The length of the sex part

[Matrilwood]

When my story got a bad rating, I had a check to see what could be wrong with it. The fact that the 2000 word story only has a 300 word sexual encounter might have something to do with it. Which got me thinking, how much sex should there be? Too much and it just becomes written porn, too little and it's glorified shipping. Is there some sort of guideline, or should I just have mostly sex scenes to make the reader happy?

[Melrick]

No, there's no guideline. One thing you need to keep in mind is that it's utterly impossible to keep everyone happy. The first person you should always be looking to keep happy is yourself. What you need to do is to write whatever sex scene you feel is best for the story, and if people don't like it then tough titties.

[BronxWench]

I'm going to second Melrick here. I've gotten good ratings for a no-sex flash fiction, and I've gotten my share of bad ratings as well. It really depends on what the reader is looking for, and maybe they hated my pairing, or thought I was violating canon too egregiously. Some people like graphic descriptions, and others prefer more polite terminology.

But in the end, I write what fits my story and if people choose to rate me down because of that, so be it. I pay more attention to reviews than ratings, to be honest, and I love good constructive criticism, which you can't get in a rating.

[naturechild02]

I write my stories for me and I post them here just to see if others enjoy them. I honestly don't look at ratings at all though I do read comments. I have to agree with the others, just write what you want. I write really lengthy stories that only have graphic sex scenes every five chapters or so. Some like it, some don't. Oh well. You should decide what you want.

[DrChristmas]

Write it until it comes to a natural end. It's what I do.