How many fetishes per story?

[sunandshadow]

The erotic novel I've been working on for nanowrimo seems to be adding 2 new fetishes to its repitoire every scene. :scared: I'm thinking about markets and publishability, and wondering whether I will accidentally create something that squicks everyone. Do you all try to keep the focus of your stories narrow, or is variety the spice of life?

[JanDarby]

Partly, it may depend on the length of the manuscript -- novella or novel.

Personally, I usually have in mind one fetish (or, really, I'd call it one fantasy, rather than a fetish exactly, and there may be some sub-fantasies or sub-fetishes involved, related to the main one), and try to use it as a sort of theme or metaphor and pursue the various angles on it, in both the sex scenes and the rest of the plot/characterization.

For instance, in the WIP, there's some mild dom/sub action, not in the sense of the lifestyle, per se, but just in some bedroom games. So, the whole theme of dominance runs through the story, and the two characters work out who's in charge in the bedroom, and who's in charge in other situations, and there's tension until they resolve those issues. It's a novella, so it will only be in the 100-125 page range, which limits the options somewhat, but I'd be inclined to do the same thing in a longer work: choose one basic fetish/fantasy and see how you can investigate all its variations. Otherwise, for me at least, the story loses focus and becomes just sex, without a plot.

So, anyway, I'd suggest focusing on one fetish/fantasy, and then considering how you can play with it, so it's just a little different, escalating perhaps, or adding some sub-fetish feature to it. For example, if the main fantasy is domination, in one scene it can simply be one partner following orders, and in another scene the submissive partner can be following orders in his/her use of a toy, and in another scene, the submissive partner can be MORE submissive, perhaps involving a different physical act, or whatever. (Trying to keep this rated GP here.) That way, there's a thread (or rope, if you will) that ties everything (no, not that) together in the story.

Of course, for Nano, you may not want to worry about any of this, but I really do find it helpful to have one over-all fantasy/fetish in mind as I write, to keep things in focus, without straying too far off the main story line.

JD

[veinglory]

It's all going depend on context, I think. If this is about people trying out different things and experimenting and aimed for a general erotic audience (rather than niche/lifestylers etc who want mondo accuracy) it should be fine.

[sunandshadow]

Well, the main topic is pregnancy. Pregnancy is usually accompanied by lactation, and the standard variations on pregnancy would be impregnating others, getting pregnant oneself, a character who is aroused by the sight of a pregnant belly, stretching/growing, multiple pregnancy, incestuous pregnancy, and not-quite-human pregnancy. I guess if you look at it that way almost everything is connected by a theme. But to set up the not-quite-human pregnancy I invented these magical constructs which have magically sculpted bodies that are animated by imbuing them with the minds of animals. Which opens up a whole can of worms because I'm pretty much obligated to explore bot the question of whether this is bestiality and the ways in which an artificial body might be constructed to be unusually erotic, which really have nothing to do with pregnancy. (Except the fact that the animality and unusual bodies are inheritable by offspring resulting from pregnancy, but that's really pretty tangential.)

[veinglory]

Sounds interesting to me, and an area a lot of people are interested in but few are writing.

[sunandshadow]

Sounds interesting to me, and an area a lot of people are interested in but few are writing.
Thanks, I'm glad you think so. :) I've always wondered why there is so little pregnancy erotica - whether there were really not many people interested in it or whether it was seen as a taboo thing to write about, or what. It kind of seems like many younger people dislike/fear babies, while middle-aged people tend to be busy with their own, and also connecting babies with erotica probably strikes some people as uncomfortably near to pedophilia, and I've heard people say they like incest but only if there wasn't a pregnancy resulting... I hate trying to guess what audiences will like, I wouldn't do it except that I'm worried about wasting my time writing something unsaleable.

[veinglory]

I think there is potential readersip for pregnancy erotic and it does flow over to other issues such as lactation, inflation etc quite naturally. Inflation in particular seems to have new younger fan base at the moment. You might also want to look into mpreg (male pregnancy).

[James Buchanan]

I think there is potential readersip for pregnancy erotic and it does flow over to other issues such as lactation, inflation etc quite naturally. Inflation in particular seems to have new younger fan base at the moment. You might also want to look into mpreg (male pregnancy).
MPREG tends to come up in slash alot.

[sunandshadow]

oh yeah, I'm an mpreg fan from way back. :D But the current book has a race of hermaphrodites, so either none of it's mpreg or all of its mpreg, depending on your point of view.

[MargueriteMing]

It's all about *story* not numbers. Write your story, as true as you can, and per force it will have the right number of sex scenes and fetishes.

[sunandshadow]

*sigh* I don't really have a story to tell, I just asked myself "What all would be interesting enough types of sex that I could write about them all and end up with a book worth of material?" And also "What other possibilities does this bit of worldbuilding logically imply?" I keep trying to put romance in and steer it toward a happy ending, but other than that there isn't really much story.

[Maryn]

Uh-oh. I suspect that story trumps sexual content. Maybe you need to step back and find a master plan, then return?

Kick start your story-creating process by asking yourself who your main characters are, what they really want, and what's keeping them from getting it.

Maryn, who hangs with screenwriters

[MargueriteMing]

*sigh* I don't really have a story to tell, I just asked myself "What all would be interesting enough types of sex that I could write about them all and end up with a book worth of material?" And also "What other possibilities does this bit of worldbuilding logically imply?" I keep trying to put romance in and steer it toward a happy ending, but other than that there isn't really much story.

Hmm, doesn't necessarily have to end happy. Find your characters, find their story, and let them lead you to the end. Sometimes it helps to have an end goal so you can steer them, and sometimes not, that's something you'll have to decide for yourself.

[Perks]

I've only ever read one erotic novel and part of the reason I hated it so dearly was that it was a one-kink pony. And the one didn't appeal to me in the slightest. In fact, I found it very funny.

So, I could see where a broader palette might be a good idea if the story supported such.

[sunandshadow]

Hmm, doesn't necessarily have to end happy. Find your characters, find their story, and let them lead you to the end. Sometimes it helps to have an end goal so you can steer them, and sometimes not, that's something you'll have to decide for yourself.
Does for me. I only write stories with happy endings. My feeling is that there are so many unhappy endings or lack of endings in real life that fiction needs to supply lots of happy endings to make up for it.

[sunandshadow]

Uh-oh. I suspect that story trumps sexual content. Maybe you need to step back and find a master plan, then return?

Kick start your story-creating process by asking yourself who your main characters are, what they really want, and what's keeping them from getting it.

Maryn, who hangs with screenwriters

I agree that makes for a better story. But, if I do that it never turns out to be erotica, it turns out to be sf with a few random sex scenes here and there.