Incest vs Romance vs Mature

[WantingToWriteGood]

Thinking on a story about a step-mother and her step-son. Her husband has announced he wants a divorce. He has found another woman and she is tasked with telling her step-son. The step-son has always had feelings for her. His biological Mom passed away when the boy was 3. The step-mom came into the picture within a few months. There is a 20 year gap in their ages.

If the son and step-mother have sex prior to the divorce the story would be Incest.

If the son and step-mother have sex after the divorce would it be a Romance or a Mature story?

Many thanks.

 

[MrPixel]

Mature.

As far as “before”, step-relatives is controversial among the I/T crowd since incest technically (by legal definition) denotes blood relatives.

YMMV.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Mature.

As far as “before”, step-relatives is controversial among the I/T crowd since incest technically (by legal definition) denotes blood relatives.

YMMV.

Agree. Don't stray out of my lane too much, but I think you're looking at Mature regardless.

 

[StillStunned]

Incest will probably get you a higher number of views, though not necessarily a higher rating.

 

[Mastered_again]

Mature all the way. I'm also of the mind that incest involves blood relations

 

[RejectReality]

Romance: No. The readers aren't looking for that level of kink at all. Doesn't much matter if there's still a marriage or not. The "taint" of incest is still on it.

Mature is a little more tolerant. I think you're pushing your luck with a mother/son relationship that's more or less existed through his entire life. The more emphasis you put on that, the more people you're going to turn off.

Incest is a question. It's the opposite of Mature in this situation. The more stress you put on that familial relationship, the better your chance of success. I expect since you're setting up the scenario the way you are that it's part of the kink of the story, which works in your favor in Incest. Ideally, blood-related nuclear family is what the readership is there for. You can scratch their itch with something like this, but it really has to be central to the story and very much present during any sex scenes. Some will still complain that it's not real incest and give you low scores. I think it will be less than the number of people who would complain in Mature and do the same, and the readership of Incest is larger.

So its a question of how hard you're going to hammer that long familial relationship, but I lean toward Incest.

My most recent release in this name is step, and involves a far shorter marriage that's said from the get-go to have involved virtually no parenting from the step parent. I lean into that relationship hard in the sex scene though.

4.77 on 1700 votes, 75k views, 158 favs, so the readership is good with step when it scratches their itch.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think it depends on how you handle the story. Some people need the blood connection to get the full incest effect, but some don't. The legal definition is irrelevant to the question; what matters is readers and how they see things.

If you play up the stepmom-stepson angle and play up feelings of taboo and reluctance, then I would go with incest. Sure, some might not see it as "real" incest, but many will, and you'll get a far bigger audience. Flag it at the outset as a stepmom story so nobody can complain about being surprised.

 

[RejectReality]

I think it depends on how you handle the story. Some people need the blood connection to get the full incest effect, but some don't. The legal definition is irrelevant to the question; what matters is readers and how they see things.

If you play up the stepmom-stepson angle and play up feelings of taboo and reluctance, then I would go with incest. Sure, some might not see it as "real" incest, but many will, and you'll get a far bigger audience. Flag it at the outset as a stepmom story so nobody can complain about being surprised.

This as well. I made sure to establish the relationship was step in the description line and suggested it with the title. Let them know it's step from the first glance, and you have less chance of a negative reaction in Incest. Those who don't consider it real incest won't even open it. The same should hold true in Mature, I believe. Those who are turned off by familial relationships won't even open it.

 

[Djmac1031]

Incest will probably get you a higher number of views, though not necessarily a higher rating.

Incest will DEFINITELY get more views, but as others have pointed out, readers are less... forgiving... of the whole "step" thing.

My suggestion, for whatever it's worth to you:

Have them wait to have sex til after the divorce, or at least make it clear it's all over but the paperwork.

Then put it in Mature. Or even Romance, depending on how you write it.

Less readers? Probably? But also less hate mail about "step family isn't incest" or "she's a cheating whore."

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I'm not an incest writer but if I were, this would be in incest all the way.

First, you will get iunno, what ten times the views or something? That's enough reason right there.

If you're worried about score you very well might piss off more readers in mature than in incest with a step story. Remember, incest is by far the biggest kink here and people come to lit specifically for incest and head straight to the incest category often ignoring all others. Those who don't like incest steer well clear of incest. The non-incest crowd are a minority but incest is generally a huge "ick" for them. Sure, most incest readers want blood incest, but step is generally a mild disappointment, not a huge "ick".

Publish in incest, make sure that step is clear in the description and tag it with step. That's my advice.

