Most incest stories are straight to sex yet get high ratings

First, excuse my bad English. I think most of the incest stories here are ridiculously stupid yet they get high ratings. What I mean is the women always seem to just throw themselves at the lucky guy without any reason other than being a family member. It's stupid straight to sex stories with no drama or anything. I don't come to this site to jack off to such stories.. I come here for stories, for the drama.. If I want to jack off, then I come watch videos instead on porn sites.. Why and how do these ridiculously straight to sex stories get high ratings? It's like the writers are not even trying. I know the stories are free, but as I said, there is no drama whatsoever just boring straight to sex "come fuck me little/big brother, dad, uncle, etc"

Your English is just fine, Rus.

Most of the better, high-drama Incest stories can be found on the Top List for the category. Many people write stories in that category because it gets a lot of views, and many of those views are from people who just want a quick wank from their favorite kink.

It's a very easy category from which to reap lots of views and votes, but there are good, dramatic stories where it's not just two people hopping into bed the minute their parents leave the house. I would like to think I did well with "Crash Into Me", but there are plenty of other good ones out there too by writers like PacoFear and onehitwanda.

I've seen a lot of those, and like you, they're not my thing. I prefer story to stroke, I think in a category like incest there should be an attempt to have some type of reason for that line to be crossed and that makes it more enjoyable.

But different strokes for different folks and many people like quick and dirty right to the good stuff stories.

This isn't limited to incest, I've found group sex stories where a woman who is introduced as being kind of shy is banging away with three guys two paragraphs later. Women who've never been with another woman happily carpet munching after a pretty woman at a bar flirts with her....

There is stroke and substance in every category.

One thing I do is check the length. If its 1-2 pages in incest odds are there is not much real build up and its right to the sex. If its longer then I give it ago assuming there is some build up and story line.

I've found that works a good portion of the time, but I've found five pages of 100% stroke where more family keep piling on. I've also found the rare short story that has some substance to it.

Just got to weed through for what you like and ignore what you don't.

Rus_ said:

It's like the writers are not even trying. I know the stories are free, but as I said, there is no drama whatsoever just boring straight to sex "come fuck me little/big brother, dad, uncle, etc"

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You're not the first to notice this and you won't be the last.

Some writers give stroke readers what they want (sex, no plot, body parts, quick action), other writers give story readers what they want (plot with sex, characters, intimacy, mood, etc...).

You've just got to figure out which writers you like and move on from the rest. You'll find whatever you're looking for here on Lit, just pass by what doesn't appeal to you.

It's been said many times, the scoring system is an indicator of popularity as well as quality. Two different concepts entirely, not to confused. Sometimes you get both...

I wish the search system on literotica would let us filter by word count because that way I would automatically discard the stories that are 2 pages or under. I think that would solve much of the problem as the stories that are 2 pages or under are unlikely to have much build up. 3 pages is when stories start to have characterisation and build up though 5 or more pages is ideal.

Read what you like, ignore what you don't. If everything was configured to one person's tastes, there would be a lot of disappointed people living in a rather bland world. Personally, sometimes I like a short, raunchy and debauched tale that gets straight to the craziness and sometimes I enjoy a slow build up. One can fairly easily find both on this site.

Furthermore, I'm wary of making assumptions as to the reasons why a person writes a story the way they do. Assuming that someone wrote a short story that dives straight into the sex just so they could get likes and views is just as bad as assuming that people who write the long, more drawn out tales all believe they're the Shakespeare of smut. Truth be told, there's terrible long-form stories as well as short ones. Length is no indicator of quality (was that a penis joke?).

I also don't put much stock in the ratings system - it's too easily gamed, unfortunately.

Incest stories lend themselves to brevity. Everyone has a mother and father. A lot of us have siblings. We already know what that's like, and don't need to spend much time establishing the connection. It's much different when you have two strangers meet and they have to get to know each other. Incest can skip all that part, go straight to the sex, but still have compelling characters.

I have a couple you might want to take a look at. I at least make a small attempt at character development . . .

GingerCat1 said:

I wish the search system on literotica would let us filter by word count because that way I would automatically discard the stories that are 2 pages or under. I think that would solve much of the problem as the stories that are 2 pages or under are unlikely to have much build up. 3 pages is when stories start to have characterisation and build up though 5 or more pages is ideal.

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This is an excellent idea. The site could improve reader satisfaction a lot by improving search capabilities, period. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to filter searches with every different story element: views, votes, tags, you name it. It would improve readers' abilities to find the stories they want, and that, after all, is what this site should strive for.

