How plausible the fantasy?

legerdemer

lost at sea
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As a reader, how plausible does the fiction or fantasy have to be to flip your switch? Unless I am reading deep SciFi/Fantasy, I have some internal meter that seems to prefer plausible scenarios and characters. How about y'all? Do you have limits on what you'll read beyond which the fantastic becomes simply laughable, and not in a good way? What do you need from your fantasy(ies) to pull you in?
 
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This pen name is pretty much my bar. What ends up here is what I consider one rung up the ladder from "Is there another way I can pay for this pizza?"

I can enjoy stories with less realistic plots and characters, but then it typically falls apart in the sex scene. I'm enjoying the story because it's so far on the edge of plausibility as to be silly, and that doesn't mix with heat.
 
The word is 'coherence'. A coherent fantasy lives by its rules; shit-for-brains fantasy just walks all over itself. A well-constructed fantasy can be totally insane but as long as it fits together, fine. Many of Just Plain Bob's stories follow similar insane plots but they work. What does NOT work for me are cliched incest fantasies like Mom or Sis walking in on a jerk-off session and instantly claiming the cock for themselves, and most BBC and wittol (willing wimp / cuck) fantasies. Such are IMHO badly-done cartoons.

How about this one: is BIG BANANA over the edge?

EDIT: This is my 3500th LIT post. Time for tea.
 
The word is 'coherence'. A coherent fantasy lives by its rules; shit-for-brains fantasy just walks all over itself. A well-constructed fantasy can be totally insane but as long as it fits together, fine. Many of Just Plain Bob's stories follow similar insane plots but they work. What does NOT work for me are cliched incest fantasies like Mom or Sis walking in on a jerk-off session and instantly claiming the cock for themselves, and most BBC and wittol (willing wimp / cuck) fantasies. Such are IMHO badly-done cartoons.

How about this one: is BIG BANANA over the edge?
EDIT: This is my 3500th LIT post. Time for tea.

I do love it when some Author puts humour in the 'prologue'.
This is a real gem:-

Author's note: This story is mostly fictional. All sexual acts depicted involve only live non-human siblings. Some details of gastropod sexual anatomy may be glossed-over. For readers' convenience, non-Anglish and non-human language communications are presented in loose Anglish translation. The author does not approve of all the thoughts and deeds in this story. Remember, it is just a STORY. Language effects and irony are intentional; don't freak out. Your thoughtful feedback is appreciated. No death threats, please.

It rather reminds me of the footnotes written by EE 'Doc' Smith about 'translation'.

PS. I hope it was supposed to amuse. . .
[I'll get me coat.]
 
I've had an exceptional life so far, starting when I was a youngster, so I find most sexual fantasies creditable as I've witnessed a lot. But then I wonder if my experiences are unique. I I imagined none of it so I include it in stories, and readers complain, NO WAY!

I find that much of life is plausible but improbable, like finding lost money. I once found 900 plus dollars in the parking lot, I stole 20 of it and turned the rest in. I always keep a finders fee and no one has ever given me a tip for returning their lost wallets and purses. When women are drunk anythings possible, and if they offer I accept.
 
Every word I write is absolutely true. :rolleyes::devil:

Unless I'm write Sci-fi...which is never true. ;):cool:
 
Good question and of course one everyone has to answer personally because there is no set rules.

I mentioned in my How to that no matter how hard you work to keep a story believable there comes a moment where porn absurdity has to step in because at the end of the day unless you're writing a straight up romance, most erotica stretches reality at some point.

I think what I look for is simple consistency. For example there is nothing that makes me roll my eyes more than a story where a shy young girl who's a virgin....has sex and within minutes is fucking like Sasha Grey.

There's stories like that where its five guys she loses her cherry too:rolleyes: Now if you made her a girl who enjoyed gang bangs and was kind of wild, fine have at it, but a 360 like that is crazy but many don't mind it.

So yeah I think consistency is kind of like reality to me. If you start on a path and stay with it, I can go along with it, but if the character all of a sudden switches gears or the situation goes way to far way to fast I lose interest.
 
I think that just about any story can work as long as the author lays out the rules and sticks to them. I say it has to be "plausible within its bubble." And as LC says, consistency, which to me means following the rules you set out.
 
I generally agree with the comment above that "most [exciting] erotica stretches reality at some point." The vast majority of sex outside of erotica is vanilla. Thus, to make for an exciting fantasy, an erotic story ought to play with one or more of society's taboos.

In terms of plausibility of the fantasy, what works best for me as a reader is for a set of characters drawn from everyday life and with vanilla sexual backgrounds to somehow become caught up in a scenario that prods them along in the direction of taboo sexual experiences. For this reason, stories containing dares and bets; blackmail leading to domination or humiliation; power games in a work situation; and mind control or hypnosis almost always intrigue me more than most other categories. Always it should be possible for the characters to walk away (i.e., it is not rape), but they instead allow themselves to play along.

As a writer, I want to bring that same character motivation into my stories. The best example of this so far is "Remote Love", which is a story about a hobbyist inventor who creates a line of erotic underwear that can be controlled from a lover's smartphone. As the inventor and his wife experiment with the toy while apart, each becomes inadvertently caught in a sexy situation with someone else.
 
