Erotic scenes are demanding

[Loeman]

(Copy-pasted from another thread)

I feel that sex scenes are quite technically demanding, in that a good sex scene should have a good amount of physical detail - sensuous and vivid physical descriptions, (re)moving clothing and revealing appearances, facial expressions, an attention to body mechanics, and any toys or restraints used.

*And* there might be, depending on the writing style, a good amount of mental and emotional detail interwoven into that mix, accompanying and shifting along with and alongside those physical interactions - both driven by and driving forward physical interaction.

*And* there might be multiple partners and players, each with their own styles, feelings, motivations, and limbs and boobs and dicks to mind.

*And* there's decisions on dialogue and noises to be made, how much and what kind.

Add that to good storytelling, like an occasional accident or surprise or misunderstanding or reader misdirection (or none of that - having good storytelling being the point)...

And, yeah, I think a strong erotic scene can be as challenging an "action"-type scene to write as any kind of action scene out there, bar none.

... So, hats off to those of you (us) that take the erotica craft seriously, and even more those that involve characters that are more than a collection of body parts.

EDIT: Oh, then, for many of us there's the edging. Always the goddamn edging to stay in the right mental zone to be motivated to write erotica.

 

[grimbous]

Absolutely!

Despite erotica being considered a lesser form of writing the action scenes are actually quite challenging to do right.

Personally I think I could probably write romance or pulp action with far more ease, but I really like the dirty stuff.

 

[gene.sis]

There is also taste and odor, though I think it's hard to do the latter without being cheesy.
Also the way someone talks (quietly, throaty voice, and so on).

I find it pretty difficult to find synonyms when going pretty much into detail like when someone opens the buttons of a shirt.

(Copy-pasted from another thread)

You could add a link to here from the other thread.

 

[Loeman]

There is also taste and odor, though I think it's hard to do the latter without being cheesy.
Also the way someone talks (quietly, throaty voice, and so on).

I find it pretty difficult to find synonyms when going pretty much into detail like when someone opens the buttons of a shirt.


You could add a link to here from the other thread.

Oh, the link isnt important, I don't think, for purposes of this topic. I just mentioned it because I was being redundant.

But, yes, vivid descriptions all around, taste, odor, feeling, the various states of male and female arousal, and the rest.

 

[Fierbali111]

Honestly thats the hardest part of the story. Sometimes you have so much to say and describe but you know you have to keep the scene flowing so you sometimes need to skimp on descrption and use as few words as possible, tactfully using the readers own imagination to fill the rest of the scene in their head and get the key points across.

 

[Xenolan]

For me, the easiest part of a story to write is the dialogue; I find I can easily imagine the characters conversing in my head, and I just transcribe it. The hardest part is quick action, especially when there are many people involved; something like a brawl in a nightclub is VERY difficult, because one needs to describe the action while at the same time keeping a fast pace, while maintaining an atmosphere of confusion but still allowing the reader to know what's going on. Take a famous scene from a movie like, for instance, the airport battle in Captain America: Civil War. Imagine trying to write the novelization of that! One simply could not include every detail, every flourish, every arrow fired by Hawkeye or every web spun by Spider-Man; there's no alternative but to gloss over parts of it, even some parts which might have looked really cool in the movie.

Sex is similar to a fight, when it comes to writing about it. Sex is a largely tangible experience when one is actually having it, or a visual one when watching porn; it's not something that's inherently literary and can be captured by words alone. When one is having sex, repeated thrusting for a full minute can be very enjoyable, but reading about that is tedious and dull. If I may bring up a personal experience, one of the most thrilling acts of sex I ever enjoyed was kissing two girls at the same time, with tongue action (I wish I could say it went further than that, but if I'm keeping it real I must admit it did not). How to describe that and really get the idea across? I simply can't. Oh sure, I could describe it in clinical detail, but insofar as conveying what it actually felt like, I'm at a loss.

To be honest, that's one of the reasons I like using illustrations. I do try to describe the action as best I can, so that one could hypothetically enjoy the story without pictures, but when it comes to conveying a sex scene to a reading audience you really can't beat a good visual aid. And even that falls short - a picture still can't describe what it feels like to finally score with that hot strawberry-blonde girl from next door who you've always had a crush on, but at least the reader can see what her tits look like.

