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I combine… usually the other way, since I try to keep it reasonable on length (4-9k), but there’s some deviations. To the same plot point, clean is 110 chapters, while it’s 263 on the explicit. (Note, I use kwords because the “page” metric is highly subjective to font choices, layout, etc.)

It started similarly for me on the potter fanfic rewrite. I’d have them starkers in the explicit, clothed in the clean, fade to black, etc. Sometimes it’d be easier to exclude a scene entirely from the clean too, like Ginny sneakily pleasuring herself to a naked Harry in the Burrow in the first chapter (because the story’s Harry/Muggle not Ginny, and Ginny’s a tad jealous with a sense of entitlement). During Harry’s summer holiday trip across Europe with muggle, Ron, & Hermione; the explicit showed them starkers practically the whole time, after Harry & Ron make sure the girls’ prank backfires to that. However, the biggest contributor to the differences is a particular first year OC – Ash. I’d created him with problems as a foil to Harry assisting Oliver Wood in teaching the first year’s flying lesson (Wood replaced Madam Hooch), thus Harry spent the entire lesson focusing on helping Ash, to Wood’s ire, including having Ash ride on the broom with Harry. In the explicit, I wanted to make it super-awkward for Harry, so I loosened his Quidditch Robes, and when Ash grabbed around Harry to hold the broom handle between Harry’s legs, Ash accidentally holds Harry’s stiffy instead. After that, Ash simply became fun to write, as a shy character that required genitalia contact in order to trust enough to talk, have confidence, function normally with another person. This invoked a strong little/big brother type of relationship between Harry & Ash (non-sexual). Thus, the related antics basically gets Ash banished to the explicit version only… him going permanently nudist in protest of the frame-up job being done against Harry. Ash’s a “happy little accident” I did praise my way because it’s resulted in the two versions that feel organic in writing – though I do worry a bit that there may be a sense of “missing something” in the clean, given how much I’ve been writing on the explicit side only (it’s around a 3:1 ratio on words).

I read for plot more than sex, if I’m being very honest. I don’t care how much sex is in a story, or how early it appears, if the story’s plot doesn’t hook me. And that goes for fan fiction as well as original fiction. I think, reading as much here as I do, I’m somewhat jaded.

I wrote a 3-chapter story called “There’s a New Seraph in Town” that only has sex in chapter 3. People liked it anyway.

Well… first, you don’ t have to have sex in the first chapter, especially if it’s got a strong plot. And with how I’m doing this rewrite… frequently scenes that were penned under “clean” tend to not get too smutty even when they go to explicit, might have an odd remark to nipples, pubic hairs, todgers, clits, that sort to remind the audience the characters are starkers. Whereas the differences are more pronounced when I write a scene to be explicit, only to realize I kinda need it in the clean too (thus starts a “clean up” where I mark off the explicit bits). When I view my own stories, the first chapters very rarely have any real sex scenes...nudity or skimpy wear being more common. Actual sex usually comes in later chapters.