Good writers can make anything sound plausible on paper. There are no limits as long as you don't violate normal human reactions without explanations.
 
I am willing to suspend reality a bit as a reader when it comes to characters, places, situations, etc. However, when it gets down to detailed discriptions of sex acts I'm often turned off by the lack of plausibility. My biggest pet peeve is how anal sex is often presented. I have heard many people say "I tried it once but I hurt way too much." Often, with further discussion, it is revealed that it hurt because the guy just tried to "shove it in there" without any prep work / foreplay. I think this can partly be blamed on the fact that most porn and many erotic stories present it this way.
 
I am willing to suspend reality a bit as a reader when it comes to characters, places, situations, etc. However, when it gets down to detailed discriptions of sex acts I'm often turned off by the lack of plausibility. My biggest pet peeve is how anal sex is often presented. I have heard many people say "I tried it once but I hurt way too much." Often, with further discussion, it is revealed that it hurt because the guy just tried to "shove it in there" without any prep work / foreplay. I think this can partly be blamed on the fact that most porn and many erotic stories present it this way.

This is a good point on how authors and readers differ.

I for one am okay with the anal sex always being 'easy and enjoyable. I know what it is in real life and let's be real we all know what can happen with unprepared anal sex. The porn stars have to cleanse themselves out the morning of a scene and there is a lot of editing out of the wiping off and lubing during a scene.

Not too sexy to put that in a story so I guess for me I let it slide. Then you have the infamous ass to mouth that porn shows as everyday fun, but everyone knows how unsanitary that is...but having said that I let it go as "its porn"

I think when dealing with some 'bodily functions" its good to have some unreality

for instance imagine if in the non consent section the rape victim did what many do in real life and piss themselves and occasionally shit themselves(extreme terror loosens bodily;y functions.) but that would not make for a hot story..

Then again...who knows I'm sure there would be some that like it hardcore enough to get a weird thrill of it.

Skull fucking face/fucking...just a little bit to far...either the guy pushing or the woman taking it to far and guess what happens? Read interviews with male porn stars who talk about how often they've had their dick thrown up on. And again some sites leave that stuff on film.. but in a story not so fun.

Now for my side, again the eighteen year old shy cutie who can down the ten inch cock drives me nuts. And that is my peeve with anal, the same girl who can on the first time take it with no issue in the ass(if its not the first time I roll with all the pounding feeling great)

First time stories have a lot of that type of unrealistic action.
 
Gawd . . . totally agree with this. Not only can they down it they "cum right away." Ha ha ha

I could write a tome on the implausibility of female orgasms in porn. Ha ha ha ha

Now for my side, again the eighteen year old shy cutie who can down the ten inch cock drives me nuts. And that is my peeve with anal, the same girl who can on the first time take it with no issue in the ass(if its not the first time I roll with all the pounding feeling great)

First time stories have a lot of that type of unrealistic action.
 
This is a real gem:-

Author's note: This story is mostly fictional. All sexual acts depicted involve only live non-human siblings. Some details of gastropod sexual anatomy may be glossed-over. For readers' convenience, non-Anglish and non-human language communications are presented in loose Anglish translation. The author does not approve of all the thoughts and deeds in this story. Remember, it is just a STORY. Language effects and irony are intentional; don't freak out. Your thoughtful feedback is appreciated. No death threats, please.

I was merely trying to set the tone: not-serious. What was the result? It's moy most-read and lowest-scored story. Such is life. (Well OK, maybe it shouldn't have posted as Incest.)
 
As a reader, how plausible does the fiction or fantasy have to be to flip your switch? Unless I am reading deep SciFi/Fantasy, I have some internal meter that seems to prefer plausible scenarios and characters. How about y'all? Do you have limits on what you'll read beyond which the fantastic becomes simply laughable, and not in a good way? What do you need from your fantasy(ies) to pull you in?

I prefer to read stories that are grounded in reality. I can enjoy a story where the boss demands a blow job from the secretary, or a female executive takes the mailroom boy for a ride, but I lose interest when the female is required to show up to work in a bikini and spend all day on her back fucking every male in the building, all of whom are sporting 10" dicks. I like blackmail stories also, but the threat has to outweigh the humiliation of capitulating. I can accept a landlord letting a tenant slide on the rent for an occasional fuck, but it makes no sense for a woman to submit to being gang banged by an entire frat in order to prevent the disclosure of her naked selfies.

I know that the world doesn't always work according to reason or logic. People make bad choices all the time. But when they do, there is always an explanation for those bad choices. When I read a story that involves that kind of behavior, I need those bad choices explained in a credible way.
 
I know that the world doesn't always work according to reason or logic. People make bad choices all the time. But when they do, there is always an explanation for those bad choices. When I read a story that involves that kind of behavior, I need those bad choices explained in a credible way.
Some NEWS OF THE WEIRD reports describe plot bunnies that would be shot down here as impossible, or products of JBJ's paranoia. Like the woman who kept calling 911 because she wanted emergency responders to fuck her. And numerous authors here report disbelieving comments about straight reporting in stories. Truth CAN be more bizarre than the weirdest fantasies. How to make such seem real? Good question.
 
