All you proper writers have my undying respect

[Rustyoznail]

I'm a mere Colonial upstart. I don't have a starched white collar, a bowler hat, and talk like I'm the Duke of Poopyshire.

Not proper at all...

 

[ronde]

I think you may have mistaken me for someone else. I write porn, not erotica

Em

If porn is your thing go for it. There's room for everybody in this big bed.

 

[neuroparenthetical]

Time skips are more art than science. You can get away with basically anything, in theory. Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy and Charles Stross' Accelerando come to mind immediately. "Then, several hundred years later, on a different planet, some other stuff happened! Don't worry; you'll figure it out."

Continuity and consistency, on the other hand, are straight science.

"Character motivation" as an abstract writing challenge baffles me. I perceive humans as basic bitches. They've got basic needs, emotional needs, and the occasional ideological override. Those motivations intersect with a character's available "information" at any given point in time; I use quotes because it includes baseless assumptions and flat-out wrong information.

On top of all of that, you've got habits, instincts, and quick reactions. Additionally, sometimes people actively choose to do stupid things [he wrote, massively understating an epidemic.] The more stress you inflict on your characters - either good or bad - the easier it is to justify them doing all sorts of dumb shit. Temptation is a kind of stress that most people don't actively consider as a stressor while they're writing, but it's a biggie. In smut and porn, it's downright ubiquitous, and often cartoonishly exaggerated.

With all of that in the mix, it's almost impressive when a character fails to act with some motivation. That's why I find the "challenge" extremely difficult to talk about in the abstract. I suppose some writers get so obsessed with "and then this happened" that they hollow out their characters, or end up creating a stark divide between their character work and their plot work. It's just so strange to me when I run into it, and I don't very often.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

This. So important. I continue reading highly-rated stories because I enjoy them. But I also learn so much from the way other writers are writing, and I may "borrow" a few phrases or words or concepts to try to keep my writing fresh.

I hope that's a practice of "real" writers also!

One of the best experiences I had was back in college when there was around 45 of us in one studio. The creativity was off the chart and there was an eclectic mix of people in there.

In many ways this board is the same. All of us here, picking brains, learning about others writing styles, processes, kinks and what-not, then where possible, incorporating what we learn into our own styles.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

You could potentially write a story of any length, that takes place in one day, time is subjective- The LOTR movies take place over a few weeks or so, The first two John Wick movies take place in basically a single day, the third is like three days.

But the shorter a story, the easier it is to manage time. Day/night advances is the easiest way. The fanfic I've been working on(the one Word ruined); a day is a few chapters, there are time skips where everything takes place between classrooms, before and after school, and weekends. Mentioning what day it is, and certain things like having a character on some schedule, and general playing around in story helps keep grasp of time. Like one of the characters streams on Twitch every Friday. My days end at the end of a chapter, in this story, so no chapter shares two days.

 

[Djmac1031]

I think you may have mistaken me for someone else. I write porn, not erotica

Em

That's not true if you just wrote porn, you wouldn't worry about details.

 

[EmilyMiller]

That's not true if you just wrote porn, you wouldn't worry about details.

I build a world and then write porn in it .

Em

 

[HordHolm]

I build a world and then write porn in it .

Em

That's good. I hate reading something, anything, when the world in which it's occurring isn't coherent or doesn't make me believe it's happening in a 'place'. It doesn't need to be meticulous, microscopic details - a few broad strokes can achieve just as much or even more.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I build a world and then write porn in it .

Em

That’s why it’s erotic fiction not porn.

Porn is “I woke up and x was sucking my dick”.

If I see something like this I tend to close down the story straight away as I know there’s little chance of it interesting me. World-building, be it one with a swinging community, one where a guy loves the smell of new women’s shoes or ones with octopus like aliens engaging in humanoid sex experiments, they all require skill in immersing the reader in that universe.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

That’s why it’s erotic fiction not porn.

Porn is “I woke up and x was sucking my dick”.

If I see something like this I tend to close down the story straight away as I know there’s little chance of it interesting me.

