How much sex are you looking for in a story?

[Void]

I'm particularly asking this to readers - how much sex do you want in a good heroine peril story? How far do you want the sexual content to go, how frequently do you want it do go there, and how much of the story do you want it to take? Do you skip through the story until the sex comes back, or are you strapped in for the full ride?

I'm genuinely curious what people think of this, and answers will likely affect how I weight these scales for everything I am working on... I have a fairly clear picture of what I like, and I am biased towards it, but I do wonder if my preference wouldn't offer enough sex.

Like, my ideal story has a lot of story and goes to pains to make sure the heroine's and villains are established, and to have flashy action sequences like you would see in a proper superhero story... but then pull the rug and take a left turn into protracted sexual peril that lingers in a scene that turns the dial up to ten, or to a steamy six that feels like a ten. I am happy if a story does this just once, or if it does it multiple times, but ideally I want the impact of the peril scene to hit like its the first time, if that makes sense. I don't want the novelty to wear off.

But then, I could never help but notice that stories with sex always got more attention and engagement than stories without, and, generally, the more sex it had seemed to get it more attention. It makes me wonder if a story would be more appealing if it dived into sex as often and as intensely as possible, or if people just aren't interested in the trimmings around the sex scenes.

I was tempted to put a poll for this, but I think I would be too leading with the options I would give, so I'd love to hear what you guys think.

[Dazzle1]

I'm particularly asking this to readers - how much sex do you want in a good heroine peril story? How far do you want the sexual content to go, how frequently do you want it do go there, and how much of the story do you want it to take? Do you skip through the story until the sex comes back, or are you strapped in for the full ride?

I'm genuinely curious what people think of this, and answers will likely affect how I weight these scales for everything I am working on... I have a fairly clear picture of what I like, and I am biased towards it, but I do wonder if my preference wouldn't offer enough sex.

Like, my ideal story has a lot of story and goes to pains to make sure the heroine's and villains are established, and to have flashy action sequences like you would see in a proper superhero story... but then pull the rug and take a left turn into protracted sexual peril that lingers in a scene that turns the dial up to ten, or to a steamy six that feels like a ten. I am happy if a story does this just once, or if it does it multiple times, but ideally I want the impact of the peril scene to hit like its the first time, if that makes sense. I don't want the novelty to wear off.

But then, I could never help but notice that stories with sex always got more attention and engagement than stories without, and, generally, the more sex it had seemed to get it more attention. It makes me wonder if a story would be more appealing if it dived into sex as often and as intensely as possible, or if people just aren't interested in the trimmings around the sex scenes.

I was tempted to put a poll for this, but I think I would be too leading with the options I would give, so I'd love to hear what you guys think.

I agree with you.

If you just have a fat guy in a knitted ski mask overpowering WonderWoman and going straight to sex, no interest
The Golden Age Wonder Woman comics or the 60's Batman scenarios with the sex is what I want

[sneakly]

Giving the girl the ol’ stumpf is fine if that’s your thing. Plenty of people like straight porn, but superheroine stories, I think are more melodrama driven. People want to see interesting things happening. What perversions had the villain thought up? What does the heroine experience? How will she escape? There is plenty of straight porn out there, plenty of rape fantasy, but it gets old fast. How many times can you make WW suck cock and be a slave?

The more often a trope is done, the harder it is to make work well. I am positive someone can write a great WW gets raped story or Lex fucks Supergirl, but it will be hard to write one that will standout. Put her in a vacuum bed and fuck machine pounding her while Lex leaves her to her fate while he robs Ft Knox, readers will stick around to see how she escapes (or if she does).

You need to write the story you want to read. I know some will skip to the good parts, some like the humor I tend to include. I am never sure how invested readers will get in the “story.” It is a bit of a crap shoot.

[batgirl1969]

Giving the girl the ol’ stumpf is fine if that’s your thing. Plenty of people like straight porn, but superheroine stories, I think are more melodrama driven. People want to see interesting things happening. What perversions had the villain thought up? What does the heroine experience? How will she escape? There is plenty of straight porn out there, plenty of rape fantasy, but it gets old fast. How many times can you make WW suck cock and be a slave?

