How Much Smut for Your story?

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Note: This article was specifically written for smut scenes, but truthfully, it can be be for any type of scene: horror scenes, angst scenes, kissing scenes, fight scenes... Just replace the word Smut with the scene of your choice.

How Much Smut

Should go into Your story?

Before you can even approach this question, first you'll need to decide:

WHO is your target audience?

Yourself only.
A specific niche of readers.
As broad a reading audience as possible.
Other

What Age bracket?

Under 18
Over 18

What Gender?

Male
Female
Both

What kind of STORY do they prefer?

Angst
Contemporary
Romantic Comedy
BDSM
Horror
Psychological Thrillers
Mystery
Comedy of Errors
Supernatural
Sci-Fi
Steampunk
Fantasy
Yaoi (M/M romantic fantasies)
Yuri (F/F romantic fantasies)

The wonderful thing about smut is that it can be used in any genre.

Once you know WHO your target audience is, how smutty you should make your story depends on these major factors:

1) Your Target Audience and THEIR Expectations.

What level of graphic smut does your target audience EXPECT in their stories?

Designing your story toward what your target audience likes and wants is the easiest and most effective way of guaranteeing that they'll adore your work.

As a professional erotica author, my target audience are the readers of my novels. They expect extremely detailed xXx work from me.

2) Your Skill Level in Writing.

Can you write Good smut?

What are you Good at?

creating characters
world-building
plot twists
dialogue
smut scenes
humorous scenes
emotional scenes
action scenes

What are you Bad at?

Realize your strengths, but more importantly -- your weaknesses. Your weak areas are where you're going to need to be the most Creative to ensure that those weaknesses don't drag the rest of the story down.

3) The Level of smut You are Comfortable writing.

How smutty are you willing to go?

Sweet Vanilla
Deliciously Kinky
Angsty Fetish
Hardcore BDSM
M/M
F/F
Three-somes
More-somes

I'm comfortable with any level, from sweet romance to xXx hardcore smut, but that's just me.

If you are not comfortable writing smut Don't Do It because that discomfort will show in your writing.

4) The Story.

Would smut Add to the story, or Ruin it?

Smut is all well and fine, but if your story doesn't actually need a full-on smut scene to get its point across, then a simple kissing scene is smutty enough.

Make the Smut COUNT!

Just like every other element in your work, Smut needs a purpose, a reason to be in the story.

Show something:

The type of smut a character prefers, and how they choose and gain their partners, can easily be used to reveal a character's Base Personality: tender, sweet, attention to detail, aggressive, humorous, serious…

Prove something:

Smut scenes are an excellent tool for visible demonstrations of a couple's progression from mere passionate attraction to protective and supportive love. They can also demonstrate the downward spiral of a destructive relationship, such as one that starts with attraction and ends with irrational obsession.

Make something Happen:

The best way to make smut work in a story is by having the smut trigger a shift in the plot. The traditional use for smut in Romance fiction is to make or break a relationship, but that’s not all it can do.

Smut can cause Transformations.

Vampirism and Lycanthropy as STD (Sexually transmitted disease.)
Demonic or Spiritual possession as STD

Smut can trigger or grant Psychic or Magical ability.

Initiation rituals
The classic hentai game Bible Black uses this.

Smut can be a Distraction that allows someone else to accomplish something nefarious.

The modus operandi of the classic Femme Fatale.

Smut can show a radical change in a character's Personality.

The classic Gothic novel, Dr Jeckell and Mr Hyde does this.

----- Original Message -----

I like that you pointed out the weak points (mine is definitely the level of written smut.) Many tips only talk about what to do, not what there is to realize before you begin. :D

-------------------------------

Well, if you know where you want to end up, you're more likely to actually get there. That means having the car pointed in the right direction from the very beginning. (If you're going to California and Route 84 won't take you there, don't get on Route 84.)

I'm firmly of the opinion that any weakness can be worked around. You just have to be clever about it.

However, you can't work around a limitation that you:

Won't acknowledge exists.
Don't plan for.

There is a work-around for a weakness in writing smut!

First, read some good smut and Collect It. Seriously, collect GOOD smut novels/stories and bookmark the appropriate pages.
Break out your highlighting pens and highlight the Action and Description parts of those scenes. NOT the dialog because you won't be needing that.
Write all those highlighted pieces into a document - only DON'T COPY the exact words! Paraphrase them by swapping out that writer's words with your own. Don't forget to elaborate on what you have by adding plenty of adjectives. (A thesaurus is very handy for this.)
Insert YOUR scenery, YOUR descriptions, and YOUR dialog.
Rewrite and polish to suit your work. By the time you're done, the scene will be twice as long and entirely Yours.

Before you get your panties in a twist...!

It's only plagiarism if

you use the exact same phrases

and you Publish it.

This is a REAL writing exercise originally practiced by Romance authors, Fantasy authors, and Horror authors. It's one the Big Secrets they don't like to share (or admit to,) because it works.

What this exercise does is teach you to use a successful MODEL to build your own work on. Eventually, with practice, you'll be able to create without a model.

Before the age of the Internet, THIS is how all forms of fiction writing was originally taught; by Copying good examples and reworking them to suit your own style. (Hell, I was taught this in my fifth grade English class!)

In fact, it's how EVERYTHING was originally taught from the alphabet to to fine art.

Originality isn't merely over-rated,

it Doesn't Exist.

NOTHING is purely Original.

Every single thing; inventions, alphabets, stories, art, songs, music... was copied and improved on, from something that already existed.

Everything is a Remix Part 3:
Elements of Creativity

Warning: FALSE ENDING!!! Check the time left before you leave!

Art is STILL taught the same way -- by Copying.

When you draw from life, you're Copying what's before you. However, the way you draw and what tools you use changes the results into something uniquely yours. Even in a life-drawing class of 30 students, all using the same type of paper and the same type of charcoals, every student in that class will always have uniquely different results -- despite the fact that they're all drawing the same model. This is because no two artists SEE or Create the same way.

In Conclusion...

When used cleverly, smut can be an amazing tool to enhance a story. However, when used badly, or worse; as an afterthought, ("Oh hey, let's add some smut scenes!") smut can utterly ruin an otherwise entertaining story.

The absolute worst thing a creator can do is have smut scenes tacked-on at the end of an otherwise PG-rated story. This rather ugly trick is used specifically to attract readers who prefer adult content. Doing this is the lowest form of cheating because it's False Advertising, also known as pandering.

Don't cheat your readers! If you're going to write a story with smut in it, design it to be smutty from the very beginning by making those scenes necessary to the story.

How Much Smut for Your story?: Chapter 1

Story Summary

Table of Contents

Art RPG

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Chapter 1: Chapter 1

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