Kink Smorgasbord vs. Narrow Focus

Zeebop

Zeebop

CHYOA Guru
I enjoy writing about lots of kinks and I cannot lie, but there is truth to the idea that you cannot please everyone, or squeeze every kink into a story. What do you writers think - is it better to incorporate a lot of kinks in a story, or focus more narrowly on one or a few kinks tightly tied to the plot? I think both approaches have their relative merits, as far appeal and satisfaction, but I'm curious what other people look for when reading or approach it when writing.
 
That depemds on if the story spreads out a lot or if the story itself narrows itself into a couple main braches at most.
A very branchy story like Lois Lane's Night Out has a lot of potential for exploring different kinks with different situations present across many different branches. A linear story, however, has much less room to 'diversify', if you know what I mean.

Of course, having your characters exploring their own kinks or new ones as a part of their character arc is always an option, but that may not fit within a plotline too well in some cases.

Tossing a batch of fetishes at a wall to see what sticks, however, is not a good idea, because it might confuse the reader or force you to sacrifice plot or cohesiveness just to appeal to a dozen opposing audiences.
 
I think it is best to pick a semi-consistent "theme" for your story. Pick the ideas, kinks, things you want to have in the story and don't branch out too much. This way the readers know what they are getting into.


Then again, not all kinks are equal. Dropping scat suddenly into story is likely to drive off some readers (me included.) But something like femdom for a single branch might not be seen as a similar "jump scare" even by people who aren't into it. They might just read the rest of the story or shrug and read that branch anyway.


Actually now that I think about it, from reader POV, avoiding kinks that are massive turn-offs for them might even override looking for a story that has their favourite kink. Not saying you shouldn't write about unpopular kinks, just be upfront about them and the ones who care for them are more likely to find the story.
 
My personal belief is that kinks should be used as fitting with the story: not only does this permit the story to enhance the scenes, but it also makes everything more coherent. There will of course be many stories by many authors who have one or two central kinks which the stories are built around, and a few that are much more exploratory, but these latter are the exception not the rule.

If you want to opt for the smorgasbord option, then it's best to essentially have your story be a story hub with unique characters selectable at the start, with each focusing one one or two thematic kinks: Game Monster pulls this off particularly well (although some storylines are very much very unfinished: looking at you Amorphous Slime).

Then you'll have stories which due to sheer scale begin to approach the smorgasbord, whether the author intended this or not. The more characters interactable sexually, the more likely it is to be smorgasbord. The Gamer, CHYOA edition. in particular has just such scale. Absolutely no clue if it does (I've not even remotely read it all the way through), but kudos to Funatic for extending the story to its current 1934 chapter depth, the absolute madlad.
 
Most "hub" stories that I have seen, at least seem to be built around a theme and this usually means that the focus is on a specific kink or fetish. I don't like them much because I think the "hubs" are too incoherent in my opinion and would be better off as separate stories rather than a 100 branches that never get properly explored.


Other massive stories that didn't start out as hubs do seem to expand into incorporating more and more kinks and stuff.
 
raziel83 said:
Most "hub" stories that I have seen, at least seem to be built around a theme and this usually means that the focus is on a specific kink or fetish. I don't like them much because I think the "hubs" are too incoherent in my opinion and would be better off as separate stories rather than a 100 branches that never get properly explored.
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You know I had actually forgotten that most hubs are like that, lol. I had subconsciously just started seeing any non-game-mode stories with hundreds of chapters but a chapter depth of less than 20 as not even worthy of checking out because I already knew what I was going to see: I had been filtering such stories out without realizing. I mean heck, even my story has a chapter depth higher than 20, and it's still in a very early version of it.
 
Then there are the "lazy hubs." The ones where the creator makes 50 starter pages for scenarios but never writes out a story. Just a bunch of titles and placeholder texts in the theme of "this if for a story where [x] is the subject of this fetish."


I liked *one* hub story because the writer asked someone to collab with them there and I did back-and-forth with them on a branch there. But that could have been a separate story and worked better as such, not hidden among the multitude of threads that start out but go nowhere.
 
I strongly believe in narrow focus. It's very hard for readers to find the kinks they're re interested in if you sprawl too much, even with "just" 100 chapters. You also risk alienating faithful readers if your central themes shift too radically.

I did this once in The Belly and the Boy, and while there are many possible reasons why that story did relatively badly (compared to my other stories), the abrupt shift in subject material halfway through (from straight/preg/cons to mdom/msub/dubcon) is my primary suspect.