The more often a trope is done, the harder it is to make work well. I am positive someone can write a great WW gets raped story or Lex fucks Supergirl, but it will be hard to write one that will standout. Put her in a vacuum bed and fuck machine pounding her while Lex leaves her to her fate while he robs Ft Knox, readers will stick around to see how she escapes (or if she does).

You need to write the story you want to read. I know some will skip to the good parts, some like the humor I tend to include. I am never sure how invested readers will get in the “story.” It is a bit of a crap shoot.

I agree, like how Brainiac captures and torments and tortured Supergirl slowly as he works to impregnate her over and over with his silicon replicants, each one developing within hours and he knows only Supergirl's womb can handle the stress of birthing hundreds of silicon life forms with no problems over and over as each time before he forces orgasms or other insane things on her!

[arkane]

I love Superheroine stories for the bondage and traps and the heroine KOed and captured.
This doesn't mean I always dislike sex in a story, but the sex draws attention, so I prefer its presence to be minimal, if there's any.

[Void]

Interesting responses. It is heartening to see that for some of you peril is really the greater focus in the story, and sex doesn't even need to make an appearance - or could even be a negative if it did.

My own sense of this is almost at odds with itself. For me, sex - or, really, sexual peril - is almost a necessity. It's the big moment in the story that I read for, it's the beating heart the whole story centres around, and I just wouldn't get my 'hit' if the story did nothing sexual. And yet, I'd be happy if the sexual content was just 1% of the content of the story, and the sexual content didn't move past an R rating - I'm way more interested in how we got to the peril, and what the peril means for the heroine as it is happening, than in the actual sexual stuff going on. I've definitely got some sort of fetish to do with surrendering to temptation, or submission to pleasure, and that goes hand in hand with a separate fetish about a mentally and physically strong person becoming mentally and physically weakened. As my tastes have evolved over time, I think I may have developed a fetish for mind control/hypno content - and actually I can get the hit I'm looking for from MC stories where nothing sexual happens at all.

But yeah, it's hard not to see the connection between explicit erotic content and greater numerical interest...

[bushwackerbob]

Giving the girl the ol’ stumpf is fine if that’s your thing. Plenty of people like straight porn, but superheroine stories, I think are more melodrama driven. People want to see interesting things happening. What perversions had the villain thought up? What does the heroine experience? How will she escape? There is plenty of straight porn out there, plenty of rape fantasy, but it gets old fast. How many times can you make WW suck cock and be a slave?

The more often a trope is done, the harder it is to make work well. I am positive someone can write a great WW gets raped story or Lex fucks Supergirl, but it will be hard to write one that will standout. Put her in a vacuum bed and fuck machine pounding her while Lex leaves her to her fate while he robs Ft Knox, readers will stick around to see how she escapes (or if she does).

You need to write the story you want to read. I know some will skip to the good parts, some like the humor I tend to include. I am never sure how invested readers will get in the “story.” It is a bit of a crap shoot.

I agree with you. I want more beats to the story, not just "wham, bam, thank you Mam". The context and how those story beats are played enrich those stories, makes them more complete.

[DrDominator9]

Sex scenes are critical in SHIP stories, however, they don't have to be long as long as they're memorable. Putting in the same old maneuvers isn't great. Try writing the moment from a unique perspective. Mix it up. Just a suggestion.

[DrDominator9]

Many of the stories I wrote, even the multi-chapter versions, were conceived around one sexual peril scene. I would then work out the most interesting way to bring that story to that moment. Of course, when devising that progression to the big scene I often came up with tangential sex moments which I would often include in other ways, either before or after that big moment.

[sneakly]

I often conceive a story in this order:
Interesting peril
Who are the heroine and the villain (I usually have a heroine already in mind)
The caper around which the peril is constructed
The build (how exactly do we get there)
The kitchen sink ( just everything that could possibly happen to make the trap more intense, more inescapable)
The final escape
The final twist at the end that gives the reader a surprise or satisfying ending. (the unexpected ally, the betrayal, someone else getting credit (chief O'Hara will never credit Batgirl). I like to give readers a little extra payout if they stuck with the story to last page.

