Step-brother or half-brother?

I'm working on a story about a 20 year old girl whose older step-brother comes to stay with her family and ends up seducing her and eventually her 18 year old sister as well. I'm wondering, however, if there might be a larger audience if I made him the girls' half-brother. Does the blood relation make a difference to readers here? Thank you!

alexismarc said:

I'm working on a story about a 20 year old girl whose older step-brother comes to stay with her family and ends up seducing her and eventually her 18 year old sister as well. I'm wondering, however, if there might be a larger audience if I made him the girls' half-brother. Does the blood relation make a difference to readers here? Thank you!

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Why not go the whole hog and make them full siblings? Personally, I think it's better (story-wise) if there's a blood connection. It's more transgressive and illicit. The word 'step' should never appear in a taboo/incest story, in my opinion (unless you need to describe a flight of stairs).

Step-sex may be incest IRL but not on LIT. Half-sibling-sex is stronger and can be handled well but full-sex is most powerful. Cousins almost don't count. Step-sex would go in EC or Romance or Mature or something. If I write an 'incest' story with cousin- or half-sex then I make sure a full sibling or parent is in the action too, like in A Taste of Pears and Cider and A Taste of Peaches and Cream.

What do LIT's incest readers want? 1) Motherfucking; 2) Dad-daughter doings; 3) Sibling sex. How do they want it? 1) Sweet seduction; 2) Sudden surge; 3) Doesn't matter so long as they fuck. I threw most of that stuff into A Taste of Spirits and Vamos!.

I don't think I've ever bothered writing a step-sex story. Not worth it.

That's what I suspected. Thank you both!

half siblings do allow for "bastard" stories though, so if you wanted to frame it around the family just meeting the guy or the guy knowing he's their brother but they don't, I think it would work fine but unless you're making a point of the story that he's a half sibling, you may as well go full since it will be the same story as a full-blooded sibling

Strangebuddy said:

half siblings do allow for "bastard" stories though, so if you wanted to frame it around the family just meeting the guy or the guy knowing he's their brother but they don't, I think it would work fine but unless you're making a point of the story that he's a half sibling, you may as well go full since it will be the same story as a full-blooded sibling

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Step- and half-sibs approach incestuousness if the relationship is close and long, like being raised together since infancy. Then, even though the DNA link is thin or nonexistent, sexual intimacy feels taboo, whereas twins separated at birth and hooking-up decades later aren't breaking *that* social stigma.

Ah, the remote Bastard moving in with reluctant newly-discovered kin, yes, that has possibilities, especially with social-status tension, like they're rich and he's trash. A twist there has the Bastard bum inadvertently saving some of the elite family from dire danger -- and grateful relatives offer him sex as a reward, take him into their fold, and only later discover that he is blood kin.

I've always said the strength of the incest genre, other than the taboo breaking, is there's no need to establish how or why the characters know each other. No need for a guy to approach any girls at school if he can just bang his sis or mom instead. Step-siblings grant the same narrative benefit, though again without the taboo breaking.

A long time ago I saw a TV movie where a guy knocked up his future step-sister. They either didn't quite realize their parents were an item and getting married, or they just didn't care, I don't quite remember.

Full-on siblings you have the "known each other our whole lives and this is wrong but I want it anyway" dynamic, while step-siblings (depending on how recent the parents' marriage was) might be more of a "love/lust at first sight and this is a little bit wrong but it's not like we're blood related" dynamic.

I've been cooking a story (Apples and Oranges, based on real life) about joining two families. A single father with 3 kids weds a single mother with 4 kids -- for the story, all the kids are 18-21. All the new step-siblings are fucking each other. They've only been 'family' for a few months so it's not incest. Even if the twin sisters are sharing their new brother...

alexismarc said:

I'm working on a story about a 20 year old girl whose older step-brother comes to stay with her family and ends up seducing her and eventually her 18 year old sister as well. I'm wondering, however, if there might be a larger audience if I made him the girls' half-brother. Does the blood relation make a difference to readers here? Thank you!

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Step-brother. Close enough to catch interest of incest story fans but also get interest of those who have no interest in banging their sister.

Try to appeal to largest target audience you can.




(maybe old fashioned but always thought big bro's job was to beat up the guy fucking his sister not fuck her himself)

Hard_Rom said:

Step-brother. Close enough to catch interest of incest story fans but also get interest of those who have no interest in banging their sister.

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Except incest fans don't see step-relations as incest.

Try to appeal to largest target audience you can.

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And on LIT, the largest audience is incest fans, readeers who WANT close relations.

(maybe old fashioned but always thought big bro's job was to beat up the guy fucking his sister not fuck her himself)

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Quite. I write incest but it's not my fetish and I'm not comfortable with IRL familial power dynamics. My stories usually have big sister or concerned daughter initiating.

