DO NOT;
Write scenes
Write a story which has no build-up
Make the characters perfect sexual beings
Thanks for replying, Scott.
Keep them coming.
Don't describe characters with numbers (height and weight). Somebody wrote that on here recently, and it made a lot of sense. One member posted that it's tantamount to police blotter!
Don't rush. This is a given, but the most revered stories are written by patient writers that treat their stories as sacred pieces of literature. While I'm a hypocrite because I'm rather irresponsible and lazy at times when it comes to proofreading, the best gift that a writer can give his/her readers -- asides from a deep, hot, passionate story -- is a complete story with perfect (at the very least damn near perfect) grammar. The best gift (or, rather, a compliment) a reader can give the writer is their attention and time spent reading the writer's work.
Sex is a part of the story as a whole, but it shouldn't be the only makeup of the story, because the actual sex being written about can get a little, I don't know, tiresome to read after a while. A blowjob here, a bit of pussylicking there, penetration, cumshot. . . OK? The thing is, the story can and will add a deeper, hotter element to the sex scenes a writer paints.
This might just be my preference, but don't veer towards the outlandish because you think it will make the story hotter or more exciting.
eg. don't write about going to your corporate summer picnic and then spontaneously fucking your entire family on a gingham blanket in front of your boss and coworkers while they cheer you on and then having him slap you on the back at the end of it saying 'you 'ole dog, you!' and giving you a hearty raise for being such an insatiable pervert.
Try to make the story at least be *somewhat* realistic, and keep the surprise-points to something that you can manageably sell as a writer and make the reader believe in.
Also - beware of adding too many sex partners in a single scene. Gangbangs and orgies may be hot, but you definitely need skill when writing about these because multiple sex partners can easily end up becoming a confusing disarray of dick/pussy and flailing body limbs. You need "control" as a writer in order to paint the picture effectively, so don't bite off more than you can chew because you think it will make the story more exciting to include more people into the sex scenes.
This is an awesome question. I definitely agree with DD and scott, make your story realistic and don't make your characters perfect (although, if you don't see anything wrong with a character and idealize them, you want to do that from a first-person perspective, because it speaks to the psychosexual nature of the writer, rather than being expressed as factual information).
Well-developed characters have "ticks", or characteristics unique to them, and leave readers with a sense of camaraderie and relation. "Word painting" is great when used to assist the reader in visualizing the scenario, but it's easy to overdo it and end up confusing your reader.
Some writers write as they speak. Unless it is meant to be a quirky first-person narration (think: Catcher in the Rye), DON'T DO IT. If I'm reading "seen" when it should be "saw" and every verb is preceded by "had" (had become, had wanted, had zipped), I can't take that story seriously, and I'll stop reading it.
The final one (and we all are guilty of having a typo our two) is: don't trust Word to find, or even correct, all your grammar and spelling mistakes. Overall, if you want to be taken seriously as a writer, you need to know how to spell and form a sentence. However, sometimes truly proper grammar detracts from the feel and flow of the story i.e.: "a man I was sorry to be with", while grammatically incorrect, flows better than, "a man with whom being made me feel sorrowful."
We also tend to rely on Word to automatically adjust our sentences when we quickly change wording. Hence, lots of small words like "the", "she","it" are either incorrectly left in or out, rendering our sentences flawed. Slowly reading your story out loud can help in identifying most wording errors in general, and especially in cases such as this.
(As an aside, I wrote this on my android and had to edit this post three times because I found either wording that was confusing or that my phone incorrectly auto-predicted. Everyone needs to proof-read. Always.)
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I'm a loner, Dottie. A Rebel...
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Do not have unrealistic cardboard-cutout, stereotype characters doing cliched stereotype things.
Do not have all women sporting 38 DD breasts and all men have 9" cocks or larger
While you may have "lust at first sight" situations, do not have characters who just say "Hi", peel off their clothes and start fucking
Do not have sex scenes that are mostly filled with characters going "Ohhhh!" "Ahhhh" "I'm cumming!"
Do not have all sex scenes in the bedroom
Do not have virgin characters who suddenly become experts at every sexual activity
Do not write anything besides what you really enjoy reading or writing. Don't write for any other reason besides what you think will be the best thing you can write at the moment. Even if you do just want feedback, or it gets you off to have other people read dirty stuff, or whatever real reason you write. When you actually sit to write don't get distracted by what you feel your readers are going to think or want to read so that your story flows out of you unfiltered almost. Don't forget to give your characters a little bit of personality too, even if it's one demential. Any personality is better than nothing.
Try not to be too repetitive, using the exact same words over and over is tiring to the reader and ultimately cause them to start to skim read...
Be careful of your tenses, don't start in the past tense and then slip into the present, I know that makes me think that the writer just isn't paying attention.
When you're writing the saucy bits, it's easy to get excited and make mistakes. Take your time!!
Also, once you've finished your story, leave it for a while, come back to it and read it with "fresh" eyes, better still, have a trusted friend read it over for you. It's so easy to miss basic errors.
Above all, write for yourself, enjoy it and learn from constructive criticism...
Just two additions to this excellent series of advice replies:
Names: Do not have names which are too close for comfort (e.g Allison, Angela, and Andrea). Remember that you know all these people very well; they have been in your mind for months, or even years. The reader is meeting them for the first (and sometimes only) time. I make it a rule, whenever I can, to keep names as separate as they can be, preferably only one name with each initial letter (only one Axxx, one Bxxx, etc.) Also I would never use a name which can be confused with a status or position, for example, in a mediaeval romance I would never have a Mr. Lord, nor would I ever have a cleric whose title is Reverend and whose surname is Bishop, in the military I would not have a Lieutenant Driver. I have collected lists from Internet “baby names” sites and before I start a book I make a list of names for characters in the book, many of which have no assigned character at that stage. After I finish a book I usually have a lot of names left over, but that doesn’t matter – there will always be more needed in the next book.
Crowds: Perhaps allied to the last comment, do not have too many main characters in your story. Readers find it difficult on first reading to distinguish who is what if there are more than about five main characters in a story. If a reader starts to feel confused as the story progresses it is likely that (s)he will just hit the [BACK] button, and possibly remember your name and not start your next story.
DO NOT leave out the juicy details because it is what make your story delicious! Use your five senses!
Make your characters as real as possible. Let the reader know how they feel, what they like or don't like. Evolve them as emotional beings the the reader can connect with.
Don't be mechanical. Erotica isn't clinical, it's fantasy. Use language to envelope the reader in the mood of the work. If they are cold, tells us how the cold feels. If they are hot, tell them how that feels.
If you can describe a small drop of moisture as it runs into a womens cleavage or the feel of a mans heartbeat as she touches his chest, then you may be able to write erotica.
It's been said already but don't try to describe the perfect body and don't use numerical measurments. Be as general as possible while giving the reader a template for their imagination to fill in. Hair color, eye color are fine but leave as much as possible as inferred. The reader will fill in the blanks with their own vision of beauty.
Do NOT forget to spell-check and painstakingly proofread your story -- or have someone else do so.
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