 

[RejectReality]

Incest will DEFINITELY get more views, but as others have pointed out, readers are less... forgiving... of the whole "step" thing.

My suggestion, for whatever it's worth to you:

Have them wait to have sex til after the divorce, or at least make it clear it's all over but the paperwork.

Then put it in Mature. Or even Romance, depending on how you write it.

Less readers? Probably? But also less hate mail about "step family isn't incest" or "she's a cheating whore."

I've had some pushback about divorced step parents in Mature. If you don't give them a first-glance warning in the title and/or description, people are not pleased to have pseudo incest show up in the category. It's a tolerant category, but they do have their limits.

My most recent release and some additional research indicates that I was wrong about the level of pushback in Incest for non-blood relationships as well. They're far more tolerant of it than the general consensus has always assumed — provided they have that first-glance warning in the title and description.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Incest will DEFINITELY get more views, but as others have pointed out, readers are less... forgiving... of the whole "step" thing.

Incest is not like BtB.

Sure, it seems that the most popular angle in incest is mom/son, but if you advertise clearly as "bro/sis" or "uncle" or "step" the mom/son crowd will generally leave it alone because for the most part they are looking for what they want.

BtB isn't looking for what they want. They are actively hunting for what they don't want. They are going around looking for things to bomb. The mom/son crowd or those who want blood aren't really like that. Sure, numb nuts in every crowd but if you tag and advertise clearly then blood incest should mostly leave you alone.

You could advertise step clearly and put it in mature too, but then your hits will go down significantly.

 

[Devinter]

Mature is a little more tolerant. I think you're pushing your luck with a mother/son relationship that's more or less existed through his entire life. The more emphasis you put on that, the more people you're going to turn off.

Incest is a question. It's the opposite of Mature in this situation. The more stress you put on that familial relationship, the better your chance of success. I expect since you're setting up the scenario the way you are that it's part of the kink of the story, which works in your favor in Incest. Ideally, blood-related nuclear family is what the readership is there for. You can scratch their itch with something like this, but it really has to be central to the story and very much present during any sex scenes. Some will still complain that it's not real incest and give you low scores. I think it will be less than the number of people who would complain in Mature and do the same, and the readership of Incest is larger.

I've had some pushback about divorced step parents in Mature. If you don't give them a first-glance warning in the title and/or description, people are not pleased to have pseudo incest show up in the category. It's a tolerant category, but they do have their limits.

I agree with this, though unfortunately neither category will openly love this story completely just like RejectReality is saying. The incest crowd would prefer a real blood-relation, and some will frown and rate your story lower. HOWEVER, because of the huge amount of readers and voters in that category, this might not be super noticeable in the grand scheme of things.

But I made the mistake recently of putting a story into the Mature category that had a strong 'Fetish' element to it, and despite including this in the tagline, the attached tags, AND a huge warning at the top of the author's notes of the story, they hated it. It's my worst rated story by a long shot, and I think if I would have put it in Fetish instead it'd be at least a full point higher. I did not get the impression that they were particularly tolerant. But maybe it's because my fetish was too extreme. (Orgasm denial.) Granted, the story was quite average - I admit that - but even so, the amount of 1-bombs I am getting is quite staggering.

 

[RejectReality]

I agree with this, though unfortunately neither category will openly love this story completely just like RejectReality is saying. The incest crowd would prefer a real blood-relation, and some will frown and rate your story lower. HOWEVER, because of the huge amount of readers and voters in that category, this might not be super noticeable in the grand scheme of things.

But I made the mistake recently of putting a story into the Mature category that had a strong 'Fetish' element to it, and despite including this in the tagline, the attached tags, AND a huge warning at the top of the author's notes of the story, they hated it. It's my worst rated story by a long shot, and I think if I would have put it in Fetish instead it'd be at least a full point higher. I did not get the impression that they were particularly tolerant. But maybe it's because my fetish was too extreme. (Orgasm denial.) Granted, the story was quite average - I admit that - but even so, the amount of 1-bombs I am getting is quite staggering.

Any hints of femdom in that orgasm denial? It may be more the roving bands of those haters than the fetish alone if that's the case.

 

[AchtungNight]

I’m not into parent child incest outside role playing, even for step parents. I grew up with an overprotective mother and an abusive father, so there’s too much emotional baggage. Sibling or cousin I’m okay on, but it’s not something I involve myself in outside my online writing. My cousins and siblings are attractive, sure, and they’ve always been nice to me, but again there’s emotional baggage and they feel differently about the situation than me. Leave it to lust and fiction, keep it away from inappropriate audiences, is my advice.

