How mandatory is a decent plot to you when writing erotica?...

[Black Tulip]

Wow. I'm way too lazy to do that.

 

[CorsetLvr]

Wow. I'm way too lazy to do that.

Let me make it easy for you.

metric conversion table

 

[Black Tulip]

Let me make it easy for you.

metric conversion table

What do you know! Here's mine: http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm

 

[DarkBee]

"I have to say that if in the first paragraph I'm being informed of someone's cup size, I'm out."

agreed.

True, we don't need to know how tho woman about to be fucked looks, the average reader can make up the picture in his/her mind.

I think, however, that even wham-bam-stories have a certain amount of plot: the writer must have thought out some sort of setting for the fucking, how they fuck and when and how the climax occurs.
Of course these stories are quite inferior to well thought-out longer stories, although I usually look for short stories to masturbate to, so I will usually skip the non-sex stuff to get to the good parts. However, the sex I usually look for is anything but the usual straight stuff. I think most stories not written in Loving wives, Erotic couplings and maybe even First time tend to take a different approach to storytelling, which I like (I look mostly in Fetish, and sometimes in Lesbian or Humor & satire for some odd and unusual stories to stroke to).

 

[DarkBee]

Hehehehe, I have been known to sit here reading a story with a calculator nearby, converting measurements to English units. 1 inch = 2.54 cm. & 1 kg. = 2.2 lb. I'm adaptable like that.

Bra sizes in the imperial system go up by 2 inches (28, 30, etc.), while in the metric system, it goes up by 5 centimeters (65, 70, etc.).

The most sizes found around here are, apparently, 34 and 36 (inches), translating to 85 and 90 (centimeters).

As one of the 'stories' in the How to-section says: "Please do not be tempted to increase the number to imply larger breasts". Adding a letter increases bust size, while adding 2 inches/5 centimeters will only make her chest wider, while the breasts stay the same size.

 

[DarkBee]

See here (The almighty Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassiere_measurements

 

[Black Tulip]

Bra sizes in the imperial system go up by 2 inches (28, 30, etc.), while in the metric system, it goes up by 5 centimeters (65, 70, etc.).

The most sizes found around here are, apparently, 34 and 36 (inches), translating to 85 and 90 (centimeters).

As one of the 'stories' in the How to-section says: "Please do not be tempted to increase the number to imply larger breasts". Adding a letter increases bust size, while adding 2 inches/5 centimeters will only make her chest wider, while the breasts stay the same size.

Hehehe, you got that right, mister. I might add, in the metric system each letter adds 5 centimeters to breast size. Not sure, but I think it's the same in the US or UK.



Which still means nothing if you don't know how tall or small the woman is and what her general build is. LOL

 

[DarkBee]

Hence, when deciding to give us the bra size after all, give your female character an appropriate bra size: 5' women usually don't have C-cups (or larger ).

 

[CorsetLvr]

Hence, when deciding to give us the bra size after all, give your female character an appropriate bra size: 5' women usually don't have C-cups (or larger ).

I'm a seamstress and actually the numerical number has nothing to do with breast size. A larger number usually means the woman has a broader back/chest since its measured below the breast. I made a custom corset once for a woman that was a 32D. As I recall, she was a little of 5 ft. tall. That's was a tough job. On the other hand, I did one for a female body builder that was a 40 B.

 

[sexylaila438]

I agree with CorsetLvr, I'm only 5' and I'm a D cup. Just because you are petite doesn't mean that you have small breasts.

 

[FaustARP]

it's totally mandatory. i read erotica for the context, for the plot. without it its just a familiar string of verbs and adjectives, you know?

i mean, a single sexual act can be a million times sexier than some crazy orgy if the context is hot enough.

 

[Black Tulip]

it's totally mandatory. i read erotica for the context, for the plot. without it its just a familiar string of verbs and adjectives, you know?

i mean, a single sexual act can be a million times sexier than some crazy orgy if the context is hot enough.

Exactly. Which brings us back to how necessary a plot is for an erotic story.



CorsetLvr, Do you take commissions from overseas?
I'm above the 95 size, so no off the rack corsets for me.
If anything they reach barely to my midsection.

