Tips to Write Erotica & Get Readers

I am thinking of trying my hand at writing erotica and your advice is inspiring and, I think, will be very helpful.

Thanks - very helpful and easy to read advice. I'm contemplating my first story - a bit of therapy for a frustrated old git! (might be my nom de plume perhaps?) I'll read more of your writing now! ...... and then re-read your how to advice before I finish my attempt.

Surely I'm not the only person for whom aunt/nephew stories - especially with groups of aunts - are a major turn-on.

"BONUS NOTE (SINCE I DON'T LIKE ODD NUMBERS)"

But isn't that the twenty-first note?

Thank you, Jasmine. Your advice is timely and well-told.

I have trouble finding an editor, expecting one to fall out of the sky, somehow. When I've had a piece pass through the eyes and brain of an editor, it invariably got better. The best editors have the ability to keep the story identifiably mine, while just making it more readable and sensible.

Gotta find an editor who might be willing to give my stuff a once-over.

Yours, Hannah

This was fascinating to read. Thank you for it. I do have a desire to write and mainly around personal experiences spiced up a little … a little seasoning can often make things taste better!

I have read many of your stories and always enjoy them. Keep up the great work!

Although I doubt I will ever write stories, I did find it very interesting to read your thoughts. I have long been a fan of many of your stories and I am sure that there are many who will be inspired to try their hand at putting their pen and imagination to the test after reading this piece.

Thank you for your insight. This was extremely helpful. I think I am going to finally attempt to dip my toes into the liteferotica waters and try my hand at writing one or more stories that I have swimming in my head. I haven't written a erotic in many years, but with your overview of your approach in navigating the platform, and your personal writing approach has help me to try my luck.

Interesting piece. Thank you

Thank you so much for the advices! I think they are really helpful for a lot of us!

Thank-you for this post! Very useful!

Thanks for the tips. Very helpful!

Thanks for your thoughts on successful writing - you obviously have been very prolific and successful so the advice is appreciated. Categories do matter - I was surprised at the number of views for my first Incest story last month, and still haven't recovered from the trolls commenting on what I think is a hot little Loving Wives story. The same type of story in another category doesn't get that kind of reception. Still puzzles me why people who hate the theme read stories in the theme. I enjoy much of your work but avoid the categories that aren't for me. Having said all of that, I write first of all for me - expressing my fantasies as best I can. I hope others enjoy them too. Again, thanks!

That was very helpful. I'm going to try and expand my categories and use some of your tips going forward.

Thanks - Cindy

Very informative. I also think that you have a very good time writing. Maybe you just take that for granted ! WHATEVER ! Keep WRITING ! 5 stars !

Thanks for your advice. I've been a lurker on Lit for years, but I finally have a story in mind I really want to tell; any tips from such a successful author are most welcome.

566. This was helpful to understand your mindset and the explanation of the descriptive symbols will be a help in choosing future reads. May I suggest that a reason for lower ratings on some sequels could be that your sequels tend to follow at a major time lapse and thus are lost to many readers who have moved on. I know that I would prefer to read and complete a story on my initial read rather than try to remember often to return to a subject to check on a possible continuation. And never finding the promised, suggested, or indicated continuation is a real turn off. I know few or no people do this, but I would like to see some type of numbering system for those of you with a large number of stories. It would make it easier to keep up with all the additions not in alphabetical order. You will note that I number as I read, but even so, it is difficult not to miss new additions. Thanks for a seemingly endless supply of erotica.

Let me start by saying that many of your stories push my kinky buttons in just the right ways!! I especially LOVE tales about straight guys being turned out as gay bottoms or full-on crossdressing sissies!

Thank you VERY much for writing this how-to guide! I am working on my first story to post on Literotica about a straight young man who enjoys playing with toys but finds the experience unfulfilling and decides to give the "real" thing a try. My working title is "That Empty Feeling Inside...". I noted the importance you placed on the right title, so I am open to suggestions.

I also have a Harry Potter/centaur tale in the works and I was wondering if you believe that should be in the Fan Fiction or Non-human section?

Many thanks and please keep 'em coming!

H.

I really appreciate that you took the time to write this. I think this is something that will be especially helpful for new writers getting started or in my case restarted writing stories on this site.

