Pacing

Zeebop

Zeebop

CHYOA Guru
I know a great deal of the reading through stories is done through one-handed browsing, and smut-centric chapters are basically the point of the enterprise, but when it comes to the pacing of stories do folks mind relatively sexless chapters that move the plot along and set up new scenarios? Been playing with a lot of parallel plot lines in Lois Lane's Night Out and debating whether the relatively sexless chapters are killing interest in between the smuttier chapters.
 
It depends on the kind of story you're writing, and your writing style.

There's nothing at all wrong with a plot or set-up chapter that serves a purpose.

If everything serves a purpose, you don't have to worry about pacing more than you want to or your style demands.
 
I find that stories which are "Sex, sex, SEX, Some MORE sex, and oh, by the way, SEX!" Are ones I'll read, for a little while, then forget about completely and never come back to...

"You don't watch porn for the characters"?

No... No, I don't.

I also don't watch it TWICE either.

You know what I've watched about twenty times, and enjoyed watching most of them? (I'm in my 30s mind you...)

FROZEN.

So, clearly, sex, while it sells: like a sports car loses most of its value the second you take it out for a spin...

The plot, on the other hand, is like a house: the more work you put into it: the more it appreciates in value over time...
 
As others have said, it's mainly just about your style and how you want to write the story. I think both are equally viable, at least from what I've experienced. My stories were relatively well-received and they're on the "triple-sex sundae with sex cherries on top" kind of deals. Then again, my stories are one of the only ones on CHYOA with images, so that could be it too. I'm not sure honestly.

I think with more plot-driven stories you'll have readers that are more invested and more willing to come back of their own volition. Plus, if you're not just constantly writing about smut, you too may even enjoy your own character's development, but really I think as long as your writing is solid, you can make whatever you want.
 
If I have 4+ chapters in a row without sex, I've gone back and added flirtation, suggestions, or main character fantisizing to start building up steam.

Of course if your writing is great it can carry it's own for a while but I say play it safe and don't let the drought go too long, you can drop in smaller moments to help build.

Could even be a build-reward like, I dunno he keeps fantasizing or getting glimpses of breast nipple, wonders to himself, hmm.. are hers pink and puffy? Brown and round? Pointers? Then during sex, grand reveal.

Haha, ok that sounds ridiculous when I write it like that, but you get the idea. Try to thread in teasers that then pay off during sex scene. Ties the plot build together and could give you more runway to have sexless chapters.
 
It's been my personal experience that building plot, adding scenarios over continuing chapters can lead to other latching onto an idea and running with it. my story 'Jailbait' is proof positive to that, 11kestrels has taken some plots i started and taken them in new directions, improving the story to the point that i could take it in the direction i wanted it with interfering in his path
If you worry what others feel about it, you'll end up beginning to dread writing the story. Write to satisfy your vision!
 
I haven't gone that far, just...dunno, not sure it flows. I don't want to move too fast to get to where I'm headed in some of those stories, but don't want to lose reader interest either.
 
Fair enough. Different strokes and all that. Forward progress has sort of been stunted by filling out the side-branches, but there's some interesting potential...some scenes I want to work up...just don't want to rush into them.
 
Zeebop said:
I haven't gone that far, just...dunno, not sure it flows. I don't want to move too fast to get to where I'm headed in some of those stories, but don't want to lose reader interest either.
Click to expand...

I guess i am lucky in a way...

My story (The Latex Forest) is structured around each branch having one thing happen, usually at the end. And while there may be sexsexsex on the way for some, it's not the case for all.

For those forks i like to pace it out slowly with something significant happening in a non-sexual way, occurring when some sexual is happening; the main character thinks of sex/something is idly playing with the character etc.

So while sex isn't happening, i like to keep it in the forefront of the readers mind
 
Zeebop said:
Fair enough. Different strokes and all that. Forward progress has sort of been stunted by filling out the side-branches, but there's some interesting potential...some scenes I want to work up...just don't want to rush into them.
Click to expand...

Can you provide us a general idea of what you're talking about in this matter?
 
Easiest to see if you look at the story map for Lois Lane's Night Out; I got up to a certain point (chapter 9) in the "main branch", and I've been filling in the other branches. A lot of the side-branches go to similar places - Lois Lane at the Black Door or in the White Room - and I want to write more on the scenes there, because the White Room is where I plan to have a lot of the fun transformations happen - as explained in the chapter "Luthor" - and the Black Door is where the demonic sex happens. Just don't want to rush to rush getting to those scenes.
 
Anticipation is important to eroticism. And detail and depth can help make a story that people want to come back to.

The important thing is that branches that aren't themselves erotic have a point. You don't want to wander on for seven pages about a side-character filing their taxes. You most certainly don't want to be seen trying to pad out a story trying to fulfill CHYOA's purely numeric standards of "depth".

I will grant that there are people who just go into a story looking for the "good parts", and others who might dabble in same depending on mood. (And for the record, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that; we're on an erotic story site, and you should be able to pursue what you came for without being subject to hypocritical judgment.) But given the volume of erotic scenes available, I still suspect that stories that attract an ongoing following are offering something more.
 
I think you can add as much plot as you want, so long as there's a nice, juicy sex scene at the end. I only ever hit publish once I have at least one chapter that someone might conceivably be able to jerk off to. It's good to put in some plot and characters, but don't blue-ball your audience.
 
I dont have any sex in my story so far, or at least not with thr main character yet. My chapters are pretty short and there's a lot of sexual things happening to keep readers interested.

I think sexless chapters are fine as long as they have some sort of sexuality about them, it can be very subtle as you advance the plot but it has to be there otherwise the reader gets bored.
 
I think that not only a degree of buildup but also a narrative describing the aftermath is critical to making an enjoyable story.

The reason is that if it's all about sex, it's essentially sex with cardboard cutouts. We need to know a little something about who these characters are if we're going to be able to suspend disbelief and see them as "real" in any way. Even with someone like Lois Lane, a character who we're probably all familiar with, we need to get some established story going on with her; otherwise, she's just Lois Lane because you said she is, and the best the reader can do is imagine Margot Kidder / Teri Hatcher / Amy Adams playing her part (myself, I'd go with choice B). But, establishing a story for her, motivations, history with whoever she's shagging... that makes her more of a real person, and the more real she is the more sexually exciting she can be.

One way to think of it is to imagine two different porn movies. One of them features a pretty blonde and a pretty brunette, both with attractive but unremarkable faces and figures, approaching each other nude in a white room and having lesbian sex. The other movie takes five minutes to establish a female executive named Sally Thompson, who's dressed in a black suit and wears designer glasses, interviewing candidates for a secretarial position; in comes a woman in a low-cut top and high leather boots, and Sally realizes that she's a stripper who gave her a lapdance at a club the previous week. Eventually, Sally's discomfort tips off the candidate and she remembers the event, AND that Sally had let slip that she had always wanted to do something crazy like have sex in her office at work...

It's pretty obvious which of the above movies would be more entertaining to watch. Even though we watch porn for the sex, we generally want a LITTLE more out of it than just that. And that's even more true when it comes to written erotica. We're on the internet, here; if we were just looking for something to jerk off to, it's easy to find pictures and movie clips which require a lot less effort on the part of the consumer. We're here not just to read about sex; we're here to read stories. I would much rather read a well-written CHYOA story which takes ten chapters to get to the sex part, than one which kicks off with sex immediately but it's between characters we never learn anything about beyond dick length and cup size.
 
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