I made one myself with the help of a seamstress friend.
It was fun to do, but a hell of a job.

 

[CorsetLvr]

Exactly. Which brings us back to how necessary a plot is for an erotic story.



CorsetLvr, Do you take commissions from overseas?
I'm above the 95 size, so no off the rack corsets for me.
If anything they reach barely to my midsection.

I made one myself with the help of a seamstress friend.
It was fun to do, but a hell of a job.

I no longer make corsets commercially. I was doing that for a while when I quit my job to go back to grad school. When I sat down and actually calculated what I was making on the corsets, per hour of labor, I decided I was better off working at McDonalds. Now that I'm back working full time, its really hard to justify spending the 40 hrs. or so it takes to make a custom corset. There is another thread about this I just contributed to. There are a lot of custom corsetiers out there. Check out Romantasy.com.

 

[Black Tulip]

Thank you for the link. It's a gorgeous site.
Too bad it's US based.

Maybe I should make a serious effort to find one in my own country.

 

[Guest]

This is actually something I've been wondering about myself, the concept of Plot versus Perv. When reading erotica, I'm looking for that same fix I get from watching porn. I'm typically not interested in a detailed story, developed characters, and vivid descriptions of a non-sexual nature. And, for the love of God, don't bore me with eloquent, poetic prose.

That's not to say some elements of a story aren't important, because they do work to stimulate the mind, which is what ultimately arouses me and helps to get me off. But just give me the basics. I want a premise rather than a plot. Make the characters, their dialogue, and their actions seem plausible (since reality imbued with fantasy is so much more exciting than absurdly outrageous scenarios) but don't waste several paragraphs establishing a mini biography for them. And write it directly, with simple honesty. Don't fluff it up into some artsy piece that's going to leave me flaccid and bored. If I'm not stiff and stroking after a few paragraphs, I'm probably going to assume the rest of the story is equally as tedious and uninteresting and move on to something else.

For better or worse, when I read erotica I'm simply looking for cerebral stroke material. I want it to get me hard and get me off. I'm not reading it with a critical eye, debating on the literary value of the piece. There are a few works I enjoy that have intensely erotic scenes crammed between more traditional storytelling. I've read those pieces in their entirety once, maybe twice. The rest of the time, I go straight for the 'good' bits.

 

[CorsetLvr]

Thank you for the link. It's a gorgeous site.
Too bad it's US based.

Maybe I should make a serious effort to find one in my own country.

Check out the exchange rate between the US $ and the Euro right now. Price wise you'd be better off buying in the US right now. We in the US have the opposite problem right now. Imported goods are very expensive. One company I deal with has started to quote prices based on NZ $ because of the exchange rate problems.

 

[Black Tulip]

LOL That's not counting shipping and handling.

There used to be a time I could indulge in second-hand books ...
regular packages from the US. Until the cost of shipping was suddenly up to twice or more the price of the books themselves.



I always suspected some crazy civil servant ordered all packages x-rayed or something.

 

[Black Tulip]

This is actually something I've been wondering about myself, the concept of Plot versus Perv. When reading erotica, I'm looking for that same fix I get from watching porn. I'm typically not interested in a detailed story, developed characters, and vivid descriptions of a non-sexual nature. And, for the love of God, don't bore me with eloquent, poetic prose.

That's not to say some elements of a story aren't important, because they do work to stimulate the mind, which is what ultimately arouses me and helps to get me off. But just give me the basics. I want a premise rather than a plot. Make the characters, their dialogue, and their actions seem plausible (since reality imbued with fantasy is so much more exciting than absurdly outrageous scenarios) but don't waste several paragraphs establishing a mini biography for them. And write it directly, with simple honesty. Don't fluff it up into some artsy piece that's going to leave me flaccid and bored. If I'm not stiff and stroking after a few paragraphs, I'm probably going to assume the rest of the story is equally as tedious and uninteresting and move on to something else.