 

[Loeman]

For me, the easiest part of a story to write is the dialogue; I find I can easily imagine the characters conversing in my head, and I just transcribe it. The hardest part is quick action, especially when there are many people involved; something like a brawl in a nightclub is VERY difficult, because one needs to describe the action while at the same time keeping a fast pace, while maintaining an atmosphere of confusion but still allowing the reader to know what's going on. Take a famous scene from a movie like, for instance, the airport battle in Captain America: Civil War. Imagine trying to write the novelization of that! One simply could not include every detail, every flourish, every arrow fired by Hawkeye or every web spun by Spider-Man; there's no alternative but to gloss over parts of it, even some parts which might have looked really cool in the movie.

Sex is similar to a fight, when it comes to writing about it. Sex is a largely tangible experience when one is actually having it, or a visual one when watching porn; it's not something that's inherently literary and can be captured by words alone. When one is having sex, repeated thrusting for a full minute can be very enjoyable, but reading about that is tedious and dull. If I may bring up a personal experience, one of the most thrilling acts of sex I ever enjoyed was kissing two girls at the same time, with tongue action (I wish I could say it went further than that, but if I'm keeping it real I must admit it did not). How to describe that and really get the idea across? I simply can't. Oh sure, I could describe it in clinical detail, but insofar as conveying what it actually felt like, I'm at a loss.

To be honest, that's one of the reasons I like using illustrations. I do try to describe the action as best I can, so that one could hypothetically enjoy the story without pictures, but when it comes to conveying a sex scene to a reading audience you really can't beat a good visual aid. And even that falls short - a picture still can't describe what it feels like to finally score with that hot strawberry-blonde girl from next door who you've always had a crush on, but at least the reader can see what her tits look like.

Erotica does have an advantage in sex scenes, though, compared to cinematic experiences - you can convey the internalization, feeling and emotion and implications of social circumstance better, and also include mistakes and misperceptions of the narrator etc. without overt dialogue.

Plus, any cinematic or photographic experience is colored by the actors, where as director of a literary scene you might not be able to include all the nuances, or want to, but you can (usually) control what is shown and conveyed.

... But playing to those strengths and doing any of that well, and picking the pace and flow, is a challenge (hence the topic).

 

[Loeman]

For me, the easiest part of a story to write is the dialogue; I find I can easily imagine the characters conversing in my head, and I just transcribe it. The hardest part is quick action, especially when there are many people involved; something like a brawl in a nightclub is VERY difficult, because one needs to describe the action while at the same time keeping a fast pace, while maintaining an atmosphere of confusion but still allowing the reader to know what's going on. Take a famous scene from a movie like, for instance, the airport battle in Captain America: Civil War. Imagine trying to write the novelization of that! One simply could not include every detail, every flourish, every arrow fired by Hawkeye or every web spun by Spider-Man; there's no alternative but to gloss over parts of it, even some parts which might have looked really cool in the movie.

Sex is similar to a fight, when it comes to writing about it. Sex is a largely tangible experience when one is actually having it, or a visual one when watching porn; it's not something that's inherently literary and can be captured by words alone. When one is having sex, repeated thrusting for a full minute can be very enjoyable, but reading about that is tedious and dull. If I may bring up a personal experience, one of the most thrilling acts of sex I ever enjoyed was kissing two girls at the same time, with tongue action (I wish I could say it went further than that, but if I'm keeping it real I must admit it did not). How to describe that and really get the idea across? I simply can't. Oh sure, I could describe it in clinical detail, but insofar as conveying what it actually felt like, I'm at a loss.

To be honest, that's one of the reasons I like using illustrations. I do try to describe the action as best I can, so that one could hypothetically enjoy the story without pictures, but when it comes to conveying a sex scene to a reading audience you really can't beat a good visual aid. And even that falls short - a picture still can't describe what it feels like to finally score with that hot strawberry-blonde girl from next door who you've always had a crush on, but at least the reader can see what her tits look like.

On the picture thing, we all have our styles, and I like comics and etc. so I like pictures in erotica - but it doesn't always play to the strengths of erotica. Ideally you want your words to get into your reader's heads, transport them, and depending on the style and placement a picture might be jarring.

Or not.

 

[gene.sis]

Big crowds and quick action can be quite challenging.
If done in 3rd person, they might even be undoable.
Though in 1st and 2nd person, you can exclusively focus on the things the protagonist experiences (sees, feels, hears, tastes, smells) first and foremost.

