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On the Importance of Plot in Fetish Erotica
9 years ago
Hello everyone, It's been a long time since I last updated my journal, but since I've been posting content fairly regularly lately, I thought it's about time.
First let me sweep the topic of the last update under the rug by saying that none of it went anywhere in particular, sorry to say XD. My most active projects right now include the new LK fan fiction starring a very pregnant Kiara as well as an RP currently in the works with
gahtren concerning the adventures of two very large individuals who happen to board a cruise liner headed for a very unusual destination. My intention is to post the RP as a story here upon completion. I also intend to finish "Leviathan" though while I am about 75 pages into it, I have not brought myself around to working on it in the past couple months =/. There is also another big project I was working on a few months ago titled "Sigma Draconis," which involves a hibernation malfunction aboard a sub-light starship bound for a nearby star and heavy emphasis on altering the ship's acceleration to change the effects of gravity on our extremely large protagonist. "Sigma Draconis" stars a human woman as lead, but I hope that will not turn off too many of you. But it is another ambitious project that may or may not be finished anytime soon, unfortunately =/
Lastly, I'd like to mention that I recently got my hands on a copy of "The Dictator's Handbook" and that I find the study on the nature of power in politics to be fascinating and not just in an educational sense, but it was very close to the story I had wanted to tell featuring an obese cat patriarch in a feline underworld of a quiet, suburban town. I had wanted the story to be a vehicle for my thoughts on power, both politically and in the realms of sex, pleasure and decadence. I can see that the story will need a complete rewrite now, so you all will benefit soon from seeing the aborted first draft XD
But mentioning that, we come to the main topic of the journal. I happen to feel very strongly about this, but what is the role of a good plot in erotic fiction anyways? I mean, isn't is just supposed to be fapping material? The actual story is not what is getting people off, right? It's the sexy descriptions, the foreplay, or as is often the case in my work, the gratuitous descriptions of mounds and rolls of fat on the characters. Sometimes I wonder if I am holding myself back by trying to include these complex themes in stories meant to appeal by sexual gratification as much as pure literary value. I have certainly now abandoned many projects which I have felt did not appeal in some way, shape or form, and I am still afraid to take commissions given my difficulty in completing even story concepts which do appeal to me and that I have spent a good deal of time thinking about before I ever type a single word. And maybe I am foolish for trying, foolish for often making the work harder than it has to be, and giving up before the end as a result.
But I'd like to say that the reason I write the way I do is because I write, first and foremost for myself. These are the kinds of stories I like to imagine in my head when I am by myself and in the mood. I feel a strong preference for erotica which has a strong story capable of engaging my attention, even if there were no fetish content in it at all. Shouldn't a reader be made to care for a character first and foremost before being engaged with whatever gets a rise out of them? It's been my opinion for a long time that a good story will enhance the erotic feeling in the reader beyond what the mere fetish content alone is capable of providing, even if it means reading through long passages without that dopamine release of reading the content your lizard brain is looking for.
Having said that much, in trying to stitch erotic content into a self-competent story in as elegant and pleasing a way as possible, I would like to share a sort of theory I have in regards to trying to craft a more elegant and compelling story, though I have no way in knowing if it is correct or not; but I have a feeling it is, just by my reaction to my own words. My theory is that the fetish content in a story, the fat descriptions, the mention of weight, of breathing, or of largeness, is a form of story tension that is similar to regular tension that exists in all good stories. Being aware of this 'sexual tension' the reader feels in reading erotica, you might be able to do more deliberate things like mount that tension steadily throughout a story until you reach a climax - no pun intended XD; I think a lot of people do that naturally, though, without putting the idea into exact words. But I think that where some people might get confused is that this 'sexual tension' is fueled by largely separate items in the story than what fuels regular tension, and I am sure it is the fault of many a piece of fap fluff that they fail to include any or minimal tension or conflict at all.
When a reader seeks out a piece of erotica, they are expecting to get regular hits of dopamine from the material that strikes their particular interest, and these hits, large and small, fuel continued interest in the story. I think this is similar to, but different in significant ways, to the expectation of rising conflict we have been trained to expect in stories. And I do think that there are differences between this expectation and the standard expectations of tension in another story, but this is already much too long and I fear heading off into speculation land =P
But I would love to hear any an all of your thoughts on the matter, how important is plot when you are looking for erotica? What stories have you liked the best, and why? What makes a good piece stick in your mind and make you want to come back to them multiple times?
