How long are your actual erotic scenes, usually?

The one in my current WIP is about 5,000 words long, but that includes the foreplay, meeting in the restaurant, consuming large quantities of alcohol, struggling with the idea that one is the boss and the other the employee, going to the house and fucking.

The actual sex does not occupy much of the wording, because in my opinion the sexiest parts are those leading to the actual sex.

I don't think you can impose a word count on a good horny scene. Just write what turns you on and your readers will be turned on, too.

All my novels have sex scenes, and though I never get incredibly explicit, I do tell some gritty details, enough to get my readers' dicks hard or other parts wet. I write what I think is sexy and depend on the readers to agree.

In my novel Minister of Justice, the sex is between a male and female, who are both teenagers.

In Robby the R-Word, the sex is between two women.

In my WIP, Father of Malice, the sex is between a newspaper editor and his subordinate city editor.

In every case, the sex fits the story and furthers the narrative, so I don't think it's gratuitous, but I do hope my readers get turned on by it.

It depends. For a 5,000-word erotic story, I try and make sure at least half of that is devoted to sex in some way. I've also written erotic novels where the sex scenes have spanned anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 words. Erotica readers tend to expect--and enjoy--longer sex scenes (the phrase "Bang for your buck" comes to mind). If you're intending to write short fiction, then a 1400-word sex scene might be fine. For a longer piece of erotica, I'd expect more. It's impossible to say definitively if it's too long or short for your story, since we haven't read it. And I'm not sure what you mean by "typical length." For an Amazon spank piece? For a literary erotic novel with 36 chapters? For a self-pubbed erotic novella? There's no set standard that says you must devote X-percentage of the story to sex in order for it qualify as erotica, though there may be content-related expectations within specific niches. For now, don't worry about it. Have fun! Write your story. Re-read it and see if there are places you think need more or less attention. Edit, edit, edit. Then post it in the Erotica SYW here on AW once you've reached 50 posts.

Long enough to get the deed done, short enough so it doesn't start sounding like IKEA furniture-assembly instructions.

I've only just started writing erotica, but like one or two others have said, I like the actual act to be shorter than the build-up. I'm still experimenting with erotic scene lengths, but I also imagine it would depend on the situation; a quickie between hectic board meetings might need less than an evening of fine dining followed by sensual massage. So far, I'm working at building the tension early and playing with reader expectations.

It's lots of fun discovering all this for the first time.

Bladespark said:

In fandom people seem to really want both sex and plot, stories with just one or the other doesn't do as well, though sex alone does a little better than plot alone.

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Not really relevant, but how do you define how well a fanfic story does?

I have never tried to count it myself.

Bladespark said:

See, this sort of thing is exactly why I was asking. My fanfic sex stuff I have tried to shoot for at least half being sex-related, but since I haven't read nearly as much non-fandom erotica, I don't have as concrete an idea of what people expect. In fandom people seem to really want both sex and plot, stories with just one or the other doesn't do as well, though sex alone does a little better than plot alone. So far I've done mostly very short pieces, 3-5k words total for the most part, with just a couple of longer ones. But I'd like to start working on novella-length pieces as well.

I actually have this concept... The idea is a setting and character that I develop in a proper storytelling way through novella-length pieces with plenty of sex but also plenty of plot, but interspersed with little short encounter stories that are basically just spank pieces. I feel like I'd get the best of both worlds that way, since any fun things I wanted to write could just get fired out, while I could also feel satisfied in writing a good story and not *just* wank material.

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Well, not all erotica is just "wank" material. I'm not a fanfic writer, so I can't speak to what's available in those communities, but I'd venture to guess there's at least some variation, i.e. quick stroke pieces vs. long, multi-chapter series with broad-reaching plots and graphic sex. Contrary to what you may have garnered from a quick Amazon search, erotica is just as varied. However, from your second paragraph, it sounds like you're under the impression that erotic fiction ends where plot and story begins. This simply isn't the case, overall. Yes, some erotica is nothing but sex, sex, sex, but there's no limit to how much plot or character development an erotic story/novella/novel can contain (though going too far in the opposite direction can risk turning your erotic story into "a story with sex in it").

When I write erotica, I try and make the sex scenes serve a purpose. Even at its most graphic, dirty, and delicious, my ultimate goal is to reveal something about these characters, or change their relationships, or alter the plot in some way. Not to suggest there's anything wrong with pure, unadulterated spank bank fodder; it, too, serves a purpose. But erotica can be just as complex and intricate and expansive as any other genre, so long as the central core of the story is sexual.

Which leads me to the bolded part of your post: Why not read some non-fanfic erotica and see how others are doing it? Asking here is fine, but the best way to get a handle on what does and doesn't work is to familiarize yourself with the genre. Consider it "market research."

Bladespark said:

To be completely honest with you, because I am having trouble finding anything I'd be willing to shell out money to read. Maybe there's a hidden gem hiding on Amazon somewhere that would be right up my ally, but it's just... FimFiction has a massive amount of filtering tools to let me find things I'll enjoy, not to mention that I've been on the site for years and so I've seen things cross my radar countless times without even having to look for them. It also has thousands upon thousands of erotic stories. Amazon's erotic science fiction section is *smaller* by a hell of a lot, and I can't seem to figure out a way to look for stuff I'd like. I guess eventually I'll have to just bite the bullet and buy *something* but it feels like a kind of pointless stab in the dark to read one thing at random, and when nothing I'm seeing actually appeals to me, I can't figure out how else to choose a story.

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I hear you. Amazon's catalog can be daunting, and you're right about the poor filtering (perhaps someone with advanced Amazon search skills will pipe up and school us both). The designation of erotica vs romance has become confusing, too, IMO. I have a hard time differentiating because so much erotica reads like really explicit romance. Twas not the case twenty years ago! Perhaps you could expand your search to blogs that review SF erotica and romance? (This blog post came up in a quick Google search.) Or check out popular SF erotica on Goodreads? You can get really intricate when searching subgenres there. Anthologies are nice because you can acquire a variety of authors for a relatively low price, though it's almost guaranteed that some won't "do it" for you.

Bladespark said:

P.S. I never meant to imply that all erotica is just wank material, btw. I know perfectly well it's not, or I wouldn't want to write the stuff! I know that *some* is, though, and I'm totally fine with that, I've done pieces that were simple wank fodder myself before, it has its place.

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Noted. I don't like to assume, but I wasn't sure. Erotica is a surprisingly vast genre, and can look quite different depending on your familiarity with it. I was introduced to it via Anaïs Nin and dirty Anne Rice and Story of O, and then was surprised to find that bigfoot erotica fell under the same genre heading.

Bladespark said:

To be completely honest with you, because I am having trouble finding anything I'd be willing to shell out money to read.

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Check out some of the Recommends from this forum, and the published authors who also write here.

If you're really looking to improve your Erotica writing and/or become published, then you're going to have to read a lot of it. Not just to see how the good writers do it, but to learn what does and does not work for you as a reader, to help you when writing your own stories. Try to be open to the bad as well as the good, because everything you read, even if you struggle to finish it, is going to help you creatively in the long run.

And yes, it kinda sucks to pay for something you probably know you won't enjoy. Like StoryofWoe said, market research.

That sounds like quite a conundrum. It's always going to be difficult to find a market for the niche stuff in any genre. It may be a trade-off between small, dedicated fanbase vs. larger fanbase.