So I think there aren't many well done written 3rd person gangbang scenes out there and I assume that it is nearly impossible to do it very well.
On the other hand, if you do it 1st person, you don't have to give an overview. A female gangbang receiver wouldn't realize who fucks her but only feels if it's rough or gently. She would also not care about who grabs her tits and whose cock cums in her mouth but just the short bit of it. Bit after bit.
Same with an action scene... You crouch down. Mr. Johnson aims his gun at you. A yell from the side. You pull the trigger. A body hits you from the side, pushes you down on the hard floor. A bullet passes your ear by an inch, makes your head spin for a moment. Mr. Johnson drops his weapon, holding his wound shoulder. You exhale...
So is walking through a club. Just imagine walking through a strobe light, only describing short impressions.

When one is having sex, repeated thrusting for a full minute can be very enjoyable, but reading about that is tedious and dull.

Sure, if you write "In - out - in - out - in - out..."
But even if you have sex, a thrust isn't like the other. There are different sensations, feelings, sounds and own thoughts. I mean, if you fuck a girl and only thrust in and out, you'd surely not just stare at her left nipple a whole minute, would you? Face, tits, lips, down to your cock... she crawls her fingers into the sheets? Her tits bounce... can I make them bounce even more... thrust harder... great... oh yeah... moan for me... scream for me...

when it comes to conveying a sex scene to a reading audience you really can't beat a good visual aid.

Pictures are a deal breaker for me!
And except if you're an artist doing your own pictures (e.g. drawing comics or manga), you should have problems to find pictures for every occasion of your pairing. Additionally, you'll give away the great freedom of writing genuine stuff and just mimic someone else's work (the scene/clothing will be like in the picture).
And if you describe enough, the reader will fill the rest with his imagination... if you ask a 10 reader about the appearance of a character, you'll get 10 different answers, even if you described it pretty detailed. The dark red hair might be a little shinier or the freckles might be a nuance darker than in the imagination of the next one.

plus

Erotica does have an advantage in sex scenes, though, compared to cinematic experiences - you can convey the internalization, feeling and emotion and implications of social circumstance better, and also include mistakes and misperceptions of the narrator etc. without overt dialogue.

Plus, any cinematic or photographic experience is colored by the actors, where as director of a literary scene you might not be able to include all the nuances, or want to, but you can (usually) control what is shown and conveyed.

 

[Xenolan]

On the picture thing, we all have our styles, and I like comics and etc. so I like pictures in erotica - but it doesn't always play to the strengths of erotica. Ideally you want your words to get into your reader's heads, transport them, and depending on the style and placement a picture might be jarring.

Or not.

One of the more lively discussions I've had on this board was about the use of illustrations. They can definitely be a crutch for substandard writing, but I think they can also be an enhancement. Most of us (myself included) don't have the resources to be able to shoot our own photos, and drawing truly erotic illustrations is something not many have the talent for, so we're generally stuck using pictures we find online - which usually means porn, of course. It can be quite a challenge to find pictures to fit a story, and even more so to alter them to fit. There's a pic in my story "It's Good to Be the King" which was ideal for my purposes except the model's breasts were exposed, which is normally great but wasn't appropriate for the scene I was trying to illustrate. I had to spend hours Photoshopping extra clothes onto her, and I think I managed to do it well enough so that no one can tell. The point is that if one is going to use pictures, an equal amount of effort often needs to be put into that as to the writing.

If I could, I'd have photos in every chapter I write, set up and taken specifically for the story... but I'll do that when I'm getting paid for it.

 

[Loeman]

So I think there aren't many well done written 3rd person gangbang scenes out there and I assume that it is nearly impossible to do it very well.

Third person can mean a lot of things. It can mean reader/narrator omniscience, or be taken just from one character's perspective (similar to first person), with variations in between.

Writing multiple partners third person is certainly possible to do well - though questions of style and perspective must be addressed as an author... or, yes, an orgy scene could become a mess.

... A literary mess. Not the good kind of mess.

 

[gene.sis]

Third person can mean a lot of things.

Oh, of course.
"From an omnipresent narrator's POV" should be more fitting.

An orgy might be slightly different as you could jump from couple to couple (or threesome) which makes things easier.

so we're generally stuck using pictures we find online

This is a big limitation as you won't find a picture which fits your scene but rather fit your scene to the picture.
I mean, the busty brunette in Alternating Wife is somewhat inspired by a porn actress with a decent amount of content but I couldn't find a picture which would meet the requirements of the scene... Gray sweatpants? Maybe... comfortable gray sweatpants? Maybe after doing a deep search... in the bathroom? Um, well... bent over the sink? I haven't seen many over the sink action at all (though it can be really hot)... sweatpants down around her knees? Could be challenging, wouldn't it?

