I’m a fantasy writer just now wandering into the world of erotic romance. I’ve been reading fantasy since the early 1970s. Hence, my high tolerance for vast paragraphs of worldbuilding, complicated plots and sub-plots, and tiny nuggets of foreshadowing scattered like diamonds on a path. Sex in older fantasy and science fiction novels often faded to black, or was framed in the most diplomatic ways. I’m thrilled to see many modern fantasy novels using sex as a normal, natural part of the narrative.
In the erotic romance genre, some readers want to reach the steamy bits as quickly as possible. I’ve talked with erotic romance readers who simply skip through books to find sex scenes. A few will bypass entire books in a series if the pairing/combination isn’t one they like.
In fanfiction, we called the ultimate expression of that strategy ‘Plot, What Plot?’ It was a happy excuse to write searing sex scenes where emotional content barely uplifted the text from simple porn. I’ve written a few PWP stories myself. They’re great ways to learn the craft of erotica, and they’re fun.
But as a fantasy reader, I’m still trained to accept a writer’s work as it is. I’d worry that if I skipped a chapter or two, I wouldn’t know the backstories and motivations of the characters. I might miss some important clue I could only pick up from context in a paragraph three chapters back. Missing that clue, I’d be completely at sea later when the plot demanded I remember it. Confusion might lead to boredom, and then to me skimming the rest of the book – or throwing it across the room.
Reading a book just for the sex, to me, is as ultimately unsatisfying and unhealthy as skipping the rest of the meal for dessert. If I cater to my craving for only one aspect of a novel, how long before the reading-comprehension equivalent of diabetes sets in? If I don’t use my deep-reading skills, will I lose them?
Besides, passages of carefully written plot or worldbuilding description only enhance the main characters for me. While I’m reading, I’m a tourist in their world. Do I want the fastest, most simplified itinerary, or do I want a leisurely back-roads journey through the place that has shaped and defined these characters?
For me, the plot is another form of foreplay.