Have a story idea involving a high school or college that trains full service and free use employees, i,e, doctors, lawyers, secretaries, teachers, nurses, accountants, etc... for a secret society. I just have not had the time to create an account and sit down to write it.

You are correct about the Illustrated category at least according to what I do. I will go through an illustrated story and just look at the pictures in it. If the pictures are high quality, show a woman or women completely naked at some point and are either of real naked or partially clothed women or are renderings that look like real women, then maybe I will go back and read the actual story.

I will grade an illustrated story on the images shown and not on the story itself, so an illustrated story with just one poor quality image will get a one star, no matter how good the story is, and I probably will never read nor comment on that story. A story with several pictures of one or more naked women, may get my attention or intrigued me enough for me to go back and read the story, though the score will likely be a 5 star and be based only on the images used to tell the story.

Regarding homosexual male interactions. The reasons why Homosexual male stories have such low readership levels has more to do with the fact that if a man has homosexual sex, it is mostly because he is forced into it and does not choose it. For those of us who have been forced to do it, it has become a traumatic experience we do not wish to relive. Homosexual sex is more about showing power than eroticism or romanticism, and most men hate being powerless and forced to commit such an act. Most guys do not have oral or anal fixations involving other men.

The only time I will read a gay male interaction in a story is when it involves multiple women who get two guys engage in it in order so the guys can fuck those women (see The Morrisons story series by Rechiker [he has two such chapters in the series where the bisexual women the guys are already fucking challenge them to engage in homosexual sex] or The Proposition by Scoob). Both guys have to be clumsy about it, should not enjoy it (which for those of us who have been forced into committing it by our rapist/molester, as part of a past job or fraternity initiation, provides realism to us) and these guys have to just endure it in order to get to the promised pussies.

You can add humor to the story as the two horny guys who are not enjoying the homosexual sex they are forced into as a condition of getting to the pussies of the women, become increasingly frustrated as they are trying to get each other to cum, so they can get to the pussies in the room. If they finally cum, because the women take pity on them and either strip down to their lingerie, naked or engage in female masturbation or lesbian sex, exposing their tits or pussies in the process, again that makes everything more believable for your male readers. The more attractive women conditionally offering themselves up to the two guys the more believable the situation becomes for the guys, as their little heads override their big heads, which is usually why guys have taboo and/or wild sex. However, notice the theme of the homosexual sex is the power of the women's contract, where the guys can only access the pussies if they fuck each other first.

The only other seemingly homosexual types of situations that a guy will read about is in the process of two or more naked guys double or triple penetrating an attractive woman. The guys won't enjoy their junk touching,or even looking at each other, but in getting the chance to become the woman's lover or one of her lovers again their little head will override their big head. Again the guys willing go through and allow their junk to touch, because the woman holds the power to compel the guy, in order to fulfill her fantasy.

This will definitely become a reference aide, but

This is awesome stuff.

Thank you Jasmine! This is extremely informative and great advice. I have a lot to learn from your work. I've written here on and off for years but am just starting to try to be more frequent recently. And I've begun trying to follow old_twit's upstanding example of commenting on most or all stories I read. Doing as I would like others to do! This is the way.

I tend to write single-scene works, like the camera follows someone without stopping for a particularly consequential hour or day or two, but try to interlace background information smoothly into it so hopefully there's some character building happening even though we focus on them for a short period of time. That's the aim anyway!

Thank you so much for this. I have been a reader of yours for a long time, and have explored many fantasies as a result. Now I want to start writing my most persistent and erotic ones down and sharing them, mostly because I am no longer ashamed or embarrassed about them, seeing the massive amount of views yours get (not that I have any real aspirations to become a prolific author, but I'll see what happens and will be grateful for whatever I get). So finding a long, recently posted guide from the great silkstockingslover is a real blessing. Thank you so much Jasmine. (Also, I will be diligently scoring and commenting on all my favourite stories going forward after seeing those interaction stats)

One thing I've discover in editing is that it's hard to find errors in your own writing. I've found that text readers like Balabolka (free) make it easy to find common errors like a dropped "s" or word that are spelled close to another word like diner and dinner. It can also help with inadvertent tense changes.

