If you are interested in writing erotica, learn how to do it here: Keeping Writing Sexy
This document is the product of many, many hours of learning to write. Then a lot of hours of condensing what I know about erotica.
A lot of time went into professional formatting. Heartfelt thanks to my wife for the help.
I could have put it behind a paywall. In fact, I probably *should* have.
But it is *free*, because I don't believe the ones that need this the most are better off than me economically. If you read this guide, and you find yourself writing something better than you otherwise would have, consider leaving a small donation through PayPal at gatekeeper840@gmail.com.
Some among you might get deja vu. Years back, I've posted a quite similar document, with a lot of the same ideas, but suffering from a few issues. Vanity, sporadic disorder, and superficial brevity. Now, instead of just casually stating my opinions on a range of topics, *this* text instead focuses whole-heartedly on the practical application of the ideas when you sit down to flesh out a story. There are still many opinions in the mix, but hopefully, they seem justified.
I'm immensely proud of the result. I'm convinced that every single aspiring writer among you will find at least one part useful. And if you're not a writer, you might still learn something.
Neat!!! I have to actually read it through beyond the first page (which I haven't had the time yet) buuuut I really like this - especially the illustrations!!!
Neat!!! I have to actually read it through beyond the first page (which I haven't had the time yet)
This has a lot of solid advice. I've seen some of it before, but only because I went out of my way to read about this stuff years ago. But reminders never hurt. I'm about 19 pages in as far. I'll probably read more of it later.
This has a lot of solid advice. I've seen some of it before, but only because I went out of my way t
The advice about letting the dialog do the heavy lifting was particularly helpful. When you started describing the how you're tempted to add "said" with everything and then replace them with similar words I was thinking "That's exactly what I've been doing!"
The advice about letting the dialog do the heavy lifting was particularly helpful. When you started
Thank you very much for writing something so insightful and sharing it with everyone! I've always wanted to write but could never muster up the courage to, but I've commissioned many different authors and a lot of them could use your advice.
Everything you wrote about "ethos" was very perceptive! Even simple things like "The cheapest way to earn ethos is by good formatting and grammar" is especially good advice that a surprising number of people don't follow even when trying to sell their writing online. Also, "Good prose annoys the reader as little as possible" is a hilariously great way to phrase a very good point. Similarly, "show, don't tell" is one of the oldest adages in writing and even other creative mediums so it's surprising how often people don't seem to understand it, thus it's great that you emphasized it here.
On that note, it's good that you included examples to demonstrate your point there as well. Likewise with how well you did the examples when discussing creative descriptions, though it's good that you warned against excessive purple prose in the next section because that can also be a downfall for writers (albeit much less often than just not being creative enough). It's impressive you have such a talent for both art and writing!
In all honesty, up to your partial conclusion it feels like this doesn't need to be about erotic writing at all but instead is just good advice for writing in general!
Will try to comment on the other parts and the story you linked to recently when I can. If you open for commissions again I'd be interested, for either art or writing. In any case, thanks again for sharing your work with everyone!
Thank you very much for writing something so insightful and sharing it with everyone! I've always wa
Thanks a bunch for the kind and attentive response.
Starting to write on your own can be quite stressful , but if you pick the right project, it might be a lot of fun.
The "rules of thumb" are indeed not particularly aimed at erotica, though still perfectly applicable. The section's purpose in the "narrative" of the document is however indispensable. The second half of the guide could be (and has previously been) a subject of some controversy. I am "just" some random artist on the internet spewing opinions on the "nature of sexuality". So to avoid the knee-jerk reflex a reader might have of thinking "how dare you box in my sexual interests?", I have abided to rule #2. The whole first part hopefully manages to establish some amount of ethos, before the sensitive topics.
"The Cream of the Crop" is a story shaped with acute awareness of the topics in the guide (Scarcity and Corruption in particular). Reading them in conjunction could be a fun exercise.
I am not sure how I would go about taking commissions for written work, but it won't be long before I open art commissions (I should hope).