 

[Xenolan]

If done in 3rd person, they might even be undoable.
Though in 1st and 2nd person, you can exclusively focus on the things the protagonist experiences (sees, feels, hears, tastes, smells) first and foremost.

One other advantage to first or second person is realized when one is writing a same-gender sex scene; it avoids pronoun ambiguity. When writing a lesbian scene in third person, they're both "she" so the only way one can be totally clear on who's who is to use names every time, and that can start to feel clumsy after a while. Sometimes, it's not even clear that one of them is doing something to the other rather than herself ("she fingered her pussy" - is she getting her girlfriend off or masturbating?). It's especially difficult if they have similar physical attributes, which makes it so one cannot specify by saying "the blonde woman" or something like that. With first-person, it's easy; "she licked her tits" becomes "she licked my tits," and there's no confusion.

 

[obieblu_tumblr]

I'm still very new to this, but I've gotten a long way into the first story I started. I'm kind of in a void for feedback. I get reads, but no comments. I gotta guess my sex scenes are ok because the stats suggest I get a lot of readers reading more than one path for sex options.
https://chyoa.com/story/The-Housewarming.12051
I guess it's a pretty common thing to struggle with not repeating terminology. I also really struggle with not starting every sentence with "You". But I think I keep a linear progression in the description of the goings on. I'd appreciate any feedback.

I'm producing art content for my second story, but it's been really slow production for a while with real work demands and getting pulled on to do commissions for someone else's projects. https://chyoa.com/story/No-Princesses.12336
I suspect it's a double-edged sword to need to determine the main character's (your) appearance for creating 1st person art. But it'll be a learning experience if anyone bothers to comment. Hah. I'm doing my practice here before starting some more serious projects.

 

[grimbous]

I'm kind of in a void for feedback.

If you are getting a good amount of reads past the first few chapters then you are definitely doing something right. You have the added challenge of writing in a category that not everyone will be comfortable liking or commenting on so I imagine feedback might be doubly difficult. I like to go off the assumption that if a scene is doing it for me then it is doing it for a lot of other folks as well. In short, write what gets YOU going and you'll probably make many of your readers happy. Keep at it consistently and I am sure some of your regulars will start to chime in. (Sorry, I know how boilerplate that all sounds.)

I wouldn't worry too much about repeating terminology. There are only so many ways of saying "nipple" after all. Try to mix it up as best you can, and keep the different sex scenes and scenarios fresh and distinct from each other, but trust the readers to bring the rest with them. I am definitely of the opinion half the work of a good sex scene is done by the reader filling in the gaps in their mind. Give them a good, well written framework to work with and let them do the rest.

Your art looks great btw. Good luck on those future projects, this is a great place to practice.

 

[thosearemysecret]

I'm still very new to this, but I've gotten a long way into the first story I started. I'm kind of in a void for feedback. I get reads, but no comments. I gotta guess my sex scenes are ok because the stats suggest I get a lot of readers reading more than one path for sex options.

I used to get frustrated that my chapters received so few likes or bookmarks but eventually, I started using the "read" stat as a barometer instead. If a chapter is getting a lot of reads, especially one buried in one of my ridiculously long threads, I must be doing something right. The reader might not be "liking" along the way but they keep going. That said, as someone who loves digging into website analytics, I'd love to see the entry and exit rate for each chapter. How often do readers who just discovered one of my stories read 30 chapters deep in one sitting?

As for comments, I'd love to have more input but at the same time, silence is golden. I want to keep my active readers happy so if someone makes a comment about where they'd like to see the story go I'll likely put everything aside and start working in that direction. Typically, after putting in all of the writing work, there's rarely a thank you. *wah-wah* #writerslife

 

[DoctorWhat]

When it comes to writing love scenes, or even sex, more often than not a great deal of work has to go towards observation of what a person looks like, what they are wearing or not wearing, and the anticipation of physical action and contact tends to form much of the meat of the story. How one describes the act of sex can get a bit tedious, but there are narrative shortcuts, you insert things that several minutes go by in the act of copulating, or that it feels like an eternity has gone by as they change positions. what keeps things interesting is a combination of the descriptive actions taking place but also the feelings and thoughts of the characters engaging in the sex acts.

 

[HaremStarter]

The hardest sex scene I ever wrote involved voyeurism. Switching back and forth between perspectives was challenging. Not wanting to stay on one person so that the other was forgotten but still staying on them long enough that something meaningful happened.