Thank you for sharing your hard won wisdom. I only have a dozen stories published at the moment (from a 40 story series) but they are doing ok. I write what I like and then try to find categories to fit them into. Not always successfully. I'll take your advice on titles and categories. I agree wholeheartedly that if people don't react to your characters (either positively or negatively), no amount of sex will keep them reading. I often take life events that may be dire (divorce, betrayal, disability, death etc ) and show how they can be a springboard to an unexpectedly fulfilling sexual relationship. People come to my stories for the sex and stay for the hope.

Great tips! Been reading your stories for years and always enjoy them! Glad to see that your favorite incest is my favorite as well! There’s just something about mother/daughter…. Keep up the good work!

As a small time writer here this is valuable insight. Thank you kindly for sharing your wealth of experience in publishing here at Lit. This might actually get me back at writing here since I have been somewhat absent of late.

Love your stories <3

Jasmine; What a great guide. I've followed you here on Literotica for some time, but this guide makes me want to give the Incest category a try.

Great guide, I wholeheartedly agree with many of your points. I do find a lot of writers struggle with first person, so I would only try it if I knew the character very well, and I personally find it can limit the narrative.

The difference between erotica and more literary forms of writing is that with erotica you are really trying to give the reader what they want and expect. You don't want to challenge them or subvert their expectations. Build up and deliver.

Thanks, Jasmine. I did not know what the letters stood for all these yesrs.

excellent tips, you do so well to keep this member entertained, and other as well.

Great info. I have read stories for years on literotica but just recently have tried my hand at writing.

You make many great points that I am sure I will find helpful.

Sign up for Grammarly! Why didn't that get mentioned? It's disconcerting to be involved in a story only to be distracted by an egregious error. Sometimes they're so bad they make me laugh. You're reading about a woman taking on three college guys in a story that has no gay elements and then there's a grammatical glitch that has one of the college guys sucking another's cock.

Also, if you use an editor, give the editor time to read your story 3 or 4 different times. The editor will pay less attention to the sex and be able to pick up small things like the woman going to the door in panties only (having removed her skirt a couple of paragraphs earlier) and returning in the next paragraph to remove the skirt she had already shed.

And, if you revise the story after the editor has read it, let the editor see it again before you post it. It makes the editor unfairly seem like a poor editor when you post a story with glaring errors that the editor has never seen.

If you write a story with several characters in relationships, keep a list of who is a partner with whom. Mixing them up ruins the flow of the story. And, if you decide to change a character's name after you think the story is done, make sure you're not calling Dave Tom or Sally Diane because you missed it on page three or two or wherever.

You were in your late 40s 15 years ago. Fake news

Excellent advice. Thank you for posting this. I have read a number of your stories of the years and I always find them inspiring and really well written. I have a question - have you ever wanted to go back to an older story and re-write it? I would. I have one story in particular that I am particular proud of but its flaws are glaring to me and I would really like to re-write parts of it. Some of the comments in fact, pointed a few things out I had not thought of which were excellent insights. But what can we do? Is it possible to resubmit a story and have to old one removed?

I totally agree about sequels. I have been disappointed in the responses. One of my best stories (and most quirky) is the 3rd part and last part of a series. It is a much better story than parts 1 and 2. But it has a lot fewer views and likes, which I get because parts 1 and 2 were a little weak I think. Anyway, thanks so much for this excellent insight and your stories!

About sequels, and descriptions.

I tell a story consisting of consequential episodes. Ten published, fifteen in draft, another ten only sketch; and an idea to repeat the experience next year.

Protagonists a wife, a husband, and four 25-year-old young scholars who are allowed to tease him during a month of archaeological research on an uninhabited island in Greece (the couple agreed that he should wear a chastity cage).

Do I need to repeat in each episode the description of each? Barbara Bach, blue-eyed blonde pretending to be a doll but instead being dominant (she has a boob removed). Teresa, her Latina lover, seemingly tough but sweet. Skye McDuff, redheaded and freckled, thin, tall and bushy proud: tragic and sadistic. Emily Brown, short and plump African American, disappointed by previous boyfriends and convinced that no one person can ever give her an orgasm. And wife Cathy, at least ten to fifteen years older than the girls, black hair and Sicilian tan, unsure of her own loveliness and fearful that the girls might be "too exciting" for her husband.

Do I have to repeat the description every time?

And by deliberate decision, I do not describe her husband's body. Each reader can imagine him as he wishes: in a range that starts lower than Danny De Vito and ends higher than Chris Hemsworth. I am only interested in his thoughts and emotions.

Thanks.Thanks from the heart. Very helpful.

