Fast or Slow - getting down to it

[designatedvictim]

I was reading one of my WIPs when I realized that in the scene where the sex is starting, it took over 900 words before the MMC even got her bra off.

Obviously, the choice of fast or slow depends on the story, but I just can't write it as fast.

Nine hundred words to get her blouse off?

Or

Desperate to begin, he ripped her blouse open.

"We'll find the buttons later," he muttered as he buried his face in her chest.

As writers, which way do you go?

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Fast.

Foreplay is unskippable though. But if this is a sex scene, I rather to not stall, and get on with business instead of boring walls of text that are much louder and much cleaner with someone saying "AH!" instead, and use the other 899 words to write sex.

There's always something going on in my stories though, because I'd rather keep you overstimulated, overwhelmed, and driving you at 400 Km/H (or whatever the equivalent is in Second Amendment country) than spending a thousand words explaining a fucking bedroom while the tour bus is getting gas at 1 mL (or whatever the equivalent is in Apple Pie country) per minute.

 

[MelissaBaby]

it depends on your outlook as the author. Is the story in service to the sex, or the sex to the story?

 

[FromManyOne]

As writers, which way do you go?

It depends on the story. I have scenes where the sex isn't shown at all, and a (short) story that is basically just one sex scene (not fast).

 

[anthrodisiac]

You can do leisurely, tease, banter, ramp up the mood slowly and get things cranked up oh-so-tenderlike. Or you can rip that thing off and go at it like beasts. It all depends on what mood you want, need, and fits for the scene.

 

[designatedvictim]

You can do leisurely, tease, banter, ramp up the mood slowly and get things cranked up oh-so-tenderlike. Or you can rip that thing off and go at it like beasts. It all depends on what mood you want, need, and fits for the scene.

Yeah, I said as much, but in my case, it seems I'm constitutionally unable - or unwilling - to not describe it all.

It's not just my characters that can get wordy, it seems.

I was just wondering which is the preferred approach by the Hive Mind, all things being equal.

(Honesty compels me to admit that the button-losing sample scene almost has to show up in a future work.)

The scene I mentioned is a buildup to a three-body problem, so to speak.

 

[SmilingLez]

I was reading one of my WIPs when I realized that in the scene where the sex is starting, it took over 900 words before the MMC even got her bra off.

Obviously, the choice of fast or slow depends on the story, but I just can't write it as fast.

Nine hundred words to get her blouse off?

Or



As writers, which way do you go?

IMO, it depends on what the 900 words are as to whether or not you make the choice of fast or slow. If the 900 words are essential to the plot, then leave them in. Also, you need to decide if you're writing a stroker or a slow burn. Finally, you need to answer the question are you writing for yourself or for Literotica readers. YMMV

 

[anthrodisiac]

I was just wondering which is the preferred approach by the Hive Mind, all things being equal.

I tend toward longer personally, but I'm also talking like, 5 - 10k sex scenes, so... you know...

Although, the most recent in my series was basically just rip and go, and the dynamic worked out well. But for the types of things I write, it's usually slower to build up tension and eroticism, rather than bull-rush into it.

I save the bullrushing for the minotaurs

 

[Voboy]

Whatever’s right for the story, of course!

There are many ways to do this hobby of ours. “Whatever works” is the right answer.

 

[Rob_Royale]

It depends on the flow of the story. If you use those 900 words to fill in some backstory, while keeping the sexual tension high, it's a good use of the time.

 

[ElectricBlue]

As writers, which way do you go?

Both slow and quick. There's no single answer except, it depends - on so many things.

 

[designatedvictim]

Just a general response to the posters.

First: Thanks. You've all commented on point. Pretty much how I expected it, but I thought I'd ask.

The prompt for my question wasn't really so much a how or even a why, but more of what's your preference for your own stories and is it a deliberate approach or more of an organic outgrowth of the story buildups, themselves.

Clearly, it's primarily dependent on what type of scene you want to write. How the story is going in the lead up to the scene.

I certainly have an ingrained bias to the slow-burn. I get detailed. I show all of their actions.

And, yes, I'll freely admit: get wordy.

The WIP scene I'm talking about is the better part of a thousand words. (Unless anyone is interested, I won't quote it due to length.)

There technically isn't any significant story or character-building being done in it and it could be trimmed.

The characters have all already slept together in the first story and it's his second visit to stay with them. They've just come home from a early-birthday dinner for one of them and, short of any logged police incidents, know that a night of getting physical is on everyone's agenda.

They're comfy after going out for dinner, quietly getting more comfortably tipsy, and were joking about when things would start. It was also a bit of a joke to that point in the story that when he said he didn't think it was right to play on the first day of his visit, they then teased him by holding him to a strict 24-hour exclusion.

She looked at Rie, leaning close into her, and said with a conspiratorial air, “Maybe if we drink enough, neither of us will notice when he inevitably starts getting… attentive ahead of schedule.”

