How To Write Dialogue For Erotic Flash Fiction

c. 50

c. 50 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As the editor/publisher of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, the Old Soldier gets to critique lots of flash fiction, some of it erotic flash fiction.  My critiques are always short but I hope helpful.

I might write, “This is a well-written sex scene but there is no story.”

Or I might write, “The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette does not publish stories about rape.”

I might even write, “The characters seem more like sexual athletes than real people.”

How can a writer of erotic flash fiction make his or her characters seem like real people?  One of the best ways is through dialogue.  And dialogue in an erotic story should do the same things that dialogue in any well-written story should do: project personality and help to move the story to a believable resolution.

Click on the Sexy Stories tab at the top of the page to see what I mean.

Writing Flash Fiction: Without Conflict There Is No Story

Like any other form of fiction, the flash fiction short story at its core is about conflict.  Now sometimes the conflict is so low-key that the word “tension” might be a better description of what is going on; but whether we use the word “conflict” or “tension” there is a thread that runs through the story that propels the action and this action must be brought to a resolution of some kind.

So, even though a flash fiction story may only be a couple of hundred words, there must be some conflict or tension that must be resolved.  The conflict or the tension does not have to be over-the-top shouting, screaming and fighting.  It kind be a low-level loving argument between a husband and wife; but it has to be there.

Because without conflict or tension, you don’t have a story.

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Short story by famed author

Short story by famed author (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hello hello hello, all my brother and sister bloggers, readers, writers and Flash Fiction Fanatics from all over the world.  It’s around 6:00 a.m. in Pittsburgh on what is going to be one of the hottest days so far this year.  It’s going to be sunny with a high around 90 degrees.

Whew!  And it’s not even June yet.

My calendar says that today is officially Memorial Day.  I guess things won’t be back to normal until tomorrow; but the blogging day has officially begun.  Click on the follow button so that you don’t miss a single issue of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, the most dynamic flash fiction publication in the world.

Writing Flash Fiction: Keep It Simple

The Old Soldier likes to use the alphabet as an analogy on how to write flash fiction.  Stay with me now.

A novel goes from “A” to “Z”.

A short story can go anywhere from “A” to “E” or even “F”.

A flash fiction story only goes from “A” to “B”.

Or to put my analogy in others words: when writing a flash fiction story, keep it simple.  In flash fiction, less is always more.  Don’t make your flash fiction story complicated.

underword: flash fiction

underword: flash fiction (Photo credit: piglicker)

The form (structure) of the flash fiction short story is as simple as haiku poetry, which is 5,7,5.  That’s it.  For flash fiction it’s intro, build up, resolution.  That’s it.

And just like the haiku poem, the surface of the flash fiction story should always be simple, too.

But just like the haiku poem, the real meaning of a flash fiction story is always below the surface.  That’s where things are complicated.

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Two dirty windows

Morning sunshine on the floor

The Old Soldier blogs

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A Woman’s Naked Butt And Tips On Writing Great Dialogue

This will be the Old Soldier’s second post in less than four hours.  I’m on a roll!

It’s around 11:00 am and the Old Soldier just finished off a salad for breakfast and he’s back at the workstation.  Sunlight is pouring through my windows and I’ve got the 24-hour news station on the radio.

Life is good.

Dialogue plays an important role in any work of fiction: plays, novels, short stories and flash fiction.  But since flash fiction is so short, dialogue takes on even more importance.  And since much of a flash fiction story has to be implied, much of the information in the dialogue is also implied.

Don’t shy away from using dialogue in your flash fiction.  Nothing brings a story to life like good dialogue.  Good dialogue is very difficult to write.  Good dialogue will imply many things: character, tension, the personality of the speaker, the quality of the relationship between the speakers and other things.  At the same time the dialogue has to efficiently move the story to resolution.

There is no easy way to learn how to write good dialogue.  Read the masters.  See how they use dialogue.  Study their dialogue.  I studied the dialogue of Hemingway and Raymond Carver.

The following story is from the archives.  I wrote it with the lessons I had learned from Hemingway and Carver very much on my mind.

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Cover of "10 Things I Hate About You [Reg...

Cover of 10 Things I Hate About You [Region 2]

Young Married Life

 

“I want you to do something special for me,” he said.

“What’s that?” she said.

“Masturbate for me.”

“Masturbate?  Why would I do that?  You’re right here beside me.”

“It would be something different.”

“Honey…”

“For me.  Do it for me.”

“But you’re my husband.”

“Sit up. Let’s put the pillows behind you so you’re comfortable and just lay back and let me watch.”

“You really want me to do this?”

“Yes, really.”

“You really want me to masturbate?”

“Yes.  Really.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“Okay…I mean if that’s really what you want…Okay…I’m masturbating.”

