Too much story, not enough erotica!

[lovecraft68]

Ahem. As per your post in the goal thread, I thought this was supposed to be a LC-free zone?

Thank you! and you are correct except word is "frozen" and doing that "Trying to force word to close" thing.

Sigh. good thing I hit save like every thirty seconds. Okay I'll give up and just restart the damn thing.

 

[PennLady]

Hey, I've been writing. What a novel feeling.

Now I just need to keep those nagging "what about dinner and all" questions at bay while I keep going...

And yeah, LC, go away.

 

[TxRad]

Too much story, not enough erotica!

I've been accused of that several hundred times. Never convicted, mind you, just accused.

 

[oggbashan]

I have written stories in which the sex is implied but not explicit.

Anonymous either likes of hates them.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

I have written stories in which the sex is implied but not explicit.

Anonymous either likes of hates them.

Anonymous frequently does both of those at the same time.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I think it too limiting to require a "lead up" at all. We've had a discussion here about "never opening with a sex scene." But I think a quite popular technique in at least the U.S. market currently is to open with an action scene (which, in erotica, can be a sex scene) and work your/the reader's way out of that confusion toward understanding/revelation. In this case, there's no lead up to the story.

I like to open with a sex scene, tell the story, and then end on another sex scene.

I also like to write sex all the way through.

Or sex scene after sex scene punctuated by story.

Or story punctuated with with sex scenes...

Ok, I just like writing sex and story and sex stories, regardless of how they are constructed

 

[autoplot]

I like having lots of story. If someone wants an instant payoff where sex happens in a paragraph or two, I'm sure they can find it without much trouble, but I'm certainly not interested in writing it.

 

[PennLady]

I find it very difficult to write a story that's just "about" sex and nothing else. In fact, the three times I've done it have been my lowest-rated stories. So I guess I'll just keep putting the darn plot in there.

 

[TxRad]

I find it very difficult to write a story that's just "about" sex and nothing else. In fact, the three times I've done it have been my lowest-rated stories. So I guess I'll just keep putting the darn plot in there.

If you start with plot, you're stuck with plot. The fans expect it.

Been there and done that. Got the ripped t-shirts to prove it.

 

[Darkniciad]

I write some pure porn sometimes: simple set-up and sex. They don't score quite as well as my more involved stories, but they certainly get a lot more hits and votes. Of course, they're all in the "mainstream" categories, as opposed to the niches.

Sometimes, a good sex idea just doesn't mesh up with any plot I come up with. It's still in my head, and needs to get out, so I write the stroker to clear the log jam. If I think of a plot later, I just stick it in the second story and put it in another pen name *laugh*

Every category's readers have an overall preference for sex to story ratios, but there are readers of all tastes in every category. The bottom line is that if you write it and post it at Lit, you'll find your readership. The user base is large enough to support damn near any style.

 

[AngelBell]

I am new to authoring but some of my favorite stories in the SciFi section had much more plot than sex. Sometimes this was great other times it was such a tease!! But I am definitely guilty of writing just stroke material so I can't really comment on long complicated plot stories. Hoping to branch out one day

 

[Series 6]

Anonymous frequently does both of those at the same time.

I see this person Anonymous on several of my stories. They never leave an e-mail address I can reply to. Damn you, Anon!

 

[beatrice_dreams]

I find it very difficult to write a story that's just "about" sex and nothing else. In fact, the three times I've done it have been my lowest-rated stories. So I guess I'll just keep putting the darn plot in there.

I suppose the characters would also much rather just spend their whole time canoodling instead of being walloped with progressive complications and turning points, but if we have to work hard, dammit if we won't make them sweat it out to!

 

[TE999]

I have written several Sci-Fi and Fantasy stories with sex scenes in them that have been well received. Sex can be an adjunct to the story rather than the primary focus.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

I write in gay male, and I have... three stories that don't start out with sex right away. I think the gay male cat is pretty willing to wait as long as sex shows up eventually. I realize you probably don't write gay male, so this probably isn't helpful.

On a note we can all relate to though... The reason I write here is to hone my writing skills. There aren't many places on the internet that you can post a story and expect more then ten or twelve hits. I wasn't sure how many hits I would get when I first started submitting, and I nearly hit my head on the ceiling when I saw that I got over three thousand views ON THE FIRST DAY on one of my stories.

