Series vs Standalone stories in Incest category

[avatar_roku]

Hello everyone,

I have published some stories so far on Literotica under my pen name of Avatar Roku. I write mostly in the Incest category. Some of my stories are part of a series, others are standalone.

When it comes to incest, I personally prefer to read and write stories which focus on (or atleast have a good amount of) the mental/psychological conflicts that a character undergoes before getting involved in incest. I like to explore a character's inner thoughts and turmoil, the fight between mind and body, and how they're able to convince themselves to commit to that forbidden relationship. Most often I see incest stories where this inner conflict is either entirely missing or resolved very easily, which, to me, cheapens the entire experience.

With that in mind, I've written some of incest stories involving mother and son who have sex for the first time. There are four of them (links below) which I analysed recently. All of them have different characters and settings, but kind of have the same core structure. The son is already in incestuous love with his mom and tries to express it to her. The mom is also attracted towards her son but struggles with the moral, emotional, psychological and social implications of incest. She wrestles with her inner conflicts. Some stories have additional external conflicts as well, like being stuck in a war zone or facing the destruction of their village. These internal and external conflicts finally gets resolved. The mother accepts her son as a lover and they have sex towards the end of the story.

Now there are two points I want to discuss here. Firstly, as a writer, I want to explore about what happens after a couple gets incestuously involved. To do this, either I need to write a sequel to the any of the aforementioned stories. Or I can write a new story with new characters who are already incestuous lovers.

Secondly, I am not a prolific writer. I write sporadically which might not be ideal when it comes to writing a series or sequels. Previous readers might've forgotten the earlier chapter. New readers might be reluctant to read the previous chapters of a newly published story.

What are your thoughts on this? Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to write down my thoughts here. Thanks in advance!

Story links -
The King's Last Wish
Not without my son
Divine touch of the Yakshini
Wife's Incestuous Family Ritual ch4

 

[harmonicks]

On the first point, personally I find it hard to get into stories in the incest category where it's established right off the bat that the characters are already having sex. Almost all of the appeal for the genre for me is in the build-up and the exploration of sexual tension. I don't mind so much if characters have more sex after that point, and I think sequels to existing stories would be fine, but as you say I think a story with characters that are just established as already being in a relationship in that way cheapens it.

All of that said, these sorts of stories do tend to still rate fairly well from what I've seen (I would assume because they get to the point a lot more quickly) so I wouldn't say there isn't an audience there even if personally I'm not in it.

On the second point, I wouldn't worry that much about the readers in terms of whether they can follow a new chapter if there's a sizeable gap between it and the previous one. I think if you've left the story as a fairly self-contained thing, and you then later decide you want to write a sequel, very few people are going to have a problem with that. If anything I find it odd when stories get released as multiple parts within days of each other, as I feel most of the time they'd have been better combined into a single volume.

What I would caution against from personal experience (right now!) is writing a story that is intentionally left open as a part one and then publishing it if you're not well into the second part. I did it with my latest story as in a way I wanted to be able to draw a line under what I had written, get it out there and move onto the next section rather than continually going back and refining it, but especially with comments I now feel like there's more of a need to get a move on with writing and releasing the second part,which I'm struggling to find the time and energy to write right now. I think I should have just kept the first part unreleased until I was basically 80% through the rest of it and then I wouldn't have to worry about leaving things unresolved for such a long time.

If you're personally OK as the author in having long gaps between revisiting a story then I wouldn't worry too much over whether readers will come back to it, personally.

 

[InWINcible]

Hey,
I too like reading incest stories with the characters not being one dimensional hormone-induced flesh and bones but rather have them share some emotional connection prior to their 'liking of other'. I seek stories in which the MCs resist their urges and are conflicted. My whole point of reading incest stories is to explore their inner turmoil and their fight against the societal boundaries of 'morals'. Stories in which the MCs are going-at-it just for the sake of it being forbidden are also not my cup of tea.
Nowadays, I read these stories just for their plot, drama and often skim through the erotic parts if they are frequent (ik it's odd 'cause this is a erotic site).
To your first question, I would rather read a sequel to a story I liked than read about MCs that are already past their 'reluctant stage'.
To your second question, I like stories that have an ending and I often binge read them. I am biased here 'cause I have been 'betrayed' by authors and have been left hanging for ending to stories. So I prefer standalones.

 

[yukonnights]

Just in general, multi-part / multi-chapter style stories are something I do quite often. IMO, the best way to do this is; 1. Write and edit all chapters of the story. >why? Readers are likely to have jumped onboard with a series only to have it die before completion. 2. I put a note up front that informs a potential reader that all parts/chapters are completed and submitted to Lit <(Lit is pretty good at doling the chapters/parts out over several days which puts the story on the New Story page for more eyes to discover the story.

I'd never release CH - One without having a completed story already written.

Also, I agree 100% with InWINcible in regard to the inclusion of inner turmoil/doubts/emotions, etc. The mental drama is as good or better than the physical parts. I'd also suggest that the physical descriptions be crafted in a "non-telling" way — instead, use the characters inner thoughts tell the reader what's being seen. Incest is such a social taboo, this doubt and turmoil can really fill in the event in a realistic way.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

Quite. Watching the characters moving forward with their relationship should be interesting, but only so much.

Figure out in advance what is this thing you want to explore, and give it the proper treatment. Not too short, but don't drag it also.

I've started a similar thread:

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/incest-father-son-japanese-cd-ts.1594075/

I've recently seen a Japanese (old) movie, featuring the well know Peter gay entertainer.

Peter plays a CD/TS -- the preferred term in the period was "gay boy".

Inadvertently, the character gets into a relationship with his own father. Again, neither are aware.

And since this is a Japanese movie, it has to be tragedy. When father learns, he kills himself. Then the main character does.

So, I've thought. What if the story is turned on its head? The characters learn soon enough or they know it from the start. And they're not particularly concerned with it. Not to the point they contemplate suicide.