How to Write an Erotic Story

Truly, the characters that you read about are more your characters than they are the writers' characters. For sure, the characters that you read about in my story are not the characters that I created but are ones that you morphed in your mind to fit the people that you've met in your life. Even if I described every detail of my character, which no good writer ever would do because that would be boring, you'd have a different perception of my character than I do. Based on your life's experiences, you'd have your own perceptions. You'd take my characters and add your own physical descriptions and traits by comparing them to people you've met in your life and people that you know, like, love, and hate. In that regard, essentially, my characters are more your characters than they are mine.

Yet, when a writer doesn't take the time to develop characters well enough to make the reader see and feel them, the reader will never bond with them or with the story. In essence, having invested so much of your precious time to read a story, you'll feel frustrated. You'll feel cheated. Yet, before you rashly and too harshly judge the amateur and professional writers who write for Literotica, keep in mind that we writers write for free. We writers write for your entertainment and for your emotional, physical, and sexual satisfaction and personal gratification.

We writers need your votes, your comments, and your feedback for us to write a better story. Think of voting for the story that you read as applause. Surely, if you attended a live performance you wouldn't insult the performers by not applauding them. So why is it that so many readers, 99.95% of them, sadly and frustratingly, a real statistical number, don't vote? Moreover, 99.995% of readers don't make a comment. Based solely on my numbers posted to my stories and what other writers have complained about too, one reader out of every thousand readers who opens my stories actually votes and one reader out of every ten thousand readers who opens my stories leaves a comment.

The small amount of voting and reader interaction with writers is as shocking as it is disappointing. We writers aren't machines pumping our stories. We're human. We're readers too, just like you.

Now, of course, I have no way of knowing how many readers who open my stories even read my stories, yet that's neither here or there. The lack of voting support and comment feedback are still dismally and disturbingly low, especially after we writers go through the hard work to write the best story that we can write for you for free. We writers write here for free and because we are writers driven to write and must write, the very least that you, the reader, can do is to applaud us by giving us your vote, your feedback, and/or your constructive criticism. Please, I ask you to do that for us.

If the writer is a decent enough writer they'll use imagery, as well as description, to show their characters. It's not enough that a writer writes that she's blonde, blue-eyed, and busty and it's unforgivable for a writer to dump everything to know about the character in one sentence or even in one paragraph. It's always better to weave the character's descriptions and personality traits throughout the story so that the reader is mindfully reminded of what the character not only looks like but acts like too.

Moreover, we want to know more about the antagonist and protagonist than just their physical appearance. What kind of person is she? Is she a bitch or a virgin? Does she cheat on her taxes? Does she kick her dog? Does she even have a dog? What kind of dog does she own? Or maybe she prefers cats? What kind of car does she drive? Does she drive fast or slow? Or maybe she's not a woman but a man, a bald man, a fat man, a gay man, a macho man, a sports man, a man with a beard, mustache, tattoo, or scar.

Much like this story, How to Write an Erotic Story, this site is filled with stories of narrative with little or no dialogue to break up the endless black words that fill the page and to give the readers a chance to catch their breaths and rest their eyes. This site is filled with stories of faceless, nameless people fucking and sucking. Sex, sex, and sex, instead of writing a real story with developed characters, it's as if the writer is stiff arming the reader by distancing the reader while distracting the reader with just sex and more sex. Writing just about sex doesn't constitute a story.

While keeping all of the character development and imagery in his or her head, it's as if the writer is writing the story that he or she'd like to read to masturbate to while reading their own story. They write stories that are truncated and missing important pieces of information for the rest of us to understand, feel, and even follow the progression of their story. They write stories that remain more in their mind than what they've written on their computer. A story written in that way will never be remembered if even read. A story like that is just pure pornography and not erotica.

Now there's nothing wrong with writing pornography. Pornography serves a need, so long as it doesn't involve minors and unnecessary violence. Most stories written on the site are more pornographic than they are erotic. Most readers who come to the site prefer reading pornography than they do erotica. If pornography is what you want to write and if that's what your readers want to read, good for you. You're writing to your audience. Yet, don't bash me and my stories because I don't write pornographic stories. I write erotic stories. Unfortunately most writers and readers mistake porn for erotica. Vastly different, it's not nearly the same.

Think of pornography as a stripped Honda Civic, a car to get you from here to there, just as a pornographic story will get you from horny to aroused to cumming in a tissue. Good luck with that. Now that you porn readers are already done masturbating, it's time for the rest of us erotic readers to read some erotica. Just wondering. For those of you even knowing what a Honda Civic is, did you see the car in your mind's eye? You did? Really? You saw the car? What color was it? What year was it? Was it a four door Civic or the more sporty two door?

