Do you ever try to figure out what your audience - rather than you - is gonna find most attractive?

[Katie_Mae]

Say, you are into skinny boys, but you feel your story would do better if you made the guy a 50-year old body builder?

In terms of physical looks I do neither, as in I don't base my character's looks on what I find attractive or what I think other people find attractive.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

If one or both of my characters were totally hot, then no one would believe they were virgins.

Yes, so much this. Slightly different but in the same vein, the most common story on lit is drop dead sexy hot confident girl who gets what she wants jumps really boring guy just because she's horny. If she's that confident and she's that hot why does she want this turd? She's hot enough to have way better. You've lost me at unicorn. Now if she was the loser overweight geek girl it might work, especially if the guy fights off her aggressive advances as his buddies tease him. That could be original.

 

[Actingup]

When coming up with characters specifically. Do you ever find yourself writing characters and behaviours and thinking, "I would find it most sexy to write that a certain way, but I think most of my readers would prefer something else"?

Say, you are into skinny boys, but you feel your story would do better if you made the guy a 50-year old body builder?

I think that it's very valid to consider the audience without pandering to the audience (you can pander to them too - it's just boring for everybody). If every story is a journey of some kind, you need to work out who you're taking on that journey with you, and how the world will have changed when you reach your destination. If it doesn't compromise the story to make the skinny boy's mentor a 50-year old body builder, leading the way, Gandalf-like with a staff and flapping cloak, then why not do that and have some fun with it? Along the way, you can remind the audience about all the attractive features of the skinny boy, and broaden the experience for everybody. If we had no interest at all in our audience, we wouldn't be publishing, we'd be writing diaries.

 

[MostHated]

Nope, I write what feels believable to me at the time. I always try to include faults in my characters and give them believable appearances. I've read enough stories that revolve around women with DD tits, and guys with foot long cocks to last me a lifetime.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Nope, I write what feels believable to me at the time. I always try to include faults in my characters and give them believable appearances. I've read enough stories that revolve around women with DD tits, and guys with foot long cocks to last me a lifetime.

Great point, and there is a lot more to it than purely physical attractiveness.
If you are basing your relationship decisions on "who is the hottest person I can get" you are probably going to end up unhappy in the long run.
I've got a co-worker who is decidedly more physically attractive than her husband. When I met him for the first time it made total sense. He's just a really great guy.

People connect for all kinds of reasons, not everyone is shallow.

 

[MyBareTorso]

No, definitely not. I write what turns me on. That said, I am physically turned on by many, many different kinds of women, so my recurring MC has tangled with all types of ladies... though admittedly, most of them do have curvaceous bodies and big breasts.

 

[WeShallUnclench]

I'll keep the anal sex in Anal category stories

That's how far it goes? Well I guess some people are grossed out by anal, but I wouldn't have thought it's that big a deal

 

[WeShallUnclench]

No

Do you?

I experiment with that occasionally.
But mostly, similar to what @pink_silk_glove said, one thing I like to do is broaden my horizons a bit - try to see things from the perspective of other people, and thus write about different kinds of attractiveness. If I include a character I would personally not find especially attractive, but they have traits I have heard other people talk about as attractive, in a way, I am really talking about those people (and, hopefully, to them)!

As for deliberately pandering to what I feel might get the biggest consensus, IF I do that, I wanna do that with characters that aren't my own personal favorites in the cast - but even then, I usually discover things I too am gonna enjoy about them as I flesh them out.

 

[HordHolm]

Great point, and there is a lot more to it than purely physical attractiveness.
If you are basing your relationship decisions on "who is the hottest person I can get" you are probably going to end up unhappy in the long run.
I've got a co-worker who is decidedly more physically attractive than her husband. When I met him for the first time it made total sense. He's just a really great guy.

People connect for all kinds of reasons, not everyone is shallow.

Although... there is the implication hanging there - why is he with her?

 

[StillStunned]

Although... there is the implication hanging there - why is he with her?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Although... there is the implication hanging there - why is he with her?

Well, she's a really nice person too... so there's that.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I've been posting what I enjoy. From the outset, the readers seem to be into it. So, to answer the question. No.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I try to write a variety of body shapes and colors. Sometimes the appearance of a character matters (e. g., Rose in "Pranked" is very attractive, and is unable to believe it) but otherwise, I'm not trying to necessarily write someone else's fantasy.

I also have a variety of ages in stories, usually.

I sort of don't want to write "generic porno loop characters" for all roles. You know, fit, young, perfect skin, no scars ....

-Annie

 

[TheRedChamber]

It's usually more a case of going 'well, they're not going to like this...' just as I hit submit.

 

[Demiurging]

I feel it's best to trust that my own tastes are shared by a portion of the general public. So by writing for myself, I'm already thinking of the audience.

 

[StillStunned]

The simplest solution is just to write about redheads. Everybody fantasises about redheads.

 

[Actingup]

The simplest solution is just to write about redheads. Everybody fantasises about redheads.

100% this. I've realised that two of my stories don't have redheads though. I presume there's an auto-insert function somewhere where they can just appear in the story?

 

[Blind_Justice]

There have been two or three instances where I have asked my readers what they'd enjoy more, but always from a pool of ideas I had made beforehand. Unless I get booked for a commission, I write for myself first and foremost and every reader who can derive pleasure from my fantasies is a (welcome) bonus.

 

[StillStunned]

100% this. I've realised that two of my stories don't have redheads though. I presume there's an auto-insert function somewhere where they can just appear in the story?

I think the rule is that, unless explicitly stated otherwise, every sexy female character is a redhead.

 

[WeShallUnclench]

I think the rule is that, unless explicitly stated otherwise, every sexy female character is a redhead.

Every sexy male character too, of course

 

[WeShallUnclench]

There have been two or three instances where I have asked my readers what they'd enjoy more

One problem I see with this, and frankly now with the very question I opened this thread with, is that innovation may sometimes require to give people what they did not expect.

Famously, Ford or some other silly automobile-pioneer boy once said, "Had I asked people what they wanted, they would have said 'Faster horses'..."

Sometimes I see people in character-writing threads state what I feel are suspiciously "safe" preferences - characters that are conventionally attractive, thin, "curvy and/or muscular in the right places", virtuous, etc.
I suspect though that you can get even better responses and hit on a new goldmine if you challenge people in ways they did not expect to be challenged. Likely, the now very established trope (to the point of becoming the default?) of "shy boy, aggressive girl" started out as a quirky subversion of audience expectations.

Of course, with erotica, the problem is that quite a bunch of people might not come here to be entertained - they come here to cum. So a character you find fresh, interesting and fun to write might just take those readers out who just came to you for a straightforward unobtrusive fantasy that gets the job done.

 

[TheLobster]

I think the rule is that, unless explicitly stated otherwise, every sexy female character is a redhead.

So you’re saying that redheads are so unremarkable, they don’t even bear an explicit mention?

 

[Sappho_CGN]

To the starting question:

No ... I write and describe what I like, what turns me on and a few does like that, too

 

[StillStunned]

So you’re saying that redheads are so unremarkable, they don’t even bear an explicit mention?

No, they're so hot they just insinuate themselves into every erotic story.

 

[summer_reine]

I write purely for myself. The fact that I posted any of my stories here is .. odd. And yet I feel a deep sense of pride when people appreciate what I write. I suppose it makes me feel as though I'm not quite as weird as I feel I am. I mean a couple billion people out there and in this tiny corner a dozen people enjoy my perspective. So no, I don't consider what others think of my characters but I like when they are enjoyed.