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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40909
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40909
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

> (1) from the first desire to consummation or
> 
> (2) from loveless sex to romantic love or
> 
> (3) from a lack of sexual experience to sexual empowerment
> 
> – what can cause conflict?

I think what you need is an alternative to a plotted novel; these are "character-driven" novels, in which a character may not have an antagonist, exactly, except for the difficulties of her world and inability to get exactly what she wants. Over the course of the novel, she develops and becomes different. The reader continues reading, not just for the erotica, but to see what happens to her, usually because they like her and want her to succeed.

1) Going from first desire to consummation doesn't have to be straightforward. Particularly so for males, and particularly so for homosexuals. Even if she and the boy she desires are straight, he may be committed to somebody else (or to his religion). You can introduce problems in this phase. You can introduce problems _after_ this stage; the consummation did not satisfy her, or her partner demanded acts she did not want to perform, or they got caught in the middle and the sex was interrupted.

2) Going from loveless sex to romantic love: Finding a partner that wants more than sex doesn't have to be easy. Or, a conflict from within, a promiscuous character may enjoy the lifestyle and not want to give it up, but also does not want to give up a particular partner.

3) From a lack of sexual experience to sexual empowerment: Another internal conflict. So the MC has a lot of sex with a lot of partners, she's learned to do everything, but she still doesn't FEEL sexually "empowered". She has said "yes" a dozen times and its pretty much always the same few things, oral sex, intercourse, maybe anal sex. After yet another episode of that she decides she doesn't feel "powerful" at all. Guys are as easy as buying groceries, and then the script hardly varies. She gets off, but she's getting bored with that, and boredom can be a source of conflict. She wants an escalation, something more challenging. And that is what the story is about, her finding the sex that rocks her world.

In a character-driven story, the story is about the character and how she feels and how she is changing. What she seeks is internal, not external like a treasure. She is her own antagonist -- By not being satisfied with what she has done, and not knowing what to do next, so she makes missteps and has close calls or disasters or whatever.

So you don't have to have a "bad guy" in the novel, per se, or if you have "bad guys" they can be temporary and not the lethal or life-changing kind of bad.

What you can have is a "character against the world" scenario, like Tom Hanks in _Castaway_, stranded on an island and trying to escape. She is on her own without help and trying to figure out how to get what she wants, sexually.

You can actually combine those three scenarios into one master.

Act I: From desire to consummation.

Act IIa: Reactive; gaining a lot of random sexual experiences.

Act IIb: Proactive; from randomicity to control and sexual empowerment.

Act 3: Now she knows what she wants: From loveless sex to romantic love; the conclusion.

Original score: 7