Writing a Hook in Erotic Fiction

[VladimirKnockoff]

So in my experience, especially as far as short stories are concerned, including a hook is crucial to keeping the reader's interest and insuring that they read your whole story. Being relatively new to writing erotic stories, I was wondering what you all thought about this in the sex fiction context. Obviously, having a hook is always important. But does the hook to a sex story need to be instantly sexy? You can have an intriguing opening to an erotic story, but it's not hot and wild, you might lose your reader. Anyone have any experience with this? I'm beginning to think that kicking a story off with something pretty vividly sexual is a very good plan when writing erotica.

 

[sr71plt]

Hooks can be sexy or not in erotica. I try most of mine to be a surprise of some sort, from a smile to a kick in the teeth. They are of both varieties, but I think more in terms of something that will set the story on its head before I think of whether it's sex-related or not. I try for a good story that just happens to have what I hope will be seen as hot sex in it.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

My best-regarded stories don't get down and dirty until well into the tale. I have a new one in progress that starts with a blow-job but that's unusual. I like to start with conversation, most of the time.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I do tend to try for a sexy hook in a sexy story.
Griff is on her way to wash the mud off her body and polish her collar... Gloria talks about her motorcycle ride and drags her GF onto her lap... Karen walks into a room full of rock-n-rollers feeling like a predator. That's in the first couple of sentences. Things might slow down after that, but I want my readers to know something juicy is coming up

 

[penandpaper]

I think a hook, regardless of category, is important. Even science magazine articles now-a-days have hooks. I'm not saying I agree, but it seems to be the case now.

 

[sr71plt]

A "hook" I use quite a bit is to start inside a sex scene and then to have a least one more before the end of the story. This seems to satisfy a couple of sets of readers. But these are set inside some sort of story that often would exist without the sex and has some other central theme to it.

I do a lot of stories where the protagonist is a prostitute type or at least extremely easy and looking for exactly what is found in a sex scene. This frees me from all that space needed to convincingly establish that the inhibitions to having sex don't have to be worked away first. However, I often try to work in a dimension that humanizes the situation and that makes the protagonist rise above the level of the sex act in whatever relationship is going.

 

[Trudy_Antone]

For me as a reader there are certain hooks that are guaranteed to hold my interest.
1. A kick ass first line/paragraph.
2. A thread of humour.
3. A character so hot and conflicted you can't help but read on to see what happens to them.
4. The promise of sizzling sex.
5. A unique style of writing.
6. A sense of mystery that begs explanation.
Things that have me clicking back immediately -
1. Terrible spelling, grammar etc...
2. Being told not shown.
3. Passive writing as opposed to active writing.
4. Any description of a character that lists height, weight, cup size...YAWN
5. Sex by numbers with constant repetition of the same descriptive words.

I like to be surprised. Nothing worse than a predictable ending from paragraph one. And if the ending IS predictable (romance for instance) then there has to be conflict in the middle.

 

[slyc_willie]

A "hook" I use quite a bit is to start inside a sex scene and then to have a least one more before the end of the story. This seems to satisfy a couple of sets of readers. But these are set inside some sort of story that often would exist without the sex and has some other central theme to it.

I do a lot of this as well. Part of it is laziness on my part, since I don't have to go through the bit-by-bit of seduction. Part of it also stems from the way I "see" the transitions of scenes in my head. I'll start with the characters having a long talk outside a bistro, sipping coffee and sharing stories, then flash-forward to a point three hours later, when they're naked and sweaty in the back seat of the car.

I've started stories with the sex right away, usually with the main character as a voyeur watching others going at it. I think a hook like that works pretty well, because it gets the reader wondering how the story will change from simply watching to participating.

 

[sr71plt]

I try not to start a story destined for Lit. with a long bit of anything on the front end that doesn't include sex--or at least the promise of sex. I just don't think a long setup does well here. Unless it's a nonerotic story--and I've posted those here too.

 

[slyc_willie]

Depends on the category, I'd say. Romance readers strike me as being more patient than those looking for a 'quick fix' in the Incest cat. Sci-Fi readers, I've noticed, appreciate a lot of 'geeky' detail about various non-erotic things and are thus willing to wait for the sexual payoff.

