Writing an erotic story that is all dialogue. Possible?

[medjay]

I had a bright idea recently to write a story that consisted of nothing but dialogue. No exposition, tag lines, or anything. All action and description would be revealed through conversation.

I got about halfway through the piece before I realized it wasn't working. Technically, it succeeded as a dialogue excercise but as I read it, I found it wasn't very sexy or involving and I couldn't figure out a way to make it so. I just couldn't shake the feeling that what I was writing was less of a story and more of a boring technical excercise. I've had good results writing all dialogue stories in other genres but I'm kind of stumped here.

My question is: Is it possible to write an erotic story that is all dialogue without having it sound like a porno script or an except from a phone sex session? Has anyone else ever read or attempted something like this and, if so, was it successful?

I kind of ran out of steam and havn't finished it but I would like to get back to it if anyone can offer some pointers.

thanks.

 

[Weird Harold]

I got about halfway through the piece before I realized it wasn't working. Technically, it succeeded as a dialogue excercise but as I read it, I found it wasn't very sexy or involving and I couldn't figure out a way to make it so. I just couldn't shake the feeling that what I was writing was less of a story and more of a boring technical excercise. I've had good results writing all dialogue stories in other genres but I'm kind of stumped here.

My question is: Is it possible to write an erotic story that is all dialogue without having it sound like a porno script or an except from a phone sex session?

I have a story like that I'm going to edit and post here at Literotica -- it was up for over a year at Eroticstories.com, but never generated enough votes or feedback to qualify for archiving there.

Quasimodem has a story here that is like that as well. His works pretty good as an erotic story, and mine works reasonably well as a "fractured fairy tale."

I think that your dissatisfaction stems as much from viewing the story as a "dialogue exercise" as it does from its failings as an erotic story. Erotic stories depend on the "visuals" more than other genres do. For a pure dialogue story to be really erotic, you have to set it up so the reader feels like an eavesdropper hearing something forbidden.

 

[Axeltheswede]

All dialogue

All dialogue, can be done.

All dialogue and erotic, not so easy. tonytony3 comes about as close as anyone I have ever seen. He does have some exposition but his stories are surely "dialogue driven".

I am curious though. Other than accomplishing the "stunt" of all dialogue, why would you want to?

 

[medjay]

I read the story by quasimodem and it was very similar to what I was attempting. It had excellent buildup and a good denouement but still, it didn't feature much as far as sexual action was concerned. That is what I was trying for in my piece.

I'm finding it hard to write a good love scene without using descriptive passages. Quasimodem's story worked well as what it was but it focused more on the situation surrounding the event rather than the event itself. I still think it is an interesting concept, just a bit tricky in the execution.

I think I will try again, though. It's probably right that I approached the project in the wrong frame of mind. This was one of the rare times that I tried to write a story with a preconcieved blueprint in mind instead of just letting the story come to me naturally. I will probably scrap the whole draft and come at it from a new direction.

 

[medjay]

Re: All dialogue

All dialogue, can be done.

All dialogue and erotic, not so easy. tonytony3 comes about as close as anyone I have ever seen. He does have some exposition but his stories are surely "dialogue driven".

I am curious though. Other than accomplishing the "stunt" of all dialogue, why would you want to?

Hmmmm? Why do it? Why not?

I've always been into experimentation and I like to try out new things just to keep my writing fresh. Dialogue has always been my strongest area and I realized I hadn't read any erotic stories that worked as strict dialogue pieces. What the hell? I said. I'll write one!

Of course, I approached it like a "stunt" which is why the story failed. But I still think it would make for some interesting reading if done right.

 

[KillerMuffin]

It can be done, I've seen it done.

But can be done and done well are two very different things.

I would consider all dialogue porno to be just like second person.

Don't do it and expect it to be good unless you're an accomplished writer.

 

[green_rook]

Certainly it's possible to do it and do it well. The best example would probably be Nicholson Baker's Vox which is an erotic novel comprised entirely of dialogue. It's a good read and stimulating enough to be considered erotic.

 

[scarlet vixen]

Of course it's possible. Just reaching for Susie Bright, in the 1994 volume, "Big Nouns, Unconjugated Verbs" by Bart Plantenga, is almost all dialogue.

If "all dialogue" means a play, then it's obviously possible too, with sets described at the beginning of scenes. (That's a problem with ALL dialogue: the words would have to indicate the setting "There's the waiter coming, let's order.')

As to the extreme, I can't cite a case, but it would be like a transcript of a phone conversation between two people, and if it were phonesex, that might fill the bill. There have been a few phonesex stories, but not one that ALL dialogue, to my knowledge.

