Very basic question

[StillStunned]

Generally speaking, you're not going to get off with two or three thousand words unless you're a teenage boy, in which case you're a two-stroke and should be off mowing the lawn.

I don't know about you, but an erotic story might have one or two extra demands on its pacing. The New Yorker analogy, in that sense, is misleading.

I agree with this to some extent. But how many words do people need, really? 12,000 words to get your rocks off? For the average person that's going to be half an hour or more of reading.

If the goal is sexual relief, I maintain it can be achieved for most in under 5,000 words, if the words are good.

If there are other goals, it may require more words. But that doesn't mean more words equals more artistry.

A truly erotic scene doesn't need to be that long. It might not get the reader off there and then, but it will get them aroused, and it will stay with them so that they revisit it in their mind later - and then it will get them off.

This probably doesn't do much for the story's rating, of course. But it's the kind of erotica I'd like to be writing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I agree with this to some extent. But how many words do people need, really? 12,000 words to get your rocks off? For the average person that's going to be half an hour or more of reading.

If the goal is sexual relief, I maintain it can be achieved for most in under 5,000 words, if the words are good.

If there are other goals, it may require more words. But that doesn't mean more words equals more artistry.

Don't know about you, but I'd far prefer a nice slow half hour session and a good result than a five minute wank. Sex is meant to be enjoyable, not furtive. Hence the comment about mowing the lawn. If you're not going to do something properly, do something useful .