I can't find which film director said "I like to start off with an apocalypse and build up to a climax", but there's no reason why in media res couldn't work for Lit fic.

Start with a blow job, explain who's involved and why you should care, put some story into it - and build up to a climax...

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I can't find which film director said "I like to start off with an apocalypse and build up to a climax", but there's no reason why in media res couldn't work for Lit fic.

Start with a blow job, explain who's involved and why you should care, put some story into it - and build up to a climax...

It sounds like Michael Bay which is never a good someone to emulate.

Usually these kind of stories are one lit page, a thousand words and inevitably one-off stories.

I can’t find a way in on that, but a story that starts with an invite, or a holiday, or college course, or new secret organisation that’s hiring…sign me up.

 

[Djmac1031]

My first couple of stories here were pretty simplistic:

A man gets a prostate milking from a sexy woman doctor.

Two young virgins start to fool around together for the first time.

An older man pays a young woman to indulge in his fantasy of masturbating in front of her.

None of them required big setups or
massive world building. Although the third one eventually grew more complex as I continued it as a series.

Then I stumbled on a new idea: a man and a woman, strangers, wake up trapped naked together in a strange room.

Cool idea, right? Except now I had to actually come up with an actual STORY.

Who put them there? Why? Why these two particular people? How? How long are they there? How do they eat? Go to the bathroom?

How do these two strangers interact? What makes them interact? Obviously I want some sex, but how do they get there?

And most importantly; what's the point of the whole thing.

The White Room was the hardest story I'd ever wrote, and as complex as it got, I still left a LOT unanswered. Because I simply didn't have them.

It took me 15 months to come up with a sequel, and finally answer at least most of it.

Although there's still plenty of questions left too lol.

It's been a fun challenge though, and truly does give me a far greater appreciation for authors who can create complex worlds and long reaching storylines.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My first couple of stories here were pretty simplistic:

A man gets a prostate milking from a sexy woman doctor.

Two young virgins start to fool around together for the first time.

An older man pays a young woman to indulge in his fantasy of masturbating in front of her.

None of them required big setups or
massive world building. Although the third one eventually grew more complex as I continued it as a series.

Then I stumbled on a new idea: a man and a woman, strangers, wake up trapped naked together in a strange room.

Cool idea, right? Except now I had to actually come up with an actual STORY.

Who put them there? Why? Why these two particular people? How? How long are they there? How do they eat? Go to the bathroom?

How do these two strangers interact? What makes them interact? Obviously I want some sex, but how do they get there?

And most importantly; what's the point of the whole thing.

The White Room was the hardest story I'd ever wrote, and as complex as it got, I still left a LOT unanswered. Because I simply didn't have them.

It took me 15 months to come up with a sequel, and finally answer at least most of it.

Although there's still plenty of questions left too lol.

It's been a fun challenge though, and truly does give me a far greater appreciation for authors who can create complex worlds and long reaching storylines.

That sounds like my journey .

Em

 

[EmilyMiller]

That sounds like my journey .

Em

With less prostate milking and less CFNM…

Em

 

[Djmac1031]

With less prostate milking and less CFNM…

Em

But more tentacles.

 

[EmilyMiller]

But more tentacles.

Definitely more tentacles .

Em

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've been known to keep people waiting while I suddenly need to discover the number of funiculars in Genoa...

There seems to be five of them? A lot of people don't even know what a funicular is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funicular

There are quite a number of them around the world. The one I know best is Angel's Flight in Los Angeles, which is not at its original location. I think it makes an appearance in La La Land. (Second time I've mentioned that movie in a week.)

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yeah, yeah, that's what all the writers of erotica say.

And all writers of porn say they're writing erotica.

 

[Paul_Chance]

Writing is easy. Writing well is work.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Usually these kind of stories are one lit page, a thousand words and inevitably one-off stories.

I dunno about that. These two launch in with fairly quick action, and progress from there.

Garter Belts and Cigarettes (clitoris, third paragraph).

Garter Belts and Whiskey (cock, first line).

These two are the closest I've ever got to writing stroke, where sex is the point of the story. But being me, they go somewhere else, too.