“Wonderful.  That’s good.  That’s real good.”

“I feel like I’m in a porn movie.”

Several minutes passed.

“How close are you?”

“I’m getting there.”

“You’re such a good wife.”

“You’re a terrible husband.”

“Really?”

“No.  You’re really a wonderful husband.”

“Thank you, honey.”

“Matt, aren’t you going to even kiss me?”

“You’re doing fine.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“Are you close?”

“I’m getting there.  Yes, I’m getting there.  It won’t be long.”

“That’s my girl…That’s my baby…That’s the wild woman I married.”

“I’m almost there…almost there…almost…yeah…yeah…yeah…”

“Don’t hold back.  Don’t hold back.”

“Matt!  Honey!  Oh, Honey!  Oh…Oh..Oh…oh, yeah…oh, yeah.  Oh, my god.  Oh, yeah…That…was…a… good…one.”

“I could tell.  You are so bad.”

“I’m bad.”

“Now let’s finish up.  Just stay where you are…All right…Say, honey, fill my mouth with cum.”

“Honey, fill my mouth with cum…”

“Okay, keep sucking…Say, honey, I want to swallow every drop.”

“Honey, I want to swallow every drop…”

“Keep sucking…keep sucking…keep sucking…Sweetheart, say, your cum taste like the honey from the honey bee.”

“I’m not going to say that.”

“Okay, forget that.  Just keep sucking…keep sucking…keep sucking…”

The End

Related articles

How Explicit Should Your Flash Fiction Sex Story Be?

The Old Soldier has written some flash fiction sex stories that are out-and-out porn.  There is no way of getting around that.

It wasn’t always that way.  For years I tried to imitate Hemingway.  And Hemingway is Literature with a capital “L”.  But literary flash fiction was not bringing readers to the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.  So, I added naked women, articles on sex and flash fiction full of sex.

The hits started pouring in.  And not just from men.  The largest percentage of the readers of the PFFG are women.

I think, how explicit should your flash fiction sex story be? is the wrong question.  The right question is, how well written is your flash fiction sex story?

The following story from the archives is one of the most explicit stories that the Old Soldier has ever written.  Enjoy.  And keep reading and keep writing that flash fiction.

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The $2,000 Payday

 

The video begins.  An attractive young woman in a black dress and black, strappy heels sits back against a row of snow-white, fluffy pillows on a large bed covered with snow-white sheets.  There are paintings of beautiful landscapes in frames on the wall above the headboard of the bed.  The young woman smiles and has a look of expectancy and excitement on her face.

“Alright,” a male voice says.  “You’re a sophomore at a local college which will remain nameless.”  The video shakes a little.  It is obvious that the male speaking is using a hand-held video camera.  “Can we say the college is not for dummies?”

“No,” she says.  “It’s not for dummies.”

“What did we agree to call you?”

“Bella.”

“Bella.  I like that.  It’s not your real name.”

“No.”

“Bella, have you ever had sex with ten men at the same time?”

“I’ve only had one real boyfriend and we broke up.”

“You are about to service ten cocks.”

Bella looks around the room and does a quick count of the naked men who are off camera.  Many of the naked men are playing with themselves and several already have serious erections.  A couple of the men seem to be in their 20s but most seem to be in their 30s and 40s and one appears to be in his 50s.  Bella laughs.

“Now, Bella, this is your third video for me, your first gangbang.  These are my friends.  They help me out in the gangbangs.  We’re all nice guys.  We’re not here to hurt you.  We’re here to show you a good time.  Are you nervous?”

“This is really exciting.”

“In our very first emails you said you liked life experiences.”

“Yes, I do.”

“I think you will remember this one.  Alright, fellas.  I see one hot nineteen-year-old woman who wants to make your acquaintance.  Let’s get started.”

By the eleven-minute mark of the video, Bella is naked, except for her shoes, on her back, her head turned to her left as she sucks on a swollen penis, her eyes closed, her right hand stroking another swollen penis as one of the men keeps plunging his swollen penis in her vagina, the lips of her vulva prominent, her pubic hairs shaved.  Every once in a while the flash of a camera goes off.

Hands tenderly, almost lovingly move over her white skin.  The men talk and joke among themselves.  Sometimes Bella stops sucking to laugh, too.  The jokes are never derogatory to her.  The men constantly complement what she is doing, how sweet she is and how hot she is.  Bella even joins in the banter and the men laugh appreciatively at her jokes.  But she has little time for jokes.  The atmosphere is very relaxed.  The men urge each other on and they urge Bella on.  

“Share the mouth, honey,” the videoman says.  Bella turns her head to her right and sucks on that penis.  “That’s a good girl.”

“Look how pretty her skin is.”

“This pussy is so tight.”

“She is definitely marriage material.”

