Okay everybody, I just have to ask this question. How many words should we use in a sex story before it becomes too long.
I know for myself when reading a sex story. I get bored with long drawn out stories. However when my own stories have a way of taking on a life of their own when I write them. I try and keep them down to around 3500 hundred words or so. I also break my stories into three or four parts all around the same 3500 hundred words or so to complete my story. I try to make all my stories stand alone and are readable without reading the others. But I think I might be over doing it.
So I just have to ask how many words are too many?
BigCarl
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How many words should we use in a story, before it becomes too long and boring?
Head Penguin
I don't think you can have too many if it's well-written.
If it's entertaining, engaging and sexy, it doesn't really matter.
If it's entertaining, engaging and sexy, it doesn't really matter.
A steamy lesbian three way
Raised on Blackroot
Quote by DanielleX
I don't think you can have too many if it's well-written.
If it's entertaining, engaging and sexy, it doesn't really matter.
This.
Quality over quantity. But if the quantity matches the quality, people generally won't care how long it is as long as it is engrossing.
Sarcastic Coffee Aficionado
I prefer a longer story with details that tell you about the people, the place, the emotions, the whys or goals ... than a story that is too short leaving out those necessary details. I really dislike short stories that just gets to the punchline without the back-story .... 
A teacher once told us that a story is as long as needed to tell that story. The Art is in the details that bring the reader INTO the story, not just as a voyeur.
That same teacher enjoyed to do a part II to a writing assignment - writing the same story as a poem ... limiting the amount of words or stanzas.
Sometimes, less is more .... sometimes one must elaborate to make a story work. That is where editing is essential.
A teacher once told us that a story is as long as needed to tell that story. The Art is in the details that bring the reader INTO the story, not just as a voyeur.
That same teacher enjoyed to do a part II to a writing assignment - writing the same story as a poem ... limiting the amount of words or stanzas.
Sometimes, less is more .... sometimes one must elaborate to make a story work. That is where editing is essential.
Advanced Wordsmith
How many words you need to tell a story is, I suppose, dictated by how much story you have to tell. A secondary consideration is what sort of reader you want to attract.
Some readers are looking for nothing (or little) more than a sexual thrill related to whatever their 'thing' is in regard to sexual orientation or practice or fetish. Those readers really don't need much story. Other readers very much prefer complete stories with developed plot and characterization.
I have a real difficulty writing anything under 10K words, but I prefer to write well-developed stories. The reactions I get from readers are very positive, but that is because by now readers know that I write developed stories and tend to gravitate toward them.
My Taking Chances series on smashwords is seven stories ranging in length from a 12K word 'short' story to a 143K word novel. But it simply takes more words to tell a story with characters that are well-rounded and developed with pasts and attitudes and values that guide their actions, a plot that works in the real world, and an interaction of characters and plot that is genuine, both to the real world and to the characters. Another complication is that the seven stories have a continuing plot and characters.
I've never considered myself a writer of 'erotica.' At least, I've never sat down at a keyboard with the intent of writing erotica. I just like to write stories. Those stories tend to explore issues in human sexuality, and I treat that sexuality in a frank and non-euphemized way. Consequently, my stories are only for adults. But I don't really look at them as erotica. They're just stories about characters and plot.
To answer your question directly, I suppose if you prefer less developed and shorter stories then perhaps you should work on writing what you like to read. That seems like the path of least resistance.
I think writers should look at the matter in the same way Mozart did. In the film Amadeus (nobody knows if an exchange similar to this really happened) Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in critiquing one of Mozart's operas tells him (paraphrasing), "There are just too many notes. Just cut some of them out and the opera will be fine." And Mozart replies (paraphrasing), "But Your Highness, there are only as many notes as it takes to write the opera, no more and no less."
Just use as many words as it takes to tell the story you want to tell at the degree of development you think is right.
Some readers are looking for nothing (or little) more than a sexual thrill related to whatever their 'thing' is in regard to sexual orientation or practice or fetish. Those readers really don't need much story. Other readers very much prefer complete stories with developed plot and characterization.
I have a real difficulty writing anything under 10K words, but I prefer to write well-developed stories. The reactions I get from readers are very positive, but that is because by now readers know that I write developed stories and tend to gravitate toward them.
My Taking Chances series on smashwords is seven stories ranging in length from a 12K word 'short' story to a 143K word novel. But it simply takes more words to tell a story with characters that are well-rounded and developed with pasts and attitudes and values that guide their actions, a plot that works in the real world, and an interaction of characters and plot that is genuine, both to the real world and to the characters. Another complication is that the seven stories have a continuing plot and characters.
I've never considered myself a writer of 'erotica.' At least, I've never sat down at a keyboard with the intent of writing erotica. I just like to write stories. Those stories tend to explore issues in human sexuality, and I treat that sexuality in a frank and non-euphemized way. Consequently, my stories are only for adults. But I don't really look at them as erotica. They're just stories about characters and plot.
To answer your question directly, I suppose if you prefer less developed and shorter stories then perhaps you should work on writing what you like to read. That seems like the path of least resistance.
I think writers should look at the matter in the same way Mozart did. In the film Amadeus (nobody knows if an exchange similar to this really happened) Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in critiquing one of Mozart's operas tells him (paraphrasing), "There are just too many notes. Just cut some of them out and the opera will be fine." And Mozart replies (paraphrasing), "But Your Highness, there are only as many notes as it takes to write the opera, no more and no less."
Just use as many words as it takes to tell the story you want to tell at the degree of development you think is right.
Devil's Advocate
Quote by DanielleX
I don't think you can have too many if it's well-written.
If it's entertaining, engaging and sexy, it doesn't really matter.
Spot on!
The "what" may get you off, but it's the "who", "where", "how" and "why" that makes a great story. The boring is in the writing, not the length. I've been honest to God bored shitless by a 2,000 word stroke piece, and absolutely captivated by a 200,000 word novel with a few rude bits. It's all about what the story needs. If it doesn't add to the story, cut it. If it makes the story, then bloody well add it.
My latest story is a racy little piece about what happens when someone cute from work invites you over to watch Netflix and Chill.
Advanced Wordsmith
Quote by Wilful
The boring is in the writing, not the length.
Amen!
I cannot stand the stories that just seem to get going and then stop or throw some quickie tag in... "and they fucked for a while." Give me a long descriptive story any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Quote by bigbubblygurlnc
Amen!
I cannot stand the stories that just seem to get going and then stop or throw some quickie tag in... "and they fucked for a while." Give me a long descriptive story any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
AGREED on ALL of the above! Word count alone is not a factor. A SHORT story with no content can be boring (a long one simply takes longer to read, If you stick with it in HOPES of finding something of interest.) But, a well, divided and well written series is great!
I write stories for my own entertainment and they are always short stories. The two big problems I have to deal with are, 1. The stories tend to be compressed with lot's of erotic episodes and the barest outline to fill in the rest of the story. I'm always interested in getting to my next idea. Normally when a story has run it's course I just delete it and begin another one. I've done this for years. 2. Ending a short story is very difficult to do without sounding like you just ran out of gas. I haven't even come close to figuring that one out. If you want to read a wonderful short story,... "A Field of Blue Flowers" by Tennessee Williams. It's only about 9 pages in a paperback.
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