First let me sweep the topic of the last update under the rug by saying that none of it went anywhere in particular, sorry to say XD. My most active projects right now include the new LK fan fiction starring a very pregnant Kiara as well as an RP currently in the works with
gahtren concerning the adventures of two very large individuals who happen to board a cruise liner headed for a very unusual destination. My intention is to post the RP as a story here upon completion. I also intend to finish "Leviathan" though while I am about 75 pages into it, I have not brought myself around to working on it in the past couple months =/. There is also another big project I was working on a few months ago titled "Sigma Draconis," which involves a hibernation malfunction aboard a sub-light starship bound for a nearby star and heavy emphasis on altering the ship's acceleration to change the effects of gravity on our extremely large protagonist. "Sigma Draconis" stars a human woman as lead, but I hope that will not turn off too many of you. But it is another ambitious project that may or may not be finished anytime soon, unfortunately =/Lastly, I'd like to mention that I recently got my hands on a copy of "The Dictator's Handbook" and that I find the study on the nature of power in politics to be fascinating and not just in an educational sense, but it was very close to the story I had wanted to tell featuring an obese cat patriarch in a feline underworld of a quiet, suburban town. I had wanted the story to be a vehicle for my thoughts on power, both politically and in the realms of sex, pleasure and decadence. I can see that the story will need a complete rewrite now, so you all will benefit soon from seeing the aborted first draft XD
But mentioning that, we come to the main topic of the journal. I happen to feel very strongly about this, but what is the role of a good plot in erotic fiction anyways? I mean, isn't is just supposed to be fapping material? The actual story is not what is getting people off, right? It's the sexy descriptions, the foreplay, or as is often the case in my work, the gratuitous descriptions of mounds and rolls of fat on the characters. Sometimes I wonder if I am holding myself back by trying to include these complex themes in stories meant to appeal by sexual gratification as much as pure literary value. I have certainly now abandoned many projects which I have felt did not appeal in some way, shape or form, and I am still afraid to take commissions given my difficulty in completing even story concepts which do appeal to me and that I have spent a good deal of time thinking about before I ever type a single word. And maybe I am foolish for trying, foolish for often making the work harder than it has to be, and giving up before the end as a result.
But I'd like to say that the reason I write the way I do is because I write, first and foremost for myself. These are the kinds of stories I like to imagine in my head when I am by myself and in the mood. I feel a strong preference for erotica which has a strong story capable of engaging my attention, even if there were no fetish content in it at all. Shouldn't a reader be made to care for a character first and foremost before being engaged with whatever gets a rise out of them? It's been my opinion for a long time that a good story will enhance the erotic feeling in the reader beyond what the mere fetish content alone is capable of providing, even if it means reading through long passages without that dopamine release of reading the content your lizard brain is looking for.
Having said that much, in trying to stitch erotic content into a self-competent story in as elegant and pleasing a way as possible, I would like to share a sort of theory I have in regards to trying to craft a more elegant and compelling story, though I have no way in knowing if it is correct or not; but I have a feeling it is, just by my reaction to my own words. My theory is that the fetish content in a story, the fat descriptions, the mention of weight, of breathing, or of largeness, is a form of story tension that is similar to regular tension that exists in all good stories. Being aware of this 'sexual tension' the reader feels in reading erotica, you might be able to do more deliberate things like mount that tension steadily throughout a story until you reach a climax - no pun intended XD; I think a lot of people do that naturally, though, without putting the idea into exact words. But I think that where some people might get confused is that this 'sexual tension' is fueled by largely separate items in the story than what fuels regular tension, and I am sure it is the fault of many a piece of fap fluff that they fail to include any or minimal tension or conflict at all.
When a reader seeks out a piece of erotica, they are expecting to get regular hits of dopamine from the material that strikes their particular interest, and these hits, large and small, fuel continued interest in the story. I think this is similar to, but different in significant ways, to the expectation of rising conflict we have been trained to expect in stories. And I do think that there are differences between this expectation and the standard expectations of tension in another story, but this is already much too long and I fear heading off into speculation land =P
But I would love to hear any an all of your thoughts on the matter, how important is plot when you are looking for erotica? What stories have you liked the best, and why? What makes a good piece stick in your mind and make you want to come back to them multiple times?
Anyway to the matter at hand, my favorite furry erotic story is probably this interactive story on writing.com mainly written by Cracker called Dragon Candy. https://www.writing.com/main/intera.....4-Dragon-candy Enter the story, then choose #2, then #3 to get to where the story actually kicks into gear. It's got some good descriptions of the fetish content, great descriptions of the sexual content and plenty of it. That's what's so great about this story, it's a massive work (and unfortunately unfinished) but while there is a story it doesn't get distracted from the fact that it's, at the end of the day, something people are reading with one hand on their dick. There are so many detailed and varied sexual descriptions that it practically feels like a marathon to read it, but that's definitely not a negative in this case.
