In an erotica, the rules of "good" description do not conform to the rules of actually good description. The voice is almost always either lewd or passionate, there is no neutral unless you've been lost in a paragraph of description that the writer hadn't yet converted into purple prose before publishing.
You'll find some repetitive patterns, not only in plot but in writing: Alliteration and assonance, sometimes just repeated adjectives or words in general. Sometimes, if the writer's being ballsy, they'll repeat a whole sentence like a goddamn hypnotist. The beat exact of sentences repeat themselves at key points, as in Shakespeare’s works, if the writer’s either really into their rhythm, or if they’re really ‘artsy’, or if they’re on the Autism spectrum.
I guess this conforms to the idea of 'trigger words', which, outside of trauma-related connotations, are words or concepts that seem to make shit better somehow when you’re stroking your trouser trout. I know they exist, since I've spent a big portion of my life "freestyling" since I didn't want to be caught watching porn, because I had no computer of my own. Needless to say that was pretty early in my jacking career. Common words are the ones you usually hear about in jest or in cliche sex scenes, “Voluptuous”, “Throbbing”, “Quivering”, “Hard/Harder/Hardest/Hardly”, yadda yadda.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, some descriptions prefer to never repeat the same word, but repeat the same description. So, an ass that’s originally “perky and bouncy” becomes “tight and pneumatic” when it’s described a second time, (Nouns are almost always accompanied by their synonymous adjectives when sex or physical contact is happening) so eventually, the author hopes, they’ll actually find one of your trigger words, or if they already have, they won’t repeat it until it becomes boring or annoying and give you new words to work your image with.
Erotica is most frequently bought and read by women, closetted something-or-others, and people with niche fantasies and fetishes, in other words, people whose sexualities are sort of discouraged/ignored/de-emphasized in their cultures. Porn isn’t well-marketted to them, or it isn’t considered [as?] acceptable in their culture for them to watch porn, whereas it’s usually implied that porn’s generally a straight man’s thing.
I tend to avoid erotica in general. In stuff like Game of Thrones or Flan it’s just an awkward flow-interruptor that I have to put up with until the end of the little scene. I guess it’s realistic that they’d have sex. I guess it’s realistic that they’d go into detail to get the feelings down. It doesn’t really get me off, since it’s usually printed in Times New Roman. In stuff like CoC or TiTS, though, I read it because it’s fucking hilarious. Gets a tad bit overwrought, though, and when the novelty of a bizarre erotica wears off I usually head off to superior realms of entertainment. I’m drawn to “So bad it’s funny” or “So weird/surreal it’s funny” “Morbidly interesting” or just “So much plot it’s probably just an adult novel but there’s quite graphic sex in it” as far as erotica goes.
If you’d like to really troll the porn contest you’re entering, just tell them that you’re turned on by plot, and the idea of whatever you’re writing about. I’m sure they’ll have to have quite some controversey about whether or not that’s kink-shaming and whether or not it’s erotica, unless they have specific entry things. Or write in a fetish that nobody there has. They won’t be able to tell whether it’s bad or not, and will only be able to judge it by its merits as a story.
For additional help, here are words you cannot use to describe genitalia, unless you want to make it very clear that you're taking the piss:
Clam, Hamhock, Whackadoodle, Flappy, Pork-Grinder, Gaping Maw, Meatsword, Blackjack, Peter Tinklage, Moby Dick, Monstro, Any proper noun, Any allusion to Sperm Whales or Whaling in General, Choad, Choadhole, Dwarven Stout, Battering Ram, Horsecock, Drippy Faucet, (T)rusty sprinkler, Trouser trout, (Whether it's inside or out) Crucifiction Nail, Southern Comfort, Big Mac, Whopper, anything food-related unless you made clear that that's a fetish.
