write another?

Do you go back and forth depending on the subject, your idea, your mood?

Do you see one has preferential to the other? Why?

If you have a preference, have you ever come across a story that did the opposite and still like it, or even find it admirable enough to cause you to change (or consider changing) your opinion?

As a side note, how much sex does a story "need" to be considered erotic?

 

[rgraham666]

I'm all over the place.

Some of my pieces are short works of smut, focusing all attention on a single act.

Some are a bit more involved and I spend a little time to build up the characters, situation and plot.

Some are long and involved. In those I build up slowly to the climax, which may or may not involve climaxes.

I just get an idea for a story and tell it. That's it.

 

[3113]

do you like a story with sex in it, or a story with sex as the object?

Story with sex in it. Always. Like to read those, too--though I'm not adverse to a good stroke now and then. I'm certainly more likely to change in what I want to read (sex as the object) given my mood than what I want to write.

I get especially annoyed at stories that start off as if there's going to be some sort of story...then end up just being about the sex. For example, a story about two people who are both into surfing. Cool. A surfing story...and the sex will envolve maybe some swimming in the water? Sex on a surfboard?

But nope! "Hey, Jenny, now that we're done catching waves wanna go back to my house?" And they're out of their bathing suits and in the bedroom. Huh? Why did we bother with surfing at all? It could have been golf or rollerskating for all that it mattered where and how they met....Damn it! At least try to stick to the theme!

As a side note, how much sex does a story "need" to be considered erotic?

My first story was two-part and the first part had no sex--I was immediately called on it. "This has no sex!" And I thought...um, it's part 1! As I've found out, it really depends on the category. The romantic folk will accept less sex. You can have five chapters of no sex so long as there's a romantic build up to a nice sexual encounter. The BDSM will accept no sex--so long as there's BDSM. Most of the rest want at least one sex scene per chapter.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

There are a number of ways to approach erotic writing and I'm betting most if not all of them have been explored by the authors here. What's your preference -- do you like a story with sex in it, or a story with sex as the object?

Do you prefer to read one kind and write another?

Do you go back and forth depending on the subject, your idea, your mood?

Do you see one has preferential to the other? Why?

If you have a preference, have you ever come across a story that did the opposite and still like it, or even find it admirable enough to cause you to change (or consider changing) your opinion?

As a side note, how much sex does a story "need" to be considered erotic?

I strive to write stories with erotic content. rather than erotic stories.

To me the difference is clarion. If I can take the sex scenes out and substitute "and they made out" and still have a story, I feel i've accomplished something. If I can't, then I feel I've put too much empahsis on the sex.

That isn't to say my sex scenes have no meaning, it's simply to say if the plot or characterizations cannot survive without the sex, then I feel I am cheating the reader and myself.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

I'll be honest. I used to write basic fiction, with no erotic content at all, thinking that if I added it in people would look at my work more as stroke then honest fiction. Now, after being here for a long time (to put it mildly) I'm geared to write a full short story collection, involving stories with erotic content that would never be accepted by the readers here at Lit. These stories are stories with erotic content, but the content isn't even erotically erotic. It's the kind of content that might be considered erotic simply because of how graphic it is. In one, a girl is brutally raped, in graphic detail, because it is imperative to the story. In another, the female lead, not the main character, but possibly the most important supporting character, cires during one of the two sex scenes. Nothing about either story will lead the reader to want to jerk off (unless they're fucked in the head--there is that particular crowd of readership). They are, in my viewpoint, both very good stories, but they're simply not stroke material.

Q_C

 

[impressive]

If I can take the sex scenes out and substitute "and they made out" and still have a story, I feel i've accomplished something. If I can't, then I feel I've put too much empahsis on the sex.

But the sex is still THERE. It's still a factor.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

But the sex is still THERE. It's still a factor.

Yes, but sometimes, the sex matters less than what leads through it. In the one I mentioned where the girl is raped, it's imperative that she be raped. The story actually revolves around it. But erotic? No, not at all. Violent, forceful, negative. Not erotic at all. And it's actually about her getting over what's happened to her, to a point anyway.

If you can remove the sex and the reader can still enjoy, as though it were not even there, then the story must be about the story, not about the sex.

Q_C

 

[impressive]

If you can remove the sex and the reader can still enjoy, as though it were not even there, then the story must be about the story, not about the sex.

Q_C

What I'm saying is that you can remove the EROTIC, but you can never remove the SEX. It's ever present.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

What I'm saying is that you can remove the EROTIC, but you can never remove the SEX. It's ever present.