 

[Whanmore]

1. Continuity
2. Character motivation - why did they do A / why did they behave like B
3. In-world consistency
4. Time - have enough days passed in-world for X to have happened (and what else happened in that time)?

I didn’t have to worry about much of that in my previous work. But I guess that’s what most of you guys grapple with all the time. I’m late to the party, I know. But kudos to you. This is hard .

Em

Oh Yeah...but tha's the fun part right? Making your world consistent and timely also makes it real. I love dealing this issues of continuity and making sure my charaters are acting in character. And when they do something out of character making sure it receives the proper ...gravitas?....<-- right word? Time frames change constantly to make things accessible.

On the retconning, I had to stifle myself there too. I love adding whole scenes where there wasn't one planned. Its hard but Writing is Hard i think so it's good that we can do it. Most humans cannot and do not write. We should remember that.

 

[CyranoJ]

I didn’t have to worry about much of that in my previous work. But I guess that’s what most of you guys grapple with all the time. I’m late to the party, I know. But kudos to you. This is hard .

Em

Honestly, while I guess I qualify as a Proper Writer by having sold the odd bit of writing, the question of Continuity (which encompasses all four of your latter bullet points) has more than once weighed down ideas for a series beyond my ability to execute them. All I can recommend is: don't get too hung up on lore and consistency. They can be resources if you're in the mindset to use them that way, but they are dead weight if you aren't. Doing what's fun and relevant to you is more important.

 

[neuroparenthetical]

Who put them there? Why? Why these two particular people? How? How long are they there?

Sure, but any writer can easily justify not answering those questions. Make it first-person-present narration, and all of those specific worries vanish - not from your characters, perhaps, but definitely from your own mind. They don't know, because the writer says so. They have no way of finding out, because the writer says so. Ironically, you can begin crafting a story that's all about wild speculation instead of anything real. You can have one character convinced they've been kidnapped by aliens interacting with another character who's convinced they're dreaming, and that therefore none of the other characters are even real. Fun fun fun.

Now, once you start talking about food and bathrooms, you have to narrow the story's focus in a different way if you want to avoid answering those questions. Still, consider the whole "it's just a dream" angle from above. There's a bunch of crazy sex, and then the story ends with some delicious ambiguity. The narrator has to pee, and, like magic, something that looks like a urinal or toilet materializes. The story's ending is the character poised and ready, but paralyzed by the stray thought that if (s)he starts to pee, maybe that will only mean that they're about to pee the bed as they sleep.

Meanwhile, across the room, the character who was always convinced it was a dream is pigging out at a buffet table that, similarly, "magically" slid out of the wall. That's the final image the paralyzed narrator sees before the writer brings the vignette to a close.

The lesson is: if you're going to play God, have fun.

 

[GrushaVashnadze]

I build a world and then write porn in it .

Em

Yes! Write a damn good story, and fill it with fucking. (Though maybe the second part's easier than the first.)

And this false dichotomy between "porn" and "erotica" is, uh, well... false. They are merely different regions on the smut spectrum, frequently rub up against each other, overlap, change positions, and mutually penetrate. (Sounds like fun, no? )

And, a propos of your OP: When writing Alison Goes to London, I had a copy of a 2050 calendar in front of me all the time, to make sure I got the days of the week right...

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Yes! Write a damn good story, and fill it with fucking. (Though maybe the second part's easier than the first.)

And this false dichotomy between "porn" and "erotica" is, uh, well... false. They are merely different regions on the smut spectrum, frequently rub up against each other, overlap, change positions, and mutually penetrate. (Sounds like fun, no? )

And, a propos of your OP: When writing Alison Goes to London, I had a copy of a 2050 calendar in front of me all the time, to make sure I got the days of the week right...

When I was writing a scene in ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE PART 5, I had a pre-written list of forfeits I’d taken from various other sex games and the names of all the participants so that the mix of people and activities both varied and escalated at just the right pace.

For the game sequence in part 4 of HOT AND FUZZY I had to work out the colours of all the spaces to try and make sure that when someone landed on a square we always knew where they were in relation to other people (still managed to balls-up on one square. Damn!)