Three questions. 1): you who are so famous, could you ask Literotica.com to add some Categories? For example, "Pegging", "Male Chastity Cage", "Femdom" (with "Gentle Femdom" and "FLR"), and especially divide "Loving Wifes" into two genres, separating "Wives who go with someone else" and "Wives who only love their husbands"?

2): I am not "beautiful." Most people are not "awesome." Don't you think it's boring that all the characters are 6 feet tall with big fat cocks, skinny women with 38 G breasts, attend the gym 4 days a week, and are all rich and important (except husbands with short penises, of course). It's not. "boring"? One of my characters has a breast removed. One is dwarf (irl, no Fantasy). One is cross-eyed. Each has a history of trauma and pain and disappointment. Okay, literature is escapism; but isn't the same descriptions always boring?

3): What about History? On the shelves of erotic novels I find Vikings, Cheyenne, Romans, Victorians; instead in Literotica.com there is a very high percentage of "John Smith with baseball cap, and his soccer wife"...or am I wrong?

4): does everything always revolve around popularity? What if I don't care about popularity? I read niche tales, and historiographical essays on niche topics, my favorite authors are not "famous" but are, how should I put it? "necessary for me."

Congrats on Editor's choice!

I definitely don't have the following you have, but I'm having fun writing and I'm proud of every story I've written, and like you, my lowest rated stories are my most read... I can't figure that one out either. My problem is that I concentrate on the story rather than the sex and more than once I had to back up and look for a spot to work in a sex scene. Other times I let the characters decide what is going to happen and when I start out working toward a steamy BDSM story, the girls head off to another room and I end up with a lesbian romance.

Life is like that I guess

Hi silkstockinglover,

This, in the spirit of observation - not criticism:-

A very illuminating and helpfularticle. But I take (slight) issue with ...

'Make sure their bodies are described / the more vividly the better.'

You are talking about a uniquely American preference. Which, of course, makes you 95% right - and me 95% wrong!

I've read everything by Stephen King and Dan Brown. Different league to here, but the analogy works.

My, how SK loves detailed descriptions. It's as if USA high schools give higher marks for extra info, and he took it to heart.

I'm English (you guessed, right?) and he never told me what La-Z-Boy was. Or Hungry Man meals; pegged jeans, engineer boots (usually cleated), chambray shirts. It's ok, I worked them out.

And his litany of prescription drugs must rival the FDA's - many of them his own invention. I forgive him; he's awesome!

Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code describes a flight from France to England, and his research falls woefully short. English police would never invade Biggin Hill airfield to meet a plane, on the say-so of a French policeman. They'd tell him to fuck off. But in the extremely unlikely event that they did, they would not turn up with guns. British police are, by and large, unarmed.

But for that same flight Dan describes, with unnerring accuracy, the type of plane, and details of its engines ... including the make and model number!

What am I getting at? Too much detail, sometimes at the expense of common sense, and it seems to be part of the American psyche. So I disagree with your advice to include lots of descriptions of bodies and clothing. Despite this demoting me to the 5% bracket.

Surely the whole point of written erotica, as opposed to visual, is to stimulate the reader's imagination? Porn movies are never completely satisfying, because the protagonists do not quite fit our fantasies. So, overblown decriptions of Literotica MCs can perpetuate this dissatisfaction.

Describe the characters by all means; I agree we need reference points, but too much description snaps the reader out of the fiction. The more detail you put in, the more likely you are to hit upon something that alienates your audience.

OK, I'm weird (who isn't?). But the moment I see DD, I delete. Sorry, but that image turns me off. I also delete when I get to 'but let me backtrack' - 'maybe I should tell you something about myself'. I know you all love that stuff but I don't. I'm here to read a piece of erotica. And most of the time I don't give a flying fuck if they met in high school. FTDS? Start The Damn Story!

And dialogue like "YES! YES!! FUCK MY MARRIED PUSSY!!!" - I won't even dignify with a comment.

Tell me about her underwear; I like stockings too! Tell me how wet she's getting and how he feels as he enters her. Don't tell me they were born in Ohio and played sports at school!

I'll say it once more. I'm offering a viewpoint, not looking for an argument. Agree, disagree. But don't imagine I'm some kind of troll, just because I write under Anonymous. Actually I'm encountering problems with registering here.

Keep up the good work,