Spinning the same trope, do you do it?

[lovecraft68]

We all know every genre has its go to clichés/tropes, erotic is not only no different, but I feel it has more of them. The same devices can be used repeatedly and people will eat them up.

Classics, like the hot teacher, the sexy babysitter, the blackmailing boss, etc...they've been done countless times and people always enjoy them and never say "This again"

But if you use the same basic focal point in a story, can you make them different? Do you feel you do, or feel they're a little redundant, but figure who cares and write them anyway?

It dawned on me in a recent E-book I've used a specific kink of mine three times, all in taboo stories. The kink is what I call "who goes there" sex between two people in a dark room with either one, or both, having no idea who they're with.

I did a brother/sister first (Shh, placed in the April Fools a couple years ago and the sister knew, brother did not)

A father daughter (daughter set it up, father had no idea at the time) called Mommy won't, but I will (not here)

And the last was a Mother/Son where neither knew who the other was (Mom, That was you? Not here)

IMO I've done all three different enough to keep the premise fresh, but I do still wonder if you can go to the well too many times, and if I feel that was the case, does the reader? As again, one thing lit has seemed to prove to me is if anything readers get more put off for giving them something different instead of the familiar material

Thoughts, examples?

 

[jaF0]

I did a brother/sister first (Shh, placed in the April Fools a couple years ago and the sister knew, brother did not)

Thoughts, examples?

I did that one. Neither knew until fully 'engaged'. (NOW, what do we do?)

 

[lovecraft68]

I did that one. Neither knew until fully 'engaged'. (NOW, what do we do?)

Well, seeing we're already here.....

 

[TadOverdon]

All the time. I think I've mentioned the water sex - hot tub, shower, swimming pool - here recently.

Dude tied up by ladies is another, which is my stories never has yet shaded into anything like serious bondage, at most it's a kind of foreplay. I haven't yet found a comfortable way to do woman tied up by a man, BTW.

Doctors, particularly shrinks or counselors of one stripe or another? Check.

 

[StrangeLife]

I'm actively trying really hard to avoid this. But I can't swear that I've succeeded with everything I've written.

It's treacherously easy to fall into a familiar pattern...

 

[NotWise]

My Pixie stories (four published in 2017 to break me out of a slump, and two more in 2019 because what the hell) are all cougar/cub. They feature the same cougar but different cubs, and the same story structure. They open with a few hundred words while Pixie decides on her target, followed by longer section for the seduction, and then a reprisal a few months later that introduces her target for the next story. The word count in each section is about the same in every story.

They were formulaic so I could produce OK smut quickly, and they were a kind of one-man author's challenge. Despite the similarities, the votes were highly varied. All but one was published in EC, and that was part of the reason for the variation.

 

[Bramblethorn]

We all know every genre has its go to clichés/tropes, erotic is not only no different, but I feel it has more of them. The same devices can be used repeatedly and people will eat them up.

Classics, like the hot teacher, the sexy babysitter, the blackmailing boss, etc...they've been done countless times and people always enjoy them and never say "This again"

But if you use the same basic focal point in a story, can you make them different? Do you feel you do, or feel they're a little redundant, but figure who cares and write them anyway?

My last story here ("Anjali's Red Scarf") is about two women who are both involved in mathematical/scientific research, and the intellectual side of it is a big part of the attraction - my narrator spends a lot of time admiring her lover's brains.

Then I started writing an entry for the AI event, and I realised it has a lot of that same dynamic in there. Some of that I can't easily change, because it's tied to the plot I had in mind. But I've done my best to change what I can, so there are echoes of the dynamic from Red Scarf but the personalities are very different. Anjali is a sweetheart; Nadja is a bitch, though hopefully a loveable bitch.

 

[RetroFan]

Five things often appear in my stories regardless of the plot, setting and time when it takes place - twins, spoiled girls, loser brothers, sociopaths and authoritarian fathers.

An amazing number of my characters across my stories are twins and I've had brother/sister twins, and twin brothers and sisters, both identical and non-identical. Never any twincest though, not yet anyway.

I find writing about spoiled girls a lot of fun for some reason, I can't even explain it myself. Is it a fetish? Maybe, but it doesn't really fit the criteria for a fetish in the traditional sense. Anyway, if you like spoiled women and girls you can find them in abundance in plenty of my works. It would be a lot harder to write a story about a spoiled guy, he would have to be the redeemer, whereas girls can get away with entitled behaviour more.

Many of my characters have brothers who are absolute losers, such as the unpleasant narrator Karen from 'The Babysitter & the Toilet Seat', whose idle twin brother Wayne lies in bed all day bludging on unemployment benefits. Then there's Ben's loser younger brother Craig from 'Bridget the Bossy Bridezilla'.

