How much drama in a story is too much?

[YuriLesboLover]

Spoilers for my 732 series up to this point and the Maggie and Amber series are here. You’ve been warned.


So, I’m working on the next part of Storming the Castle. Should be done sometime this week but it got me thinking. How much drama in a story is too much? I ask because I remember someone I chatted with here saying that the Maggie and Amber series got a bit too serious and heavy for them. I love the series with all my heart but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t completely understand that perspective. I remember this one story on Literotica that I can’t remember the name of that involved a man and his closeted bisexual wife having a threeway sexual relationship with their female friend…And then it ended with the Wife finding out she made her College roommate commit suicide after a lesbian encounter due to her strict parents, lamenting her own strict parents and then trying to kill the Husband and friend before actually killing herself, followed by the author turning the story into a political rant…

Yeah, I’d say that very much shows that there is such a thing as too much drama in a story. That all came out of nowhere, was shocking for the sake of being shocking, was used as a cheap excuse to lecture the reader about their political views and just completely ruined what was actually a pretty enjoyable story up to that point. However, drama in stories can very much be done right. A story doesn’t need violence, controversial subject matter or divisive politics to be compelling. Maggie and Amber proves this. Their love story is genuinely very compelling but it doesn’t overstay its welcome, it feels very realistic and while the two girls both act stupid over it, Amber especially, you still want to see them work things out and it feels very satisfying when they finally do. And best of all. The two don’t let their romance interfere with their nymphomania and endless lust to sexually compete with other women. It really goes to show how great of a writer King is. He gives you just the right amount of drama without it overshadowing the reason why we read these stories.

I myself have been putting quite a bit of drama in my 732 series. With heavy character development, stories of police battling a drug cartel, Jasmine and Sabrina’s complex obsessions with each other and Divisions causing the team to nearly fracture from internal conflicts and overwhelming emotions. I plan on continuing this as I’m far too deep into it to stop now but I do personally hope that I made the drama in my own story as compelling and appropriate as King did with his magnum opus. With Maggie and Amber, it felt like you had two reasons to keep reading. The sex and the actual story itself being perfectly balanced. We also saw a bit of this with Angel’s series with Jane and Wendy becoming fiercely competitive over Angel before deciding to share her and each other.

So, I just wanted to get your two cents on this. Am I using the right amount of drama in my series? Is it too much? Not enough? Just right? Any and all feedback is appreciated.

[Kinkyfighter]

Well , i haven't read the 732 series but I have read that story with 10 levels where you brought the main character in conflict with different personalities on all the floor until she met the Boss , her internal conflicts, her rivalry , her quest for love was done very well. So i do believe that drama is a much needed element in stories that become classics.

As for Maggie & Amber series , I don't see it being too serious with itself , i would rather say its more realistic with its plethora of characters with their contrasting, competing but compelling personalities. I do plan to read the 732 series when its done entirely, since i myself have the tendency to read compelling stories at one go which takes couple of hours nonetheless . To finally answer your question, too much drama is when you go from grounded characters to over the top political/socio-economic lectures. Characters aren't perfect but stories with relatable drama can surely be perfect. All the best!

[Giannis-CB]

You step in the right path Yuri. You have not a lot of drama, as you call it. You have as much drama as it is needed to offer a variety to the whole story.
Besides, as I use to say, a good erotic story is not limited in the erotic scenes. It needs a plot, it needs a character's building, to show how each character feels and thinks. It needs a building erotic tension between the women, a tension that makes the reader to can hardly wait till to read the "explosion" of this tension, via an erotic scene... How to do all these without some drama here and there ? Not possible.
As I also say, a goot writer of erotic stories is also good in the NON erotic scenes he/she writes.
Only a kind of drama we must avoid : to use the erotic story as a way to promote his political or social beliefs, what ever they are...
(IMHO).
You do not do that.
So, do not worry... you do things great !

I hope to read the next chapter soon !

[Anubisx]

I personally find sexfight stories without drama boring. It's fundamental to make a good build-up.

[Gradius]

Very late answer, but I'm on the side of Anubisx. A simple, straight to it fight is good every now and then, but I like to know the reasoning behind the fight. Is it spontaneous or planned. Have they known each other long or just met.

I find drama adds to story and can get you rooting for a particular girl based on the way it's written.

[herbert3000]

Just stumbled over this post because Gradius brought it back to the front page. But I think it is a very good question that goes well beyond sexfight stories and has no easy answer. The Maggie and Amber series for example is very well written but at times it enters territory that I don't really enjoy anymore (I think you might have cited me in the opening post). But that is not a problem of the story, it's just personal preference as the story always stays true to itself.

A problem only arises, if you lure your readers on a wrong track. As it is often said in writing guides that with the first chapter or the first couple of scenes in a book, you as an author give a promise by setting the tone and general direction of the story. If you break this promise later on, your readers will be disappointed. If your readers expect a hard boiled crime flick and end up in a corny love story they probably won't like it and the people who would have liked a corny love story probably didn't start reading in the first place.

So far, so obvious. However, there is a second aspect to it. If you did it make clear what to expect can there still be too much drama? Writing guides also often say that you can't have too much conflict in a story as it is conflict which drives the story forward. While this in true in general (especially new authors often struggle to put enough conflict in their stories) I would add that this conflict should feel believable and natural in the respective context. If two friends go to the cinema and kill each other in a dispute about what movie to watch, you probably overdid it. Too much drama CAN get annoying if it feels forced. Also I recommend to have some peaceful moments in between, where your readers can catch their breath. Ideally the tension within a story rises not in a straight line but rather like the stock markets in a zigzag pattern.

Of course one could write a whole essay about all of this