Obviously you need both in a story, but which do you focus on more? Building believable characters, exploring their attitudes and motivations towards what's happening, really giving them a sense of depth? Or do you focus more on creating a steamy scenario full of hot erotic action?
For me, as a writer I don't feel satisfied if I'm not deep inside my characters' heads (while they're deep inside their partner or vice versa). I keep asking myself what makes these people interesting enough to make their fucking interesting? As a reader, I tend to get turned off by stories that are all action from basically anonymous bodies. On the other hand, while I do enjoy a good lead-up to the big event (i.e. a story), it's an erotic story, and I don't want to take too long to get there, and hope the author doesn't totally treat that aspect as an afterthought. I can be patient as long as I have the sense that this is all leading somewhere - building sexual tension - and not providing just filler background information.
Don't believe everything that you read.
Your outlook petty much sums up my approach!
If there's no motive and motivation behind the characters' actions, there's usually no excitement or drama when it comes to the naughty bits.
I do like tension and build up, as long as the payoff is worth it. To that end, I try to smatter sexual tension throughout my stories where I can.
Please browse my digital bookshelf. In this collection, you can find 104 full stories, 10 micro-stories, and 2 poems with the following features:
* 29 Editor's Picks, 70 Recommended Reads.
* 15 competition podium places, 9 other times in the top ten.
* 21 collaborations.
* A whole heap of often filthy, tense, hot sex.
I think I'll end up in the minority here, but I like action-driven. When I'm reading, what I really like is when the focus is on the action, sexual or otherwise, and character is revealed through action and dialogue alone. I like believing that the writer did his homework and the characters are fully drawn, and behaving consistent to who they are, BUT the writer is choosing to keep it in the subtext, and trusting the reader to sort it all out.
In real life we rarely know people's backstory and motivation, and you figure it out on the fly as you observe them. I like that in a story too. I get bored by exposition, and am always excited to see a clever way to pass info to the reader.
Absolutely. Exposition is the devil's tool and I always cringe when I go back to stories I've written and find it. Which is (annoyingly) quite frequent. I'm getting better at all-but eradicating it. Not there yet.
What I meant by character-driven is that the guy doesn't just walk up to someone and whip his cock out and the girl gushes. Sex ensues.
I prefer there to be a good reason for that act. The story might start there but by the end you have a solid understanding of why it happened by revealing their motives during the storytelling. Especially during Flash stories you don't have time or word count for exposition. You throw readers into a moment and explore it. But for me, that moment needs to come from somewhere off the page rather than just be "sex for the sake of it because it's an erotic act".
If that makes any sense at all.
Please browse my digital bookshelf. In this collection, you can find 104 full stories, 10 micro-stories, and 2 poems with the following features:
* 29 Editor's Picks, 70 Recommended Reads.
* 15 competition podium places, 9 other times in the top ten.
* 21 collaborations.
* A whole heap of often filthy, tense, hot sex.
The characters are what makes the action make sense. So I feel that a quality story starts with the characters.
My series is character development driven with a thriller-like storyline. I write first person, and in the present tense, so to not explore emotions, reasoning behind decisions, and what causes someone to like another would be a wasted opportunity, especially with my character not being exactly "neurotypical."
Okay. When people ask this question I always think of horror stories — And what follows really is old hat!
What makes a good horror story? Horrible things happening to people is not enough in themselves. We have to care bout the people to whom they are happening. (Has anyone tried reading de Sade? Jeez!).
It must be thirty-odd years since I read a Stephen King novel but it is his ability to show us the lives of his characters that have remained with me, their lives carefully constructed so that we care when the bad shit begins to unfold.
I would argue it is the same with erotica. Like the OP stated, no one wants to read about anonymous flesh against anonymous flesh.
And then it becomes who the character is that drives the action. What happens to them, the final manner and type of sexual encounter, being the fruits of decisions they have made previously — in themselves expressions of who they are.
One of my favourite quotes from Jung goes like this:
"What happens to a person is characteristic of him. He represents a pattern and all the pieces fit. One by one, has his life proceeds, they fall into place according to some predestined design".
But I'm not sure if this what the OP is asking. Does he mean this: do we want the workings of the protagonist's mind spelt out for us in a stream o consciousness flow. That can work too. But a skillful writer will approach it obliquely, let the reader discover it by what happens and the way it happens to the characters.