Sociopaths come up in a number of my stories. Cornelius from 'Crazy Cornelius & the Magic Pills', Breanna from 'Trailer Trash Teen Hates Rules', Lorraine from 'Grumpy Humphrey's Easy Wife', Andy from 'PTA Queen Bee & Teen Rebel' and Harriet from 'Spoiled Heiress Gets Kidnapped' all show strong sociopathic tendencies.

Authoritarian fathers often appear in my works. Most recent example, Alistair from 'Crazy Cornelius & the Magic Pills' is an abusive, angry tyrant who is racist, homophobic and hates disabled people.

 

[LAHomedog]

Gosh, I really don't know -- except for redheads and that's a type -- now I'm going to have to go back and check...

 

[YDB95]

It didn't occur to me until a fan pointed it out to me, but college romances are a big trope of mine.
Others include a quiet and shy guy or gal with an extroverted friend who tends to have a vastly overblown belief in hir appeal to the other sex, only it's the shy friend who ends up getting lucky. Also platonic friendship growing into love (which doesn't happen anywhere near as often as I like in real life, but I guess that's why I like it here!).
And, of course, hairy pussies.

 

[gunhilltrain]

We all know every genre has its go to clichés/tropes, erotic is not only no different, but I feel it has more of them. The same devices can be used repeatedly and people will eat them up.

Classics, like the hot teacher, the sexy babysitter, the blackmailing boss, etc...they've been done countless times and people always enjoy them and never say "This again"

But if you use the same basic focal point in a story, can you make them different? Do you feel you do, or feel they're a little redundant, but figure who cares and write them anyway?

It dawned on me in a recent E-book I've used a specific kink of mine three times, all in taboo stories. The kink is what I call "who goes there" sex between two people in a dark room with either one, or both, having no idea who they're with.

I did a brother/sister first (Shh, placed in the April Fools a couple years ago and the sister knew, brother did not)

A father daughter (daughter set it up, father had no idea at the time) called Mommy won't, but I will (not here)

And the last was a Mother/Son where neither knew who the other was (Mom, That was you? Not here)

IMO I've done all three different enough to keep the premise fresh, but I do still wonder if you can go to the well too many times, and if I feel that was the case, does the reader? As again, one thing lit has seemed to prove to me is if anything readers get more put off for giving them something different instead of the familiar material

Thoughts, examples?

I've done the hot teacher - actually a college professor - once. I've done one on another site - the age limits won't work on Lit - where it's the student who goes after the initially reluctant teacher.

The hot boss is another good one. I have one - eventually I may post it here - where a female boss goes after a lower-level female boss who has already seduced two of her employees. It gets complicated because the top boss also goes after one of the employees {he is a male).

I've never done the babysitter idea. And blood-related incest doesn't do anything for me.

You have to be careful with the adjective "hot." A lot of people are hot in their attitudes, not their appearance.

 

[HeyAll]

There are some tropes that I won't bother with anymore. For instance, with incest, the lonely mom who seeks comfort in her son. That's way too easy.

But overall I like writing the same themes; lesbian teacher/student, group sex in the office, mom/son with a 'necessity' reason.

I really enjoy taking a simple premise and putting a new spin on in. Presenting it in a new way. For instance, telling the story from two perspectives, or three. It adds new elements to the story.

 

[gordo12]

f you want tropes your favourite category, Loving Wives, are full of them. Honestly, it's so patently ridiculous to repeat the same shit over and over but they do.

It's the one thing I refuse to do when I write in there.

 

[LAHomedog]

I looked through my stories and I do tie characters up a lot. A lot of light bondage. As it turns out, I am writing two stories right now and I've tied up the woman in one of them already.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Hmmm... I have a lot of characters in college, I did notice that I've repeated a lot of sexual acts, or descriptions of said acts. Maybe I can get a refresher since I'm not writing anything for here, currently(other than finishing this one story)- it helps I have no ideas, and am trying to finish these three fan ficts, one which has no blantant sex, because FFNet. I am waiting for the holloween contest, since I had this idea, and decided to save it, like the April Fools one I wrote.

 

[rescatooor]

I don't think I really repeat myself that much. I suppose there's a bit of "(wo)man crushing over a someone they've never really interacted with" but even that is only maybe 4 times out of 16. I also got hook-ups, couples having normal sex and one or two stories about girls crying over breakups (hot, I know).

I think I switch things up often enough. In fact, I might do a bit too much of that. It's bad for finding and building your own niche market. So I'd recommend most people to just keep on writing the same story over and over again as long as it's fun for you. Play it again, Sam.

 

[Emirus]

It would seem to me the more stories a writer submits in the same category the more likely the same plot, with variations, is going to be regurgitated.

