I have in the past been accused of being a prude when it comes to writing my stories but I can honestly say that I am not a prude but I write my stories for a different reason. I don't write for the tittilation factor but rather to see the building of characters and plot. Too many stories, IMHO, are based solely on sexual content and no plot. That type of story I don't read. Not that I don't like sex, it's just that there is more to life than sex, sex, sex. When I write, I write sex scenes as minimal as possible and let ther reader's imagination take it where they want it to be. I am currently writing a story that sex doesn't play a major role in but I have mentioned having sex, making love a few times. But it is mostly related to the fact that my characters were supposed to be married and as such, it is a fact of life. I let it remain there and don't make a big deal. I do like conflict in the story line since that spices it up to me. Not so much that it is a Sylvester Stallone movie quality story. Life is not a movie, nor do I try to write like it is. I have always enjoyed a good story that has a life like quality to it without getting too vulgar or pornographic. I guess it is just the way I was brought up, wholesome but not overly so. But that is just me.
Thank you for letting me ramble to you today. I'll let you get back to your regularly scheduled brain fest.
Goldie
Comments
Good for You stand your ground
Goldie,
I ,myself find sex over-rated. Look at all of the hoops one has to jump through today to actually have sexual inter course. First they have to look good to find the right partner, any flaw whatsoever is deemed unhealthy. Then one has to hope their in bed performance out does anyone elses to ensure a second date.
Me, I find the good old fashioned way tends to go better. Go on a date to get to know each other. Enjoy a dinner and a movie or dinner and a dance. No hanky panky. I'd rather my partner be interested in me as a person then as a way to find immediate sexual relief.
I try to avoid writing sexual laden stories. I believe ones imagination should be titilated to the max.
Jill Micayla
May you have a wonderful today and a better tomorrow
Jill Micayla
Be kinder than necessary,Because everyone you meet
Is fighting some kind of battle.
Shifting gears
Sex scenes in anything I write are just a tiny bit of the story. Take for instance the multiparter I'm writing at present, the only bits you'll find are in parts 3 and four. If someone is looking for one-handed fiction, I'm the wrong author.
Then I have mentions of General Patton and a volcano, plus have an earthquake(Just a 3.4) and car chase planned for upcoming parts 8 and 9. Maybe a few readers will get a rush from my main character driving her sports car very fast in order to avoid capture. You never know with TG fiction readers.
Einstein described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the result to change. Was Albert a reader of TG fiction then?
Daniel, author of maid, whore, bimbo, and sissy free TG fiction since 2000
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.- Oscar Levant
Nicely Said
Goldie,
I don't normally reply to entries on here, but after seeing your post today I couldn't not reply.
For me, as an author, sex is like any other aspect of life - it should be implied where appropriate, included where appropriate, described where appropriate, and left out entirely where appropriate.
I have to confess, I started my professional writing career writing pornographic stories for magazines and online publications. Writing erotica is an art and takes a great deal of skill. However, while sex does sell, sex is not necessary to sell a good story. Good writing sells itself, and an inappropriate and unnecessary sex scene only cheapens a good story.
When I started writing fiction online, a few years ago, I fell into the trap of writing sex scenes into my stories to encourage people to read them, but the only feedback I got back from those stories was about the sex, not about the story itself. In one of my most recent stories, Beloved, I wrote about a stalker who had been observing a woman who lived in the house behind him for years. It was a sexually charged story, but I didn't include any sex scenes (just implied scenes). And the feedback...all about the story, not the sex.
Don't avoid sex for the sake of it. Include it if the story requires it. But most certainly don't write sex for the sake of it. I admire you for taking a stand, and after reading your post I'm definitely going to make time to read your work.
Rob :)
My Site: http://rob.hub-writing.org/
Thanks Jill, Danielle, and Rob
Thanks for the comments you three.
Rob, just so you know, at the moment, I have the one story (The Greener Mile) on BCTS. I have one story on Stardust written last year. I have a small multi parter on the Whately Academy Forum in the FanFic channel but that is all I have posted. I have written under other names in the past but I won't even say who or what I have written because of the anonymity that I am striving for at the moment. Again, that is me. Thanks for your wonderful reply.
Goldie
Be careful
Just be careful not to paint the other side with as broad a brush as you feel was used on you. A story that includes sexual content can still build characters and plot. Not all sex scenes are porn. I've written a fair number of such scenes, and only a few of them were designed purely to titillate. When you're talking about someone whose gender is in question, it's relevant to consider what impact that has on his/her sex life. I agree that it's a legitimate decision for an author not to show it, but doesn't make a story smut if the author does show it.
And fortunately for the reader that doesn't want to see it, the stories here have ratings.
No, it doesn't...
But the line across which it becomes smutt is very fuzzy, and varries a LOT by reader. Personally, if a sex scene is in a story I'm reading, I'm most likely to jump forward to where it's over and continue reading. If I miss character building intended by the author, I miss it. My choice as the reader. If the story appears to be falling into one such episode after another, I give up.
As you say, the authors have every right to develop their stories how they see fit. Just like the readers have the choice to read or not to read. That's one of the things I like about this site.
Annette
P.S. if you ever see a heavy sex sceen in any of my writing, please call the authorities, cause I'll have gone round the bend. :-)
Rob's right
The most important factor in a story is whether the audience is interested in the characters. If they don't care about them, or are bored, it's death to the story. Readers know if a character is being forced to do something out of the ordinary, or is being led down sexual paths that have little or nothing to do with the plot, and they don't care for it. Some fetishists read for a particular type of sex, but if that sort of thing doesn't match the characters' normal actions given the circumstances, then that is the only type of reader you will reach.
There are plenty of romances with tension and little or no sex. "Pride and Prejudice" is a story where the protagonists barely touch each other, and yet is one of the greatest romances of all time. Rob is completely correct: use sex when it is appropriate to advance the story, don't use it when it does not.
Aardvark
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
Choosing good writing over explicit sex
So few X (or even R) rated stories are worthwhile reading that I don't even look at them any more. Not because I'm a prude, but because I want more to a story than just sex. Is it just me or are most of the stories on Crystal's story site and on fictionmania are just about sex?
Putting the XXX in X-Dressing
I've been know to have very explicit sex in a few of my tales. The ones with adults, anyhow. I enjoy a good one-handed story on occasion.
Some people read for character and plot, others want the graphic sex scenes. For myself, one day I may be in the mood for one, then later for the other. I do not think the two are mutually exclusive, but as others have stated in these comments, appropriateness should be the guiding factor.
Personally, I am glad for both types.
Edit: Forgot to add, that properly marking stories with extreme sexual content is key. I thin ka tale involving sex, told in somewhat broad strokes, needn't be XXX. Mature Reader or Restricted is appropriate for most glossed over sexual content.
Goldie, Just like my stories...
My stories that I'm writing for here (Tarja and 2 others soon to be posted) will have some love making, but mostly it might be discussed. My characters are teens and pre-teens, so eventhou people think that kids aren't sexual, they are, so they'll talk about it.
Another one I'm thinking of writing (a family moving to a home on a lake - with a pre-teen boy who is intersexed, meeting their neighbors - 1 family has a girl is wants to be a boy - and another who has a boy who wants to be a girl. The girl (who wants to be a boy) will have some language issues (she could make a sailor blush), but also, going to be about theinteraction of the local community - a small town.
TGSine --
TGSine --958
Resistance is futile!