For better or worse, when I read erotica I'm simply looking for cerebral stroke material. I want it to get me hard and get me off. I'm not reading it with a critical eye, debating on the literary value of the piece. There are a few works I enjoy that have intensely erotic scenes crammed between more traditional storytelling. I've read those pieces in their entirety once, maybe twice. The rest of the time, I go straight for the 'good' bits.

Does that mean you want porn instead of erotica? Or is that distinction not applicable to the stories on this site?

 

[CorsetLvr]

LOL That's not counting shipping and handling.

There used to be a time I could indulge in second-hand books ...
regular packages from the US. Until the cost of shipping was suddenly up to twice or more the price of the books themselves.

That may make sense for a low cost item like a discount book where shipping is a large percentage of the total cost. However, it may not make sense for a higher cost item like a custom corset where the cost of shipping, as a percentage of the total cost is less significant. It also depends on weight. A kilo of books weighs a lot more then a a few grams of fabric.

I would suggest you consider both the exchange rate and shipping cost when making your decision. Another factor is whether sales taxes will be charged. I'm not sure how it works in the Netherlands, but in the US internet retailers only charge sales tax on orders placed from the same state that the company is physically located in. I'm not even sure if you have sales tax on items like this in the Netherlands. I did a search and found a for you in Holland.

http://www.jc-creations.com/

Here is a site with a full list of corsetiers and retailers. There are several in the UK, but most are in the US.

http://www.corsetted.com/shop.shtml

A local corsetier does have the advantage of being available for fittings and alterations.

 

[Black Tulip]

Thank you for the list. Much appreciated.

 

[Otto26]

Characters and plot are everything. Everything. Sex is largely mechanical and very limited. Tab A in slot B or some variation thereof. The setting, the situation, the characters: these are the things that make a story erotic or sexy. There's nothing wrong with a simple plot, but it's got to have plot.

 

[Jedikool]

Well, my story actually doesn't have a lot of sex scenes in it. Its more about the situations in which sexual situations arise. And i also think that teasing through a story is good as well. It builds up the excitement.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The way I think of it is as an information continuum, or maybe like a pyramid. Leaving aside the aesthetics of plot and what it brings to the enjoyment of a piece of writing, the base of the pyramid is where you have a lot of story, which means you have a lot of information. You know about character, motive, history, situation, mood. All things being equal, the longer the piece is, the more we know about the characters and the more data we have to work with, the more ingredients we have to manipulate, the richer it is.

Moving up the pyramid, the amount of information we have decreases till we get to the apex where we have minimal information. In story-telling terms, we'd probably have the physical images of the lovers. We don't know their histories or their internal states, their emotions or anything like that. Our story would consist of a description of them having sex.

You can get a fuck story out of either one. The information-rich story is, as you'd expect, going to be a lot richer and nuanced and you're going to be able to do a lot more with it than you will with just the two naked bodies. Now, depending on what you want to get out of your story and what you want it to do, that determines what kind of story you should start.

Having written my share of straight fuck stories that got their heat from the posture and position the characters took during sex, I found that I could only keep my interest up by playing with my characters' heads. For me, the sexiest stuff always happens mentally. I like stories where highly controlled people are drastically changed by passion they can't control, and that's best shown over time in extended stories. I can't show that kind of thing if I start with two people who are already naked and in bed together. Usually I have to start with them meeting or before. I have to build slowly and steadily.

The older I get, the more I find that the secret of sex, for me, is not consummation, but desire. Prolonged desire is what makes consummation worth it, and the great story for me is not the one with the great fuck scene, but the one with the great glance, the great touch, the one where the very air is charged between the lovers whenever they're in the same room.

Anyone can get heat out of a dick churning in a pussy. But try and get heat out of two people looking at each other. That takes artistry. That takes skill.

 

[cloudy]

Anyone can get heat out of a dick churning in a pussy. But try and get heat out of two people looking at each other. That takes artistry. That takes skill.

I agree, absolutely.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

You could also think of it this way. There are some people who would like to go to a bull fight and see the spectacle and pageantry the drama of the matador versus the bull in the ring.

Then there are some people who'd rather just go to a slaughterhouse and see a cow get its skull crushed.

That's kind of like the difference between erotica and pornography.