 

[Sabledrake]

I wrote one once that was entirely monologue, with one character speaking to another ... would that count? She was telling him what was going to happen, directing him to watch, etc. It was certainly an interesting writing experience, I must say that.

Sabledrake

 

[Guest]

written by nessus

There was a story by Nessus that was very well done and almost fit this criteria. The title was "One side of the conversation" so it wasn't technically dialogue, since the silent partners side of things was covered in the remarks of the speaking party.

I just checked and that author doesn't seem to be listed here at Literotica anymore. I definitely saved the story from Lit (just found it on my hard drive) and I know there is/were two of them so it must be the one that left that had posted the story originally. It is still at ASSTR at the following link:

http://www.asstr.org/files/Authors/Nessus/ChastityBelts/OneSideoftheConversation.txt

Fair warning! It involves FemDom and chastity belts. Also, as Killer_Muffin pointed out a few weeks ago, the site hosts pedophile related material, so it is your option to visit or not! Don't say I didn't warn you!

 

[NCmVoyeur]

Mostly dialogue

I've written one story in which three-fourths consists solely of dialogue, with no interjection of a 'narrator.'
http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=8815

The formatting and style is a bit experimental, though overall I've always liked the effect.

All-dialogue could be witty, entertaining, and make for a good piece of writing, but it's unlikely to have the same erotic impact for most readers here.

I noticed the reference to Nicholson Baker's Vox . A wonderful work; a bit ahead of its time in anticipating the phone/cyber sex movement. I read it (and it was very erotic) in the early 90's prior to the time that 'cyber' came into the mainstream. I'd be curious to re-read it today, to see if it still has impact.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Mostly dialogue

The formatting and style is a bit experimental, though overall I've always liked the effect.

That style of formatting migh work in print, but online it gave be an immediate eye-strain headache.

 

[NCmVoyeur]

Re: Re: Mostly dialogue

Originally posted by Weird Harold

That style of formatting migh work in print, but online it gave be an immediate eye-strain headache.

I guess the Tylenol's on me, then.

I can find page upon page of short dialogue sentences hard to read as well; it's almost like reading down a column at that point.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Re: Re: Mostly dialogue

I guess the Tylenol's on me, then.

I can find page upon page of short dialogue sentences hard to read as well; it's almost like reading down a column at that point.

Yeah, extended exchanges of short statements can waste a lot of space, at the very least. It's probably a good point to remember for those looking to improve their dialogue writing skills.

 

[Quasimodem]

Different Stories In Different Formats

Okay, I wrote a "No Tags" all-dialogue story.

I did it, because someone told me it couldn't be done. (They didn't mean only in erotica, but that's what I attempted.) From the comments here, it worked, but only as an experiment. I should tell you that after nearly a year on the lists, it has garnered less than 40,000 views and a score below 3.5 - Always assuming that means anything.

Someone further back mentioned no tag dialogue is like a play. I disagree. A play has its speaker tags written so the audience does not hear them.


Joe: Go Away!

Jane: Why should I?

Also it has Stage Directions.

JANE CROSSES TO BILL AND SLAPS HIS FACE.

Jane : You can't tell me where to go!

Then there are sound effects.

SFX: Front Door Bell Chimes.

Joe: Don't answer that!


Depending upon the playwright, and the type of play, the author can indicate every action and piece of business, or leave it to the director to work up during rehearsal.

After I had written "Aural Rape" I realized, that it was a radio play, without sound effects. (Or Speaker Tags.)

Reading Stage Plays, Screen Plays, or even Radio Plays require more work from the audience, because they have to decode more than straight description or dialogue, and then must visualize, from these clues, the action - how it would appear on stage or screen.

Radio, gives sound cues to guide the listener to imagine what action is taking place. In all these finished forms, the difference in the voice of the actors portraying differing characters help you distinguish which character is saying what.

The reason I bring this all up, is that Literotica has an Aural Stories section.

At the moment, as far as I can tell, it is being used as a forum for Writers or other narrators to READ a story, or of others to record the sound of (I presume) fake orgasms.

It would take someone with good audio mixing capabilities, a group of people with some recording facility as well as acting ability, to get together across the distances, to produce a short audio play. The effort, and co-ordination would be similar to the chain stories, or other group collaborations.

There was also a recent post in Story Ideas, titled "Erotic ideas for photography" posted by simoncoe . Either he was looking to shoot photographs, to illustrate written stories, or else - as I initially thought - was looking for a writer-collaborator for something like a Graphic Novel, only using photographs.