 

[sr71plt]

Most of my nonerotic one are really Romances. And, as most of my erotica writing is GM, Literotica only gives me one category to post them to, so I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about a more separate category for them. But, yes, I've done a GM Romance anthology for eXcessica (Creampuffs, due out in March of next year), and I notice I have slower buildups in most of those.

The straight one I've just posted a review on in the Lit. author's thread, Blue Roses Tattoo is pretty much a Romance, and the sex starts in the second scene and isn't consummated until the third scene, so I guess that follows what you are suggesting.

 

[slyc_willie]

Most of my nonerotic one are really Romances. And, as most of my erotica writing is GM, Literotica only gives me one category to post them to, so I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about a more separate category for them. But, yes, I've done a GM Romance anthology for eXcessica (Creampuffs, due out in March of next year), and I notice I have slower buildups in most of those.

The straight one I've just posted a review on in the Lit. author's thread, Blue Roses Tattoo is pretty much a Romance, and the sex starts in the second scene and isn't consummated until the third scene, so I guess that follows what you are suggesting.

From what I've seen in the GM cat, most readers there tend to prefer a more romantic, story-driven tale as opposed to 'boy meets boy, boy sucks boy's dick.' I've only written one GM story, and there was a long build-up before anything sexual happened. There was an awful lot of innuendo and tension between the two characters before the act occurred, and I've gotten numerous feedback messages telling me how much they liked that.

 

[Weird Harold]

So in my experience, especially as far as short stories are concerned, including a hook is crucial to keeping the reader's interest and insuring that they read your whole story.

I think that depends a great deal on just how short your short story is -- I've seen 'hooks' in novels that are longer than some short stories.

I don't think the hook to an erotic story needs to be erotic. In fact, I think an explicitly erotic opening can be counter-productive in grabbing the reader's attention because I think "erotic" generally requires building some expectations and preconditioning.

On reflection, sex in the first paragraph might be a distinguishing characteristic in the eternal debate over the difference between Pornography and Erotica -- if you jump right into the sex, it's porn.

 

[slyc_willie]

I think that depends a great deal on just how short your short story is -- I've seen 'hooks' in novels that are longer than some short stories.

I don't think the hook to an erotic story needs to be erotic. In fact, I think an explicitly erotic opening can be counter-productive in grabbing the reader's attention because I think "erotic" generally requires building some expectations and preconditioning.

On reflection, sex in the first paragraph might be a distinguishing characteristic in the eternal debate over the difference between Pornography and Erotica -- if you jump right into the sex, it's porn.

Maybe. Maybe not. It's all in the telling and context.

If sexuality is a central theme, including it early could be a necessity. In an ongoing series I have on Lit, I have a character whose magical aptitudes are linked to her sexual activity. Depending on the way that feature is handled in the story, it could be construed as either pornographic or erotic. "Pornographic" might mean she has to have sex whenever she casts a spell. "Erotic" might mean she needs to have sex at regular intervals in order to store up reserves of energy.

Depending on the nature of the story, the inclusion of sex in an installment might be demanded at the onset of the story.

 

[sr71plt]

From what I've seen in the GM cat, most readers there tend to prefer a more romantic, story-driven tale as opposed to 'boy meets boy, boy sucks boy's dick.' I've only written one GM story, and there was a long build-up before anything sexual happened. There was an awful lot of innuendo and tension between the two characters before the act occurred, and I've gotten numerous feedback messages telling me how much they liked that.

I get very nice comments on the more complex GM ones. I get the most reads/votes on the hotter stroke ones.

The ones I think are better in a literary sense are mostly lower in ratings than the higher heat ones.

So, I continue to write with wide variety.

 

[sr71plt]

I think that depends a great deal on just how short your short story is -- I've seen 'hooks' in novels that are longer than some short stories.

I don't think the hook to an erotic story needs to be erotic. In fact, I think an explicitly erotic opening can be counter-productive in grabbing the reader's attention because I think "erotic" generally requires building some expectations and preconditioning.

