Option 4: Depends on my mood. Sometimes I just want to get off, sometimes I want a story with that. In general, as a reader, I like a bit of a story to go with my sex, which is why I also tend to write that way. So I would actually eliminate "Jump right into sex". For a quick payoff, a fast buildup, for something more stimulating on other levels and a longer pay off, a slow build up.
Depends upon what story I want to tell. I have written all kinds. I'm really unable to respond to this poll with any accuracy.
Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of tea?
I never read stories that jump right into sex. I don't consider them erotic.
On the other hand, I do want the story to be leading somewhere sexy. I want to be invested in the characters and whatever predicament eventually leads them to come together (pun intended). A good story should carry a sense of momentum that makes the coupling seem inevitable (rather than arbitrary). Unfortunately, a lot of story writers get bogged down into too much backstory and character development, or explaining the history of the Irish ship building industry in the early 1900s, or whatever, and their stories stall out in excessive details that don't really move the plot along - and then all of a sudden, without warning, you end up with James Joyce going all dominant over Sam Beckett in a big gay sex scene, and you're wondering what the fuck does any of this have to do with ship building, and why did I have to read all that other bullshit if we're just going to take a random left-turn into a sex scene?
Writing a well-paced erotic story takes talent. It's all about developing the craft.
Don't believe everything that you read.
Erotica should have a build up or it's like sex without foreplay. I like to write a story that draws the reader in and inspires their imagination.
erotica is like a body its needs legs to stand on its own
My latest love poem has landed
Lover Moon
https://www.lushstories.com/stories/love-poems/lover-moon.
I personally prefer a build up. I want to know the characters, their thoughts and emotions. I'm not really into a full on fuck feast from the first paragraph.
I suspect I am one of the few exceptions here. I get bored by backstory and character motivation and long, linear build-ups. Don't necessarily jump into the sex, but jump into something, whether it's action or dialogue or plot (or sex). Jump into them moment and let the reader figure it out.
I don't really care that before fucking, they had dinner in a nice restaurant and then romantically walked the streets of Paris at sunset.
Story with a build up-you must put down a foundation and use above a sixth grade vocab
I like a story with at least some backstory. I don't always start with the backstory (sometimes there's a flash preview of the sex to come or what has already happened) but my characters don't have sex in a vacuum.
What Verbal and Sprite have been saying. Try looking at the Flash Erotica if you want an idea of how to grab a reader and keep them transfixed. My own "Double Oxer" might be a good read (hello, shameless plug!).
Want to spend some time wallowing in a Recommended Read? Pick one! Or two! Or seven!
An erotic story with a slow build up. Like a stripper taking it all off at the rate of one piece of clothing per song. It's not just a gal thing. Hubbie likesit that way too.
Brandie
I went with slow build up, but I'll happily read good examples of the other approaches too. I think it comes down to what our own RumpleForeskin said on another thread recently...
"There is only one unbreakable rule for writing viable commercial fiction: Don't bore the reader."
True for not-so-commercial fiction too. As sprite and Verbal point out - you've got to grab the reader. On Lush, you have a few lines to convince a potential reader that they should click and a few more paragraphs before they make a decision about whether to read on or click on something else. Don't bore them... and that includes with a pretty standard sex scene. I often skim-read sex scenes on here - IMHO, the build-up can be more interesting than the actual act (at least in writing...)
All I could say is that it really depends on one's point of view.
Learn to master the rules and formulas of writing first. Once you have earned serious recognition for quality, several awards here, change it up. Then go for it.
Please don't start out stories giving the statistics of characters. You can create a great sexy character without really giving a physical description of them anyhow and that would work better in a story than listing their height, weight, age, hair color, bra-size, etc. Please get away from that! Let the reader use their imagination or slowly let the descriptive details come to the surface as you build the story and action.
Once you've built a lot of success and acclaim here, then experiment. Formulas can get boring or predictable but great grammar never does. That doesn't mean your character's dialogue (though the dialogue sentence must be punctuated correctly). Make the dialogue realistic but your prose should be grammatically correct, as well as interesting, and entertaining.
I once got very experimental and began a story in the middle of a sweaty sex scene. Then I went into the story, added background once the story had begun, then proceeded to go back to the sex scene – a very long sex scene that may have been nearly 80% of the wordage. The story is 10,000 words long. It received an Editor's Pick and stands at almost 67,000 views right now. That was one fun story to write. No formula.
My stories build up to the big sex scene with little sprinkles of sex thrown in during the story. Seems to be working for me
I think the key phrase here is "build up". Fast or slow, the story needs to be moving forward. And more importantly, the tension needs to be rising.
I detest the brakes being slammed on for a police report of the suspects with bra and cock sizes tacked on by typically male writers, or the endless boutique catalog descriptions of clothing from mostly female authors. I could also do without the in-depth write ups of the food being eaten on the way to poundtown from both genders, like they're keeping an allergy diary for their doctor. The only place I want to see that is in the Gourmet forum, specifically what Buz had for lunch and dinner on any given day. That guy eats like a motherfuckin' king!
The build up is what makes the story. At the end of the day, it's all Tab A into Slot B, or variations thereof. Getting to that point is where the excitement is born. For that reason, I don't usually like the stories that are straight into it or open with a taste before cutting back to the plot like they're a big-budget action movie. There are the exceptions of course, like Sprite who can actually grip you with the sex alone - I'm fresh off one of her Seattle Mix Tape pieces.
My latest story is a racy little piece about what happens when someone cute from work invites you over to watch Netflix and Chill. I believe the story build up has to be slow. But if its too slow, i can't enjoy it.
I like everything - depends on my mood.
Sometimes I seek out the slow build-ups.
Sometimes I seek out the hot-starts.
But the sex must always be hot and detailed. I don't like it when the sex is glanced over as if it's a secondary story component.