Lit is just a good place to learn how to write. In genres like sci fi, nonhuman, and gay male, if you ask for them to critique it, they will. You may have to learn to toughen up a little, but this is a great side to practice all forms of writing, and get literally THOUSANDS of readers, many of whom give helpful hints.

Hope this helps,
--Cruel

 

[BuckyDuckman]

If it's a sex story - there needs to be sex!

I think we're kidding ourselves if we don't give the reader what they came for - sex - whether it's romantic or down and dirty, it's why they picked a sex story to read instead of Moby Dick. Same is true if you're writing about zombies. You don't spend 25,000 words without a hint of a zombie.

 

[mynameisben]

I think we're kidding ourselves if we don't give the reader what they came for - sex - whether it's romantic or down and dirty, it's why they picked a sex story to read instead of Moby Dick. Same is true if you're writing about zombies. You don't spend 25,000 words without a hint of a zombie.

Huh? I thought Moby Dick was a sex story.

The word moby means enormous. Go ahead, look it up. The title of Melville's epic tale, then, literally means "Enormous Dick." How can Moby Dick NOT be about sex?

"Let all your crew pull strong, come what will. (Spring, my men, spring!) There's hogsheads of sperm ahead, Mr. Stubb, that's what ye came for. (Pull my boys!) Sperm, sperm's the play! " - Moby Dick, Chapter 48

"There she blows! Had the trump of judgment blown, they could not have quivered more; yet still they felt no terror; rather pleasure. For though it was a most unwonted hour, yet so impressive was the cry, and so deliriously exciting, that almost every soul onboard instinctively desired a lowering." - Moby Dick, Chapter 51

I rest my case.

 

[sr71plt]

And I'm betting your case really needs the rest.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have people tell me all the time they are invested in the story and the sex is just a bonus. Just because it is a sex site does not mean people aren't intelligent and don't appreciate a good read.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I have people tell me all the time they are invested in the story and the sex is just a bonus. Just because it is a sex site does not mean people aren't intelligent and don't appreciate a good read.

I agree, lovecraft, that all stories have their own pacing. But you don't read Norman Mailer for the sex scenes. I feel a bit like the actress who claims she'll only do nudity when she feels it's an important plot point to the script. Did Sharron Stone HAVE to flash bush for her imfamous interrogation scene in "Basic Instinct?" Was the point already made before she crossed and uncrossed her legs? Couldn't the same point be made if she was wearing something lacy or a thong?

If you're writing a sex story and there's no sex: YOU'RE NOT WRITING A SEX STORY! And, if you're reading Anne Rice's "Beauty" series and thinking you're not reading erotica, you're just as mistaken.

All too often, I think writers lose their way. I know I have and I've reconsidered a story because of it. Was I trying to tell a story with lots of sex in it? Or, was I trying to pass off lots of sex as story? To me, there's a difference.

 

[Cyalith]

Just finish it!

I read a lot of the sci fi stories, and I really don't mind more plot than sex. Sometimes I enjoy it in fact.

The only thing I mind is stories with two or three chapters of build up that then languish unfinished in the land of unfulfilled sexual tension. I would never do that to a person, why do it to a reader?

(That's one reason I haven't submitted anything, I want to make sure it is finished FIRST.)

 

[butterfly719]

loong series

i read a good series of stories by GINATINA called DARK TRAVLERS & there are whole chapters without sex. I still LOVED it & another series called FALLING INTO DARKNESS (i think). so not alot of sex or sex sparingly throughout is fine by me.

 

[PennLady]

i read a good series of stories by GINATINA called DARK TRAVLERS & there are whole chapters without sex. I still LOVED it & another series called FALLING INTO DARKNESS (i think). so not alot of sex or sex sparingly throughout is fine by me.

Some have noted that certain categories may lend themselves to "sex-less" chapters. I mostly write in nonhuman and romance, and I'll go halfway through, many times, before they have sex -- although before that I'm trying to lay out the relationship and build up the sexual tension. That approach might not work so well in, say, erotic couplings.

I think readers will keep reading what they like, and not what they don't. If someone's looking for a stroke story, they won't keep reading when it becomes clear that there's more build up. And if someone is looking for more plot or more character, they may click off a story once they realize that's not what it's about. But there's plenty of selection here for people.

Falling into Darkness was really good.