I read your stories Desolation at Tiamat and Dragon in the deep, and I enjoyed them both. With Tiamat however I didn't find it at all erotic even though it was about fetishes I enjoy, was it meant to be? It was a cool story and I rather liked the way the story was narrated by a character with a truly alien mind, but if that was an experiment of plot as a sexual tension builder as you put it then I hate to say it, but it failed. Again, I liked the story, but I did not get the sense reading it that its primary goal was to titillate, and if it was that's a bit of a problem. With Dragon in the Depths the story was definitely more focused on the fetishy aspects with much more erotic and detailed descriptions of weight gain, growth, vore, etc. But it too was distracted from the erotica by plot elements at times, to a far less degree though and I thought it managed a pretty good balance.
Frankly when writing a story I think you need to ask yourself what is my goal here. Am I writing erotic fiction that is first and foremost meant to be erotic, or am I writing fiction that I'm inserting a few of my fetishes into just to spice things up a bit. If you are writing the former then I'd say the focus should definitely be more on the sex/fetishes than you normally go for.
I really value this kind of feedback and you make a great point. Prose of any kind does need to be written with a specific audience in mind. I have to admit that I'm still learning how to write myself and no two of my works have come from me in the same mind set or even general level of experience; not surprising given how long it takes sometimes to finish one of these stories XD. I have been undisciplined and it probably does not help that a lot of the time, I publish the first draft of a story without a serious edit, case in point, I think I know exactly which passages in "The Dragon in the Deep" which were distracting from the main goal.
It is hard though, because sometimes I just want to throw in everything that seems good into a story. I suppose that to date, I've been very bad at streamlining XD
Tiamat was an unusual story because I wrote that for meanybeany's story contest, and I wrote it all up in less than 72 hours. I was imagining what the macro crowd would want since that fetish does not resonate with me the same way that weight gain does. I was surprised to hear that it totally failed at being erotic, but I can definitely see how it might fail, since it is a pretty neutrally toned story and focused primarily on the mechanics of actually devouring earth. I'm actually trying again with "Leviathan" but I'm suddenly afraid I might be repeating some of the mistakes I made with Tiamat :-S.
Dragon in the Deep was much easier for me, since I could focus more on the weight gain aspect and it helped that I was able to tie the growth to some kind of sexual stimulation for the protagonist. It could have probably done better with cutting out all of the content from the perspective of the university professors, and yet, those scenes explain the main plot device of the dragon's growth and provide, what I hoped, was a nice resolution to the story. That story was actually going to end up even longer, but it was already going beyond the scope of what Nixx originally had commissioned from me, so I had to rush the last act.
At any rate, maybe I would benefit more from bringing things back a notch, at least in terms of distracting from the main purpose of a piece, which, as you mentioned, is to titillate, not to philosophize or wax on about things which ultimately do not matter.
Still though... I really want to write something which is smart, engaging and sexual all at once, especially in regards to sexual and political power... I might be further off from accomplishing my goal than I thought, however. XD
Secondly, I don't think you can draw a hard-and-fast rule about it, because everyone places differently on the (as I call it) High-Minded/Fetish scale. Your works sit mostly smack-bang in the middle, the fetish aspect never far from mind, but equally, you never allow the fetish aspect to interfere with the plot.
As for what I've written here, I've actually modified my opinion a good deal, mostly based on the arguments made by the first commenter. No one can escape the fact that every piece of literature is written for a specific audience and a specific purpose. Granted, the purpose of the prose I write is to entertain, and in the past I've mostly attempted to write compelling stories which feature weight gain and other fetish material interwoven into the plot, rather than the plot bowing down to, or super-ceded by the fetish material itself.
And while I still think that a story is much more entertaining with a compelling plot, and if you can design the plot to support and/or require the fetish material, all the better, but I'm not of the opinion anymore that the story should be able to stand alone without the fetishy material in order to be good. I have to take a step back and realize that only a certain type of person already interested in this type of story-telling is going to be interested in the story I want to tell, no matter how much work I put into designing world class plot XD In order to truly deliver in this genre, it really cannot be entirely about a complex and involving plot, not to the detriment of the kind of material the reader is actually looking for.
I myself might be satisfied with a mostly mainstream story, with fetish material popping in here and there infrequently, but I think most people who are looking for these stories would get easily bored when the material they had been looking for does not show up for page after page.