Now think of erotica as a brand new, custom made Bentley Continental GT with shiny, chrome wheels and a two tone, true blue over steel blue, metallic painted and hand rubbed exterior. Imagine sitting on a red leather, hand stitched, tufted interior with supportive seats that can be reflected in the high polished, burled walnut of the dashboard. The headliner along with the carpet is real wool and everything you touch is handmade and perfectly fitted with the weighty heaviness of precious metals. Do you feel the softness of the red leather? Can you smell it? Can you smell the wood and see the mirror finish of burled walnut of the dashboard?

If only by the name, the description, and the imagery that I painted of the car, you know that the car is expensive. If you know the car enough to envision the sleekness of its lines, you know that it's fast and powerful just as you know the man that's driving the car is rich and powerful too. Only forget about him. This isn't his story. This is your story. Imagine yourself behind the wheel of this unbelievable car. If only your father could see you now.

Unlike the plain Jane Honda Civic, with 567 horsepower and 575 pound feet of torque, I bet you can't wait to drive it. I bet you can't wait to take it out for a spin to see how fast it is on the straightaway and how it handles in the curves. They claim that this two and a half ton, all wheel drive, behemoth can go from zero to sixty in only 4.3 seconds. Just walking up to it, you couldn't help but notice the huge red calipers of the brakes. I bet you can't wait to drive it through your old neighborhood to show all of your envious, old friends. Wait, I'm not done yet.

Now that you can see the car, let's go all the way. Picture a beautiful, blonde woman with mesmerizing blue eyes half your age sitting beside you in your blue, Bentley Continental GT as you motor down the highway. Rid of your ex-wife, no longer having to work for a living, life doesn't get any better than his. If you were alone, you'd appreciate driving this car more but the scintillatingly stunning woman sitting beside you is distracting you from enjoying the Bentley. Only someone so beautiful and so shapely could steal the shine of the spotlight from such a fine automobile.

She's wearing a low cut, powder blue blouse that not only compliments the exterior of the color of the car but also lends contrast to the red leather seats by not overwhelming her. Her sheer, silk blouse is more unbuttoned than it is buttoned. Is she wearing a bra? Judging by her nipples making their impression in the silk material known, she isn't wearing a bra.

Wow, how could a woman with breasts that large get away with not wearing a bra without sagging. If she leaned a little more, you may even be able to see her areola or perhaps her nipple. Gees, where in the Hell did you find her? Scratching your head, between the car and the woman stealing your mind, unable to clearly think, you wonder if she came with the car.

Her short, dark blue skirt that's climbed nearly up to her crotch makes you wonder if she's wearing panties. Extrapolating from that thought, you wonder if she's shaved, bushy, or trimmed. You wonder if this car will impress her enough for you to get lucky with her tonight. Maybe she's not like that. Maybe she's a good girl. Maybe she's a virgin. You look over at her. Nah, she's not any virgin that you ever saw.

Where are you going? You don't care. It's enough that you're driving a Bentley with a beautiful blonde sitting beside you. Wait, what is she doing? What the Hell? Are you kidding me? No way!

You watch her unbutton the rest of her blouse and flay it open all the way to reveal the most beautiful natural D cup breasts you've ever seen. Wow! Only, she's not showing you her breasts, she's flashing her breasts to the truckers on the highway.

"Fuck me!"

As if this car doesn't attract enough attention, she will. How could she do that? How dare she do that? It's then and only then that you realize that this woman needs an accessory to go with her big tits. You reach in the glove box and hand her the blue box from Tiffany.

"Wear this while flashing Veronica. I don't want you to catch cold," he said to her.

"A diamond necklace! Thank you Daddy," she said leaning to you to give you a kiss while fondling your growing erection through your pants.

Gees, so busy enjoying that car and admiring her, you somehow forgot that she was your daughter that you've been having incestuous sex with for the past month.

Now if porn is what you want to write and all that you want to write, then you don't need me to tell you how to write an erotic story because erotica is not for you. You'd never consider driving the fancy Bentley over the basic Honda or maybe you would. Yet, after all and nonetheless, this site is Literotica and not Literpornica and it's funny how erotica is always mistaken for pornography. Yet, let me tell you this, if you continue to write pornography, you'll never get the busty, beautiful blonde sitting next to you in a Bentley. With most women preferring erotica to pornography, you'll always be driving a Honda Civic alone with your bad self.

So, what's erotica? Erotica is from the Greek word Eros. Eros, think of Cupid, is the Greek God of love and not the Greek God of pornography. Erotica could be works of art in literature, photography, film, sculpture, and painting that contain thought provoking, sensually stimulating and sexually arousing descriptions. Ah, there's the key. Erotica contains thought provoking, sensually stimulating, and sexually arousing descriptions and imagery. That sounds like porn to me. Doesn't it to you? So what's the difference?

