Oh Noes! Where's The SEX?! /panic

[Leonhart29]

I agree with you whole heartedly. I write both forms actually, PWP and stories that go on and on with sex thrown in. I haven't gotten a whole lot of reviews that attack me for what I do write, and I'm grateful for it. I would be oh so tempted to respond in a scathing manner asking the reviewer to "just grow up".

There are sometimes when I want to read a novel and then there are times when all I want is smut. I have to search through what is offered to find it. A newer category system would help that.

[Keith Inc.]

I enjoy posting on AFF, because if it seems appropriate for a story i write to have foul language, adult situations, demonic possession, or bestiality, i don't have to worry that someone's going to delete (or worse, edit) my postings to match their idea of what's proper. There doesn't seem to be a limit as far as topic goes.

As with many above, i write what i think is correct, for the story, the scene, the characters.

Some reviews have said they like everything in a story but the porn. Some have reviewed other efforts and questioned why post a story without porn on AFF.

I do recognize that posting a story in Erotica, the reader is in a position to complain if the story isn't all that erotic. Or if your story has 82 characters listing the warnings, then they can complain if they saw BWB or SST in the summary, but it wasn't delivered in the fic.

But if it's a TV show, i don't think that the only purpose for fanfic is for graphic descriptions of character pairings.

Ultimately, if i get a complaint review, i have to consider the summary and warnings offered. Did i set them up for a fall? OR did i deliver what i promised, they're just finicky picky-niks?

[reine Seele]

Out of everyone's comments, I'd say that maiafay's thoughts coincided with mine just perfectly, with minor detail adjustments here and there.

First off, I'm not new to this site. I've been lurking for years, literally. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. On occasion, I've seen really ugly and just plain godawful fics. I've seen the same on The Pit of Voles.

I think what I like best about AFF is that I know that I'll never get kicked off (unless I, y'know, violate rules and stuff). FF is too controlled for my tastes, but I'm very thankful that my story hasn't been reported or anything. The unspoken "YET" looms heavily on my mind, however, so I've decided to move it here as a precaution.

The problem that I seem to have is a small fandom. A very small fandom. Miniscule. Minute. Microscopic. I don't know if it has anything to do with the way that people review stories or maybe it does and I'm just too braindead to realize it. What I've noticed is that the stories that jump straight into sex get reviews while the "epic" stories are left in the dust with thirty or so hits (and that concludes my restatement of the entire purpose of this thread).

Now, my story has about 22 chapters so far; I figure about three more ought to end the chapter. I plan to make it into a trilogy. There is sex. There is action. There is adventure. There is humor. There is mystery. There is horror (maybe to some people...I hope). As a gesture of good will to the people, there will be more sex.

My problem is with the people that take a look at the tagline and go, "BDSM? Hot damn! I'm so into it!" Then, they read the first three chapters and there's no sex. They get angry. Now they're all pissed because they feel tricked. "Where's the sex? Your tagline clearly states that it contains BDSM and I have yet to see my dosage of BDSM. Where is it?" It's called a plot. You know, that pesky little thing that you have to dig around, and perhaps even *le gasp* pay attention to?

What's so hard about reading through the meat of the story to get to what you want? It's not as if I write like a textbook reads. I'm not a boring author. I love my humor and whatnot. There's so much more that a person could benefit from! Why is it always about the sex?

Maybe that's what the majority of AFF's fics are, but like someone stated before, adult material doesn't necessarily mean just sex. It could be violence, language, or other horrific situations that little kids don't need to be reading. Why are people surprised when they come across a story that contains more than just erotica, or that the sex is spaced several chapters apart? My last real sex scene was chapter 10; I'm working on 23. Not counting a rape scene, that's a long time without any sex.

Some people see this as a problem, a lot of you guys see it as a boon of sorts. I guess I'm just glad that I'm not alone on this. I feel better knowing that there are others who share this standpoint. Thanks.

(/huggy-feely moment)

[DodgeSuperBee]

Just to keep everyone happy, I threw a "strong rating on chapters # and #" note in my summary so those who wanted to could easily find the smutty stuff and everyone else could read the fic in its entirety. The hits for the chapters with sex scenes did end up a little higher than the "boring" ones.

I do realize not everyone wants his or her fic to be read this way, though.

[teeta]

'Where's the sex?' question happens to me all the time.

Hm, I am not a newbie as far as reading adult themes is concerned and I do agree that there is more to them than just sex. A LOT more. I enjoy stories with conflicting feelings, I love it when the characters involved have to discover things about themselves to mature and sex scenes are for me only ... hm ... a pleasant but not necessary additive to the PLOT.

Now ... as a writer, I am a newbie. And I don't feel secure enough to write sex scenes. I know you can't be good at them if you barely start writing! Therefore I chose the slow way, I'm learning along the way, together with my characters. At the beginning it pissed me off big time whenever I got another review with the question 'When are they going to DO IT?!' but then I decided to play a little game with those whiners, promising them what they were asking for and then ... keeping my promise and at the same time not keeping it at all.