On reflection, sex in the first paragraph might be a distinguishing characteristic in the eternal debate over the difference between Pornography and Erotica -- if you jump right into the sex, it's porn.

I think a reality at Lit. needs to be recognized. A good many readers come for porn. So, again, I think it best to write a variety of techniques and approaches to obtain and hold a readership. I'm close to breaking the top 100 "favoritist" list, which I think is extremely difficult for writing mostly GM, so I think the wide-spectrum of writing is a good approach here. It's also fun to use different formulas and approaches to the writing.

And I think that a definition that if you jump right into a sex scene it's porn is limiting and simplistic. I think I've produced quite a bit of literary erotica that started off in a sex scene. I don't think you are condemned to a total of anything just by your opening technique.

In fact, I think that a whole lot of the noses up discussion on this forum of what is porn and what is erotica is a bunch of simplistic hooey.

 

[VladimirKnockoff]

There have been some great replies here. I never expected to see so many intelligent responses. The reason I asked was because I've only published a few stories on here, and the one which started with a blowjob by far got the most responses/best ratings, while the others, which I thought had more literary value, took their time in the approach, and did not recieve nearly as many hits.

I tend to agree that it is a matter of balancing. As for the difference between pornography and erotica, I think it's hard to define in words, but you certainly know it when you see it. When it is so obvious that the characters have no depth beyond the workings of their reproductive organs (and have a sudden, inexplicable desire for wild experimentation), then it is pornography. It's an act, just like a porn star pulls in an "adult film."

But when sex is a vehicle, a driving force of a larger story, it is more real, more genuine, and more erotic. That's how I feel, anyway. I don't think there's anything hot about a situation that obviously would never happen ("Oh, I've been waiting all day for the delivery man to arrive"), whether it's a porn story or a porn movie. Okay, maybe there is something hot about it, but it's just not the same as a situation that is convincingly realistic.

 

[tufntiny1]

I am new

I agree with you, but sometimes the hook is the pornographic style and then the reader is hooked and then the more in depth erotic the writer becomes the more enticed the reader is to read more from the same author.
A little porn with a hook that tells the reader you intend to write more in similiar style tends to build an interest in more.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

For me the holy grail is when my story can stand on its own without the hook. I've sometimes had readers look at a submission without it, and then put in the sex afterwards. If it wasn't interesting before, it isn't good enough for me.

ETA: the relevance of this is I have fewer people now flipping through my stuff in search of the sex scene.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

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[Weird Harold]

...The reason I asked was because I've only published a few stories on here, and the one which started with a blowjob by far got the most responses/best ratings, while the others, which I thought had more literary value, took their time in the approach, and did not recieve nearly as many hits.

As sr says, many people come to Lit looking for pornography or at least for lots of sex in a story. Consequently, the responses, ratings and hits usually have little to do with literary or or technical merit.

As for the difference between pornography and erotica, I think it's hard to define in words, but you certainly know it when you see it.

There's a reason I characterized it as "the eternal debate."

The best Hook is the one that draws readers into your story. But my original point was that I think a Hook becomes more important as the word count goes up. If you're writing a flash-fiction story at Lit's 750 word minimum you don't have a whole lot of room for a Hook that isn't also an integral part of the story. If you're writing a 75,000 word novel, then you need a very strong Hook to get the reader to invest the necessary time to read the whole thing, but you also have the space to develop the Hook a bit.

 

[frontfetish]

First of all you must think of a nice flow of story well you should come to think of how to keep your readers interested with what you right. Then if you really want to add up a little bit of spice to the story then think of a goo bed scene that will truly arouse your readers imagination

 

[Guest]

Many Lit readers are in search of that quick stroke fix.

In order to keep those readers interested, it may be necessary to have your characters sexually engaged in the first paragraph, maybe even the first sentence.

It's the only way to be sure.

 

[sr71plt]

You can write a whole range of story approaches to reach different sets of readers, but, in most cases, I do try to put something sexually charged up front. It's not really different in reader appeal that the current technique in the mainstream to open up thrillers with a thrill.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

A good piece on hooking by Rumple Foreskin, an elder statesman of lit. Worth a read.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=311940