Dark Lord: How much sex a story should have?

[Fiend21]

So, this is kind of a mixed question I'm shouting out into the void. I'm writing a fantasy story here called Dark Lord, and I'm trying to balance the fantasy and story telling part of it with the actual sex, and I just don't know where the divide should be. I feel the audience doesn't want to hear about the politics of Elven races in their negotiation for steel, but I also think that just I personally, and I presume others, want a bit of a story instead of just endless sex scenes. I don't know, what do you various people think? Thanks, any responses would be much appreciated.

 

[gscmar64]

Personally when I write I consider is a sex scene necessary in the chapters. I see no reason to gloss over events that are not sex related just to satisfy a bunch of readers. if he chapter needs sex then by all means add it!

 

[grimbous]

The more I write on here the more I find that just stringing sex scene on top of sex scene is unsustainable. And frankly, for me, a bit boring. Of course it depends the scope of the story and what kind of story it is. There is definitely a place for all action all the time stories.

Right now I'm just going where the story takes me, but I always keep an eye out for any opportunity to add some sex. Also, by taking time to build things up the payoff is likely far more gratifying for the reader. At least that's what I'm hoping.

My two cents.

 

[Drakavius]

It really depends on the story. Most stories I would say its unsustainable. But some, like Lilith Strain where it is almost epidemic in terms of context and allowance for sex scenes to stack.

 

[Nemo of Utopia]

My advice, for whatever it is worth, is two fold:

1: Trust your gut. (Or genitals in this case...)

If you are feeling like you need a sex scene, so's the reader probably. If you feel a sex scene makes sense at this point in the story, now's your chance to add one. If you think this sex scene needs some more build up: don't force it, do the building!

2: Aim for a sex scene once every 10 chapters or more.

That's not a hard and fast rule, and I ignore it myself often enough, but the most popular stories seem to have that as their average.

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

2: Aim for a sex scene once every 10 chapters or more.

I'm not a fan of oversexed story, but this should be the minimum to be honest.
Deal it also depends on how long is your typical chapter.

We are still on an erotica website after all ...

At the end of the day, you should follow your inspiration and see where it leads you though, choices give you the freedom to do it.

 

[mindtheMILF]

Do it when the story feels like it needs one.

 

[Tip]

Well there is a romance category for a reason. You can be erotic without sex.

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

You can?

But seriously, one thing is writing about romance, another is bogging down the story with a surplus of tedious explanations, at least this seems to be Fiend's fear.

 

[mindtheMILF]

Well there is a romance category for a reason. You can be erotic without sex.

Yes you can and you can have no eroticism with sex

 

[Nemo of Utopia]

Yes you can and you can have no eroticism with sex

A lot of stories fit that description, like the legions of short, poorly spelled, and grammatically indefensible content that got posted on here in the early days...

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

You can be erotic without sex.

I don't want to go too much OT, but if feel that this 'truth' is often thrown out without much consideration, while in my opinion it is indeed a lie.
You can't be erotic without sex.

You can be erotic without showing sex.
Suggesting it.
Hiding it.
Delaying it.
Promising it.
Denying it.
But it will still be there, waiting behind the curtains, ready to make it's entrance. You know, the public it's there for it, even if ask him to remain in the backstage for the whole show.

Sex, with all its variations, is the sole real subject of erotica, implied or manifest that it is.

So, to expand what i was saying, there's a huge diffrence between writing twenty chapters of build up versus twenty chapters of

Elven races in their negotiation for steel

I'm clearly exaggerating, but it's same diffrence between setting up a railroad for your train or drawing a map of the area you need to deforest to make space to the huts of the labores that will make the preparatory survey before deciding where you will be buliding the steel plant that will produce the rails needed to make the railrod for you train.

Did i make sense? Proably not. Oh well ...

 

[Nemo of Utopia]

You made a fair bit of sense right up till the last bit about the train, I mean the drawing the map and so forth is important for getting that railroad set up, and these stories are not railroad in the slightest, their more like forest trails: branching, re-branching, and recombining; sometimes.

Say you have 20 chapters of the elves negotiating for steel: IF you also have as part of those 20 chapters the eleven ambassador seducing the Queen...

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

I feel like i ended up playing the devil's advocate here, but you can't re-dicover the wheel and the fire every time ...

IF you also have as part of those 20 chapters the eleven ambassador seducing the Queen

That's precisely the point. That's build up.
It is not if you actually just talk about politics for 20 chapter.

By overdoing it with the premise, you risk to bore your reader. Better just sketch the outline and add detalis later little by little through the chapters.

 

[Dissonant Soundtrack]

Vonnegut's 8 rules of writing say this:
-Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
-Start as close to the end as possible.

Fundamentally, is your story about the sex or about the elven steel trade? Scenes for one should be in service to the other, IMO. I'm all for some world-building, but that's not what brought me to CHYOA.