Story versus Sexy

Testytesterton

Testytesterton

Really Experienced
I had a thought and I'd like to bounce it off some fellow writers. How do you feel about sacrificing sexiness of a chapter in order to drive story or reach a fitting climax? I use my latest chapter as an example
https://chyoa.com/chapter/Utterly-and-completely.675560

Now some people might still find this scenario sexy, but a lot of attention is given to the inner life of the character after she has made terrible decisions and tried to live a lie, leading to a truly terrible fate.

I think the ending is earned, but of course I could be wrong and it's all subjective. My question to you is, do you ever do this in your own story and do you think it is fair to the larger audience that just wants the release?

My argument would be that if you keep adding plenty of sexy chapters than they ultimately make up for the story chapters even if you never see the same level of likes in the chapters that are actually harder to write.

I was curious if anyone feels differently or the approaches you take towards balancing them.
 
Hey, I'm like 95% straight and that chapter successfully turned me on, so you're doing something right.

It depends - the most effective method, by my observation, is to blend the sex with the story where you can. I once read an article on sex scene writing, where the process was broken down into three layers: the skeleton, which is the physical position and actions of the characters; the skin, which is how the characters physically and emotionally react to the stimulation; and the nerves, which is how the characters feel and think about the situation, e.g. fear and humiliation from public sex. If you can break your smut down into these parts, you may find it easier to insert plot development or exposition into the 'nerves'.
wicker said:
I do both, and it doesn't change the upvotes I get
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Interesting. I often find that a chapter involving sex will garner several times the likes an expository chapter receives. Though I suppose it doesn't matter if you manage to make all of your writing consistently sexy.
 
insertnamehere said:
Hey, I'm like 95% straight and that chapter successfully turned me on, so you're doing something right.
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Thanks, I am finding a lot of fans in that 5% crowd if my likes based on their profile is any indication.

It depends - the most effective method, by my observation, is to blend the sex with the story where you can. I once read an article on sex scene writing, where the process was broken down into three layers: the skeleton, which is the physical position and actions of the characters; the skin, which is how the characters physically and emotionally react to the stimulation; and the nerves, which is how the characters feel and think about the situation, e.g. fear and humiliation from public sex. If you can break your smut down into these parts, you may find it easier to insert plot development or exposition into the 'nerves'.

Interesting. I often find that a chapter involving sex will garner several times the likes an expository chapter receives. Though I suppose it doesn't matter if you manage to make all of your writing consistently sexy.
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Obviously I agree to whenever possible meld them. And perhaps I am even when I feel it's more story heavy. I am just spitballing about when it's more appropriate to put most focus on nerves over skin and skeleton, but I like the analogy.
 
Story and plot builds sexiness. Sex scenes have more weight if you understand the characters better and are rooting for them to fuck already.

That being said I've written both and there are plenty of stories that are hot and heavy constantly that get tons of likes and then there are stories that are slow burning and plot oriented and get tons of likes as well. I mean not everything has to be the same way, it's CHYOA after all.
 
Personally I'd always sacrifice sex to have a more rewarding conclusion to a story or to drive a story ahead in a meaningful way. The temptation to end on a crowd pleasing sex scene is certainly there, but I feel like a purely character driven or emotional coda or epilogue is always a good call. Way I look at it is, the only people who will read your story all the way to the bitter end are the ones who really dig it for the characters and story. The people just looking for a quick wank (nothing wrong with that at all!) are already long gone.

For the start of a story I feel the same way basically, I enjoy a long buildup myself. It's certainly not universal, but it feels to me like having several chapters of setting the stage and getting the characters to a place where they *need* to bone each other makes the payoff greater - in that the reception seems more lasting and positive from the readers.

One thing I'm not sure about is whether it affects a story to have sex too early. There are some really good stories I love where the characters get to the fireworks factory *fast* and stay there for 10 chapters and it's great. But I did a story where the established characters had some sexy fun in the first two chapters and it didn't find an audience. I can't be sure having the sex too soon was the reason why, because like I said there are certainly stories that get to it even faster and they seem very popular.

Now, the other part to me is I like teasing, so slipping a few lines about some upcoming naughtiness is occasionally fun too - I write a lot of first person stories done with an autobiographical tone so it's not terribly jarring to have the narrator casually mention that they will be having sex with the object of their desire soon (no mystery there) but also that it might be extra risque or there could be an extra kinky element to it.

I had been gradually upping the sexual antics of my sibling characters in a recent story and wanted to reassure the readers that the actual sex was coming so I basically did a flash forward, which people seemed to like:
The previous night after our long cuddle on the couch Ella and I had just watched Netflix and did normal stuff. At one point she had casually reached for the waistband of my pajamas and slipped her hand in before I even knew what she was doing. As she grabbed my rapidly hardening cock I had whispered, “Tomorrow,” in her ear and she had grudgingly withdrawn. I wasn’t entirely sure why I did it, but part of me was really enjoying the whole game we had going of using the coupons and besides, making her wait seemed like something she would enjoy too. I believe she did like postponing it, and thinking about it more now I guess I didn’t want things to get too heated and have our first time together be a hasty tumble on the couch.

Of course, since then we’ve had plenty of hasty encounters on a variety of couches (and in a car, in the bushes 2 blocks from our apartment after a night of bar hopping, in a hidden study carrel in the basement of the Koerner Library at UBC, in the bathroom at our grandma’s house during a family reunion, etc) but I wanted our first time to be, I don’t know, kind of special? And I mean special in a good way, you could argue that the one at grandma’s house was extremely special but mainly because our cousin saw us leaving the bathroom together and maybe one day I’ll tell you how we convinced her to keep her mouth shut. It all worked out in the end but for a few minutes I thought we were going to have to run away and live under assumed identities overseas or something.
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I'm 100% on the plot side. I've deliberately had sex scenes occur offscreen because they worked better there for plot purposes.
Course, I'm also fond of holding off my BEST scenes till the very end. But totally giving the reader a fun quicky or three to tide them over.
The stories are about the sex, but I think of it like a meal.
You NEED your appetizers, but don't make them too big, or nobody's gonna want that steak.
 
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