Yes, Luca! Very much so. King's horror is a great example of storytelling done well. I prefer when the characters and their motives drive the action.
This isn't necessarily a case of "one or the other": character then action, or action then character. As you say, you don't have to start at the beginning and spell everything out to help readers care for a character. Skilled storytellers can lead with action and interweave backstory.
I approach writing with a movie-esque air and prefer a non-linear structure. There's no intrinsic requirement for once upon a time... or my neighbour was 5'8" with a great set of tits first before the sex. Some of the best movies start in the middle, or two-thirds of the way through and then fill in the gaps or jump around.
Reservoir Dogs is one: viewers are thrown into the action fairly early on, and then the situation of events leading to the heist and its aftermath unfolds around it.
American Beauty starts at the very end so you _know_ what's going to happen and then watch the train wreck unfold as you learn more about the characters.
In my view, character and action are very much intertwined and are not exclusively partitioned into setup (backstory) and payoff (sex, in our case). Sometimes it's great to learn as a character does - as utterchaos says, first-person present tense helps in this endeavour. Other times, a story can be told first-person present then flash back. I do this a lot.
The needs of the story and the desire to tell it a particular way drive whether it's presented as a linear continuum or non-linear sequence, as in-fill to the action/drama. And this structure then drives how much is delivered to readers up-front vs how much is drip-fed throughout the action.
Please browse my digital bookshelf. In this collection, you can find 104 full stories, 10 micro-stories, and 2 poems with the following features:
* 29 Editor's Picks, 70 Recommended Reads.
* 15 competition podium places, 9 other times in the top ten.
* 21 collaborations.
* A whole heap of often filthy, tense, hot sex.
Character driven will always be superior. That's why Basic Instinct was so awesome. Why Secretary was so awesome.
I want to lean more to characters for my future non-micro/flash contributions especially.
I always want to create characters with a background that is believable. I like to think that my stories, with one only exception, can be real. At the end there is a sex scene, but it's the develop of the story I care for the most.
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YOU CAN'T LET ANYONE COME IN BETWEEN YOU AND THE THINGS YOU'RE PASSIONATE ABOUT IN THIS LIFE, OR IT AIN'T WORTH LIVING.
It's the old "show, don't tell" thing. I have the characters' motivations and desires in my head but this doesn't appear on the page all at once but it tells me how a character is going to react to a situation. And the reader, on reading that account, will pick up something about the character without me saying it.
I focus on the character, which I actually enjoy writing about. The action is always more problematic for me as most of it is so clichéd in erotica.
I start with only a general idea of the actions that may occur. I let the characters lead me through the details, and the occasional left turn.
I think we’re talking about two slightly different things. I think character drives everything in a story ultimately. Character is destiny. So yes, knowing your characters is crucial. But that’s not exactly the same as when (and how) you tell the reader. I like when character is revealed through action and dialogue, no long paragraphs about their summer days growing up in Iowa (random example).
This sounds cryptic, but here’s how I like to think about it: reveal character in the spaces between the words. Don’t ever approach it directly. Let it sorta leak out instead. Heh.
Character. Yes, I may start with a scene but even in erotica, the story can't be about the sex, it has to be about the people having sex. It's about them. it's easy to list acts, but how does it affect your character to kneel before a lover, what is in his or her mind? That's what makes a story.
I use a scene and sequel, action and reaction structure.
For a character driven story, it is action immediately followed by reaction. That is most of my stories here at Lush because the sexual action is GOING to happen. There is no doubt that the sexy virgin cheerleader is going to fuck the five studly firemen, and the one buxom firewoman, who rescued her. So, any conflict is internal. Will she really kiss the first guy? Wouldn’t it be rude not to? What will people think of her if she uses tongue on the second guy? Did that woman just wink at her, and why does that make her pussy throb?
But for a more active story, it is action, action, action, reaction. I have a very slutty woman I want to write about. She fucks guys because she wants them to get her off. She can blow one guy, lick all that cum onto another guy’s asshole, then let a third guy fuck her pussy before we need to know how she feels about it. The first thing she has to wonder about is, which guy is willing to lick her cum-filled pussy and suck her clit so she can finally cum like a geyser?
So, in my humble opinion, this is about timing the action and reaction scenes.
Does that help?
