- How To
- End Goaling in Writing Erotica
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Most all erotic stories are some variation of "he and/or she stuck/enveloped it in/around her and/or him, and she and/or he moaned in pleasure." Whether or not you can write a story worth posting depends on your imagination in finding new "hooks" (the unusual/unique concept that make your story interesting in relationship to what's generally available) and twists (surprises that arrest the reader's attention) and interesting and arousing circumstances and locations. For an erotic story, it also helps if you can write it in a way that gets the reader at least aroused sexually, and ideally very wet—and, best of all, motivated to get up from the computer and go stick/envelop it in/around her and/or him until she and/or he moans in pleasure (and then stick/envelop it in/around him and/or her again).
In experimenting with writing, devise in your mind some sense of plot—where the story came from (without getting bogged down in background) and where it's going and what it's going to do while it's getting there. Also think of the hooks and twists that are going to make it worthwhile writing. Then, put yourself in the place of one of the characters and tap it out on your computer. You can always go back and change and polish after you get something down—you also likely will come up with new, better twists and hooks while you write.
Do you just walk up to a stranger—or have a stranger walk up to you—and say "Let's fuck," and that's how it starts? Never, or hardly ever, of course. And a story starting this way will fall flat into the "B" ranks as well. You need to spend a little time and effort—but not too much—in making the "contract" believable to the reader.
This is basically your fantasy at work. If it's not making you hot and aroused as you write it, it probably won't do that for anyone else and isn't worth pursuing further. And if it does make you hot and aroused, there's 90 percent justification for having written it in the first place. Go clean yourself up and start imagining the next turn-on story.
Read the story aloud. If the flow is awkward or if phrases stick out or words are repeated noticeably, this isn't good storytelling. Go back to Go.
Although there will be legitimate arguments about this, I suggest that you not spend too long getting to one of the good parts (and don't have just one good part). Quick gratification is the most popular in Internet erotica. If most readers wanted to prolong getting to the first climax, they'd buy their erotica in books, not read it on the Internet. You can play with foreplay for a subsequent climax after you've grabbed the reader with some form of early-on gratification.
And speaking of climax, it's generally important (although, if you are a really good writer, you can occasionally get away with a tease story). The reader is generally seeking climax by reading the story, and you should generally offer it to them. The climax of the story is also important, literally speaking. If it's a good story, it finishes on a twist or some form of closure—with the best stories, in literary terms, not relying on an orgasm to get the story stopped.
It will help greatly concerning whether it's worth posting, if you already have a good sense of sentence structure, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage—the mechanics of writing—and are a naturally good storyteller. You'll lose the reader if your storytelling is bad, even if your plot and the images they invoke are good. Don't rely just on spell check (but use it). Use the dictionary for any word even half way questionable (and contemplate whether that's the best word to use in the specific context). One jarring or awkward word can throw a whole mood off.
A mistake made by many is in using scattered point of view—interchanging from paragraph to paragraph the perspective of different characters. A good story will be told from just one perspective (or will keep the perspectives quite separate; or will break all the rules brilliantly). For erotic stories, the first person perspective ("I"—being one of the characters) is much better than third person perspective ("he," "she," "they")—although harder to write well—because it's much more personal (and a reader of erotica is, ipso facto, looking for something very, very personal)—and a good erotic story puts the reader in the action.
Most important is just to sit down at the computer and do it—taking it wherever it turns you on. You can decide what, if anything, to do with it afterward.
- COMMENTS
MorraRose12 months agoA good book for first person perspective is Marcy Kennedy's A Busy Writer's Guide: Deep Point of View.
pizzaboyatdoorabout 12 years agoNot only for reminding me of the most basic things we all often may let slip from the brain occasionally; but also the much more difficult challenges and goals, that make writing (especially various types of smut) the true joy and fun that it can (and should) be!
As I continuing adding more and more chapters to my already long-ongoing, multiple-chapter, gay romance novelette (that I may never be able to find a way to end, even after 38 chapters); and venture out into new and much shorter stories that do climax quickly; and re-energize (when need be) with the shear fun of 'pounding off' an occasional stand-alone, new and pure stroke story for readers....I am pretty certain I will be referring back to your words here quite often.
Five stars and eight inches UP for the tidbits of wisdom you shared! :)
hornyhandymanalmost 13 years agoParticularly agree with your view that too much background can kill interest in a story. If that's what you want, buy a book.
I like just enough (as you say)to make it believable.
Cheers, HH
Anonymousalmost 13 years agoI don't write well but I write well enough to appreciate the work that goes into writing well. jerry
ExoManialmost 17 years agoYou've given us authors of erotic fiction some good advice.
Thank you.
sr71pltabout 17 years agoAuthorI return to respond to comments on my story here because I thought the comments were very thoughtful and interesting and because I did want to reiterate "sticking to" a couple of my points despite some of the comments.
