Can a sex scene in erotic fiction be too long?

Hi,

I appreciate that this is a rather broad question, but do you think that 19 pages to depict a sex scene in an erotic fiction novel is too long? (I should say that during the 19 pages, sex occurs more than once).

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

Sounds a bit prolix to me. But it is hard to generalize.

 

Thanks BlackBillBlake,

I think I knew that anyway, but I just needed someone else to voice it.

Much appreciated

 

Good luck with whatever it is you are writing.

 

Good luck!

 

i don't really read erotic fiction, but in general i find that unless the description itself is really beautiful or fascinating (DH Lawrence being a good example) , i tend to get bored if its more than like a page or two (in fact i don't think even lawrence ever really did one which was more than two pages, they were frequent but short)

the longer it goes on for, IMO, the more it becomes self reflexive, it takes the reader out of themselves and they start to notice things like structure and the way its written, if you want to keep them in the moment, keep in sensual rather than cognitive, then brevity is the key. in general, the longer it is, the more a reader starts to think, if you want sensuality, then i'd keep it brief, i suppose.

i'm sure its possible, but it'd have to be pretty brilliantly written and massively varied in order to maintain interest over such a long period of time, for me at least.

 

Thank you all for your feedback - it's great to get some unbiased points of view.

I didn't set out to write such a long scene - I just started and couldn't stop! I should have followed my instincts before posting on here, which were ...

a) that it was far too long
b) that I'd be bored to death having to wade through a similar scene in a book I was reading

Nuff said!

Thanks again all.