On your story, if you can write it and make it acceptable to Lit, I say go for it. Incest is probably a better category than Mature due to the character relationship. I have written incest stories for blood and foster relationships. Only the foster sisters are married- that’s per personal preference. Some of my characters also just plain aren’t into it with their own relatives. You can read my stories to learn who is what.

 

[Devinter]

Any hints of femdom in that orgasm denial? It may be more the roving bands of those haters than the fetish alone if that's the case.

Well, yes - but it was between and older woman and a younger woman. But I really honed in on the fetish. That was why I wrote the story. I am trying to create some stories around niche fetishes just for the 'science' of it - to see if I can properly grasp what people find exciting about them and convey that without actually having the fetish myself. It's going.. Decently overall, I'd say! And it should help significantly with my commission work. People generally tend to pay for the fetishes that they cannot easily find a lot of for free!

 

[SimonDoom]

To push back a bit on the "step incest won't fly" narrative, I want to bring up the example of Six Times A Day, by the author SpacerX. It's an incredibly long, multi-chaptered series about step incest, and other things. Most of hte chapters used to be published here at Literotica but most have been removed, for whatever reason. You can find it elsewhere. It's an incredibly successful incest story, probably one of the best known and most successful online incest series. I don't think it suffers at all from being step incest because the step aspect isn't highlighted, and instead the author leans hard on the taboo and the conflict between mom's conscience and conservative nature and her desire to get it on with her son. It CAN work, it just depends on how you do it.

I also want to push back a bit on the downside. You might, maybe, get a somewhat lower score in incest than in mature (depending on how you do it), but you'll pick up more views and in the end more favorites and followers and more appreciative readers--and isn't that what really matters? Sometimes I think people get so preoccupied with the score that they forget that, while high scores are nice, they are not the end-all and be-all of publishing. The most important thing is to find readers who like your story. The more the merrier, as I see it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I think it depends on how you handle the story. Some people need the blood connection to get the full incest effect, but some don't. The legal definition is irrelevant to the question; what matters is readers and how they see things.

Also, the legal definition varies from place to place and often does include non-blood-relations. This is where the "law" part of "in-law" comes from.

 

[RejectReality]

Well, yes - but it was between and older woman and a younger woman. But I really honed in on the fetish. That was why I wrote the story. I am trying to create some stories around niche fetishes just for the 'science' of it - to see if I can properly grasp what people find exciting about them and convey that without actually having the fetish myself. It's going.. Decently overall, I'd say! And it should help significantly with my commission work. People generally tend to pay for the fetishes that they cannot easily find a lot of for free!

F/F isn't really the trigger the femdom haters are looking for, so that's probably not it. You're probably on the right track that it's too much fetish, and not enough stress on the age difference dynamics that the readership is there for. No experience or research into how same sex May/December stories do in the category either.

 

[Phantom300]

Sometimes the I/T crowd can even get upset about stories involving blood relatives. I have a couple of first cousin stories, and I have gotten numerous "Yiu know, fist cousins can marry in this state or that country so it isn' t real incest." Type Comments.

That said,

...... Remember, incest is by far the biggest kink here and people come to lit specifically for incest and head straight to the incest category often ignoring all others. Those who don't like incest steer well clear of incest. The non-incest crowd are a minority but incest is generally a huge "ick" for them. Sure, most incest readers want blood incest, but step is generally a mild disappointment, not a huge "ick".

Publish in incest, make sure that step is clear in the description and tag it with step. That's my advice.

PInky here nailed it IMO. Its a Taboo story for sure, and the category is Incest & Taboo. You may lose a couple votes with the 'step doesnt count' crowd, but I think you will lose a whole lot more coming close to Incest in other categories.

I also think a well-crafted fluent story will trump all the nit pickers. Label and tag the shit out of it, and dont take the critics too seriiusly.

 

[RejectReality]

To push back a bit on the "step incest won't fly" narrative, I want to bring up the example of Six Times A Day, by the author SpacerX. It's an incredibly long, multi-chaptered series about step incest, and other things. Most of hte chapters used to be published here at Literotica but most have been removed, for whatever reason. You can find it elsewhere. It's an incredibly successful incest story, probably one of the best known and most successful online incest series. I don't think it suffers at all from being step incest because the step aspect isn't highlighted, and instead the author leans hard on the taboo and the conflict between mom's conscience and conservative nature and her desire to get it on with her son. It CAN work, it just depends on how you do it.

I also want to push back a bit on the downside. You might, maybe, get a somewhat lower score in incest than in mature (depending on how you do it), but you'll pick up more views and in the end more favorites and followers and more appreciative readers--and isn't that what really matters? Sometimes I think people get so preoccupied with the score that they forget that, while high scores are nice, they are not the end-all and be-all of publishing. The most important thing is to find readers who like your story. The more the merrier, as I see it.

