Authenticity. Is it a thing for you? Do you have it in your stories? Do you recognize it?

[AG31]

Today I read short story that appealed to me very much. It was what I call simple erotica, little plot or characterization. So why was it so appealing? I think I'd call the quality authenticity. I believe that the author was sharing something that really turned him on. Given his statement in his bio, "I am a male who loves lounging on the beach and getting naked for groups of women whenever I can...ALL of my stories are CFNM-driven," which I had read before coming up with this diagnosis, I may be reading into it something that's not there.

Important! I'm not trying to make a case for authenticity as a requirement for "good" erotica. It's one of many lenses one can use to talk about our stories.

Here are some other examples of stories that I think have this quality. Do you agree that they share a quality? Do you have others to add to the list?

- Oz Beach Boy and Alessandra Rampolla This is the one I cite above which got me started thinking about authenticity. It's by @MyBareTorso.

- Pleasure and Pain This story is from 2013 and the author only published this single one.

Here's @ElectricBlue 's reaction to the story.

The author's heart and soul is so totally into her fantasy that it outweighs what is, when unpacked, fairly clunky writing.

You can feel the aching heat of her fantasy, it forces itself upon you, it's visceral. I'd much rather read something like this, with all its literary faults, than something that might be immaculately written, but you can tell it's not the author's kink, because the heartbeat is missing.

You can feel that story's pulse, that's for sure.

- Almost all of the stories by @ElectricBlue that I've read, and I'm sure most (all?) of the others. He can't write a story that doesn't vividly portray intimacy between the characters. It's clearly part of his own DNA.

- I'm a little shy to say it, but I would add my own stories here. I don't know if they come across with the quality of authenticy that I'm talking about here, but they surely were written "from the heart." They existed as fully formed fantasies before I wrote them down.

EDIT: As is so often the case, a thread helps me clarify my thinking. Here's a revised definition of "authenticity."

"Authenticity" is a quality of a story, AS PERCEIVED BY THE READER, that it was written from the heart. It does not say anything about the author except that they were able to produce that quality in their story. Perhaps because it reflected a real life desire/experience. Perhaps because they are just super talented at creating that quality.

"Authenticity" is not a quality that is required of "good" writing. In fact it can exist in a story that is really badly written.

"Authenticity" has nothing to do with verisimilitude. It can be the wildest Sci Fi or whatever.

 

[ElectricBlue]

- Almost all of the stories by @ElectricBlue that I've read, and I'm sure most (all?) of the others. He can't write a story that doesn't vividly portray intimacy between the characters. It's clearly part of his own DNA.

Thank you for this, it's greatly appreciated .

 

[Voboy]

I place a high value on verisimilitude, which might or might not be the same thing as authenticity; it's certainly related.

I'm happy to suspend my disbelief, but I'd rather not have to. Even in fantasy/SF/supernatural tales, it's important to me that the story (and the characters within it) appears believable on as many levels as it can.

 

[AchtungNight]

Either you got it or you don’t. And there’s only one way to find out.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I try hard to make characters that feel real. If you can't think of these people as you next door neighbors then what's the point?

 

[SyleusSnow]

"The most important thing is authenticity. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made."



But yeah, some stories, erotica or not, just grab you and don't let go... stories you can feel how invested the author is and you're right there with them. Whether it's authenticity, verisimilitude, "deep point of view" or just being relatable and engaging, it's a quality writers strive for. Or should.

I've found stories I've dashed off in a single day with little conscious thought have hit home with readers more than ones I've planned in detail and agonized over for months. So writing from the gut, I guess, can be part of it.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I'm going to struggle to put this into exact words, and probably need to think deeper about the difference between authenticity, realism, gritiness, versimilude, and so on, but...

Every story has its own tone, voice, or style. Sometimes authenticity is an important part of that, sometimes it's not.

A lot of my stories trade authenticity for fantasy, or worse still whimsy.

They're often about ordinary people doing something crazy - something that they wouldn't normally do. And you can build the why into the story, but its not alway something you want to spend chapters and chapters on. And sometimes it's about the nerdy guy who gets the hot girl and, again, you can argue about how likely that is, but then for a fantasy story you often want the 'hotness gap' to be wide enough that things working out seems special (And I've written nerdy guy gets nerdy girl where the secret sauce lies elsewhere).

Long story short - authenticity isn't that important to me. I'd rather get a laugh from my audience than a respectful nod.

 

[SyleusSnow]

A lot of my stories trade authenticity for fantasy, or worse still whimsy.

Interesting. But fantasy and whimsy can grab readers just as much.

Like Terry Pratchett. When reading the Discworld books, I gotta tell you... I am Sam Vimes. I am Moist Von Lipwig. Doesn't matter the world and the situations are ridiculous and whimsical.