Bella’s breathing becomes more and more labored.  Low grunts begin to escape from her.  Now and then she has to stop sucking to catch her breath.  Bella is once again sucking on the swollen penis on her left.

The man on Bella’s right asks, “Does she like cum?”

The videoman says, “She loves it.”

The man on her right is stroking his swollen penis.  “Bella,” he says, “I have a load for you.”

Bella stops sucking the man on her left.  Opens her eyes, turns her head to the right, opens her mouth and the man ejaculates in her mouth.  She turns to the camera, her mouth open to reveal the cum inside and then she swallows it down.

An Amateur Does Her First Adult Gangbang Video. As One Man Repeatedly Works His Penis In And Out Of Her Vagina Another Man Cums In Her Mouth. Several Other Men Wait Their Turn Off Camera.

In the space of two minutes she swallows four more mouthfuls of cum.

All this time the man between her wide open legs has been plunging his swollen penis deep in her vagina, her body in constant motion from his repeated thrusts.  Now he also uses his left thumb to massage her clitoris.

Bella’s grunts have become louder and closer together.  Now she ignores the swollen penises around her face.  She raises her head to look down between her legs.  She holds two fistfuls of the white sheets.  She closes her eyes.  Her face contorts.

“Oh, shit,” she says.  “Oh, shit.  Oh, shit.  Oh, fuck.  Oh, fuck.  Oh, fuck.”

The men urge her on.  “Bella, go for it…The camera loves a cumming girl…Make her cum…Make her moan.”  The camera flashes are now constant.

Between grunts and moans Bella gives one last, “Oh, fuck.”  Her body tenses forward.  The room is strangely silent, except for the clicking camera flashes going off, as the men watch her.  And the video camera distinctly catches the subtle trembling of her breasts.  One second.  Two seconds.  Three seconds.  Four seconds.  Five seconds.

Bella catches her breath and collapses back against the white sheets.  The action continues for forty more minutes.  Sometimes Bella is on her back and sometimes she’s on her hands and knees; but there is nearly always a swollen penis working her mouth and one working her vagina at the same time.  When the men have orgasms they ejaculate in her mouth.  Stray cum streaks her face.  During the video Bella swallows 15 loads of cum.

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At the end of the video Bella has showered, changed clothes and now sits in the office with the man who shot the video.

The man says, “Okay, I’m filming the interview.  That’s why these cameras are set up.  So, what did you think?”

“I loved, loved, loved it.  I’m a happy girl.  I’m exhausted.”

“You really earned your money.”

“I think I did.”

“I’m not blowing smoke up your dress.  This is one of the hottest videos I’ve shot in over 10 years.”

“Why thank you so much.”

“How many orgasms did you have?”

“How many?  Around five or six.  I stopped counting after three.”

“What would you do if your parents or friends found one of the videos you’ve done for me?”

“I don’t know.  Deny it’s me.”

“Well, you’ve done three videos for me.”

“I know.  I’m not an amateur anymore.  I guess this is the end of my career.”

“Everyone in the business is not as nice as I am.”

“I know.”

“Or have nice friends like I do.”

“I know.”

“I have some papers for you to sign.  You’ll be on your way in ten minutes.  Finish your education.  That’s the best thing for you to do.  Say goodbye to our viewing audience.”

Bella looks into one of the cameras, wiggles the fingers of her right hand and then blows the audience a kiss.

The End

Keep This In Mind As You Write Your Flash Fiction

No matter how short a flash fiction story is, it is still a complete short story.  The thing that makes it complete is narrative movement.  Narrative movement means that something must be different by the end of the story.  What is different can be something as simple as the last sentence clarifying what the story is about: not a trick ending, but a summation.

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Hello, everyone.

This is my third post of the day.  And I have not spent any money on beer today.  The Old Soldier is proud of himself.  Keep reading and keep writing that flash fiction.

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Read.  Study, Write.  Submit.

Compressionism: The Purpose Of Description In Flash Fiction

Description in the flash fiction short story serves a very important service.  It should always be “intentional.”  What does the Old Soldier mean by intentional?

It should always serve a higher purpose.

In Compressionism, which is the use of words to paint a picture that tells a story, description acts like exposition.  Exposition explains things, exposition is telling; but since Compressionism is a visual art form (cinema on the page) that explains very little, description replaces a lot of what exposition is suppose to do.

This means that in Compressionism, a red dress is seldom just a red dress.  The weather is seldom just about the weather and sex is seldom just about sex.

Description in the best flash fiction short stories is usually about more than just what is being described.

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goddess Hathor gives ANKH to NEFERTARI

goddess Hathor gives ANKH to NEFERTARI (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s the Old Soldier here on a cloudy but mild afternoon in Pittsburgh doing his best to spread the news about the excitement of flash fiction.

