Author's Intuition: The Learning Writer ~ Clop (Sex in Stories)

Hello, everypony! Delicate Feather here! (Or in this case, Feather Note). Now what I have here for you is a bit of a blog series that I'll be making dedicated to helping writers understand certain things. Like what works in a story, what doesn't, what characters work out, whether a theme is appropriate, that type of stuff. It's also a first for me too because I've never done such a thing like this before. But with being a writer for two years, there are things I have learned from the few college teachers, and especially my friend on this user, Alicorn Priest. So without further adieu, let us begin!

Oh look at these two! They look so adorable!

Firstly, we must look at the subject at hand. Now when we talk about sex we are encroaching on territory that is rather sensitive in certain cases, depending on how the story that you plan to write evolves as you go along through the process. But first you must ask yourself these questions. "Is sex really necessary to the story? Will it serve a purpose to further the relationship of these characters? And how often are these characters involved in this sensual act?" Once you are able to fully answer these questions the story you want will clarify and shall make more sense in the long run.

Let's start with the first question. "Is sex really necessary to the story?" To begin we must look at the story itself in its entirety. The minor problems you will face is the length and how many chapters will comprise of said story, as well as other such miscellaneous items like characters, themes, so on and so forth. Now to figure out if sex is absolutely necessary, this is where you must address the issue. Which characters are you planning to fall in love, and does a scene where the two get intimate need to exist? (Of course a scene like this doesn't necessarily need just two people. It could be one character performing this act alone, with the action of it driven because of the character they are in love with. Heck, there can even be more than two... although that water quickly gets muddied and soon you'll find yourself knee deep in a story that makes no sense and would just be considered a bland clopfic at this point).

So the first issue of who falls in love with who is rather simplistic. It's the idea of having the two perform sex is where it involves a longer thought process. The first point to look at is that love, in itself, is complicated to write about. You don't just sit down, write a couple thousand words and call the scene good. It takes a while before your characters can fall in love. There are challenges they face. For some characters it is personal problems. For others they have to get over their shyness. Some need to become more selfless. And others deal with things they don't like about their love interests, even going as far as struggling to accept their differences. If the story isn't long enough to encompass the portion of time it takes for the characters feelings to grow for one another then this puts the story at a disadvantage and makes sex rather useless and seemingly out of nowhere.

(Why this can be difficult for some novice writers, is that a few more experienced authors have experienced love themselves Which gives them the ability to produce a story with the romantic theme in a higher quality, because they know the sensation of their everyday thoughts swirling around said love interest. They know what it's like when they go on a date. They know what its like to have their hearts broken. Authors who haven't had gone through this see more of a challenge since there's a barrier that gets in the way. There's no experience, therefore, authors like you and I must bring a great more detail and effort into bringing this story to life).

The second point you must look at is directed to themes, which does relate. (Yes this step is more obvious than the other, but it's always good to think about this every now and then). Now this small and minor but important bit gives you an idea of what themes allow you to do what with a sex story. If your characters are on some epic journey across lands far and wide, a sex scene could be ideal. Yet there are complications since sex wouldn't necessarily be the big picture of the story. There's so much going on in the story already that a sex scene would get overlooked or stick out like a sore thumb. If it's just an every day story, like a slice of life (heck even a comedy sometimes pulls this off well although not always), the sexual components and love interest would come out more. There's not a lot of complications if you talk about a character's day to day life. (Although that can change, either a little or drastically, there's still a chance for it to work). Minor as it is, a point like this can work. Because in this case, the character's love life can and could become the main focus of a story where there's not much going on. (But this isn't always the case, although it is important to at least remember).

With the first question, the final factor comes down to this. How do the readers feel about it? Sure sex is sometimes nice to read about. When we read about our favorite characters getting with another person, it fills us with joy. However, it can also lead you into a trap. There must come a point where it is absolutely necessary. You can't just throw it around willy nilly and expect a positive reaction. Sure the readers get something, but for those who want to see the character evolve, all we get is a repetitive and boring story. It slowly just devolves into one of those baseless and one-shot clopfics that provide nothing to the characters, and even to an extent, the readers as well. (This also can be a topic for another time about clop as just one-shots, but on to the focused idea at hand).

Here comes the second question. "Will it serve a purpose to further the relationship of these characters?" Storywise aside, characters play the important role as our guide through their universe. And sometimes we love to see a relationship blossom between our favorite characters, whether they be heroes or heroines, and even villains and villainesses. Sometimes we just love wacky and funny ways to make said characters fall in love. But here's a problem that writers face. The characters, as I addressed beforehand, must have some form of love in a previous light that we have come to find out. The topic of "Love at First Sight" or "True Love" is a Hollywood ideal. It is trash, basically. There are no such things as these types of love. To love someone, a character must know this person. Whether they be long time friends and or current friends, a bond stronger than friendship can form.

But there are obstacles, like I said earlier that they must face. Not all relationships are one hundred percent perfect. Problems can arise and these characters must find a solution to fix them. But the aren't some epic quest problems. They're internal problems. Everybody faces them in every day relationships. This is the danger of clopfics. They don't present a story. They present two characters having an intimate moment with one another. Sure you can try and write a story but it doesn't work if you half-ass it. And the characters may have had previous friendships with them but it doesn't justify the fact that two characters cannot have romantic feelings for one another in the blink of an eye. It has to be established that after a certain event, they can fall in love with one another. If there is no previous action that has given the characters a reasonable cause to pursue said action, then it pretty much devolves into a story about two characters falling in love with one another for a reason that is not justified or for one that has been poorly done. (Twilight could be an example of a story that was basically centered around teenage love, with two characters that weren't really done well. Although those who found some enjoyment in the stories could at least tell me what they found to enjoy about the love in these stories).

The final question of the day is "And how often are these characters involved in this sensual act?" Well, this is probably one of the more important bits in a story. Now a sex scene doesn't necessarily have to have a length. It all depends on what the characters are going to do and how they react to each specific sensation. Some characters are sensitive to these 'touches' while others maybe need a bit more stimulus. Others don't have a preferred spot while some characters love a certain place and get a higher amount of stimulus with this preferred spot. Hell, people can usually go crazy, so long as it makes sense. You can go dark and include even more precarious topics with sex (I.E including dark sex which I guess is more related to blood, domination and even the darkest of these topics, rape which is again, a topic for another time).

But the idea involved here is how many scenes you have. Depending on how many scenes are needed, you can have a few, or a lot. But when it comes to the length of the story, having quite a lot of scenes of endless sex is more like a double edged sword. Depending on how well you know how to write, you can either do a great job with the story. Or fail because the amount of sex overwhelms the story because it is apparently more important than the story itself. This is where you have to decide the amount of chapters dedicated to the character's intimate relationship. And this also depends on the amount of interactions between the characters. If there's plenty of interaction, then there should be at least a few chapters dedicated to their relationship. If the interactions are there but not as many, then it should be a while before they even attempt their first sexual interaction.

The long run of these points is that making a story about sex, or have it revolve around two characters coming to their first sexual encounter, or even showing two people in love have complications in their relationship, just remember that writing stories like these isn't some cakewalk. There are plenty of authors on this site that focus on story related sex stories (not one-shot clopfics) that sometimes struggle to figure out the direction the story should go. Heck, even I struggled writing my first romantic story. But don't let the challenge discourage you. When you've written for at least two or more years it soon becomes more and more like clockwork. You'll know how to do it. (Heck, even just one year will give you the idea of how to approach it). Just don't get blinded by the sensual ideas of this story. When you focus down on the characters and the story itself, then you may have a story you can work with.