Going past two Literotica pages would be 7,500 words, far longer than the mainstream now allots to do everything you need to do in a short story. This push for longer at Literotica in the attempt to write a short story rather than a novella or novel (which is OK, if that's your goal) is an encouragement to throw words at the page rather than sculpting your phrases for maximum reveal as succinctly as possible. It also means if you let the Literotica need for verbosity in order to get nice comments and ratings from Philistine readers set into your writing style, you can forget moving on to writing short stories in the mainstream. You will have ingrained bad writing technique in exchange for Philistine readers.

This "it's got to be over two Literotica pages to be developed fully" is just a lot of crap connected with Literotica's preference for verbosity.

It's important to get a good sense of characters and not jump into sexual scenarios that feel unreal, but that doesn't correlate with story length. Too many longer stories drown in exposition early on, and don't necessarily reward you later on.

My own writing tends to be the short side, often only a single page. Perhaps too short, but I like to think they're worth reading anyway. I have great admiration for writers who can sustain erotic tension for 3+ pages, but I often get frustrated with stories that are 6+ pages - or, indeed, anything with 10+ chapters.

Check out the stories in my sig. All 6-10 pages with lots of plot and character development. I have my characters fall in love, which I think would be tough to do in two pages.

It's amazing what you can do in two pages. It's even more amazing what two pages could do if left to their own devices.

I don't read much incest so I don't know the typical dynamics. I wrote a bit of incest but rarely do I go "straight to sex" -- although that happens in some non-incest stories. For me it's all about the tale's demands. Sex-up-front works sometimes, as do many other story structures. Hard-and-fast rules don't exist. Page counts are tenuous. Write the story as the voices in your head dictate it.

I'm more impressed by an author who achieves their desired effect in 10 words than one who takes 100 to achieve the same goal.

As some guy who knew a thing or two about writing once said, "brevity is the soul of wit".

jimmy_james said:

I'm more impressed by an author who achieves their desired effect in 10 words than one who takes 100 to achieve the same goal.

As some guy who knew a thing or two about writing once said, "brevity is the soul of wit".

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Given that one of the objectives of good erotica/stroke can be a satisfactory...ahh, result, brevity is not always wanted nor desirable.

Indeed, there's a pretty robust argument for stories to take their time, to be repetitive. Good sex, even solo sex, can be all the better for it.

But hey, if you want it all to be over in thirty seconds, sure, read the shorter stories, go for your life. Me, I'll take my time and enjoy myself

That is indeed a problem with short stories, but sometimes long stories go for too long without providing a satisfying climax.

There is quite definitely an art to sustaining a high degree of erotic tension over several pages of story.

Does length matter?? No its the quality not quantity.............

Some short stories dont need to develop much of the characters i found. It could be just a wham bamm etc etc however character building is good to make the reader really think they are in the story.

Ive written stories from 900 to 13000 words. It the readers choice but the writers decision!

A good writer can reveal a character with three adjectives and two action descriptions. Also, a short story isn't required to fully develop all aspects of a written work. A short story and a novel are two different writing modes. And that they are is why I don't pay much attention to the writing contests here anymore. They lump everything together and, as is hinted on this thread has happened, push the mistaken impression that the elements and degree the elements are developed are the same in a short story and novel. They aren't, and they shouldn't be judged against each other. Literotica readers/voters have come to falsely value using lots of words and Lit. pages.

electricblue66 said:

Given that one of the objectives of good erotica/stroke can be a satisfactory...ahh, result, brevity is not always wanted nor desirable.

Indeed, there's a pretty robust argument for stories to take their time, to be repetitive. Good sex, even solo sex, can be all the better for it.

But hey, if you want it all to be over in thirty seconds, sure, read the shorter stories, go for your life. Me, I'll take my time and enjoy myself

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You seem to be misunderstanding what I was trying to say. I'm not claiming that shorter stories are _always_ better than longer ones, I'm arguing that longer stories are not _inherently_ better than shorter ones. Word count is not an indicator of quality.

Try looking at it this way; two authors each write a five hundred word paragraph, the goal of which is to portray an absorbing build up and "satisfactory result". One author achieves this goal within the 500 words, the other only gets partway through the build up before going over the word limit. The writer who managed to use their words efficiently and effectively to convey the point of the story within the 500 word limit clearly is the better writer.

If an author can convey the _same level_ of suspense/excitement/emotion/etc in less words than it takes another author, they are using language _more_ effectively, ergo, brevity is the soul of wit.

jimmy_james said:

The writer who managed to use their words efficiently and effectively to convey the point of the story within the 500 word limit clearly is the better writer.

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Better for whom? For the creative writing instructor grading your submission? Or for the purchaser of a 1200-page paperback bloated to fill the reader's time while flying or on the beach? Or for a writer paid by the word? 'Better' is an ambiguous term.

