I realize that most of the stories I write because I have an idea that interests me. Its not just to get off, its also to explore a theme or concept, and the fictional worlds of these stories give me a way to do that.
I bring this up because I’m writing the 4th chapter of my new series and I realized that I effectively have the main character thinking about the thesis statement of the series. This led me to question if I was being a bit too blatant and forward. Surely I should use some subtlety. But then, it’s a porn story, does subtlety work?
I guess my question to readers and writers out there is this: How much do you like major thematic elements or interesting plots in your stories? Only to support the porn? Do certain stories make you think about things in the real world more deeply? Or does that sort of stuff get in the way of your enjoyment of a story?
I’m biased because my porn is of the variety that “investigates serious themes”, but because of the (often claimed) contradiction between smut and “serious literature”, I think about this a lot.
Something I often do is make an analogy between smut and action scenes, or smut and magic in a fantasy book. I say that people read fantasy books as much for the story as for the magic—if it was just for the story, they wouldn’t care whether they were reading fantasy or any other genre, but if they just wanted magic, perhaps they would be consuming it that as part of some other medium. A story can, even must, contain both the elements of a good story and the ‘furnishings’ of the genre, like magic.
But smut is a different kind of ‘furnishing’ because the enjoyment of smut often goes beyond the imagination. It requires (to an extent) self-stimulation, it requires horniness, in a way action and magic do not. When you whip someone back and forth between ‘furnishings’ that require self-stimulation to enjoy and the elements of a good story, do you frustrate them?
My main method of dealing with this is maintaining homoeroticism throughout the entire contents of a story, even when we’re going deep into important themes, and make sure that ‘detailed smut’ is telegraphed and followed through on. Couldn’t tell you for sure if it works though!
Piggy backing on what Soren said, do your readers want to be frustrated and teased?
I think Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is terrible and I don’t want to watch the whole thing ever again. But I think the light saber duel at the end is the best ever, because it’s cut up with scenes showing the other battles happening. I don’t care about the other battles, but they drag the duel out and tease the user perfectly, IMO. Ideally all scenes would be great, but in that case, the existence of alternating scenes is what’s really effect to add tension and anticipation.
Thank you both for your input. @Soren_Fitz , you reminded me of the quote: “Everything is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power.” Which could honestly be the slogan for GKS.
I have more thoughts on this, but I think I need to percolate on them a little longer.
As a writer, I tend to think of myself as a storyteller. My stories feature sex scenes, but they serve the plot, not the other way around. And as a reader, I dont even bother delving into things that read as porn. I have nothing against it, but i need more.
The first one for me seems to be the wrong way, because: A oorn scene is nothing else to desrcibe the penetration of a hole with less or more words.
In my stories, and those I like to read, there is the setting or “plot” the difference. So the reader can understand the feelings, fears or sensation the character has. Dive deep into the story. Yes the porn part is still there, but the sensation for a reader is (thats my idea) to get a bit of involved.
I don’t comment here often but this discussion I connect with.
I see plot as the major driving part of a story.
Without porn you still can have a good enjoyable story if the plot is good. Without plot and only porn, no matter how good you just have and Person A doing Person B which might be fun the first time but once you’ve read one you’ve read them all.
It’s the plot that makes them different and interesting and allows you to care or want to read the porn which often isn’t that different than a dozen other stories.
It’s the plot that makes you pick one story or another. At least for me.
I think I mostly consider the sex in stories as a substitute for other action. So not sex instead of plot, but sex instead of a shootout, or sex instead of two armies battling.
The key tenants of any story are still relevant: plot, characters, world-building, theme, tone, etc. And these are the things that inspire me to write, not the sex scenes. I have considered writing other non-smut fiction, but all the plots and themes I’m interested in seem to revolve around sex, and smut seems to be the best venue to explore them.
However, smut stories do feel constrained in ways other stories don’t. I feel like I need a sexy (even if not explicitly sex) scene in every chapter. If you were writing a sci-fi story, you wouldn’t need a new weird alien or technobabble every chapter.
You also have concerns about audience “attention” spans, in that if you think someone is reading your stories to jerk-off, there is a very fine line. You want to tease but not “climax” (wink wink) until the appropriate time. Long stretches of un-sexy can lose the audience. But then you also don’t want too much info/plot after the climax of each chapter, because the audience is sated and ready to move on.
Or maybe I’m overly concerned with how my audience is reacting and I just need to write what I want.
I don’t remember who said it… but a reader once told me that they wanted basically the same story over and over, but with a new enough plot that it felt fresh. Same kinks, same basic structure, but new characters and conflict to keep it interesting.
If I didn’t care about plot, I’d have exactly one story saved on my phone and I’d just get off to it over and over.
Just to add a bit here, in this context plot and porn aren’t entirely distinct. Or shouldn’t be necessarily.
The action is in itself a plot device, not just a sex scene, but the method by which a characters reactions and motivations are expressed. Which is particularly important in a genre in which the character’s reactions and desires are often changed and modified as part of the plot.
A very interesting question. For me, porn is boring without context or characterisation. It’s why most porn movies are mostly all the same as each other. Watching meat sliding in and out of a hole is just like seeing a machine working unless the faces are visible. In the same way, literature involving sex has to flesh out that sex with more if it is to be memorable. Let’s face it, there are limited possiblities available when it comes to writing about sex. It’s all much of a muchness. What really makes a story are the plot, motivations and relationship circumstances of those involved. I cannot start to write a story before I’ve thought of an idea, which usually has nothing to do with sex per se. I get more light bulbs and scrolls for my work than leaking penises, and that’s probably why! LOL.
Oh I agree, the context and characterisation is very important. And I would say in the written medium, the equivalent of showing the characters faces is their reactions, or their thoughts.
Far more interesting than reading about meat sliding into a hole, is reading about a character feeling the other man’s meat sliding into his hole, and how amazing it’s feeling to be stuffed and filled, and why had he not been doing this forever and so on.
It’s only gratuitous if it serves no purpose, and if the purpose of the story is to show a man’s gay conversion and awakening, then the sex, and his reactions and realisations during it, is definitely both plot and porn.
I feel like a well-written, appropriate-paced plot can only serve to make the sex scene that much better - after all, you need to eat your main course before dessert.
Now, I think all things should be taken in balance - sometimes I like long tales of chivalry and romance, but sometimes I just want the reader’s equivalent to porn, “Here’s a hot dude. Here’s another hot dude. Let’s fuck!”
At least for me, I don’t think I can even enjoy the porn if there’s not a plot. I just think too much about what’s going on in the story and if the story isn’t strong enough to get me invested in the characters, I struggle to get any enjoyment out of it, sexual or otherwise. You can describe a guy to be my perfect type, but if you don’t have me get invested in him in any way, I’m not going to enjoy it. On the flipside, you could make a guy I’d normally have no interest in, but because you wrote a great plot, I’m finding the story unbelievably hot.
I think there are only so many ways you can read about guys fucking before it becomes sort of mechanical. Hotness and Wanking are only 2 of the categories.
There are people that read stories, and those that read smut. Some of the best stories i’ve read on the site have almost no real porn in them at all.
Some of my favourites are actually tagged “no sex”. Hot porn is good and all, but a good plot? Drama? Characters you get invested in? That’s the good stuff.
