Story climax vs. sexual climax

[GeorgeAbernathy]

In the post for the 750 word challenge, the structure of a short story is described as:

EXPOSITION - RISING ACTION - CLIMAX - FALLING ACTION - RESOLUTION

I'm writing my first story and I have a stupid question about the "meta" of erotic fiction. Is "CLIMAX" in the structure usually (or always) also when the characters reach sexual climax? Or is that considered too cliché?

If it's one of those annoying subjective "depends" answers, where would you peg the ratio? Do most writers do it? What about the very best writers?

Thanks!
George

 

[TarnishedPenny]

With all possible respect to those proposing such, I personally find it formulaic - especially for a 750 word yarn. If it helps, fine and go with it, but don't feel bound to it.

 

[XerXesXu]

The dénouement (FALLING ACTION and RESOLUTION) can consist of eg: 'I love You.' or 'They lived happily ever after.' The inciting event can consist of 'It rained.'

This gives me an idea for another 750-word story.

 

[LiterallyLiterate]

I might be wrong, but I get the feeling you’re asking this not necessarily in the 750-challenge context?

In any event, I think the short answer is no.
The longer answer is that it usually is, in my brief experience, but that’s no excuse to feel like it has to. In my latest chapter, probably coming online today or tomorrow, I put what I consider the sexual climax about two thirds into the story, while the story climax, not really sexual, comes at the end.
I have no idea how the audience will react, but I guess the proof will be in the ratings.

Edit: story was published 26 minutes ago.

 

[GeorgeAbernathy]

I might be wrong, but I get the feeling you’re asking this not necessarily in the 750-challenge context?

In any event, I think the short answer is no.
The longer answer is that it usually is, in my brief experience, but that’s no excuse to feel like it has to. In my latest chapter, probably coming online today or tomorrow, I put what I consider the sexual climax about two thirds into the story, while the story climax, not really sexual, comes at the end.
I have no idea how the audience will react, but I guess the proof will be in the ratings.

Edit: story was published 26 minutes ago.

You're right that I meant generally, but it seemed especially relevant to the 750-challenge since structure is more obvious in short works (and it was emphasized in the announcement post).

I'm a screenwriter, and we're taught that the climax (we say "midpoint") is the moment when the characters achieve their original goal before they learn about the deeper, ultimate goal of the story. The classic example is saving Princess Leia (original goal) versus destroying the Death Star (ultimate goal).

That description doesn't exactly fit with mutual orgasm (unless the characters cum even harder at the end?) But I suppose it depends on what your goals are. A protagonist could spend the first half of a story trying to fuck someone only to learn there's something else she's searching for, e.g.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You're right that I meant generally, but it seemed especially relevant to the 750-challenge since structure is more obvious in short works (and it was emphasized in the announcement post).

I think the 750 challenge lends itself more to a vignette than a story - that's how I've always approached mine.

 

[XerXesXu]

You're right that I meant generally, but it seemed especially relevant to the 750-challenge since structure is more obvious in short works (and it was emphasized in the announcement post).

I'm a screenwriter, and we're taught that the climax (we say "midpoint") is the moment when the characters achieve their original goal before they learn about the deeper, ultimate goal of the story. The classic example is saving Princess Leia (original goal) versus destroying the Death Star (ultimate goal).

That description doesn't exactly fit with mutual orgasm (unless the characters cum even harder at the end?) But I suppose it depends on what your goals are. A protagonist could spend the first half of a story trying to fuck someone only to learn there's something else she's searching for, e.g.

If you try to write a 'Once upon a time ..in a land.. there lived..' story in the oral tradition, 750 words yield no more than a back-cover blurb.

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[LiterallyLiterate]

To elaborate a bit on you comment, I think the stories will be on a spectrum, where one end is the short stroke-story with hardly any backstory save the sexual act, while the other end is stories in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of words with little to no sex.

It comes down to what you aspire to create, I guess.
For my own part, I’ve started simple, with shorter stories with less background story, but I’m writing several stories now that will be a lot longer, with a storyline that spans several chapters, criss-crossing other storylines I’m writing and/or planning.
If I can get it to work properly, I hope to make a Sanderson-esque world where storylines in multiple categories with recurring characters intersect, and perhaps an overlying storyline, but that’s still only a thought experiment.

For many of those stories, the sexual acts will, to some extent, be spice to flavor the actual story.
My advice would be to start simple and get a read of the audience in your chosen category and develop the story, or stories, over several installments. That way you can tweak your writing style as you develop.
Some categories here have very specific tastes, and ratings and comments will typically reflect that.

 

[Rollinbones]

Some short stories are simple snapshots. Consider Hemingway. “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.” It’s three actions. Teaser, hook, execution.

 

[ronde]

In the post for the 750 word challenge, the structure of a short story is described as:

EXPOSITION - RISING ACTION - CLIMAX - FALLING ACTION - RESOLUTION

I'm writing my first story and I have a stupid question about the "meta" of erotic fiction. Is "CLIMAX" in the structure usually (or always) also when the characters reach sexual climax? Or is that considered too cliché?

If it's one of those annoying subjective "depends" answers, where would you peg the ratio? Do most writers do it? What about the very best writers?

Thanks!
George

This structure is the plot structure Gustav Freytag, a German novelist, described. In his description, the "climax" is the point in the story when the main character reaches a turning point that changes his or her future. In a classical romance, the "climax" is the point at which the characters realize they love each other. Any sex would occur after the "climax", because up to that point, the characters are in denial about their feelings. In a classical romance, the sex would occur during the "Falling Action" portion because that part of the story is where the characters actions reflect the realization they reached in the "Climax".