 

[Bramblethorn]

It's something I aim for in most of my stories, though exactly what "authenticity" means depends on the story. If I'm writing a logistics expert I want readers thinking "this could've been written by a logistics expert". If I'm writing a fantasy story, I'm not aiming to get readers believing in dragons, but I do want them thinking "this seems plausible within the world the author's defined".

 

[Cagivagurl]

Today I read short story that appealed to me very much. It was what I call simple erotica, little plot or characterization. So why was it so appealing? I think I'd call the quality authenticity. I believe that the author was sharing something that really turned him on. Given his statement in his bio, "I am a male who loves lounging on the beach and getting naked for groups of women whenever I can...ALL of my stories are CFNM-driven," which I had read before coming up with this diagnosis, I may be reading into it something that's not there.

Important! I'm not trying to make a case for authenticity as a requirement for "good" erotica. It's one of many lenses one can use to talk about our stories.

Here are some other examples of stories that I think have this quality. Do you agree that they share a quality? Do you have others to add to the list?

- Oz Beach Boy and Alessandra Rampolla This is the one I cite above which got me started thinking about authenticity. It's by @MyBareTorso.

- Pleasure and Pain This story is from 2013 and the author only published this single one.

Here's @ElectricBlue 's reaction to the story.








- Almost all of the stories by @ElectricBlue that I've read, and I'm sure most (all?) of the others. He can't write a story that doesn't vividly portray intimacy between the characters. It's clearly part of his own DNA.

- I'm a little shy to say it, but I would add my own stories here. I don't know if they come across with the quality of authenticy that I'm talking about here, but they surely were written "from the heart." They existed as fully formed fantasies before I wrote them down.

How do you quantify authenticity?
For me it means that the story rings true... It's plausible... Possible... Perhaps came directly from the memory bank.

I do think it gets confused with honesty.
I like to read stories where the dialogue flows smoothly, and seems as though we might be listening to an actual conversation.
It's real, or sounds real. The author has woven their magic so tightly that I have sunk into the story. Become one with a character.
For me, that's authenticity. The writer has created prose that makes it believable.
The story itself might be complete fantasy, totally impossible.
The author however, has dragged us into it.

Just my thoughts.

Cagivagurl

 

[AG31]

Long story short - authenticity isn't that important to me. I'd rather get a laugh from my audience than a respectful nod.

 

[Victoria14xs]

I strive for it. I’m in no position to judge whether I’m successful.
I sure appreciate it when I feel like I’ve detected it in someone’s story.

I have an unfounded theory that it‘s most likely to manifest itself in any given author’s first offering. I know, that’s unfair. But I think, for some author’s, it’s the need to say something - something authentic - that drives them to write for the first time.
In literature, I think Mockingbird would be an example.

 

[StillStunned]

As long as your characters are believable, you can get away with making them to some very outlandish stuff. Their thoughts and reactions are more important than the situation, I think.

 

[RainyDayPen]

I don't know how to write any other way and I love when I see it in another person's work.

 

[SyleusSnow]

I strive for it. I’m in no position to judge whether I’m successful.
I sure appreciate it when I feel like I’ve detected it in someone’s story.

I have an unfounded theory that it‘s most likely to manifest itself in any given author’s first offering. I know, that’s unfair. But I think, for some author’s, it’s the need to say something - something authentic - that drives them to write for the first time.
In literature, I think Mockingbird would be an example.

I've heard that theory from others, and that exact thing has been said about my first story.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a great example (though Harper Lee had help from close friend Truman Capote, the story was 100% hers). Then there's Black Beauty, Frankenstein, The Bell Jar, Confederacy of Dunces, A Canticle for Leibowitz and so many more that were the author's first, best and sometimes only work.

 

[ronde]

"Authentic" is defined as being "real", as being "true to form or character", or as "being believable as conforming to or based on fact". These three definitions are what I strive for in my writing. Characters should be real people to the reader, not just two-dimensional cutouts, and the actions and speech of those characters should be the actions and speech that reflect how that character is described. One can stretch "believable" quite a bit in fantasy and sci-fi stories as long as the characters and setting are described well enough to be considered a "fact" by the reader. If you tell the reader that the land of Kornmodor is populated by six-legged dragons and the men are only used by the women for reproduction, that becomes a "fact" and the reader will believe. What a reader won't believe is that a woman who always acts like she'd rather not be seen or noticed suddenly turns into the biggest slut in seventeen states. You have to write her that way from the start or at least give the reader a new "fact" that will make what she does "authentic".

 

[AG31]

I have an unfounded theory that it‘s most likely to manifest itself in any given author’s first offering.