It's not just the score. It's about putting it in front of the readers most likely to enjoy it, and not pissing off the readers who are going to hate it. Score can be a reflection of that, but not always. Defaulting to the most readers on a question is just rude, IMO. That should be the last test when there's still a question after everything else has been considered.

 

[Euphony]

I would be surprised if the final narrative wouldn't fit best in incest. (not for scores or view but meeting reader expectations)

Even the minor OP description of their relationship is beyond Chekhov's gun decorating a wall. It's a desert eagle, hand chromed, extended clip, with monogramed hand engravings type specificity.

Readers see step-son/their history level of detail, they are going to (rightfully) imagine there is a reason for it when the author has so many more mundane ways of having a 20 something and 50 something cross paths. If I mention my protag is a hired assassin over an accountant but nothing comes of it other than that passing mention, it will have negative effects on future expectations/author trust for many.

Even *if* incest balks at it not being incest "proper" in their eyes, that doesn't matter. Tag it fully. Write a story that upends conventions but still belongs in incest b/c that's its best spot.

Beyond Incest/Gay/Non-con being huge trumps, Mature readers would want you to focus on the age challenges. Romance readers are more "catch all" but I can't imagine with their backstory being what it is, not addressing either their nuclear family relationship OR May/December challenges enough that it wouldn't be better placed in other categories.

Readers see "Step-Mom" and essentially a surrogate mom from an age where he likely doesn't even remember his proper biological mom, they are going to expect there are author reasons for those specifics.

When they consummate the thing has no bearing to my mind as to category choice. Just as a step parent never technically adopting the child or bio Mom divorcing long term step-dad/live in boyfriend + "dad figure" or similar scenarios.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's not just the score. It's about putting it in front of the readers most likely to enjoy it, and not pissing off the readers who are going to hate it. Score can be a reflection of that, but not always. Defaulting to the most readers on a question is just rude, IMO. That should be the last test when there's still a question after everything else has been considered.

I definitely have a different view. As long as you provide some preview of the content of your story, you are, in my opinion, under no obligation to consider whether some will be pissed off by your story. They can choose not to read it, or to stop reading it when they get to the objectionable parts. I care about the people who will like my story, not the people who won't. I really don't care at all about those people.

Consider the following hypothetical regarding a story I've written.

I publish in Category A, and I get a score of 4.8, and 10,000 views and 50 favorites. I get favorable comments and very few unfavorable comments.

I publish in Category B, and I get a score of 4.5, and 100,000 views and 500 favorites. I get many favorable comments but a lot more unfavorable comments than if I publish in Category A.

I'm going to publish in Category B every time. I don't understand NOT doing that. I want to connect with people who like the story, and from this data I'm going to get 10 times as many people who do if I publish in Category B. I don't understand choosing A to avoid offending or disappointing people.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

It's not just the score. It's about putting it in front of the readers most likely to enjoy it, and not pissing off the readers who are going to hate it. Score can be a reflection of that, but not always. Defaulting to the most readers on a question is just rude, IMO. That should be the last test when there's still a question after everything else has been considered.

No one is suggesting that it go into sci-fi or toys or gay male. This story clearly qualifies for incest as it also qualifies for mature I'm sure even romance. It is a case of category overlap. In that sense getting views is a totally valid factor in choice.

I disagree with your stance. If one writes to please a category, then there are some stories that just won't get written because they don't tick all the boxes of any one particular category. Categories are restrictive and limiting in that way, sometimes very restrictive. I write the story that is in me wanting to get out. Then I decide where to post it. In category A some will like and some will not. In category B and category C same thing. In category D perhaps very few will not like it, but nobody reads category D. I never set out to specifically write for D so to hell with D. I'll just pick A B or C that gets me the most hits so long as my story is appropriate for the category.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Consider the following hypothetical regarding a story I've written.

I publish in Category A, and I get a score of 4.8, and 10,000 views and 50 favorites. I get favorable comments and very few unfavorable comments.

I publish in Category B, and I get a score of 4.5, and 100,000 views and 500 favorites. I get many favorable comments but a lot more unfavorable comments than if I publish in Category A.

Yes, I was about to say something very similar. I can't comment what kind of scores the story might get in either incest or mature but one thing that we do know is traffic. Ask yourself what would you rather have.

2000 views, 10 votes, 1 or 2 comments in mature

50000 views, 100 votes, a dozen comments in incest

Safe to say that the reactions would be somewhere in that ballpark. The decisions is up to the author.