I get asked for advice by bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young writers all the time, that want to bring their own erotic muscle fantasies to life. Here's a few tips:Put lots of thought into your opening sentence. It’s the single most important part of the story because you want to entice people into reading the story. It’s a “hook” that gets attention. Throw in the sexiest part of your story, or something shocking, just to get attention and make the story stand out. Since people read these stories to be turned on, make your opening sentence something sexy. It doesn’t have to be sex, but it should be an expression of sexual desire, or someone lusting for muscle, or offer the promise of sex or adventure to come.
Every word should be calculated to have an effect of arousal on your reader. Every word in a horror story creates a sense of fear, so horror writers choose every word for the effect on the reader. Likewise, everything in your story should be something sexy. It doesn’t all have to be sex, but it should be sexy. For muscle guys, demonstrating strength is sexy, going to the gym is sexy, or the shower room.
Find out what you like and then write about it. This should be obvious, but there’s a temptation to write what you think other people want to read. In the end, this doesn’t please anybody because there’s nothing unique about your story. Are you sexually attracted to Native American guys? (And why not, with all that hair?) Are you a furry? I guarantee no matter what you’re into, they’ll be someone, somewhere that says, “FINALLY! Someone with my exact same love for guys with giant tongues!” And you’ve earned yourself a devoted new fan. And who knows? If you do it right, you can give other people a whole new sexual interest. Fetishes are a little like Gonorrhea: they can be sexually transmitted.
Basically what I’m saying here is, find your own unique voice. Are you a sensitive person that loves romance and passionate sex on an emotional level? Write that way, because you have something to contribute.
Describe unusual muscles and don’t use numerical measurements. Don’t use measurements unless you absolutely have to: use comparisons and descriptions to get a jist. For that matter, describe muscles that are sexy but aren’t commonly described. Nothing gives a man size and mass like the traps, for instance. Are they like footballs stuffed under the skin, or sloping pyramids to either side of his bull neck?
Don't think in terms of the traditional story. You can if you want to, and it really improves your work. But really, muscle growth stories aren't "stories" in the traditional sense. They're an exhibition, sort of like a trapeeze act, and you have to think in terms of things that wow.
Use all five senses. How does a muscleman smell? Taste, when you lick him? What’s his voice sound like?
Do research and don’t make obvious mistakes. The reason I write this is because I’ve gotten a little tired of male writers making hilarious mistakes about how bra sizes work. By the way, DD and E-cup are the exact same size, for instance.
If you’re writing a multiple part story, some new situation has to happen every chapter. It doesn’t matter how long a chapter is, but there needs to be at least one plot point, change of scenery, introduction of a new character, or something new at least once per chapter. Even if your chapter has sex in it, you should at least have some new element to it: different position, different participants. If you’re like me and have a plastic sexuality, do different types of sex: male-male, then male-female, or female/female.
7 comments:
Wouldn't you know it, I lost
my notes on compelling writing.
I'll dig them up later, but I
do remember that besides those
listed here, the writer has to
make the reader worry and wonder
about the character (who must be
worth investing the time to read
about).
He (or she) must have a
serious problem or challenge
after the first few sentences
or paragraphs.
There must be twists,
turns, surprises and set-backs
in every chapter (or scene)
Contrary to the goals of
erotic fiction, I include
dread, suspense and tension.
Things can't always go right.
As important as the
opening sentence is, if you
write in seperately submitted
chapters, don't forget to
end at an interesting place.
Keep your readers wanting more.
Well, that ought to do
until I find those damned
notes. Till next time. Z.
Here's the rest, as promised.
The name of the game is
escape! Your average reader
wants to open the file of your
story and be carried away from
whatever...
A category novel (and a muscle
growth story too) centers
around a very colorful,
strong central character.
Usually a "good guy", but
not necessarily so.
The hero is permitted flaws in
his character to give him a
depth of personality...but
don't let's read about a blah.
Z.
Zuiderzee -
Thank you for your insightful comments. As for your first statement about the character being worth the time to read about, it's certainly important but not as important in erotic fiction as it is in standard fiction, because the central character usually personifies the reader and what they want to happen, so they're already on his or her "side."
I agree totally about breaking at a potentially interesting point that arouses interest. The big problem, as I see it though, is a lot of multipart stories give you more of the same in a different chapter, and at least one plot point or change should be shown.
As for the element of escapism...one of the big ironies of escapism is that the more time and effort you make to have something "real," the more the readers believe in it and enjoy it. Emil Part 1, one of my favorites, had hundreds of little details that were real to make you believe all the fantasy. Ironically, fantasy has to be more realistic than reality.
Also, comparing the grown muscle with something else to make we see how big has it grown is a good thing, like biceps as big as his head, etc
I think it's a particularly male desire to quantify things... and that's what leads to numerical measures rather than imagery...
I have literally seen stuff that played out as a series of increasing measurements...
Needless to say, while there are many cliches one can use - the old staples of fruit/sports equipment - that those are preferable to numbers, numbers everywhere... or perhaps the cardinal sin of the narrator who can easily estimate all measurements.
It goes without saying that most of the time, people are aiming for sexy in these transformations... and nothing snaps you out of that like grammatical errors, syntax holocausts or long strings of numbers.
My personal recommendations would be that the build up is as important - if not more important - than any transformation scene... much like sex scenes. There's something rather wonderful about drawing it out.
I gotta disagree on just the one part about numbers as quantification. I've used them extensively in a couple of the stories and if used properly, like anything in the world, they can become advantageous. An easy way to bring numbers back is to simply use measurements of certain things as well. For supersize stories, this can include football fields, which are so many yards, and also so many normal sized men/women/bodyparts/whatever. Doubling measurements with imagery can be very effective because there is a huge following of measurers, people whose main enjoyment of the physique is its measurement, and these people tend to be real life athletes or lifters or somehow involved in the real world.
I've got a story where this female superhero wakes up a little more ... muscular but I don't want to write it in a sexual way... Any suggestions?
-ealperin
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