Hypoxia said:

I've been cooking a story (Apples and Oranges, based on real life) about joining two families. A single father with 3 kids weds a single mother with 4 kids -- for the story, all the kids are 18-21. All the new step-siblings are fucking each other. They've only been 'family' for a few months so it's not incest. Even if the twin sisters are sharing their new brother...

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Twincest is best incest!

PervOtaku said:

Twincest is best incest!

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IR twincest is even hotter. Mom the hooker was a little sloppy with birth control back then. Her fraternal twins, conceived the same busy night, had fathers of different races -- and neither the boy nor girl looks much like Mom. I wrote a non-twins story on this model: Black & White & Red All Over. Mom is a ruddy Iroquois; pale Rory's father was a blond Dutchman; dark Dora's father was deep black.

Multiracial twincest (maybe with motherfucking) can inspire hot tales, especially if Mom was reported to be a child whore (no details; not allowed here). She squirted out the twins when she was 14. Now they're 18; she's 32, and all cleaned up and taut.

For a different kink (non-IR) the twins are identical -- and clones of Mom. Will their Sisterhood accept men? Or the identical twins are studly guys; young Mom can't help herself after they graduate. Or the sons are identical triplets; cue the TP scenes. Or the triplets are identical sisters aiming for Daddy.

Many possibilities here. Don't know if I could handle quadrepletcest.

I may be coming late to this conversation.

In my personal experience, in real life people do make a big deal out of step siblings dating or having sex. I have a lot of step/foster siblings. While I never thought twice about fucking a girl I was technically supposed to be step related to, other people hear that we're somehow legally related and they assume we grew up together and all that. So for story, you could explore how the two step siblings involved don't feel any taboo, the people around them are freaking out.

I also have a lot of half siblings, most of whom I have never met. Half is incest and just saying two people are half siblings invites asking for explanation. There has to be a back story there. For story purposes, you can play around with a couple growing up together in one and just meeting as adults in another. Maybe dad lost a custody fight when the older one was a baby so he got remarried and had another family. Maybe the didn't grow up together but they lived in the same neighborhood.

Of course, unlike step siblings who may nor may not feel like they have to hide their relationship, Half siblings do have to hide it. So you have the secret aspect of it.

As for cousins, since that is legal in most states and a lot of first cousins get married and have kids even in the US already, it doesn't really feel like an incest story. You could investigate the few places where it is completely illegal like Oklahoma and Texas and maybe put a story in that setting, where the couple just can't understand why their love is illegal in one place but perfectly accepted ninety miles up the road on the other side of the state line.

The only time cousins having sex is really going to feel like it's completely taboo is if you're dealing with Catholic characters. If they are devout in their religion than regardless of the state law or public opinion or even a wanker priest telling them it's ok, they are not going to feel like it's ok. They are not going to want to have sex unless they are married and they can't get married in the Catholic church. They can't just get civilly married and hope that is good enough.

Changing religions isn't going to be an option for them either. For Catholics who really believe, it is all or nothing because nothing else even comes close. If you ever talk to a Catholic who knows their faith you hear a certain kind of vocabulary and phraseology that is used which other religions just don't even understand. They often describe it as a fullness or completeness that other religions just lack. Its like, when you want a mocha and someone offers you watered down decaf or tea. Becoming Buddhist or protestant or even Oriental Orthodox just ins't going to really cut it. For those who believe, they have to be Catholic. They can't choose to leave.

So then you have the situation where they either have to sin or they have to be apart. On top of that, they'd also believe that even thinking of the other in that way is a sin. If the author can develop the characters enough you'd be in for page after page of sexual struggle as they try to stay apart but something is pulling them to be together.

Of course that Catholic angle can be applied to a lot of other kinds of stories as well and hardly makes something taboo. However, it is the only way to make cousins feel taboo. Also, the case with cousins is the only time something being Catholic Taboo isn't something that the general public things is taboo.

I don't know why but I see the word "half-brother"and think, "what's the other half?" That could make for an interesting halloween story!

AceStroker said:

I don't know why but I see the word "half-brother"and think, "what's the other half?" That could make for an interesting halloween story!

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Especially if set under a half-moon with a half-dozen half-baked half-arsed half-hearted half-masted half-breed half-sized half-witted half-siblings. Let's see, that makes the probability 1 / 2^10 -- pretty damn slight.

Well, is there a reason you conceived of the characters as step-siblings in the first place? If so, is that reason better served by making them blood relations instead?

For me, blood relation doesn't matter. Family relation does.

If they grew together, then they are close and thus feel certain emotions towards each other.

Even if they are real siblings but they grew separately, barely knowing each other, then when they meet at 18 - they are pretty much strangers. I wouldn't even call it incest, really, although they do need to be careful with kids.

Nezhul said:

For me, blood relation doesn't matter. Family relation does.

