[ SECRET POST #3154 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3154 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 050 secrets from Secret Submission Post #451.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[ketita]

I was so surprised when I got a review on my 300k shippy fic saying that they were HAPPY that I hadn't included any smut scenes.
I'm sorry those people were being asshats to you.

[(Anonymous)]

I got this as well, on a(n admittedly somewhat intense) 55k adventure/romance fic. It was a very, very shippy fic, but the main pair only kissed about three times all told in between escapes and battles and kidnappings, and the secondary pair only met in the flesh for an emotional reunion at the very end. Someone commented to say they were happy there were no sex scenes, because those are often repetitive and trivial.

I think a lot of people maybe get burned by those long fics where the main pair seems to be having sex like twice a chapter for bugger all reason, and just want a change of pace? I know I have a problem with those ones.

[fingalsanteater]

Yeah, I tend to skim fics or back button if they are just a series of sex scenes unless there is some other kind of payoff I'm waiting for in regards to the fic.

[ketita]

omg, I thought I was the only one!
In most long shippy fics, I actually start skipping sex scenes pretty early on - they get so boring, you know? It's all samey... and then soonish after I realize that the sex scenes get longer and longer, and the plot gets sparser and sparser, and the whole thing grinds to a depressing halt.

[melissatreglia]

You're not the only one.

I've noticed that, in a lot of fics and regardless of fandom, for every awesome slow-burn fic there's 1000 with the 'ship characters bumping uglies for no apparent reason and with the plot (what little of it there is) falling by the wayside and left unresolved until a hasty wrap-up in the next-to-last chapter. Then the final chapter is filled with the usual fantasy-marriage-with-babies-ever-after stuff.

I've basically dubbed it the EL James Syndrome.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants a meaty plot with their smut, or for there to be love without the smut.

[ketita]

It might be that one of the issues with slow-burn fic is that what's often slow-burning is the UST. It's all about lots and lots of UST, and lots of issues the characters get stuck up in their own heads trying to resolve, with little-to-no external plot moving things along.

Haha, you described it perfectly. Only in fics I've seen, it's the hasty wrap-up in the penultimate scene/chapter, with the ending and climax being a huge dramatic exultant smut scene.

I think there's a lot to be said for writing romance without smut, or with very little smut. If only because it forces more emotional investment. My personal rule for writing romance is that there has to be both a "romantic" plotline and an "external" plotline, i.e. events that carry on regardless of the romance.

[(Anonymous)]

I get that kind of comments frequently, but at first they were a surprise because I knew I wasn't writing what people usually want in long shippy fics.

Now I'm somehow "established" in my fandoms as someone who writes plotty fics with no smut so they're the usual thing and I'm ok with that, though now that I'm going to include one sex scene (for plot reasons) I'm nervous that my usual readers are going to be disappointed on me.

[ketita]

Haha, are you me? I've got a fic I'm working on which has some sex-related material, but I wasn't going to write out sex because I don't like writing smut, and I'm not used to including it in fic anyway.
But then two beta readers were like YES BUT WHERE IS THE SEX SCENE at this one moment, and I realized that... yeah, it needs to be there.
I, too, wonder what my usual readers with think (if they notice? haha)

Da

[(Anonymous)]

well, it's certainly a challenge. But I totally get wanting to write stuff that would technically need a sex scene, but being more interested in the other stuff.

[(Anonymous)]

(AYRT)
I get it so much.

I usually plan the plot ahead and I wasn't planing to include smut at all.

It was supposed to be a fade in black, let's move on with the story, kind of scene, but then it became obvious that the smut has to be explicit or the emotional side of the story will be missing many pieces (as well as one plot related detail) that can only be shown in the sex scene and now I'm writing it.

But I keep wondering what will my readers think. Specially the ones that have told me repeatedly that they love that I focus on aspects other than sex.

[(Anonymous)]

Could you maybe put an author's note saying, "this isn't what I usually write, but it felt correct for the story?"

[(Anonymous)]

(AYRT)
I prefer avoiding to justify myself, so I'm just planning on pointing the change in rating and hope my readers notice the plot related hints and get why that scene exists.

If anyone says something I'll tell them that yes, it's not what I usually write and I don't think I'll write more scenes like that in that story, but it was necessary for the plot.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I'd say make the emotions of the scene the important factor. I feel if the emotions are written well, a writer can skimp a bit on description of the physical actions.

[ketita]

Yeah, I feel you on it. I only hope it doesn't spoil your readers, and from now on they want sex in everything... I think though, that there's less of a danger of it "diluting" the story, since as you say, you don't normally write out the sex, but in this case you felt it was truly necessary. Hopefully the readers will get the same feeling, and it won't bother them :)

For me, one of my betas actually ended up writing the scene. I knew what needed to happen emotionally, but I don't have any experience in BDSM, and she does, so it worked out well.