Suggestions for balance between romance (drama) and erotica

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Cotton Nightie

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I've spent some time perusing the FAQs and getting a feel for how things work around here since I joined a week ago. This is my first post other than introducing myself, so feel free to correct me if I say something wrong.

I love to write romantic stories that lean toward the dramatic (some critics would say melodramatic) and they happen to include characters with questions or hangups about their sexuality. Both of my novels featured explicit sex, but I've never felt it was gratuitous or too prominently featured for the plot.

It seems like I get complaints from mainly erotica readers that I spend too much time on "boring" stuff which they skip for the good parts. Romance readers sometimes complain that the explicit sex makes them uncomfortable, but they really enjoy getting to know the characters through their dialog and actions, which obviously takes more words to show than just saying it plainly.

I write what I like to write, so I'm not willing to throw one side over for the other. Is anyone else writing across different sub-genres like this and fighting their readers expectations? How do you balance between the two and still remain confident about your story?
 

Gringa

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Write what makes your heart sing and go from there - otherwise your inner voice will take over with doubt.
 

Cotton Nightie

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Write what makes your heart sing and go from there - otherwise your inner voice will take over with doubt.

Thanks for the comment, and I do try. It's just that sometimes I feel like my tastes for smaller, more intimate stories just don't work in genres full of billionaires falling for college girls, horny vampires, and titillating sex.

For some reason I can include a graphic murder in an story and not get pigeon-holed as a thriller or mystery, but put in one explicit sex scene and it's erotica.

Oh well, I'm writing today, so it's a good day!
 

Kuroi okami

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I feel you! My WIP is a sic-fi story with a romance between the two lead characters, I enjoy writing erotic scenes, but I don't want to alienate those that don't like the steamy stuff, I'm working to find a balance. Not easy! Good luck!
 

Cereus

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People who read sexy, romance stories tend to be particular about how much sex there is or how descriptive the language is (iykwim).

I think if there's a lot of heart in your story, you have a chance of finding readers.
 

briannasealock

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I've spent some time perusing the FAQs and getting a feel for how things work around here since I joined a week ago. This is my first post other than introducing myself, so feel free to correct me if I say something wrong.

I love to write romantic stories that lean toward the dramatic (some critics would say melodramatic) and they happen to include characters with questions or hangups about their sexuality. Both of my novels featured explicit sex, but I've never felt it was gratuitous or too prominently featured for the plot.

It seems like I get complaints from mainly erotica readers that I spend too much time on "boring" stuff which they skip for the good parts. Romance readers sometimes complain that the explicit sex makes them uncomfortable, but they really enjoy getting to know the characters through their dialog and actions, which obviously takes more words to show than just saying it plainly.

I write what I like to write, so I'm not willing to throw one side over for the other. Is anyone else writing across different sub-genres like this and fighting their readers expectations? How do you balance between the two and still remain confident about your story?

Speaking as an erotica reader, I get why some of your erotic readers want to skip the boring parts and get to the sex. most erotica online are one shots and not full blown stories. And mostly they're badly written.

It's different, I think, in the fan fiction world where I have read some very good erotic stories that include a good plot of which I follow if its a WIP.

Stick with writing what you WANT to write. What makes you happy to write. The Romance people will stick around. And seriously, the sex in romance is pretty vanilla. It's not hard core at all and I prefer hard core to vanilla any day of the week. lol. So basically, go with what you have. You sound like you know what you're doing.
 

Latina Bunny

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Cotton Nightie, if it has a happy ending (or Happy For Now ending), and your story is more focused on the romance aspects, then you're probably writing erotic romance.

I've seen small romance publishers seperate romances by heat levels or seperate the romances from the more erotic romances (or erotic romances from erotica). Erotic romance has romance elements and more steamier sex scenes than some romances, so your story may fit into this category.


As long as the sex scenes fit the story, you can keep them. :)

On this forum, we have some erotic romance and erotica authors here, so perhaps they can give you some more tips. I wonder how explicit your scenes are, since what some people may consider "steamy" may be considered "vanilla" by others. Maybe get some more beta readers?

It's not hard core at all and I prefer hard core to vanilla any day of the week. lol.

I'm the opposite, lol. I'm tired of explicit sex scenes nowadays (as a reader of m/m romance ebooks and adult romance, in general), so I am cautious of which romance novels and genres to read.

Cotton Nightie, you're not going to be able to please all readers, especialy when it comes to some subjective topics such as sex and violence.

Write your story, revise it, get some more beta readers or put an excerpt in the "Show Your Work" section of this forum, and get some more feedback.
 
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briannasealock

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It's cool beans, it's whatever you are happy to read. I guess your audience may be somewhere in the middle. *shrugs* you've definitely come up with something unique.
 

Cotton Nightie

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Write your story, revise it, get some more beta readers or put an excerpt in the "Show Your Work" section of this forum, and get some more feedback.

Since I posted this back in April, so much has happened. It's an interesting coincidence that this thread got a series of replies this week.

Long-ish story time: I was invited to do a couple of interviews ( #1, #2 ) for a little writer blog called Gone With The Word. A New York Times bestselling author read my interview, then read the excerpt of my first novel online... and asked to read my manuscript. She liked it and put me in contact with her niche publisher who invited me to revise, re-title, and re-release it under a new, more professional pen name.

The book, Inseparable, was released on June 18th, climbed to #8 on Amazon's free bestseller list, then when they switched it to paid, climbed to a height of #1,890 and is currently at #2,228. Right now it's got 22 reviews, with 16 5-stars, and other than some complaints about awkward dialog, it's seemed to hit the right balance of drama and sex I was looking for.

So to answer my own question:

  1. Be lucky
  2. Get a really good editor
  3. Have them cut entire chapters and scenes
  4. Rewrite like mad to hit their deadline
  5. And, finally, get extremely lucky again

I'm walking on the clouds this week... Sorry if it seems like I'm bragging, but I'm just so stunned by all this. Holy crap, I have to write a sequel now.

Cotton
 

Latina Bunny

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I'm glad you are happy, Cotton Nightie! :partyguy:
Looks like you found your niche, especially since it's New Adult. :) New Adult seems to have lots of romantic/erotic stories, so it seems your story will fit right in.

I wish your book lots of success! :D
 

Cotton Nightie

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Thanks for the kind words and well wishes, bunny-gypsy. I'm still shell shocked over the whole thing. This last month feels like a dream. Now I can't stop checking the page constantly to see how it's doing and I'm afraid I'm becoming neurotic about it, haha!
 

gingerwoman

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Speaking as an erotica reader, I get why some of your erotic readers want to skip the boring parts and get to the sex. most erotica online are one shots and not full blown stories. And mostly they're badly written.

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There are numerous publishers putting out many very detailed, full bodied novels, with complex plots and characters, and a lot of erotic content, both erotica and erotic romance, both in ebook and in print.
 

gingerwoman

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The book, Inseparable, was released on June 18th, climbed to #8 on Amazon's free bestseller list, then when they switched it to paid, climbed to a height of #1,890 and is currently at #2,228. Right now it's got 22 reviews, with 16 5-stars, and other than some complaints about awkward dialog, it's seemed to hit the right balance of drama and sex I was looking for.



Cotton

This doesn't surprise me, because reading your earlier comments, I was thinking, contemporary erotic romance without paranormal elements is actually very popular right now.
 
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