The Art of Arousal

There is an art to arousal in erotic writing.  You have to engage the senses and the imagination at the same time.  You also have to be creative and alternate the names of body parts and still keep the action flowing in the way it needs to flow.  Names have to be direct, and not allusions to them.  They also can't be ridiculous similes. You can't call a penis a "banana" or a "purple helmet yogurt slinger" and still expect people to read on.  You also can't be too crude.  You have to walk a fine line and feel out your readers.

Pacing is important.  The action in a short piece of erotica should build, but not too fast, and not too slow.  You want the climax to come, then bring them slowly down.  Yes, kind of like sex.  If you're a guy, just think that you want her to have hers first.  Ladies first, always....unless she says otherwise...and still ladies first.

Connection on a primal level is what erotica is about.  If there is too much use of the intelligence, then there is something lost.  So you have to make the flow make sense to the reader.  You can't create a stumbling block by throwing in something that is nonsensical.  Build up only as slowly as your characters allow.  If you allow your characters to flow instead of forcing them to do what you think they should, then the writing will be much smoother.  Action should move into action.  You can't add in too much thought, or long conversational dialogue during a sex scene.  It will jar the reader out of the moment and back to reality.  It will lead them to question the moment, and question the author.

Another thing on this topic.  When writing about sex, you should enjoy it.  If you aren't getting aroused by the scene you are writing, you are doing something wrong.  You can't reach the audience if you can't even reach yourself, and this is key.  Granted, there will always be some people who get nothing out of a piece of erotica, but if you are writing it and do get something out of it, I can guarantee somebody else will too.  The more arousing to the reader, the more likely they will come back for more.