Arguably, as it is ever-present in life. However, if can go unmentioned and unalluded to in a good work of fiction and still exist. If the story doesn't revolve around an incident (or incidents, as it may be) concerning some sort of strong sexual content, does it dount as erotic? Particularly if the story itself can exist without the erotic content being the focus?

Q_C

 

[impressive]

Arguably, as it is ever-present in life. However, if can go unmentioned and unalluded to in a good work of fiction and still exist. If the story doesn't revolve around an incident (or incidents, as it may be) concerning some sort of strong sexual content, does it dount as erotic? Particularly if the story itself can exist without the erotic content being the focus?

Q_C

I agree completely. So, perhaps the thread title should read: The Erotic in a Story, or Stories about the Erotic ???

 

[Quiet_Cool]

I agree completely. So, perhaps the thread title should read: The Erotic in a Story, or Stories about the Erotic ???

Yes, it must be changed immediately. You tie malechiteink up, I'll poke her repeatedly with extra-sharp needles, so we get our way.

Q_C

 

[impressive]

Yes, it must be changed immediately. You tie malechiteink up, I'll poke her repeatedly with extra-sharp needles, so we get our way.

Q_C

You read my mind (at least the tie malechiteink up part, anyway)!

 

[Guest]

You read my mind (at least the tie malechiteink up part, anyway)!

Don't MAKE me get out the whips now...I'll only let you LOOK at them

 

[Guest]

What I'm saying is that you can remove the EROTIC, but you can never remove the SEX. It's ever present.

You'll need to define the difference in the two so I can follow your argument.

(and I titled this thread with EXACTLY what I meant )

 

[Aurora Black]

Since I'm a split second away from falling out of my chair in exhaustion, I'm going to answer these two:

What's your preference -- do you like a story with sex in it, or a story with sex as the object?

Do you go back and forth depending on the subject, your idea, your mood?

Both and yes. Goodnight.

 

[impressive]

You'll need to define the difference in the two so I can follow your argument.

(and I titled this thread with EXACTLY what I meant )

Hmmm ... I'm too tapped to be articulate, but it wasn't an "argument" as much as an opinion. It kinda relates to what I was blogging about this morning:

Sex speaks to EVERYONE. It is our universal truth -- across all demographics. Our own individual truths vary, but sex is the tie that inevitably binds. Without it, we perish -- not just physically (as a species), but spiritually as well. Sex is used to control and manipulate (especially through politics and Christian organized religion). Even the celibate use sex as a tool for personal growth -- not in the way I prefer to use it, obviously, but it remains an ever present force.

It doesn't matter whether it occurs on screen or off. Sex is pervasive. If not the actual act, then the dance surrounding it. *shrug* I'm overanalyzing. That means it's time for me to hit the showers.

And Q_C & I were just jackin' wif yo thread title.

 

[Typo Fu Master]

There are a number of ways to approach erotic writing and I'm betting most if not all of them have been explored by the authors here. What's your preference -- do you like a story with sex in it, or a story with sex as the object?

It depends on my mood. For reading purposes, if a story grabs me and I'm not particularly horny, the sex can even get in the way.

Do you prefer to read one kind and write another?

No preference. Again, it all depends on my mood.

Do you go back and forth depending on the subject, your idea, your mood?

See above.

As a side note, how much sex does a story "need" to be considered erotic?

Different people have different requirements. For some, a sentence suggesting a person's state of arousal might be enough. For another, a complete sex scene every chapter. It takes more than a mention of heaving breasts and lustful glances for me to consider a story erotic, but I'm a bit jaded.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

But the sex is still THERE. It's still a factor.

Of course it is

Perhaps a better choice of words on my part would have been to remove the Graphic descriptions.

 

[Weird Harold]

...do you like a story with sex in it, or a story with sex as the object?

Do you prefer to read one kind and write another?

Do you go back and forth depending on the subject, your idea, your mood?

Do you see one has preferential to the other? Why?

As far as reading, it depends on my mood -- but I generally prefer at least a well written graphic vignette.

As far as my writing, it's always Story First -- even if the "Story" is nothing but sex.

 

[Guest]

Hmmm ... I'm too tapped to be articulate, but it wasn't an "argument" as much as an opinion. It kinda relates to what I was blogging about this morning:

I meant "argument" as your particular opinion and so forth, not that you were fighting with me (I'd expect wrestling with you to be much more fun)

It doesn't matter whether it occurs on screen or off. Sex is pervasive. If not the actual act, then the dance surrounding it. *shrug* I'm overanalyzing. That means it's time for me to hit the showers.

And Q_C & I were just jackin' wif yo thread title.

I know, no offence taken, but I thought you brought up something interesting and wanted to hear you say more about it.