Well, there are a few things that are conspicuously missing from pornography, back story, plot or storyline, character development, description, imagery, and tension. Where pornography concentrates on sex, erotica fills in the blanks with back story, plot, character development, description, imagery, and tension. I repeated the ingredients of an erotic story versus a pornographic story twice because they are important and the major differences between the two stories. Erotica combines the human anatomy with the sexuality and sensuality of art. Erotica is more cerebral, where pornography is more physical. Where erotica is more showing, pornography is more telling.

Showing and telling? What's that? No matter if a writer writes erotica, pornography, mainstream fiction, or even non-fiction, the writer who shows the reader what he or she means by the use of description, imagery, and dialogue will write a much better story than a writer who merely tells the story by lecturing to the reader with endless narrative. Showing the reader uses writing techniques that connects the reader with the story so that the reader can fill in whatever he or she needs to imagine what he or she needs to read a better story and/or to actually see what it is that the writer is writing. Much like reading a history, geography or an accounting book, when a writer merely tells a story instead of showing a story, then the reader is just able to skim the story without connecting with the story, without connecting with the characters, without feeling anything, and while remembering very little.

If you're favorite movie is a porn movie, then chances are you won't enjoy reading erotica. For sure, in reading erotica, there's never enough sexual action for the reader who prefers pornography. So, what's the difference between porn and erotica? Porn is visually and mostly geared towards men. Its sole purpose is to physically arouse and stimulate the male species and the testosterone filled reader, while he masturbates to the story. Pure and simple, with nothing else to the story's benefit and to link the story to reality, the sole purpose of the story is to arouse men to masturbate. To me and for me, and most women and many men would agree, porn is good but erotica is so much better. Geared more toward women, erotica can be more satisfying for men too, that is, if men will take the time to allow an erotic story to unwind long enough to evoke the images needed to sexually excite them. Erotica is the slow burn of a couple's orgasm and not the rushed, slam bam sex of self-masturbation.

Whereas porn is a man cumming in a tissue, erotica is a woman being seduced long before having an orgasm in bed by the hand, the mouth, and/or the cock of her partner. Erotica gets you in the mood, not so much for the pleasure of your hand but more for the joint pleasure of you with your sexual partner. Erotica allows you to consider all the possibilities while porn, once you've sexually satisfied yourself, makes you wonder why you even started reading the story in the first place. Whereas porn appeals more to men, erotica appeals more to women and is often written by and for women, even though there are plenty of male erotic writers and readers.

Whereas pornography is more unrealistic and not deserving the name of erotica, pornography can never go where erotica goes in the psyche. Pornography is a horny teenager cumming in the bathroom or his bedroom. Erotica is Don Juan giving a woman what she needs, a cougar or an older man seducing a much younger man or woman, or a romantic story filled with sexual suggestion, innuendoes, and imagery. Instead of merely describing the scene of incestuous sex between a mother and her son, erotica explains why a mother has given herself to her son. Even though both may be fiction or not or some mixture of fiction and non-fiction, erotica is more believable, revealing, and exciting. Erotica is real life. Erotica is more arousing and satisfying than pornography. Erotica is the appetizer, the soup, the salad, and the full meal and not just the dessert.

Don't believe me? Except for the guy in the back of the room drooling while masturbating, as I'm writing this story, how many pornographic stories can you remember? The same goes for pornographic movies. They are all forgettable. Why is that? Because typically pornography doesn't have a storyline and developed characters. Generally, there aren't any well crafted lines of dialogue to evoke a quote or a memory. Conversely when a reader reads an erotic story, chances are that he or she will not only favor the author by adding him or her to his favorite author list but also will favor the story too.

Just because a writer takes the time to show a real story, to develop characters, to insert dialogue, tension, and imagery in his or her story doesn't mean that the sex is less exciting than the sex found in a pornographic story. Chances are, because of the time that the writer takes to show the reader the story, the erotic story is much more enjoyably satisfying than a pornographic story. Because of the character development and scene development, along with the tension of wants, needs, and desires of the characters portrayed in erotica, erotica shows a more complete story than a pornographic story does. No one remembers a pornography story, they more remember pornography stars and the sexy sex scenes.

If you read a non-erotic novel about a couple in love, because of the omission of the sex scenes, that story fails to show you the whole story. Unless the story shows of one small snippet in their long life, typically, a story such as that is not believable. Whereas, if you read a pornographic story about a man and a woman, a story that's loaded with sex from the beginning to the end, that only tells you the sexual side of the story, that's not believable either. Now, if you read an erotic novel of a man and a woman, one that shows you instead of telling you the whole story of their relationship, sexual and otherwise, that story is more completely satisfying. Erotica stimulates the mind and the imagination with arousing emotions, as much as, if not more than the body. Now that's how I write an erotic story.

The End