Tips to Write Erotica & get Readers
Summary:
Thoughts on writing, and how to attract readers.
Thanks to
Tex Beethoven
for editing this work.
Tips to Write Erotica & get Readers
A query I often receive is how to write erotica. Now although I have written over 650 stories (including chapters to stories of course), I am not pretending to be an expert. Truth be told, I do this mostly for my own enjoyment, and when I try to write for other people, I often fail... with that said, sometimes being challenged forces me into doing some of my best work (see
Fate of the Fishbowl
for my highest rated story score, after receiving very humdrum analyses of this work... as I attempted to write an erotic lesbian love story... which I believe I succeeded in doing).
So without further ado, here are some suggestions based on my 12-plus years of writing and posting erotica on the Literotica website.
ONE: WRITE WHAT TURNS YOU ON
This point likely seems obvious, yet I find the stories I like the most are the ones based on my own fantasies. For me, that includes stockings of all kinds of course, but also themes that are taboo... although most of them aren't things I would actually do.
My favourite fantasies are things I did in the past that I fondly recall while my vibrator is teasing me, and I write about them the most.
Being seduced by a younger woman, having an interracial affair, a sexy trans person, a forbidden affair, a wild orgy, incestuous taboo playing, straight men discovering they aren't so straight... these are all subjects that turn me on. So the majority of my stories include one or more of those themes.
On the other hand, you won't find any science fiction stories or historical erotica in my writing... as these themes don't really do much for me, and I don't read about them in real life.
On that note, if you're writing for the first time... a good rule of thumb is whatever kind of erotica you read the most is what you will write about the most effectively ... since those are likely your fantasies (even if sometimes you don't realize it yet).
As you evolve as a writer, you can explore other themes... categories... write from different points of view... stretch your boundaries... but when you start, keep it simple.
TWO: CHARACTERIZATION
Truth be told, I am often criticized (sometimes justifiably so) for writing characters that submit too quickly, so they're not believable (a fair assessment, if not always true in my opinion, as I think all people (both men and women) are capable of doing almost anything sexual if they're given the opportunity, freedom and time to explore their many complex sexual identities... none of us are as straitlaced as we appear to others).
Anyway, I believe the main reason people read my stories is because they see themselves in one or more of the characters. And I'm not just assuming that... it is based on over a decade of receiving and digesting feedback and emails. Just to give you an idea... I receive an average of 10-15 emails a day. I can get double that on the day of a new release, and triple if it's an incest story. So I'm a long way from needing to hire someone to run my mail room, but over the course of more than a decade, it's added up.
Now people generally read erotica to get off... but they also read erotica to explore fantasies they often can't act out in real life. Unlike in porn movies, gangbangs and orgies are pretty rare (I'm in my late forties, and have yet to see one of those in real life... although I did walk in on a threesome during a party decades ago), but that doesn't mean that many women don't secretly get turned on by the idea of having two men inside them at once. Again, people are never what they seem on the outside. Everyone has fantasies... everyone contemplates sexual practices they wish they could try... and part of an author's job is to create a safe imaginary location for the reader to do just that.
So... creating characters is the most important part of crafting a story.
Readers need to like the characters... or perhaps they need to hate them... but in any case, they need to feel
something
for them.
They often need to see themselves as one of the characters, or maybe see someone they know.
For example, I have learned from research and writing that MANY men, especially in their thirties or maybe later, experience a sexual awakening... a new curiosity... to suck cock... or sometimes to get fucked. This probably doesn't make them gay... but once the idea is formed, it doesn't go away. Many of my stories feature straight men who accidentally discover the joys of cock. From
Black Cock: 1 Day Changes Everything
(which ended up becoming a series), to
Black Dominance
(which also became a series... one I hope to go back to),
HypnoSissy
(which became a massive series that I'll certainly revisit) to the recent
Freeuse Faggot
, I've gotten a ton of emails and comments from men saying they wish they were the one being used... again, readers living out fantasies and curiosities through fictional stories.
And women too have complex fantasies, and behind the surface of paying lip service to today's standards, are hordes of women dying to explore their own deeply held fantasies. These could be pegging a man, exploring some same sex encounters, perhaps a May-December romance, or (in my own case) sexual submission. Many women see themselves as the submissive who wants a strong man to take her and just fuck her hard for a long night... or to be taken by a younger girl and treated as a lesbian sex slave. These women (and I include myself in this description) are required to be a certain person all day, and when they get home, they want a chance to switch off their work persona and just be taken care of... or maybe to take care of someone else.
Now I don't want to stereotype (although erotica is often about doing just that), since not all women are submissive. Sometimes a woman sees herself as the seductress... the Mistress... the dominant.
For example, if you have read my
Accidental Gangbang
series, especially the first part (a story about a bride-to-be who stumbles into getting anonymously gangbanged by almost everyone at her fiancé's bachelor party, which has become shockingly popular over the years), you might realize that you're one of many women with a secret desire to take part in such a scenario. To be able to shed the expectations of society, to break free from the conservative role you were taught to play, and instead, just to let loose. Conversely, many men also imagine taking part in a gangbang, but in the other role. One thing that makes this particular story interesting is its stats and their paradoxical nature.
This is my second most favourited story (behind only
Backseat Mommy
), with over 3300 readers saving it in their favourites. It is also third in number of reads of all my stories with almost 2.6 million reads (behind
Backseat Mommy
and
Pet Mommy
). Yet with only a 4.47 score, it is one of my lowest scoring stories, and definitely
the
lowest of my most popular stories.
The point being that as a writer you will create characters that people relate to... but that will often lead to some people disliking that same character. For every two or three comments saying they loved the story, there was someone who said she was a cheating slut, and the wedding should have been cancelled. The reality is you can't please everyone, so go ahead and please yourself (and yes, I'm aware of the double meaning).
So as usual, although it was long-winded, my point is hopefully clear: I encourage you to create characters with personality... characters who are likeable... or the opposite... characters who could be living and breathing and walking past you in the grocery store.
This is why readers ask for sequels to certain stories: they've become attached to the characters. Although they come to the website for sex stories, they return to certain stories again and again because they like the characters.
THREE: WANT LOTS OF READS? WRITE ABOUT INCEST
If you look at the majority of my top stories and the top stories of all time (by any authors) by reads (not by scores... that's an entirely different conversation for later), they tend to be about incest.
Why?
It's considered extremely taboo.
Why?
People like to fantasize about something they would never do in real life.
Perhaps there is something to the Oedipus theory, or maybe Freud was partly right in his psychology... but the average incest story gets WAY more reads than stories in almost every other category (such as the odd group, wife or illustrated story... although illustrated stats are deceiving, because I believe a lot of people just flip through the pictures, and don't actually read the stories).
In case you want to dig deeper, there are ways to garner even more reads in this category.
Keeping in mind that men read more erotica than women (although that gap has been narrowing over the years, since the stigma against porn and erotica is diminishing as society evolves), there is a clear order to which categories of incest stories are read the most.
First, mom and son. This by far is the most common. Quite a few of my most popular stories (according to number of reads and comments) are mom and son stories:
Backseat Mommy
and