I thought the most recent comment on the different purposes of erotic stories was very good (it's quite true that readers come here for a sliding-scale expectation that runs from glow to gush--and there's nothing wrong with that.) And I also think that the comments by the poster who said I should have covered the "don'ts" as well as the "do's" offered up good points for a writer of erotica to consider. But I also didn't see where the one on styles contrasted with anything I wrote in my essay and I didn't really see a responsibility to provide in one essay a comprehensive discussion of the topic (especially since the topic was on the goal--not the pitfalls).
I do wish to reinforce my belief that it's easy (and not usually good) to give too much background and also too much charicterization--and that first person perspective writing is actually very good for erotica, not something to avoid if the context welcomes it. Both of these points go to the center of the topic of my essay--the end goal of writing erotica.
I take this end goal as satisfying readers, whether they've come to glow or to gush. So, first of all, one specific story isn't going to do everything for everyone and there's no reason it should. For that reason, I try to write across a broad spectrum of possible interests, trying to please someone greatly with each one. Trying to please everyone results in pablum. And when someone drops a comment on one of my stories that I don't like reading that sort of story, my response is--well someone does, so just read some other stories; I bet I have one or two posted here that were meant for your interests. (And I laugh, because invariably they are slashing a story that has gone hot--and would have stayed hot if they hadn't dropped a judgmental "1" rating on it--so it, in fact, did end goal well for a good many readers here.)
And in satisfying readers, the reactions I've gotten to my stories is that the most satisfaction comes from enabling the reader to see themselves inside the story--as giving or receiving, depending on their inclination of that day, and as giving or receiving it in a way that heats them up. To accomplish this sort of writing screams for use of the first person and for not giving so much background or character description that it freezes the reader out of imaging themselves as that person. So, I continue to believe (and the pattern of my story ratings here supports the contention)that first person perspective and "only just enough" background and characterization are good things for erotica.
That said, I think that fresh perspectives, surprises, and exotic situations and backgrounds also help to make a story sensuous. and sensuous is the bread and butter of erotica.
I do wholly agree with what the most recent commenter said about the combination of erotic and literary as being both the most worthwhile style and the least appreciated one (although more so here at Literotica than any other site I've found, I think). Although I try to write across the spectrum myself, the stories that I think are my best (and that can get me to flow each time I read or think about them) are the ones that include considerable amounts in pleasing/surprising combinations of four elements: sexual heat, humor, surprise, and human condition profoundity. But this would be the subject of another "how-to" essay.
Anonymousover 17 years agoI think it's a little more complicated.
I see three basic arenas under "Writing Erotica"
- Stroke stories (which generally aren't very literate and pretend to be nothing but stroke stories; many examples on this site)
- Literature (which contains erotic content and is generally well written, well edited and literate; Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence is an excellent example)
- Erotica (may contain elements of both stroke stories and literature ... may we call it Literotica? Story of O or many - but not near enough - novellas and short stories on this site)
Each of these have a different target audience. The goal would be to write the story this audience wants and expects. This is somewhat addressed on Erotic Story sites by using categories and story tags. Woe be to the author that misuses and/or abuses the story classification.
Another way of looking at this is to compare the three categories I mentioned to movies: what are the expectations of respective viewers for hard porn, soft porn and a movie such as Nine 1/2 Weeks or Wild Orchid, both of which set a plausible stage for the erotic scenes.
I see no reason a story cannot be well written and edited even on an erotic story site. I know many disagree with me but I consider a story such as thecelt's fine Consequences: Delia from today an appropriate story for this site even though the erotic content is largely in the minds of the readers - put there by the writer's fine skills.
Thanks for bringing the topic up - airing different viewpoints can never be bad.
Regards, Jack
Hornyman69WithUover 17 years agoYou make some very good points, and I agree with most of them.
However, I like plenty of background, so I look for it in other's stories and provide it in my own. Yes, there's such a thing as too much, but it's critical to establish the psycho-emotional connection that gives credibility to the sex. All my stories are from my life or those I know well, and I can honestly say that of the approximately 150 women I've bedded, there were only two that I didn't like. Yes, there were plenty I made that connection with in quite a short period of time, but I explain how that happened in the stories, which makes them believable.
Another point you make is how excellent a writer one must be to write a tease story. In my experience here, people want SEX and are disappointed when they don't get it. I do not "get the girl" in several of my tales, and those stories, written just as carefully as the "got her" ones, are consistently rated relatively low. But, hey--my stories are true experiences, and in real life you don't always get the girl or have the good judgement to pass.
Anonymousover 17 years agoEvery author has their own style of writing, but your tome generally applies to all. The only points I don't wholly agree with are 1) Your view on character developement. I believe it's very important in a good story. In a wham, Bam, Thank You Maam tale; not so. 2) I don't think full proper character development of the main characters can occur in a story told in the first person style without some long-winded explanations. Other wise well done. Thank You. Ronnie W.
duddle146over 17 years agoThis gracious Writer introduces, and reintroduces the finer points of writing Erotica. Even if you feel you have already learned the finer points, a little reinforcement, a relearning process if you will, is highly recommendable. In essense, that is exactly where this Writer succeeds. A useful guide, especially for the beginning Writer.