It's a pretty restrictive formula for a plot, but it also happens to be the structure favored by most publishers of romance novels.

 

[SimonDoom]

That formula should be taken with a huge grain of salt in writing any erotic story, and especially one limited to 750 words. It's a rough guideline and nothing more.

For me, in an erotic short story, sexual climax and dramatic climax are usually one and the same, or at least intertwined temporally. I don't think it's necessary or usually important to have an extended denouement. My stories usually have a short wrap-up after the sex, often with one character saying something that ends the story on an appropriate note. Sometimes I'll end with a quick exchange that hints at what might come next or suggests that there's a layer to the relationship beyond the mere sex act.

 

[lovecraft68]

As an aside, I can already tell the site-which seems to be taking longer to post stories as it is-is about to be flooded with these mini stories that because they're part of some event, are going to get priority.

Just what we need.

 

[NotWise]

The sexual climax in an erotic story can as easily be the resolution of the story as the climax of the plot.

 

[StillStunned]

Surely, except in Toys & Masturbation, most stories should have at least two sexual climaxes...?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

In the post for the 750 word challenge, the structure of a short story is described as:

EXPOSITION - RISING ACTION - CLIMAX - FALLING ACTION - RESOLUTION

I'm writing my first story and I have a stupid question about the "meta" of erotic fiction. Is "CLIMAX" in the structure usually (or always) also when the characters reach sexual climax? Or is that considered too cliché?

If it's one of those annoying subjective "depends" answers, where would you peg the ratio? Do most writers do it? What about the very best writers?

Thanks!
George

It depends... Take Game of Thrones for example. it's full of sex and nudity and all kinds of depravity. Lots and lots of sexual climaxes just as the overriding story contains lot of smaller cycles from rising actin to resolution within the scope of the greater CLIMAX of the story, which GRRM probably hasn't even written yet.

My point is, there doesn't have to be any correlation at all between sexual climax(es) and the literary climax. If you're writing a wanker, the likelihood will probably go up, but if you're writing with more character development and in a more romantic vein, the correlation lessens.

 

[GeorgeAbernathy]

If you're writing a wanker, the likelihood will probably go up, but if you're writing with more character development and in a more romantic vein, the correlation lessens.

I would love to know the definition of a "wanker", if you don't mind.

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

I would love to know the definition of a "wanker", if you don't mind.

Probably a stroker story. A straightforward story that serves the reader the sex part without, like Shelby mentioned, much character development, or possibly plot.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I would love to know the definition of a "wanker", if you don't mind.

Also known as a stroker, it's a story, usually very light on plot, written with only one purpose in mind - getting the reader off.

It's the source of endless debate, pornography versus erotica, that kind of thing.

 

[Bramblethorn]

This structure is the plot structure Gustav Freytag, a German novelist, described. In his description, the "climax" is the point in the story when the main character reaches a turning point that changes his or her future. In a classical romance, the "climax" is the point at which the characters realize they love each other. Any sex would occur after the "climax", because up to that point, the characters are in denial about their feelings. In a classical romance, the sex would occur during the "Falling Action" portion because that part of the story is where the characters actions reflect the realization they reached in the "Climax".

It's a pretty restrictive formula for a plot, but it also happens to be the structure favored by most publishers of romance novels.

Old-school romance might require sex to come after the realisation that they love one another, and perhaps even after engagement/marriage, but "they fuck and then they fall in love" is pretty common in modern romance, as is "they don't realise their feelings for one another until after they fuck". ("Modern" as in recently published, not necessarily modern settings.)

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I would love to know the definition of a "wanker", if you don't mind.

I stole the word from our British friends. My understanding is that the word is two-fold: a friend that’s being a dick( friendly jibe), or any individual that is ‘playing’ with theirs(masturbating).

 

[bumpercars]

If it's one of those annoying subjective "depends" answers, where would you peg the ratio?

Look, if I peg the ratio, it's going to climax right away.

But seriously, I think in stories with two characters the sexual and narrative climaxes are often close together. It gets more complicated in stories with multiple partners or sex scenes, and I'm not sure that there's any kind of rule you could apply to it.

Broadly, though, I would treat that kind of analysis as a tool for understanding existing stories, more than as a tool for writing them. If you're looking at a story you're writing and trying to math out how soon the climax should be based on ratios, you probably aren't listening to your characters and their story as much as you should. A 750-word story has its own challenges, but even stories with space constraints have to be living things first.

I look forward to seeing your story!

 

[Belegon]

In the post for the 750 word challenge, the structure of a short story is described as:

EXPOSITION - RISING ACTION - CLIMAX - FALLING ACTION - RESOLUTION

I'm writing my first story and I have a stupid question about the "meta" of erotic fiction. Is "CLIMAX" in the structure usually (or always) also when the characters reach sexual climax? Or is that considered too cliché?

If it's one of those annoying subjective "depends" answers, where would you peg the ratio? Do most writers do it? What about the very best writers?

Thanks!
George

the general sense I have is that while the structure referenced above is fine and valid for many stories, it has absolutely nothing to do with where your story participants may reach sexual fulfillment. Nor is it necessary for your plot to follow that specific outline, although that base has a lot in common with one of my guiding principles, which is based on what is sometimes referred to as a three act play. It's a format I try to follow but find slightly hard to describe and I freely admit it's rent free dwelling in my head is largely due to a couple of instructors I had at a particular writing conference who impressed me. One of them is a gentleman named Warren Lewis, whose name will often appear at your local cinema as he does a lot of script doctoring in Hollywood and has also been the lead writer on a few movies, including The 13th Warrior starring Antonio Banderas.