I generally agree with the comment above that "most [exciting] erotica stretches reality at some point." The vast majority of sex outside of erotica is vanilla. Thus, to make for an exciting fantasy, an erotic story ought to play with one or more of society's taboos.

In terms of plausibility of the fantasy, what works best for me as a reader is for a set of characters drawn from everyday life and with vanilla sexual backgrounds to somehow become caught up in a scenario that prods them along in the direction of taboo sexual experiences. For this reason, stories containing dares and bets; blackmail leading to domination or humiliation; power games in a work situation; and mind control or hypnosis almost always intrigue me more than most other categories. Always it should be possible for the characters to walk away (i.e., it is not rape), but they instead allow themselves to play along.

As a writer, I want to bring that same character motivation into my stories. The best example of this so far is "Remote Love", which is a story about a hobbyist inventor who creates a line of erotic underwear that can be controlled from a lover's smartphone. As the inventor and his wife experiment with the toy while apart, each becomes inadvertently caught in a sexy situation with someone else.

That premise sounds fun - I'll read the story.
 
The theme pervading here is definitely that good writing conquers many "evils." It becomes circular - breaking the reader's seamless immersion in fantasy is a sure sign of less-than-accomplished writing. An old truism on writing, worth remembering.
 
I think that just about any story can work as long as the author lays out the rules and sticks to them. I say it has to be "plausible within its bubble." And as LC says, consistency, which to me means following the rules you set out.

Me also. Make the premise as fantastical as you like, but show me that you've thought it through: if your setting regularly has winters that last for years, then your politics and economy should reflect that, and your world should be very different to 15th-century Europe *cough cough*

The SF/F writers I enjoy tend to be the ones who explore consequences. John Wyndham and Terry Pratchett are good that way.
 
I said it earlier: most things are plausible but improbable.

So I'm reading a novel about a detective who accidentally comes across a kiddie porn snuff video. There seems no way to identify the couple who abuse and murder the teen in the video, and wouldn't you know it the detective see's them at a boxing match 2 days later. There are 50 bazillion people around NYC and he runs into the two monsters at a 3rd rate arena in Queens or Brooklyn. Shazzam!
 
What do you need from your fantasy(ies) to pull you in?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA

TV Tropes said:
No matter how fantastic the events in a piece of fiction, their Internal Consistency is what makes or breaks the Willing Suspension of Disbelief. You can have the tech guy of La Résistance explain in oblique terms involving the word "nano" why the Evil Empire's fairy dust superweapon needs an hour to recharge after activation, and the audience will nod its collective head and smile; but if you later have that superweapon fire twice in succession, you just made a Plot Hole and they'll all be at your throat.
 
I do love it when some Author puts humour in the 'prologue'.
This is a real gem:-

Author's note: This story is mostly fictional. All sexual acts depicted involve only live non-human siblings. Some details of gastropod sexual anatomy may be glossed-over. For readers' convenience, non-Anglish and non-human language communications are presented in loose Anglish translation. The author does not approve of all the thoughts and deeds in this story. Remember, it is just a STORY. Language effects and irony are intentional; don't freak out. Your thoughtful feedback is appreciated. No death threats, please.

It rather reminds me of the footnotes written by EE 'Doc' Smith about 'translation'.

PS. I hope it was supposed to amuse. . .
[I'll get me coat.]

That is a great note! I could roll with that kind of silliness. And I loved Doc Smith, too.

With the exception of SF/F or some horror, I prefer stories to be reasonably plausible. My brain will only tolerate so many "wait, what???" passages before I'll click away.
 
I do love it when some Author puts humour in the 'prologue'.
This is a real gem:-

Author's note: This story is mostly fictional. All sexual acts depicted involve only live non-human siblings. Some details of gastropod sexual anatomy may be glossed-over. For readers' convenience, non-Anglish and non-human language communications are presented in loose Anglish translation. The author does not approve of all the thoughts and deeds in this story. Remember, it is just a STORY. Language effects and irony are intentional; don't freak out. Your thoughtful feedback is appreciated. No death threats, please.

It rather reminds me of the footnotes written by EE 'Doc' Smith about 'translation'.

PS. I hope it was supposed to amuse. . .
[I'll get me coat.]

Humor is GREAT, and I love it when it's done well in erotica. The example quoted is a good way to get me to read the story. For some reason it made me think about what Campion had on the back of his calling-card. Which has nothing to do with erotica or intelligent gastropods, but hey, it made synapses fire somewhere in the little grey cells. Wish my grey cells worked that well, my bits of humor seem to fall flat.

Stream of consciousness post, sorry if it makes no sense, I'm old and hungry and have to pee like anything.
 
I think "plausibility within it's bubble" is a good rule for any fiction. A skilled writer can create a world that is pretty implausible but if its well crafted then the reader is happy to suspend their disbelief. Most movies are pretty far fetched but if they are well made we enjoy the ride.

Personally my taste is for a plot rooted in the everyday. Something I could imagine myself being involved in. Ordinary folk with kinks beneath the surface is what I want to read about.
 
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