Thanks a bunch for the kind and attentive response. Starting to write on your own can be quite stre
Now that I read more of it (and skimped over the rest to not make a fool of myself) I'd like to add a few lines of my own:
Written work has exactly one advantage over all visual forms of media, be it images, animations, video, even theater or movie. In neither of these forms of art can you look into peoples head. Actors work hard to portray emotions believable, while also acting believable. Artists work their ass of to get the face expressions just right to imply what is going on in the characters head, and yet these impressions are superficial and subject to a lot - A LOT of interpretation on the watchers side. In porn, sometimes its unclear if she cries out in orgasmic bliss, pain, or if its a involuntary rape scene. Of course this can be used by the artist to remain deliberately vague and/or attract audience that prefer it either way (after all, people tend to interpret things the way THEY want) but in general this is a big shortcoming of the visual art.
Only in written works can we have a glance into the characters head. His/her thoughts, her emotions, memories, feelings, to a degree and immersion that allows the reader to experience a scene from a perspective completely unknown and different from their own.
No visual work can portray to a male observer what a girl feels and how she experiences her first sex in depth - or the other way around. You can draw hints of fear, uncertainty, combined with arousal and expectation, and a bit of pain into the characters facial expression, but the artist will soon struggle to combine so many conflicting things and make them still decypherable by the watcher.
But in written work, the reader can become the character and experience it ALL. The anciety, the bliss, the overwhelming physicality - exactly and perfectly like this character experiences it.
If, and only if, the writer is aware of that and writes it in a way that allows this immersion.
If a writer masters this, then it becomes possible to immerse readers into kinks they aren't even into, and make them like it, because they experience the fetish from the perspective of the character, which makes it believable and immersive. I have been repeatedly told by readers of my stories. "I am not into X, I normally don't like X, but this was really hot!!!" -- high praise, which always sends a smile on my face, especially when the story dealt with the more outrageous fetishes - ranging from vore and gore to even scat. The latter is not my favorite, but I can easily write about a character who's into it, and take the reader along into the realms of forbidden pleasures.
Any picture of such a fetish the watcher doesn't share is more likely than not going to gross them out. But in written works, you can completely override the mindscape of the reader and replace it with the mindscape of the character, for the duration of the story. And then ANYTHING is possible.
wrote repeatedly, avoid the physicalities beyond the necessary.
If its a transformation scene, where a character's body is reshaped completely, a little bit of physicality is needed to paint the right picture in the readers mind, but less IS always more. Readers do have vivid imagination, inspire it, don't strangle it to death by giving the reader every tiny little detail as if you were writing a biology report.
Instead, focus on what no picture can show, but the reader desperately wants to know, the characters impressions, feelings, emotions.
Even there, though, its better to imply. "She smelled of roses, and she dug her claws into his buttocks" -- superficial. "A whiff of her scent reminded him of the rose bush in mothers backyard. Beautiful yet thorny, just like the sensation of her claws, ever so slightly piercing his butt." -- now here you have an association he has with her based on her scent and the sensation, that gives a much deeper insight into his thought-space. Yes it can be a few words more, so don't overdo that.
Now that I read more of it (and skimped over the rest to not make a fool of myself) I'd like to add
But if you add this line, if he calls her later "his little rose" a completely different association. It's no longer associated to her scent of roses, but to the mix of memories and emotion he felt while they had sex. Both for the character AND the reader.
Now adding this thought-space into the story often adds words and slows down the pacing, so this needs to be kept in check. The reader doesn't need to know every single impression, memory or sensation of every character.
I typically only let the reader into the mind of one main character. Sometimes two for contrast, but a lot of fun can be had with the reader being just as uncertain about the mindscape of another character as the main character is. The anxiety if she is attracted to him as much as he is to her, is much more believable if the reader knows his worries but not hers ;)
But even there, keep it in check. Less is more. Inform the reader about the part of the mindscape they must know to be taken along, and have them imagine the rest. The better the reader learns to know the character, the more they are immersed, in fact less they need to be told.
And last but not least there's pacing. A story that is too detailed on emotions, scene details, the scent of every flower, every thought, every associated memory, doesn't move forward. You can spend pages over pages on the same moment. And most moments don't deserve that.
Too little on the other hand, and the story can progress too fast, not letting the reader enough time to fully visualize the scene in their head before there's already the next.
So pacing is really important in porn, and sadly I cannot tell you whats the best speed for a dramatic arc. I go by gut feeling. The speed of things going along should feel natural, as if you were there and experiencing it. I try to be consistent in pacing, with some variations. Maybe draw out the foreplay a bit to get both the characters - and the reader - really worked up about the impending climax. But not tooo long, don't want to be a tease ;)
Some stories I read have a tendency to be too short-paced after the story climax. I think a story should have some chance to wind down.