I enjoy the build up. I enjoy the tease, so that's really how I tend to approach all of it.

He could have just looked at his watch and said "Twenty-four hours is up! Let's Boogie!" and start ripping off clothes, but that hasn't been my approach.

(I still have to keep my original deliberately tongue-in-cheek button-losing scene in my kit bag for future use, though.)

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

Slow!

The erotic id breaches the ego’s veneer of normality on page 1.

But no orgasm until page 4.

 

[Voboy]

Just a general response to the posters.

First: Thanks. You've all commented on point. Pretty much how I expected it, but I thought I'd ask.

The prompt for my question wasn't really so much a how or even a why, but more of what's your preference for your own stories and is it a deliberate approach or more of an organic outgrowth of the story buildups, themselves.

Clearly, it's primarily dependent on what type of scene you want to write. How the story is going in the lead up to the scene.

I certainly have an ingrained bias to the slow-burn. I get detailed. I show all of their actions.

And, yes, I'll freely admit: get wordy.

The WIP scene I'm talking about is the better part of a thousand words. (Unless anyone is interested, I won't quote it due to length.)

There technically isn't any significant story or character-building being done in it and it could be trimmed.

The characters have all already slept together in the first story and it's his second visit to stay with them. They've just come home from a early-birthday dinner for one of them and, short of any logged police incidents, know that a night of getting physical is on everyone's agenda.

They're comfy after going out for dinner, quietly getting more comfortably tipsy, and were joking about when things would start. It was also a bit of a joke to that point in the story that when he said he didn't think it was right to play on the first day of his visit, they then teased him by holding him to a strict 24-hour exclusion.

I enjoy the build up. I enjoy the tease, so that's really how I tend to approach all of it.

He could have just looked at his watch and said "Twenty-four hours is up! Let's Boogie!" and start ripping off clothes, but that hasn't been my approach.

(I still have to keep my original deliberately tongue-in-cheek button-losing scene in my kit bag for future use, though.)

Ah. Good. Some context.

I mean, if you're looking for personal stats? I was curious some years ago, so I took a look at my own stories and found that most fuckscenes went about three thousand words. None went past 4k, and those were really elaborate.

In general, if I'm writing about a pair of people who fuck a lot, there's no way I'm describing every coupling in detail. I'll do all the lead-up kissing and teasing and dialogue and such, then the first scene very well-described. Then I'll often do something like a "montage," like when Schwartzenegger puts all his gear on in Commando: a paragraph or two with quick-cut descriptions of increasingly improbable sexual adventures.

Then I'll slow it down again for a last scene at the end.

But that's not right for every story, of course. I tend to be a fan of slow burns. But even then, there are limits. As a rule of thumb, when I read (and, therefore, when I write), if the sexual tension (and preliminary activity) is not already well along by the 10k word mark, I start getting antsy.

 

[MrPixel]

...what's your preference for your own stories...

All of it. Including starting the story/chapter with the characters in the middle of it, their pillow talk, "Since I have you where I want you, when are you going to get around to fixing that...? Oh. Oh yeah. Mmmm. Like that."

I don't write sex stories, I write "slice of life" tales about oversexed polyamorous marrieds, "married" in both the legal and figurative senses, and open to play with friends both old and new. In all cases the story is the driver, and whether things happen slow or fast depends on the circumstances. Those can range from "Gawd. We only have 10 minutes! Get it up, dammit!" to lounging around the living room sipping adult drinks, making furtive glances to each other, or having a calm and measured discussion of who's sleeping with whom that night.

I have fun with the personalities; they're glancing over my shoulder directing how I write the action. "No. You know I don't do that. That's Cheyenne's thing. Save that thought for the next page with her!"

 

[VallesMarineris]

The prompt for my question wasn't really so much a how or even a why, but more of what's your preference for your own stories and is it a deliberate approach or more of an organic outgrowth of the story buildups, themselves.

Let me suggest a trick I like use. It's one of the oldest (Homer used it in the Odyssey): start immediately with action to grab the reader's attention and set expectations, and once that scene is established slip into a flashback to bring the reader up to speed.

For example, begin with your FMC getting royally reamed. Describe her position in detail (e.g., on her back with her legs in a V and her stud pounding her), her satisfaction at seducing him, etc., if that's the emotional track. You may have already written this part. Just cut and paste it to the top of the MS. Then skip back to how she drove him crazy with the slow bra removal. Make him a tit man.

Add hints and clues in the flashback to tell the reader what she hoped for with the bra strip show, so they'll keep reading to find out if she can really get her man to dump his load on her tits, or whatever kink she wants to do. Add some hints that he's going to change the plot to a tit fuck or whatever his kink is.

The key is to grab the reader right away with the action they're hoping for (in this case hot sex) and then back it up with the characterization and plot that led up to it.