Hypoxia said:

Better for whom? For the creative writing instructor grading your submission? Or for the purchaser of a 1200-page paperback bloated to fill the reader's time while flying or on the beach? Or for a writer paid by the word? 'Better' is an ambiguous term.

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Sigh. Is this a deliberately obtuse reading of my comment?

Better in the sense that, and I'm quoting myself here, "If an author can convey the _same level_ of suspense/excitement/emotion/etc in less words than it takes another author, they are using language _more_ effectively".

Sorry, I realise I sounded like an ass saying that was an "obtuse reading" of my comment, it's just that I went on to clarify exactly what I meant in the line right below the one you quoted, Hypoxia.

Most readers (not just at Lit) would say quality is more important but at the same time many have a preference in regards to length. A writer on another site prefers both his own stories and those he reads to be short. He once went over ten thousand words on a story and kept commenting he didn’t understand how that happened

sr71plt said:

Going past two Literotica pages would be 7,500 words, far longer than the mainstream now allots to do everything you need to do in a short story. This push for longer at Literotica in the attempt to write a short story rather than a novella or novel (which is OK, if that's your goal) is an encouragement to throw words at the page rather than sculpting your phrases for maximum reveal as succinctly as possible. It also means if you let the Literotica need for verbosity in order to get nice comments and ratings from Philistine readers set into your writing style, you can forget moving on to writing short stories in the mainstream. You will have ingrained bad writing technique in exchange for Philistine readers.

This "it's got to be over two Literotica pages to be developed fully" is just a lot of crap connected with Literotica's preference for verbosity.

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If someone is trying to write mainstream short stories then of course one needs to keep things tight but in regards to incest even if a writer writes well and keeps the word count below three thousand words (or whatever the current preferred length) I doubt The New Yorker is going to publish a sexually explicit story where a son seduces his mother and they fuck happily ever after.

Still even if someone only aspires to write full length novels or amateur porn it is still good to be disciplined and telling a story in under three or six thousand words would still be a good exercise/challenge to try. It also seems that a majority here at least prefer longer short stories or novelettes/novellas. Part of that may be they want the passion to build plus many prefer the sex scene (or multiple scenes) to last more than two or three paragraphs especially those among the one handed reader brigade. I once had a comment on a story where a reader said she came thrice without touching her clit. I doubt many stories, no matter how well written, will get that reaction if the sex scene can be read in a minute.

jimmy_james said:

I'm more impressed by an author who achieves their desired effect in 10 words than one who takes 100 to achieve the same goal.

As some guy who knew a thing or two about writing once said, "brevity is the soul of wit".

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Brevity may be the soul of wit but if a writer can convey in ten words what takes another writer one hundred words to do then the latter isn’t a very good communicator or delights in just piling up a word count for the sake of it. Still, one can be a loved writer even if one is wordy and tends to get repetitious. I like Jane Austen and I know she wrote in a different era when the mantra wasn’t short and sleek with no sentence over ten words or whatever the modern experts say. But in Emma if half the times Mr. Woodhouse expressed his concern about one going out in the rain was left out we’d still know how ocd he was on the subject. Yet whose work is more popular today-Jane Austen or any of the people who post their stories here. Not knocking any writers here, just saying the truth as I see it.

And some stories like War and Peace or LotR couldn’t be condensed to the word count or style that some think stories should be and still be what they are. I count a lot of short stories among my favorite writing but it depends on what the writer is trying to do. The Sherlock Holmes stories are a perfect example of conveying the story as intended and there is no need to describe the physical characteristics of Holmes and Watson, it would be superfluous. But if someone wanted to write a GM fanfiction about them and what they got up to in 221B Baker Street then one might expect to read a description.

Not really disagreeing with anyone but at times it seems some want their fiction to read more like a newspaper account (just the facts and even then kept to a minimum) or a synopsis rather than a fleshed out story. When I’m really enjoying a piece of writing I’m of two minds. I want to see how it turns out of course yet I want it to go on because I’m enjoying reading it. If I want the story to just end then even if I acknowledge the technical writing is good it didn’t really move me.

What I want most is depth to the characters, I want to be cheering for the main character to succeed, I want to know his thoughts, his hopes and even dreams, and I want to know his motivations and you don't always get that in the shorter stories. I also don't like it when the main character is already attracted to his sister or mother before the story begins as to me that is ruining half the fun of incest stories.

To me incest stories, or what makes them good to read is the taboo nature of it. I want the main character feeling guilt, or feeling conflicted as it feels more realistic, and makes it so much more taboo when he and the other character finally give in. If the author only pays lip service to the characters having sex being taboo, then it does not feel nearly as taboo.