Erotica Genres & Terms Explained

Story styles

• Slow-burn — tension built gradually over time before anything happens; the build-up *is* the appeal.
• PWP ('plot, what plot?') — minimal story, straight to the heat.
• Romance — emotional connection front and centre, not just the physical.
• Interactive — you steer the story with choices; see interactive sex stories.
• Audio — erotica you listen to rather than read; see our audio erotica guide.

Pairings & orientation tags

• M/F — male/female pairing.
• M/M — male/male; see gay erotica with AI.
• F/F — female/female; see lesbian erotica with AI.
• Bi / bi-curious — attraction to more than one gender, often a first-time arc.
• Poly / group — more than two characters involved.

Dynamics & kink

• BDSM — consensual power exchange (bondage, dominance, submission); see our BDSM erotica guide.
• Dom/sub (D/s) — one partner leads, the other yields.
• Switch — a character who takes either role.
• Praise / degradation — tonal styles within D/s play.
• Edging — drawing out tension by delaying the payoff.

Theme & character tags

• Taboo — forbidden or secret scenarios; see taboo erotica.
• Cheating / infidelity — the charge of secrecy and risk.
• Enemies-to-lovers — animosity that turns into desire.
• Friends-to-lovers — a slow realization between people who already know each other.
• MILF / mature — stories centred on older characters.
• Age-gap — an attraction across a notable difference in age (adults).

How to use these labels

Genre tags are shortcuts for the *mood* you're after. When you generate a story, you can stack them: "slow-burn, M/M, enemies-to-lovers" tells an AI exactly what you want in three words. For how to turn tags into a great prompt, see our guide to writing erotica with AI, browse erotic story prompts by genre, or start with the AI erotica generator guide.