A good example I saw recently is the opening scene of the Apple TV series Lucky. In the first scene we see the FMC, Lucky by name, running for her life between trailers and cargo containers, chased by a gun-toting cop. Just at the moment the cop has her backed into a corner with his gun aimed at her, the scene flips to her and her boyfriend celebrating romantically the big score they just made in Las Vegas. Of course you have to keep watching to find out what horrible things happened that took her from romantic ecstasy in a luxury hotel suite to arrest at gunpoint in a trailer lot. IIRC, almost the whole first episode is the backstory. And it works. You're hooked.

Your story climax, I hope, will be the opposite of horrible, but you get the idea.

 

[Voboy]

Let me suggest a trick I like use. It's one of the oldest (Homer used it in the Odyssey): start immediately with action to grab the reader's attention and set expectations, and once that scene is established slip into a flashback to bring the reader up to speed.

For example, begin with your FMC getting royally reamed. Describe her position in detail (e.g., on her back with her legs in a V and her stud pounding her), her satisfaction at seducing him, etc., if that's the emotional track. You may have already written this part. Just cut and paste it to the top of the MS. Then skip back to how she drove him crazy with the slow bra removal. Make him a tit man.

Add hints and clues in the flashback to tell the reader what she hoped for with the bra strip show, so they'll keep reading to find out if she can really get her man to dump his load on her tits, or whatever kink she wants to do. Add some hints that he's going to change the plot to a tit fuck or whatever his kink is.

The key is to grab the reader right away with the action they're hoping for (in this case hot sex) and then back it up with the characterization and plot that led up to it.

A good example I saw recently is the opening scene of the Apple TV series Lucky. In the first scene we see the FMC, Lucky by name, running for her life between trailers and cargo containers, chased by a gun-toting cop. Just at the moment the cop has her backed into a corner with his gun aimed at her, the scene flips to her and her boyfriend celebrating romantically the big score they just made in Las Vegas. Of course you have to keep watching to find out what horrible things happened that took her from romantic ecstasy in a luxury hotel suite to arrest at gunpoint in a trailer lot. IIRC, almost the whole first episode is the backstory. And it works. You're hooked.

Your story climax, I hope, will be the opposite of horrible, but you get the idea.

"You're probably wondering how I wound up getting felched by a guy in a Stormtrooper costume while a Mongolian furry slapped his cock across my face and my husband filmed the whole thing with his balls in a woodworking vise. Well? Let me tell you."

 

[FromManyOne]

Let me suggest a trick I like use. It's one of the oldest (Homer used it in the Odyssey): start immediately with action to grab the reader's attention and set expectations, and once that scene is established slip into a flashback to bring the reader up to speed.

First line of a "Beast" now in "resting" mode after I completed the first draft.

The naked blonde slave girl hissed "Mercy!" through clenched teeth, writhing involuntarily.

 

[ChuckWolf]

There's no set rule for me; depends on where the story is going.

In EARTHSHAKER, the female protagonist spends most of the story in a state of deep orgasm or on the verge of it.

In Halloween Humiliation, the male protagonist spends most of the story running around in public on Halloween night, wearing only a thong and although there's lots of teasing, he doesn't get to cum until the very end of the story.

In The Sin-Merchants, my entry for the Crime & Punishment challenge, the male protagonist wakes up, realizing that someone is sucking his cock.

 

[Blind_Justice]

If you think 900 words is slow, you haven't read any of mine. I have stories with 20,000 word chapters where no sex happens at all. But since I write mostly SF/F, a certain amount of storytelling in between the kinky bits seems to be okay.

 

[designatedvictim]

If you think 900 words is slow, you haven't read any of mine. I have stories with 20,000 word chapters where no sex happens at all. But since I write mostly SF/F, a certain amount of storytelling in between the kinky bits seems to be okay.

Oh, I've gone 12K-17K words before getting to the sex.

This comment related to a single scene - after they get home from dinner out and everyone already knows sexy-times are coming - where I used 900 or so words to get to having her bra off.

I like the scene. It's playful and teasing and builds up in a way I really like.

 

[anthrodisiac]

"You're probably wondering how I wound up getting felched by a guy in a Stormtrooper costume while a Mongolian furry slapped his cock across my face and my husband filmed the whole thing with his balls in a woodworking vise. Well? Let me tell you."

If I had a nickel for every time this happened to me...

 

[TheLobster]

If I had a nickel for every time this happened to me...

You mean having a bad aim and hitting the face instead of going straight in the mouth?

 

[lovecraft68]

I have stories where there is no sex for several pages and they do fine.

There are readers for slow burns and quick and dirty, whichever way you go, you have an audience.

Don't worry about things like this, just write the story you want to the way you want to.

It's really that simple.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

If I had a nickel for every time this happened to me...

I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's still strange it happened twice.