Following that, a story should probably start slow and detail rich to get the reader immersed in the character(s) (but fast enough so they don't lose interest. We are living in the time of short attention spans, so something interesting must happen quick, maybe some foreshadowing of the main kink ;) ) - then when the reader IS immersed, we can speed up and progress the story to the interesting parts. Get the reader into the fetish along the way, so they can enjoy it with the character, then endulge for the main course with a nice detailed firework display of everything. Then maybe a second course and a third - sex can have multiple climaxes, so can the story, if you so decide and it fits the narrative. After the climax you can speed up a bit again to not drag it out too much to get to a nice finale/ending. Here it depends on the story and authors choices (and the fetish). A cliffhanger or a nice wind down? Or a fatal, harsh and sudden end?
Up to you. (A snuff story might have the climax AS its finale)
But if you add this line, if he calls her later "his little rose" a completely different association
Thank you kindly for the comments and for the shoutout as well.
It's great to see that my work gets the thoughts of others rolling. The whole "written work does the vicarious experience best" is one of the few aspects elaborated more in the previous version of this document. It was sadly a thing that I refrained from delving into for fear of the already long document getting longer.
I would whole-heartedly suggest putting together a guide (or just notes) on your own. Putting together educational work on my own has "forced" me into making concrete ideas that I was only vaguely aware that I was following before-hand. Only afterwards I felt I was wholly faithful to the practices that a guide might imply I had "always followed".
Thank you kindly for the comments and for the shoutout as well. It's great to see that my work gets
very good advise. I think I'll do that. I dimly remember we had a discussion about writing techniques after your first such "tutorial", but perspective, knowledge and insight changes (and sometimes improves ;) )
I think "how to write a good story" in general and "how to write good porn" in particular can probably be broken down to just a hand full of main axioms from which all other rules automatically follow naturally.
Rule one, a story must be engaging --- this urge to always read another line, part curiosity and addiction -- from which we can deduce how a story must be written to both keep the reader always curious and also keep him "fixed" with a steady dose of his favorite mental drug (in the case of porn that's pretty easy)
Rule two... do we even need a rule two or can we get to every single advice just from that single paradigm above? ;) maybe something about how the reader feels AFTER they finished the story. Although that's up to debate and there seems to be multiple approaches to that. You can leave a reader hanging in a cliffhanger, yearning for more, almost frustrated that it ends. you can leave them in emotional tormoil after a very cruel dramatic ending... you can let them feel satisfied with a wholesome happy end... and there's good reason and examples for each (even in porn) so maybe we don't need a rule #2
very good advise. I think I'll do that. I dimly remember we had a discussion about writing technique
While the sentiment of looking for an "all-encompassing" rule is tempting (and something my teenage self systematically broke his brain over), there is a good reason for letting guides grow to the length of an argumentative dissertation. People might formally agree with such a rule, but they are there to learn, looking for tools to use practically. Refer to rule #9 (to keep tooting my horn); you will need to answer the question "how specifically do I make a story *engaging* in this and this context". We quickly reach an impasse, when it turns out the same story is engaging to one reader, but boring to another. Maybe select parts of the story seem to more often "impress everyone". Alright then, so what qualities are semi-objectively good? Writers have decided that "show don't tell" and "less is more" are good subdivisions of "make your text engaging".
But both have become clichés in themselves, almost meaningless at a superficial level.
What words produce the effect of "showing"? What things are annoying to be "told"? What specifically do we need "less" of, for the rest to be "more"?
Answering such questions brings us to lists of "rules" that I guarantee you are not exhausted, and even if they were, one is allowed to reinvent art.