The point is that there are a lot of good ideas out on the fringe of what we now do. Mostly, they require some author who wishes to write in a different format, and some amount of communication to draw potential contributors together, and arrange how they can work together across the distances.

The Literotica Site already has accommodation for audio stories and claims to be prepared to manually publish illustrated stories. It seems to me, that perhaps it is time for someone to take them up on their offer.

The drawback is - at the moment - before anyone can produce such a work, they will have to first work out how to draw the interested people together, and sort out what they CAN and WANT to produce.

 

[NoJo]

All dialogue

I don't if this counts, but I've submitted something like all dialogue story, called Masquerade , which is actually more like HALF dialogue -- it's one side of an email exchange.

 

[margo_x_x]

This is the first time I've stuck my head in here.

I jumped on this topic because an all dialog story made my fingers start itching.

It's a wonderful exercise and makes me feel my characters better than I do with lines of description.

I've churned out forty plus pages of it and can't wait to hack it down to size so I can share it.

I'd recommend everyone try it.

I Spy, You Spy by spunknwagnels was the one that made me want to try it.

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

My question is: Is it possible to write an erotic story that is all dialogue without having it sound like a porno script or an except from a phone sex session? Has anyone else ever read or attempted something like this and, if so, was it successful?



thanks. [/B]

:
I've done it. Aster has done it.
"Speak Into The Microphone" ws the name (more or less) of
his story.
Two of my dialogue pieces are at
http://www.asstr.org/~Uther_Pendragon/brennan/forestal.htm
and
http://www.asstr.org/~Uther_Pendragon/brennan/given.htm
I'm writing both URLs by memory, but they should work.

 

[spankableBelle]

i read a story once that was all dialogue and it worked wonderfully...i think, as with any story and character, there has to be some wit, some charm, some glue that holds it together to keep the reader interested...to put the reader into a role that goes beyond observation...at least that's what this particular author did and what i myself try to do...

that's my two cents, for what it's worth...

belle


http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=72711

 

[PetaTenna]

One of my stories, _Love & Light_, is largely dialogue. Not entirely, but if I'd wanted to do it entirely in dialogue I could have with fairly easy adaptation. It's people talking about the past and to some extent the future: how they felt, what they wanted to do. And yes it does have spoken stage direction of the "Here comes the waiter now" kind.

People can talk about anything, and talking about their past feelings and actions can be highly erotic. I think it'd be much harder to perform erotic actions in present (or near-future) tense, à la "I'm going to take off your bra now".

I'm new to this board so don't really know how to post here: the story is at:-

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=27433

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

Re: Re: Writing an erotic story that is all dialogue. Possible?

When I posted an answer to this, I'd forgotten that I had
an all-dialogue story on Lit.
There should be a shorter way to post Lit URLs, but try:
http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=42088
The name is "Snarl," and it is on my list at the story secion.
Note that these stories are not conversations about what
the characters DID or WILL DO. They are dialogue during
(and before and after) the sex act which allows you --
I hope -- to see what is being done by the characters.

 

[tonytony3]

An all dialog story

Some time ago I posted story over on alt.sex.stories.moderated that I think meets your all dialog criterion. The story got good positive feedback, so it seemed to work.

If you're interested in looking at it, google.com will get you to One Night Stand, a Love Story.

You can also cut and paste this link.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=t...lm=22947asstr$951333013@assm.asstr.org&rnum=1

I'd be interested in your opinion.

TT3

 

[margo_x_x]

>An all dialog story
>tonytony3's story "One Night Stand, a Love Story"

What fun!

Delightful little ditty.

Is it truly all dialog? Close, not quite, but close enough.

Reading the attempts at all dialog stories convinces me that it is a great writing exercise. It forces you to keep your story moving, and beats the snot out of all description stories.

 

[abashed-dreamer]

This thread inspired me to try, and i've made a draft, all dialogue.
I've realized it's essentially a radio play, for two voices.

I see Uther has done it, and Margo talked of it, and some others trying it. I notice it's a bit hard for the eye to follow, but have come up with one solution. The second voice is always indented.

Anyone interested in a 'pool' to share feedback?

As to the original question of medjay:

[start]
My question is: Is it possible to write an erotic story that is all dialogue without having it sound like a porno script or an except from a phone sex session? Has anyone else ever read or attempted something like this and, if so, was it successful?[end]

Well, a small piece of the whole is phone sex, but, for variety I tried a number of variations, different ways of interacting.

Jack.
abashed-dreamer

 

[medjay]

Wow! I'm surprised this thread is still kicking! I'm glad I've inspired other people's creative juices. Good luck and happy writing!