On Characters in Erotic Fiction

Have you ever cruised to a cool 15,000 word count, suddenly looked at your manuscript, and realized that your characters sparked about as much as a wet sock?

Sexy!

Maybe it's just me.

Sure, I've read some great erotica with a snappy, twisting, interesting plot, but unlike any other genre other than romance, if the characters don't spark against each other you have nothing. If you're like me and write with the plot foremost in your mind...I'm sorry. It's rough. I can't count the number of times I've had to scrap an entire story because I looked at the interaction between the characters and even I was bored.

In order to save time and tears there are a couple of tricks I use:

Characters First!

I still have wild ideas about plots, and small snippets of stories that appear out of nowhere (usually while I'm dripping wet in the shower). Whereas I used to just plop down in front of the computer, or sometimes a notebook, and just free write that world as it came to me, now I just write enough down to remember it at a later time.

Yeah, it was painful at first, but so was getting fifteen thousand words into a story and realizing the characters were never going to work.

My husband used to work at casting and development for a reality show, and he'd bring a lot of his work home with him. The show could be about (and usually was about) anything: a truck stop, a gator farm, a cleaning service, a night club, ect. What mattered most was the chemistry between the characters. (Are you getting a theme here?).

So now I operate like I'm casting a television show. I visualize and develop multiple characters, and I sort of "interview" them against each other. I can always rework one of the plots and worlds I've sketched out for them once I find a pair or two that click together, and I've found reworking the plots to the characters to be much more rewarding than my past method of seat-of-pantsing and working in another edit after the work is finished.

Tension!

That said, you cannot forget the plot entirely, even if the only thing the plot centers on is should they/shouldn't they.

The best characters in the world still need motivation to be interesting, and two awesome characters who want each other is important, but isn't it more fun to have a little bit more?

My favorite reads are about characters who probably shouldn't be together, and who still want each other, and struggle with themselves or society over this. What can I say, I'm a sucker of self vs. self. 

If you're an erotic author you can make any sex scene read hot. You write unconventionally, and you keep the reader on their toes. But I prefer when the sex is integral to the plot and character development. The best works (again, just my opinion) use their erotic setting to challenge and develop their characters, and at the end of the story the characters have changed, even if there is no happily ever after.

It's Not Just For Erotica!

Developing your characters first will serve you well in all kinds of fiction. In the YA novel I'm working on (yes, under a different pen name) I worked hard to develop my main character's voice and it has served me very well. If the character is strong enough, the plot just happens, and it's truly a pleasure to write.

What are some tools you use to develop your characters? Do you use character sheets, character interviews, or just write them as you go along?