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Then you are not a LIT Incest-Taboo enthusiast. Readers here want closely-shared-DNA sex. LIT fantasyland does not mirror the IRL world. If they ain't blood kin then it ain't no sin. But don't believe me -- submit some stories and note the reactions.

alexismarc said:

I'm working on a story about a 20 year old girl whose older step-brother comes to stay with her family and ends up seducing her and eventually her 18 year old sister as well. I'm wondering, however, if there might be a larger audience if I made him the girls' half-brother. Does the blood relation make a difference to readers here? Thank you!

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Half would be better, but it isn't that important. What is important is the sense of "we shouldn't be doing this."

Nezhul said:

For me, blood relation doesn't matter. Family relation does.

If they grew together, then they are close and thus feel certain emotions towards each other.

Even if they are real siblings but they grew separately, barely knowing each other, then when they meet at 18 - they are pretty much strangers. I wouldn't even call it incest, really, although they do need to be careful with kids.

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In the story in my sig, the two main characters are half-siblings and they don't know it when they meet when they are 22 and 24. One figures it out, realizes that it will be a disaster if they are found out, struggles with guilt, tries to end the relationship, various twist and turns until they live happily ever after. Was in the I/T Hall of Fame for a while.

Hypoxia said:

Then you are not a LIT Incest-Taboo enthusiast. Readers here want closely-shared-DNA sex. LIT fantasyland does not mirror the IRL world. If they ain't blood kin then it ain't no sin. But don't believe me -- submit some stories and note the reactions.

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Yes, exactly what he said...

I'm. .not going through all the replies in this thread just to answer you. The first page was enough. Whomever said that incest is the most popular category is correct. Personally I don't see the genre of the story being as important as how you perceive the characters in your writiting. You have to be comfortable and in the end interested in the character dynamics that you write!

When I started writing incest stories I was so conflicted, I wrote them as step dad insted of dad. I was embarrassed to even write that! It merely took a small foray into having one other person validate my kinks, to see how much more fuN it was as real family, and I simply had to go back and rewrite the stories and remove the step element. I think you'll do better to write what you're comfortable with, of course. There is a threshold we walk over, from step to real. How real is it though to fantasize about a bigger brother that you never had? I don't know. In real life with actual family I wouldn't see any of this as relevent. But in my fantastical sex life, and roleplay with my new husband, this comes up more often than not and we have both tumbled down into the sexiness of real brother sister or daddy daughter play. I guess what I'm trying to say is.. How far down the hole are you willing to fall, Alice? 0.o

alexismarc said:

I'm working on a story about a 20 year old girl whose older step-brother comes to stay with her family and ends up seducing her and eventually her 18 year old sister as well. I'm wondering, however, if there might be a larger audience if I made him the girls' half-brother. Does the blood relation make a difference to readers here? Thank you!

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You're writing on LIT. There's a huge audience for incest stories here. Shared DNA makes a difference. Step brother and sister is an out if you want to go commercial on amazon. But write wharever works for you. I did one with an adopted sister and it did just fine. The relationship suited the story. Whatever u think is hot. It's your story.

If ifs LIT incest readers you're writing for, forget step siblings. Go half-siblings or even full. Thats what readers here look for. But hey, write a good story, you'll get readers.

ChloeTzang said:

If ifs LIT incest readers you're writing for, forget step siblings. Go half-siblings or even full. Thats what readers here look for. But hey, write a good story, you'll get readers.

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A good step-kin story can do well on Erotic Couplings or Mature (for step-parents) or even Romance (with a slow burn) or any fetish they're into (try interracial) but it will bomb on Incest. Some truthiness: if they share less than 1/4 DNA then it ain't incest on LIT. That means siblings, parent-child, or avuncular (blood aunt-nephew or uncle-niece) are OK and the rest ain't. Even blood first cousins (1/8th DNA) are iffy. Be warned.

Hypoxia said:

A good step-kin story can do well on Erotic Couplings or Mature (for step-parents) or even Romance (with a slow burn) or any fetish they're into (try interracial) but it will bomb on Incest. Some truthiness: if they share less than 1/4 DNA then it ain't incest on LIT. That means siblings, parent-child, or avuncular (blood aunt-nephew or uncle-niece) are OK and the rest ain't. Even blood first cousins (1/8th DNA) are iffy. Be warned.

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Yes. I took a risk with my adopted sister story (September Blue) in Incest but got lucky. It wdnt down well.

Another perspective: Lit readers at a macro level (site wide) are an open minded and accepting bunch (remember, I said macro level, I'm not referring to the extreme nitpicking within genre norms, I'm talking about the sci fi people leaving incest alone, interracial leaving gay alone, etc.

So... There's a lot of incest here. So much, it's almost what lit is known for. So, one use for cousins, step-relatives, and unknowing and coincidental incest between now grownup separated at birth conjoined twins operated upon by a transgender alien vampire surgeon with tentacles who is also using nipple clamps and anal beads under those latex scrubs because her dom told her to, is that it allows for "mainstream incest erotica", if that is a thing

Just food for thought.. (Oh yeah, food: the surgeon is also into emetophilia too)