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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41004
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

"Dangerous Liasons" (1988) and the modern remake "Cruel Intentions" (1999) show example of how it is done. The beginning is stronger in Cruel Intentions, where the main character basically _just had sex_ (off-screen).

The trick in both of them is that they make a difference between the sexual climax and the plot climax. Both have (essentially the same) story where sex is a part of the story, but not the main story point or tension. Both stories can't be told without sex and there is quite a bit of sexual tension, but there is **also** the tension of conspiracies, betrayl, and all the rest of a regular story. The beauty is in how they are mixed and interact.

Good erotic fiction has sex as a story **element** , but sex is not the whole story. The same way that an action movie has gun fights and kung fu as story elements, but the tension isn't about who can shoot better. In fact, many of them start with a strong action scene, and it doesn't reduce the tension. So use sex the same way that action movies use action - to move the story, to resolve conflict, to force serious decisions on characters - but add a story to add **meaning** to the action/sex, which is what creates tension.

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