[DonShip]

The heroine and peril are top in my opinion, but I feel there must be sex, too. I wrote a book without any sex once, and it is the only book that I got pushback on. No one ever complained about too much or too little sex, just no sex. I won't make that mistake again. Ha ha.

[Get Your Exxon]

This is peril so there better be certain moments. How far and dark depends on the story. As long as it all adds up then it's okay. It's like the situation has to match the rules of the world if that makes sense. Short is also better but I will read and epic if the writing is good and it delivers but I also skip 99% of what’s out there because it sucks. Maybe quality does or does not matter but I tell you this, I would not have clicked had some other person posted. I remember the chain supergirl story and that is because it was different, but I also want good stuff to get me to more good stuff. Hope you crack the code.

[Void]

Here's another, closely-related, question, particularly directed at sexual peril enjoyers:

If the heroine is totally defeated and has surrendered herself completely to the sexual ways of her captor... Should the scene fade out there, or do you want the scene to just be getting going there? Is the breaking of her will more what you're reading for, or is it the full exploration of the consequences after her will is broken? Or are both equally interesting for you?

This question feels strangely pertinent to everything I have in the works just now. I'm just wrapping up Night Lynx, and I have the creeping fear I've left the peril scene in the oven too long - that people will get bored of it going on even when the struggle is clearly over.

[Malice]

Here's another, closely-related, question, particularly directed at sexual peril enjoyers:

If the heroine is totally defeated and has surrendered herself completely to the sexual ways of her captor... Should the scene fade out there, or do you want the scene to just be getting going there? Is the breaking of her will more what you're reading for, or is it the full exploration of the consequences after her will is broken? Or are both equally interesting for you?

This question feels strangely pertinent to everything I have in the works just now. I'm just wrapping up Night Lynx, and I have the creeping fear I've left the peril scene in the oven too long - that people will get bored of it going on even when the struggle is clearly over.

Hey there,

For me, the real meat of it is the breaking.

Holding my breath to see if the heroine’s will snap—or not—is what I read for.

I don’t mind lingering in the aftermath if it actually serves a purpose.

Maybe she turns the tide, helps corrupt others, or ends up a villain herself. I enjoy pure gonzo too, but in this genre I’m way more into the fall than what comes after, unless what comes after actually matters.

[Void]

Yeah, well said - my own interest is very similar in these scenes. I guess there are steps to this, though. Like, in many ways the struggle is itself a consequences of first getting captured, and some people might say their interest stopped when the capture happened - and then they would happily have the story fade to black, leaving the rest for their imagination. Similarly, there are more steps downward after, or if, her will snaps - or maybe it's a very prolonged snap, made of multiple, gradually greater concessions...

Thinking about it like that, I think my concern may be that I've drawn the 'snap' out too long.

I actively like some exploration of the consequences out the other side - but that's like the dessert of the story for me. I want it - it might be the best part of my meal - but I don't know if I want the majority of my meal to be a whole bunch of desserts.

Oh well, I'm too deep in the hole now to fix it. I'll see how it goes down with people, and take the appropriate lessons out of it for the other stories this issue will be relevant to.

[arkane]

If the heroine is totally defeated and has surrendered herself completely to the sexual ways of her captor... Should the scene fade out there, or do you want the scene to just be getting going there? Is the breaking of her will more what you're reading for, or is it the full exploration of the consequences after her will is broken? Or are both equally interesting for you?

Sometimes I think the scene should fade out before the actual sex scene, but if there's one, the focus should be on the unwanted pleasure of the tamed heroine. Close inspection of the psychological consequences for the heroine could be an element, 1 - difficult to explore in a realistic way, 2- sad and boring, or at least this is how I feel. Obviously, she should be vengeful and indignant.
Anyway, I think everything depends on the setting of the single story.