I share that theory. Note my example of Pain and Pleasure was author's only offering. The example of Oz Boy was his first in the list. In my own case, my first story is clearly my best.

 

[AG31]

As long as your characters are believable, you can get away with making them to some very outlandish stuff. Their thoughts and reactions are more important than the situation, I think.

My example Pleasure and Pain is totally unrealistic. Clearly someone's dream like fantasy.

 

[AG31]

"Authentic" is defined as being "real", as being "true to form or character", or as "being believable as conforming to or based on fact". These three definitions are what I strive for in my writing. Characters should be real people to the reader, not just two-dimensional cutouts, and the actions and speech of those characters should be the actions and speech that reflect how that character is described. One can stretch "believable" quite a bit in fantasy and sci-fi stories as long as the characters and setting are described well enough to be considered a "fact" by the reader. If you tell the reader that the land of Kornmodor is populated by six-legged dragons and the men are only used by the women for reproduction, that becomes a "fact" and the reader will believe. What a reader won't believe is that a woman who always acts like she'd rather not be seen or noticed suddenly turns into the biggest slut in seventeen states. You have to write her that way from the start or at least give the reader a new "fact" that will make what she does "authentic".

Read the example I gave, Pleasure and Pain. How would you characterize it on an authenticity scale? It certainly doesn't meat your criteria.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Actually, it is a real thing. Sadists and masochists do exist in the real world, as is attested to by the plethora of BDSM clubs across the country.

My example Pain and Pleasure is totally unrealistic. Clearly someone's dream like fantasy.

 

[AG31]

Actually, it is a real thing. Sadists and masochists do exist in the real world, as is attested to by the plethora of BDSM clubs across the country.

Well, college classes aren't run like this anywhere. Did you read it?

 

[MillieDynamite]

No, I was just saying that the particular lifestyle exists.

Well, college classes aren't run like this anywhere. Did you read it?

 

[ronde]

Read the example I gave, Pain and Pleasure. How would you characterize it on an authenticity scale? It certainly doesn't meat your criteria.

Authenticity in a story is not necessarily what you would expect from "normal" people doing "normal" things on a "normal" day. What you have to remember is that authenticity is a quality perceived by the reader. All that is necessary for a story to be authentic is that the reader believes it could have happened and that the characters behaved in a way that seemed "true" to their personality.

I didn't read the entire story, but throughout the story there are descriptions of the characters and situation that would in effect, draw the reader in until he or she envisions being there and watching.

"As he spoke to me, teaching me of what he expected my eyes drifted from his eyes partially covered by glasses which did not take away from his manliness."

"People came to him because of his fierceness."

"He was as handsome as a Greek god and taught in the nude."

"Through all this, you have given your trust to me, earned your place in my house. Remember, I will do nothing to cause you permanent harm. If for some reason that trust be broken, speak your safe word and it will be over."

"I feel comfortable trusting him to know my limits and do what he saw fit in order for me to learn. This was not a punishment but a lesson to assist me into learning my control."

That's just a few of the descriptions, but I'd defy any reader not to be forming the pictures the author intended to create in a reader's mind.

That's what "authentic" really means - that the reader believes enough to become absorbed by the story and that's achieved by describing characters in situations that the reader is convinced could be at least plausible. James Bond wouldn't be authentic without the back story of MI6 and the normal intrigue generated by any secret government agency. No one would normally ever believe that a lab could de-extinct dinosaurs from DNA found in mosquitoes encased in amber, yet "Jurassic Park" achieved record attendance in movie theaters.

 

[mpeters]

I would hope my stories come across as authentic, especially given how much of myself I put into my lead character, and how much of my personal fantasies I put into the story (the exception being the story I’m currently writing as an experiment more than anything else). One woman I’ve been exchanging messages with said my stories were illuminating, like she knew me a little more afterwards… or something like that.

 

[AG31]

Authenticity in a story is not necessarily what you would expect from "normal" people doing "normal" things on a "normal" day. What you have to remember is that authenticity is a quality perceived by the reader. All that is necessary for a story to be authentic is that the reader believes it could have happened and that the characters behaved in a way that seemed "true" to their personality.

The quality I'm trying to describe has to do not with whether the story is believable. That's a quality of good writing. Not all good writing is "authentic" in the way I mean it (and am trying to figure out how to describe it). But your reply lets me hone in on this. "Authentic" means that it came from the author's heart (see @ElectricBlue's comment on Pleasure and Pain in my OP above.) It's a quality about the relationship between the author and the story. Not that we believe it to be a true story. But it's a story the author had to tell. That's why I agree with @Victoria14xs.

I have an unfounded theory that it‘s most likely to manifest itself in any given author’s first offering.