In fact, there's a case to be made that even between stories you shouldn't shift too much in subject material, and this applies to both erotic and non-erotic writing. Say you're an epic fantasy writer who's fairly well known within their niche, but not a world-famous household name. If you suddenly publish a romance story set in the modern day, then your old fans will probably hate it (and they will be very loud about it!), and your new audience will either not see it at all (because you're not famous to them), or they will see you described as an "epic fantasy writer" and dismiss you on that basis.

...And I've done this plenty, too. So, uh, do as I say, not as I do. :P
 
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TheLowKing said:
If you suddenly publish a romance story set in the modern day, then your old fans will probably hate it (and they will be very loud about it!), and your new audience will either not see it at all (because you're not famous to them), or they will see you described as an "epic fantasy writer" and dismiss you on that basis.
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I'd say that's rather bad marketing, as you might have to change your writer handle.
 
If readers get upset at a writer trying out something new, they are far too entitled for their own good. Ignore them.



...then again, I don't take my erotica writing so seriously thag I could be bothered just because someone doesn't like it.
 
raziel83 said:
If readers get upset at a writer trying out something new, they are far too entitled for their own good. Ignore them.
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Sure, as long as your next mortgage payment doesn't depend on your writing doing well (ie. for most of us here on CHYOA), do whatever.
 
raziel83 said:
What? You do this for a living?
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I am considering trying my hand at monetization, actually! But no, I don't, and I expect that even if I do end up trying it, it'll never be more than a trickle, and that's fine.

I'm having some second thoughts about my previous post, though. The whole point of writing is to be read, and preferably to be enjoyed. We could publish non-erotic stories to CHYOA (nowhere in the rules does it say otherwise), but we don't, because we know that's not what this audience wants. Implicit in the act of writing (and explicit in the act of publishing!) is the search for the right kind of readers, the kind that's most likely to enjoy what you're putting out. If you stray too far from what your audience enjoys, then you're going against that core tenet.

What "too far" is is obviously very subjective, so I'll avoid giving concrete examples, but if you have an audience that loves A, B, C, then they'll probably like D and E too, and tolerate some F and G sprinkled in. But if you really want to do some X, Y, and Z, then you're probably better off finding a new, second audience that does appreciate that part of the alphab—uh, that side of your creative passions. (For example by using a different pen name, as gene.sls suggested above.)
 
I'm looking at this from a different POV. I publish erotica on CHYOA, because I needed a place where I can publish erotica like this. If I were to write SFW stories, I would publish them elsewhere. Whether for free of for money.
 
TheLowKing said:
(nowhere in the rules does it say otherwise)
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Actually, it says CHYOA is a site for erotic fiction...


The general expectation is that stories include erotic elements.
There might be non-erotic stories, but depending on the themes, there might be limitations. It might also be possible that they get relocated to a non-erotic version of CHYOA in the future.
 
It depends how you define kink, one person's kink is another's vanilla, but...I think it's impossible to have a focus on one kink without slipping into other kinks too. If you look at your average kinkster, they are into a multitude of stuff, it's never just one thing. To use an analogy; I like steak, I go out to restaurant specifically for steak, but I eat it with fries and peas, and have ice cream afterwards.

Take Bondage for example, a pretty common kink. So you like being tied up? Straight away, you need to know who is doing the tying up, that then opens up another kink, are they dominant over the rope bunny? Yes, well there's another kink with another plethora of associated kinks. No, they're not dominant over you, okay, so you've got them to tie you up, that's another kink right there, you ordering them to do stuff to you. What are you wearing while being tied? Naked...another kink, clothed, yet another plethora of options. And each one of these has it's own emotional highs and lows.

It's impossible to focus on one kink and maintain any realism, it will always lead to more. But, kink creepage has to stop somewhere, nobody is into everything. I write a lot of kink, and I always start with the character, not the kink. Once the character is fleshed out straight away their 'main' kink (the kink I want to write about) is inserted, then their hard limits, like what they won't do. Then I trim the list down from the lesser stuff at the bottom they find too vanilla to bother with, and then from the top with the stuff that is too hardcore. I keep trimming until I have a manageable amount of stuff that realistically fits my character.

People change too, so there's that dynamic to deal with if they age through a story. Their 'main kink' might always stay at their core, but other stuff will come and go as they lose or gain interest.
 
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