How’s everyone doing?  I want to take a moment to say hello to all the readers from all over the world who day after day click onto the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, the most dynamic flash fiction publication on the Internet.  You know who you are and I thank you.

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Read.  Study.  Write.  Submit.

Writing Flash Fiction: More On Compressionism

What is Compressionism?  It is the use of words to paint a picture that tells a story.  The Old Soldier came up with the term “Compressionism” to suggest how tight a flash fiction story must be if it is to be a good flash fiction story.

A good flash fiction story is really two short stories in one.  One story takes place on the page.  The other story takes place in the imagination of the reader.  So, in reality the words are suggestive.  And painting a picture is the best way to get the reader to use his or her imagination to fill in the blanks.

This is why in Compressionism there is so much action; because actions speak louder than words.  And don’t forget that dialogue is action, too.

Short Story Writing Workshop

Short Story Writing Workshop (Photo credit: MadLabUK)

It is this reliance on action that makes Compressionism so exciting for the reader.  The reader not only sees what is going on but the reader participates in what is going on.  The reader is part of the creative process because in Compressionism, much of the story is in the subtext, much of the story is implied.  This means the reader must participate in the creation of the story for the story to be complete.  Compressionism allows the reader to do just that.

Is Compressionism the only way to write a flash fiction story?  No it’s not.  It’s just one of the best ways to write a flash fiction story.

At its best, Compressionism is cinema on the page. 

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It’s Friday, karaoke day at Del’s Bar and Italian Restaurant.  It’s around 11:00 am and the Old Soldier has finished doing his breathing and stretching exercises.  I still have to shave my face and head and do laundry, but the day has started with a bang.  The Old Soldier loves being the editor/publisher of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette.

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It’s going to be another hot, sunny, summer-like day in Pittsburgh.  I’ve been eating lima beans and ham hocks that I cooked in my crock pot several days ago.  I’m looking forward to my first bowl today.

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Read.  Study.  Write.  Submit.

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The Joy Of Writing Flash Fiction

What drives a writer to write flash fiction?  Why not write a poem or a play?  Why not write a novel?

Why would a writer impose a limit of, oh let’s say 700 words, on the length of his or her short story?  Doesn’t this word limit also limit what the writer can write about?  Doesn’t this word limit prevent the writer from bringing his or her characters fully to life?

The Old Soldier has been writing fiction for over 40 years and he has been writing flash fiction for over 10 years.  This is what I have found out about writing flash fiction.

The flash fiction story does not limit a writer in any way. 

Writer Wordart

Writer Wordart (Photo credit: MarkGregory007)

The flash fiction story at its best exemplifies some of the most attractive elements of the poem (concise language), the play (the effective portrayal of character) and the novel (narrative movement).

Flash fiction has it all.

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Can Flash Fiction Be Performance Art, Too?

Flash fiction at its very best is performance art; I’m talking about a unique kind of flash fiction.  I’m talking about Compressionism.

Compressionism is the use of words to paint a picture that tells a story.  Often times, when a writer is faced with telling a story in a few hundred words, the writer may feel that he or she must start explaining things before getting to the resolution, the punchline.

This is a big mistake.

When a writer does this, his or her story reads like an essay.  Explanation is exposition and essays are full of exposition.  A flash fiction writer wants to keep the exposition in his or her story to a minimum so that the characters in the story act out the story. 

Dialogue is the most effective way to get your characters inter-acting.

Let’s say your story is 800 words long.  Two to three hundred words of explanation at the beginning, the setup, is plenty of exposition to get your story moving.  After the beginning, your characters should be inter-acting all the way through to the resolution.

That’s Compressionism.

Mai Ueda re-enacts Yoko Ono at Mediamatic Perf...

Mai Ueda re-enacts Yoko Ono at Mediamatic Performance Night (Photo credit: willem velthoven)

Is Compressionism the only way to write a flash fiction short story?  Well, of course not.  But it is probably the best way to get your reader involved in the story.  Compressionism allows the reader to use his or her imagination to fill in the blanks.  In this way the reader becomes part of the creative process.  The imagination of the reader is the final link in making the flash fiction story appear to the reader as cinema on the page. 

Now that’s performance art.

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Hello, everyone, especially the students at the University of Pittsburgh.  It’s the Old Soldier here getting an early start (9:00 am) on the blogging day.  It’s going to be a cloudy but warm (mid 70s) day in Pittsburgh.

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The Occupy Wall Street movement made the news.  Several members were arrested yesterday in New York City when they would not disperse.

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This would be a good time for you to take out a free subscription to the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette or to just click on the follow button so that you won’t miss a single issue of the most dynamic flash fiction publication on the Internet.

Read.  Study.  Write.  Submit.

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