1) Exposition (Intro) - setting the scene
2) Inciting incident - the moment that gets the plot going
3) Rising action - what the character(s) do to reach their goal; this often includes
4) Climax - the height of the drama
5) Falling action - the aftermath, aka the “denouement”
6) Conclusion - the final beat
Seems pretty intuitive, right? But what does this have to do with porn? In porn, our goal is to bring our viewers on a sexual journey. We’re storytellers just like any other screenwriter or author, but instead of inviting our audience to experience catharsis - the purification or purgation of emotions - like in a tragic drama, we want our audience to experience sexual release. To do this effectively, we need to guide our viewers through the process of sexual release. In the 1960s, researchers William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson studied how people have orgasmic sex through a series of trials in which they watched their subjects bump nasties and recorded their physical responses. What they observed was a pattern that they termed the “human sexual response cycle,” which looks something like this:
1) Desire - the want to experience pleasure
2) Excitement - experiencing increasing amounts of pleasure
3) Plateau - the consistent state of pleasure preceding before orgasm
4) Orgasm - you know
5) Resolution - when your body cools off
Look familiar? There is some variation in how people experience the sexual response cycle - sometimes it takes longer to reach orgasm, sometimes you orgasm multiple times - but the basic pattern is pretty universal between all genders. In most full-length porn clips that include orgasms, we as performers demonstrate the human sexual response cycle. We do it intuitively, even in non-scripted pieces like gonzo or “real life” content, but in scripted porn, we need to pay extra attention to the confluence of dramatic action and sexual responses as we show our characters’ experiences. We want to keep the viewers engaged and prevent them from skipping parts of the video while leading them through the sexual response cycle, and to do this, we need to consider the three separate patterns: dramatic structure of the video, our character(s)’ sexual response cycle(s), and our viewers’ sexual response cycles. I’ve added a few extra points (initiating arousal and the conclusion) to the human sexual response cycle in order to parallel the dramatic structure, and I’ll be using my Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman Threesome video (featuring Chrissy LeBlanc and Sonia Harcourt) as an example.
We start with exposition and desire. This is where you establish the characters, the setting, and the initial situation. As rule of thumb for your typical non-porno plot, you’ll want the intro to take about 10% of your story. In porn, you can pare it back even more. Your viewer’s desire often begins before they start your video, so if your intro is too long, viewers will skip it. This is the most common issue we see in scripted porn, so try limiting your exposition to the first 5% of your video. For example, in the 23-minute Harley, Ivy, and Catwoman video, the intro only lasts for the first minute, just 4.3% of the total clip. Since these are well-known characters, we don’t need to spend time explaining who they are, but we still need to establish the circumstances:
Shot 1: Sound of a camera recording beep. Camera switches on and we see CATWOMAN leaning in close.
HARLEY
Is it on?
Catwoman moves back revealing Harley and Ivy.
CATWOMAN
It's recording.
IVY
Excellent.
CATWOMAN
(To the camera.)
So, Batman. It’s come to our attention that there are several key artifacts at the Gotham City Museum that my friends and I desire.
HARLEY
Emphasis on "desire."
(Giggles maniacally.)
IVY
Do you see this little bomb?
(Holding up bottle.)
It’s actually a lust elixir. Anyone that is exposed to it will turn into a crazy sex maniac in in less than 30 seconds.
HARLEY
And we’ve planted a whole bunch of them all over Gotham!
CATWOMAN
So you have two hours to disable the security at the Gotham City Museum, or. . .
HARLEY
Kaboom! Ungh ungh ungh.
(Thrusting hips in time with the sex noises. Laughs maniacally and begins playing with the potion.)
Consider this a mandatory "five finger discount," batty boy.
See? Quick and simple. Next, the plot moves to the inciting incident/initiating arousal. In this film’s case, the initiation is fairly literal. Harley spills the potion, causing all three to become instantly aroused. This set the plot in motion, giving each character a goal - sexual release - which they pursue through the climax:
(HARLEY drops the potion and it spills. CATWOMAN and IVY turn to her.)
IVY
Harls, did you just. . .?
HARLEY
Oops?
All three shudder, making it clear that they've been affected.
The viewer may have already initiated their own arousal before turning on the video, so again, we want to reach this point quicker than in a non-erotic story. Now that the goal has been established and our everyone’s horny, we’ve hit the excitement and plateau stages of the human sexual response cycle which coincides with the rising action of a story. Both the viewers and the characters continue to become more sexually aroused as the plot progresses, taking actions such as masturbating, kissing, talking dirty, eating each other out, fingering and vibing each other, and spanking, to achieve their goals.:
CATWOMAN
(Moving closer to HARLEY.)
Well who says this has to be a bad "oops”?
HARLEY
It could be a good one. . .
(CATWOMAN and HARLEY kiss.)
IVY
Harls, I think you deserve a spanking for that.
HARLEY
Mmm, spank me, Red!
IVY spanks HARLEY'S ass. LESBIAN POOORRRRRN COMMENCES!!!
Like in a linear story, the rising action/excitement/plateau in porn may include peaks and dips in intensity. Most viewers will orgasm during the characters’ excitement or plateau stage, and that’s ok! The viewer’s orgasm takes priority, but we still want the story to be mentally satisfying. In our cosplay video’s case, each character has their own orgasm, with the last one - Poison Ivy’s grand squirt - being the most intense both sexually and dramatically.Since the characters’ orgasms aren’t as important as the viewer’s orgasm, in a porn clip, the resolution/falling action can also be fairly quick. Once they cum, the viewer will likely turn the video off and switch their focus to cooling off (resolution) and cleaning up (conclusion). Still, you’ll want to put a bow on it to establish that the story is over. Again, it’s just mentally satisfying. In the threesome video, the resolution and conclusion last 1:15 minutes, just 5.5% of the video.
Final shot: IVY cums. HARLEY and CATWOMAN are on either side.
HARLEY
(Touching IVY.)
That’s it. That’s my pretty little flower.
IVY
(In post coital bliss.)
Thank you, ladies.
IVY kisses CATWOMAN.
CATWOMAN
Oh, my. . .
IVY kisses HARLEY.
HARLEY
You’re so beautiful when you’re post coital.
CATWOMAN
Oh, I love the two of you together - so romantic!
HARLEY
I’m so glad we got you involved. We’ve been talking about this for a while, you know.
CATWOMAN
You have?
HARLEY and IVY
Mhmm.
(Both laugh.)
CATWOMAN
What took us so long, then?
HARLEY
Good question. We should have done this ages ago.
IVY
I have been working on the potion for quite some time.
HARLEY
This is true.
IVY
I had to get it just right.
CATWOMAN
I think it’s safe to say you perfected it.
HARLEY
Yeah, at least it works!
All three giggle. Cut.
As you can see, the ending is short and sweet. The plot wraps up, and the viewer gets a few beats to come down with the characters if they’re so inclined to keep watching while they grab a cum rag.In any type of art, rules are meant to be broken, so this is by no means the only way to write a porn script. However, if you are having difficulty finding the right balance of plot set-up and sexual content, hopefully this guide will help!