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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36210
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36210
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Porn in general shows something for the excitement of it **in and of itself**.

In a story, authors stray into porn when what we are showing does not advance the story, build character, or have **any ramifications or consequences** to what happens later in the story. Generally, showing sex (or torture) itself is not that necessary, the **specifics** of what went where or what got amputated don't make a difference **unless** that has an effect on that character or another character in a later scene. So a torture scene might be important if it motivates a non-victim (to good or evil), but just showing some guy being tortured to death, if it is only done for the villain's self-gratification and **the details of that torture** have no consequences for him or anybody else later in the story, then that is torture porn.

I have not had reason to engage in fictional torture, but I may write several pages of a sex scene because the details of the sex cause a major change in the characters; e.g. a casual sexual encounter becomes unexpectedly intense and this becomes love. Or what began consensually becomes a forcible rape, and that has consequences. It isn't enough to "tell" what happened in either of those stories. It must be shown, for my hero, why **that** sexual encounter was different than any previous sexual encounter in her life, because I (the author) intend to hang some story on it.

The difference is that "porn" of any kind can be cut from the story and "told" without changing the plot.

**That said,** a little porn can sell; many romance novels contain thinly disguised porn scenes that could be cut without changing the plot. Porn makes $billions, and constitutes nearly HALF of all internet traffic. From a puritan writing standpoint, what is unnecessary to the plot may be the reason some people buy your work! So I wouldn't say prohibit it; but don't overdo it. Don't do it so often that the audience loses track of the plot and characters; I'm thinking perhaps three times in a story. It would be hard for ME to justify more "transformative" sex scenes than that for a MC.

Original score: 12