I guess I'm saying, don't stop at one rule. In fact, if you have the patience, go through each paragraph of a text you wrote and finish the sentence "here I did ___ because of _____"
While the sentiment of looking for an "all-encompassing" rule is tempting (and something my teenage
Yes, obviously a single rule is useless as writing guideline. You could simply have a rule "write good stories" - which is pointless if you don't know how (especially since "good" is hilariously badly defined) so to be of any value you have to do some vivisection of that rule into all of its constituents and investigate every single aspect in detail, at which point the "guideline" becomes similarly long as yours. Its merely a mental exercise to derive - respectively justify and reconstruct "all other rules". If the overarching rule is "the story needs to be engaging" then you can derive "you need to advance the story not too slow" because if its too slow the story becomes boring, the reader loses interest, and its no longer engaging. so a lot of pacing advise follows naturally from that "prime directive" with a bit of thinking - but so do the exceptions. you can break any rule as long as the story remains engaging. and you can test any suggestion or literary technique with "does this make the story more engaging" - if yes, then go for it, if no, its probably bad advise. In the end no one single aspect of how to write good can make a good story. On the contrary if you overdo things, the result is often bad and less is more. so the trick is having the right mix. (a bit like when cooking food. you need salt. don't put too much salt. a bit of chili spices things up, too much makes it inedible. but there's no one perfect amount of salt or spiciness for every food, on the contrary, its always the balanced mix of things that make a great dish) so we need also rules for "what makes a good mix" - or at least a test. in the simplest case, reading your own story start to finish is a good test for how engaging it is, but it takes experience (or outside help) to spot what can/should be improved ;)
Yes, obviously a single rule is useless as writing guideline. You could simply have a rule "write go
"Flesh" out. Snnrk, Me, I usually "meat" out my stories, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
(Just being facetious. I didn't read the document yet, too busy earning money to commission Meowmere and writing cannibal porn on the side. But I'm planning to).
"Flesh" out. Snnrk, Me, I usually "meat" out my stories, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
I just wish readers existed so I could get feedback. Maybe I should try posting that cannibal porn somewhere.
Anyway, I have just read the first chapter, and a lot of it is things I believe I'm already doing. But it is nice having it all in one place! My main bugbear is elegant variation as they call it. I feel like a sinner if I use the same word for the same thing twice in a story, or even for different things on the same page. Apart from that, I spend most of my writing time rephrasing things to be shorter.
On the erotic side, I think I need to relax a little about who uses which hand to do what to which of the other's bits. If they clearly wouldn't be able to use the knife like that while fucking doggy style, they probably used another hand. But I'm also writing the storyboard for the movie I want to play in my head, and in movies you do see which hand does what.
I just wish readers existed so I could get feedback. Maybe I should try posting that cannibal porn s
I'd have included a section on "when repetition is good"; if it wasn't just so hard to answer. The rule is something stupid like: you can repeat yourself when it seems like you're trying for rhythm, but not when it seems like you're running out of vocabulary.
Different words have different thresholds for triggering either of those two effects. I have found no easy rule of thumb there. It might be the threshold is somewhat proportional to how uncommon the word is. "Said" is about as invisible to the reader as "The". "Anthropomorphize" will elicit a reaction with a single repetition.
I'll stand firm on the belief that it's poor practice to come up with 50 different words for "penis".
In regards to "which hand does what", you're feeling the urges of a control freak. You must let go and let the audience direct the movie you've written the storyboard for.
I'd have included a section on "when repetition is good"; if it wasn't just so hard to answer. The r
Being a control freak is a survival skill. They pay me to make sure the servers do what they are supposed to, but the servers are terribly clever about interpreting your instructions in ways you didn't intend.
That aside, I suspect I have a very low threshold for the repetition thing when I edit my prose. Yeah, determiners and forms of to be get a free pass and I try to keep the coreferents of the POV character's cock to a decent handful, because that way lies perdition as well.
Personally, I don't think I'll use it, but applause *he gives a standing ovation* for making it available for free - you are an oasis among crayfish "patronite, subscribers, and a few others like that". One thing you can save as a benefit right now - you can consider yourself a link to some literary test. It may not be a measurable benefit, but it is valuable.
Personally, I don't think I'll use it, but applause *he gives a standing ovation* for making it ava
I can't exactly fault artists for monetizing their work, but I'm simply not popular enough to monetize an academic document. It would be quite the surrealistic experience to have someone once cite the work in a school paper, or some such.
I can't exactly fault artists for monetizing their work, but I'm simply not popular enough to moneti
I've wanting to write stories to post on here, but between a lack of self-confidence and not having the time/attention span to commit to anything more than a few paragraphs, I haven't been able to. This should solve at least one of my problems!
I've wanting to write stories to post on here, but between a lack of self-confidence and not having
