Constance Daley's Blog - Posts Tagged "setup"
Introducing Ruby and the Power of Setup
When it comes to sex, some things work for me and some things don't, and I think that's true of most of the population (I'm allowing for asexual people and people who are turned on by pretty much anything). When I read erotica, I tend to have one of four reactions. It turns me off, it doesn't really work for me, it kind of works for me, and I'm pulling my husband away from whatever he's doing for a quickie.
The first of those is really rare, the second of those is fairly common, the third is fairly common, and the fourth is unfortunately not as common as my husband would like it to be. The thing about those reactions is they only have a little to do with the quality of the story I'm reading. Granted, a story being particularly well written might bump it up one notch, and a particularly poorly written story will probably fall a notch, but the subject matter is just as important as the writing.
When people think of subject matter in regards to erotica, they probably think first of the sex. I'm not going to lie, the sex matters. But people don't seem to recognize the importance of the setup. Without a good setup, even a fantastically written sex scene is only half as arousing, because we need a few moments to acclimate ourselves to the story and get an idea of what the characters should and shouldn't be willing to do (I'll cover that idea a lot more in a later blog post, because I think it's extremely important).
What does this have to do with introducing Ruby? Ruby Llewellyn is one of the new authors whose work my publisher is handling, and so they sent me a bunch of her stories to read and asked if I might mention her on this blog. Of course I was more than happy to do so. What struck me while I was reading Ruby was the power and importance of setup.
I was reading one of her stories, Sibling Rivalry, and though I enjoyed it, I realized it was only a two for me, almost a three. The problem wasn't in the sex, which I found suitably stimulating, it was in the scenario. In this day and age, where erotica is so easily accessed, people can easily find a dozen stories that fit their own predilections. For people who have even a passing interesting in sibling rivalry, this story will probably be off the charts sexy. But my sisters and I aren't very close in age, and having never competed with one of them for a boyfriend or a lover, I just couldn't really identify.
Compare this to one of her other stories, the recently released Thanksgiving Brake (available in the collection Thanks For Nuttin' with one of my own stories, if you don't mind my shameless plug). Thanksgiving Break is about a woman who, when left with no other options, had to use her body to pay for her car repair. This story really worked for me because it was so much easier to identify with. I could identify with the situation, could fetishize it. The hook was the right size and shape to catch me.
After making this realization, I went back and evaluated my own stories, trying to figure out if applying this idea helped me figure out why some of them sell better than others. I discovered that the rest of the world is probably a lot like me. Some scenarios work for us, some setups work for us, and some don't. And that's a good thing. It's good we all have different fantasies. My stories are my own way of sharing some of my own, but I'm not offended that some stories don't work for everyone. All I ask of myself is to write stories that with quality setups that work for people who share that particular fantasy.
The first of those is really rare, the second of those is fairly common, the third is fairly common, and the fourth is unfortunately not as common as my husband would like it to be. The thing about those reactions is they only have a little to do with the quality of the story I'm reading. Granted, a story being particularly well written might bump it up one notch, and a particularly poorly written story will probably fall a notch, but the subject matter is just as important as the writing.
When people think of subject matter in regards to erotica, they probably think first of the sex. I'm not going to lie, the sex matters. But people don't seem to recognize the importance of the setup. Without a good setup, even a fantastically written sex scene is only half as arousing, because we need a few moments to acclimate ourselves to the story and get an idea of what the characters should and shouldn't be willing to do (I'll cover that idea a lot more in a later blog post, because I think it's extremely important).
What does this have to do with introducing Ruby? Ruby Llewellyn is one of the new authors whose work my publisher is handling, and so they sent me a bunch of her stories to read and asked if I might mention her on this blog. Of course I was more than happy to do so. What struck me while I was reading Ruby was the power and importance of setup.
I was reading one of her stories, Sibling Rivalry, and though I enjoyed it, I realized it was only a two for me, almost a three. The problem wasn't in the sex, which I found suitably stimulating, it was in the scenario. In this day and age, where erotica is so easily accessed, people can easily find a dozen stories that fit their own predilections. For people who have even a passing interesting in sibling rivalry, this story will probably be off the charts sexy. But my sisters and I aren't very close in age, and having never competed with one of them for a boyfriend or a lover, I just couldn't really identify.
Compare this to one of her other stories, the recently released Thanksgiving Brake (available in the collection Thanks For Nuttin' with one of my own stories, if you don't mind my shameless plug). Thanksgiving Break is about a woman who, when left with no other options, had to use her body to pay for her car repair. This story really worked for me because it was so much easier to identify with. I could identify with the situation, could fetishize it. The hook was the right size and shape to catch me.
After making this realization, I went back and evaluated my own stories, trying to figure out if applying this idea helped me figure out why some of them sell better than others. I discovered that the rest of the world is probably a lot like me. Some scenarios work for us, some setups work for us, and some don't. And that's a good thing. It's good we all have different fantasies. My stories are my own way of sharing some of my own, but I'm not offended that some stories don't work for everyone. All I ask of myself is to write stories that with quality setups that work for people who share that particular fantasy.