Hm ... 28 chapters, no real sex ... a game is still on ^__^

[Schmetterling-Meeko]

Writing sex scenes in fiction here is fun, because you have to curve those desires in stories that are outside the erotic field. I like writing what I consider to be smutty, given the way I was brought up, certain things were very hard to say so I thought I was doing well with a little play. Now I enjoy it fully, but I'm still not sure my stories would be considered smutty for the viewing audience.

Just to add more, because of the "smut" issues, there are some stories I've wanted to share on this site, but haven't because I think it would go over looked due to the fact there isn't sex in it. So I don't post them, though I would like them looked at. My cousin said he's having the same issues.

Edited July 14, 2007 by Schmetterling-Meeko

[Theankh]

I think the problem is definitely that, what with site being Adult Fan Fiction, partnered to just regular Fan Fiction, readers are probably going to assume that anyone posting is posting something that has adult content all over it. Which to be fair, like someone already said, doesn't have to be sex, but I think thats what people expect.

I admit, I've posted a review once before that asked for two characters to get it on, but only in the sense of 'the tension you've built is fantastic, please break it soon!'. I certainly didn't mean it to come across as 'I'm only interested in the smut in this story' comment - I can imagine a lot of people assume smut will turn up eventually and if a lot of chapters go by feel inclined to remark on it.

A lot of reviews are probably innocently made. Unless you're insulting someone you probably don't stop to think too hard about how a positive comment could actually be annoying after all, if you're saying you like things and you want more, and more of a specific thing, how could that be bad? But I'm glad I read this topic, because now I will definitely be more careful when posting all reviews, not just negative ones!

[rottengrl]

I'm hoping that my story will be taken well (this is the first one I posted here). I find it difficult to find a place where the characters can have sex but you can also tell a story. Your correct, most people want one or the other! I have trouble having characters get together if I can't figure a way they would want to be with each other first (hence a story).

Reviews are tricky since the person cannot hear the tone in which you are delivering your message. Still, I like feedback but sometimes you have to take things with a large grain if salt.

I have really enjoyed the stories I find on this site! Some great writing going on!!!!

[MadoushiClef]

Heh heh heh... I think I only ever once left a review in similar vein because it was a WIP and the direction the author was writing in made it fairly obvious that the advertised pairing wasn't going to happen. That was fine with me, I didn't need it to, I just though that since it wasn't going to happen, maybe she should change the warnings and summary so the story the readers got was what she advertised. She of couse took it like I was beating on her for not going for the sex and stormed off in a huff. But what I meant was I preferred the new evolution to the sex.

One of the reasons I am so heistant to actually assign my stuff to aff.net is because it is strictly an adult content stuff site, and I think maiafay said it best: translates to sex. After ff.net threw a fit and drop-kicked a lot of yaoi and adult writers out we didn't return. To anything. We took our stuff and left. Silk and Stone has closed. *tear not my SLAYERS FICS!* Archives have been dropped and abandoned, people kind of gave up and moved on. They didn't move their stuff to aff.net. I know there are near-perfect fics with sex in it, and sex wasn't the plot. I've read these fics on personal archives. These authors won't post here because the readers here don't seem to want good!fic. It's not true, but it seems to be.

I love a good epic. And I love a good pwp. I wish that epics would be welcomed here as much as pwp's.

[Guest Monsterking]

this is how i feel since your writing in the "ADULT" version of fanfiction.net i say that a litle PWP is neccecory everynow and then to give the ass holes at fanfiction.net a slap in the face and an even bigger version of said slap is to have an good story capable of balancing sex with plot. i still dont understand what fanfiction.net is thinking by limiting the ammont of material its writiers are allowed to use

Peace out brothers and sisters of adult-fanfiction.org and may the furs be with you "WOOOOOOO!!"

[Solaris]

I had one story where there was no sex at all in the story.

Only one person complained about the lack of sex in the story.

But my other stories had sex within two to eight chapters of the story, no one really complained about the lack of sex in the stories. I guess they were smart by reading the codes that I had put up on the summary.

Some readers will just read the summary and not even look over the codes themselves to see if the story would be something that they were going to be interested in. But they seem to bypass the codes themselves.

Beth

[Harley Quinn hyenaholic]

Those "GET TO THE SEX" reviews piss me off too.

Oh sure, I like PWP, and sex, and most of my stories feature somebody getting a good hard fucking. But if I want to read PWP, I'll go look for it.

So you like my well-developed OC, but you just wish she'd get to the sex? Well suck on it. I didn't spend 20 chapters giving my readers a good reason for an OC to be getting a Canon just to sit there and have you tell me you don't like plots. Nor did I spend 10 chapters explaining why I think it's possible for Barricade and Bumblebee to pair up for you to whine about them not fucking the moment they kiss.

Go read a PWP, gimps.