 

[lovecraft68]

yeah, I think my most common trope is friends to lovers.

I have a lot of redheads with green eyes for main characters.

There's usually a secret involved that gets found out at some point in the story.

And my characters tend to struggle with mental illness.

But as far as actual sex tropes, I don't know that I have many? I have a fair few first time stories, but only a couple of them are the 18-year-old virgin trope, one is 28 and another is in her 30s, the others fall between 18-25.

Oh, and the sweeter the girl is supposed to be, the more likely she is to use the term "cunt" when describing her body parts. My girls tend to be bratty teases, too.


Ahh, I've got one: Older guys. The vast majority of my stories involve guys that are at least a few years older than the women. I think I only have one or two where the guy is actually younger than the woman (and that's by days/weeks rather than years, including my Halloween story.) Most have an age gap of at least 3 years. One is as little as a few days and another has a 45-50 year difference in age between the characters. (not counting fantasy where an age gap is uncountable between a god, the son of a god, and the daughter of a goddess and human.)

I married a redhead with green eyes...pure Sicilian....no need to visit that trope in my stories, I deal with it, I mean I um, love it every day.

 

[lovecraft68]

Hmmm... I have a lot of characters in college, I did notice that I've repeated a lot of sexual acts, or descriptions of said acts. Maybe I can get a refresher since I'm not writing anything for here, currently(other than finishing this one story)- it helps I have no ideas, and am trying to finish these three fan ficts, one which has no blantant sex, because FFNet. I am waiting for the holloween contest, since I had this idea, and decided to save it, like the April Fools one I wrote.

Similar sex acts is an entirely different dilemma of its own. Once you've written a fair amount of stories how different can you make it? Only so many descriptive words apply so many positions etc...

So for me its more about the story and build up surrounding said sex is where you can try to make it different

 

[lovecraft68]

f you want tropes your favourite category, Loving Wives, are full of them. Honestly, it's so patently ridiculous to repeat the same shit over and over but they do.

It's the one thing I refuse to do when I write in there.

But I bet when they keep repeating that trope its like every other category where they just keep eating it up.

Its like Hollywood, everything is a sequel, a reboot, a remake etc....and people say "there's nothing new" yet as long as people go the theaters-or now stream-the movies there is no reason for them to change.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

I have a tendency to correlate cup-size and age for some reason. I think that’s a porn trope — more mature women (mothers in taboo especially) are bigger in the breast department.

Handless blowjobs also creep up a lot (hands behind back). I have no idea why. I don’t think it’s a particular turn-on for me, but it does seem to be more pornographic.

Oh, and phone sex. It’s been quite hard to pull off in stories, but one day I’ll master it!

Actually, all my stuff is quite porny. I dress it up with lyrical language, but I enjoy writing the kind of erotica I first read. Mainly stuff targeted at heterosexual men with strong 90s/early-2000s vibes. Except, my men are a little more open to experimentation and I try to inject a bit of commentary/subversion of old social attitudes and tropes. In fact, I think that’s what I aim for. I try to enjoy the tropes/clichés while making things a bit more thoughtful.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have a tendency to correlate cup-size and age for some reason. I think that’s a porn trope — more mature women (mothers in taboo especially) are bigger in the breast department.

Handless blowjobs also creep up a lot (hands behind back). I have no idea why. I don’t think it’s a particular turn-on for me, but it does seem to be more pornographic.

Oh, and phone sex. It’s been quite hard to pull off in stories, but one day I’ll master it!

Actually, all my stuff is quite porny. I dress it up with lyrical language, but I enjoy writing the kind of erotica I first read. Mainly stuff targeted at heterosexual men with strong 90s/early-2000s vibes. Except, my men are a little more open to experimentation and I try to inject a bit of commentary/subversion of old social attitudes and tropes. In fact, I think that’s what I aim for. I try to enjoy the tropes/clichés while making things a bit more thoughtful.

I do the same with the breast size, the young girls are small on top, the milfs busty...came from watching all those mom's teach teens videos

I do the hands free a lot too, usually the hands are on the guy's thighs. I also noticed my BJ's are all super sloppy with a lot of gagging and drooling I'd say that's from porn, but its more based on shall we say real life.

 

[TadOverdon]

Husbands are generally losers in my stories.

What's that, doctor? No, I don't have issues; I have a formula. LOL

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

I do the same with the breast size, the young girls are small on top, the milfs busty...came from watching all those mom's teach teens videos

I do the hands free a lot too, usually the hands are on the guy's thighs. I also noticed my BJ's are all super sloppy with a lot of gagging and drooling I'd say that's from porn, but its more based on shall we say real life.

Now that I think about it, I think the no-hands thing in my stories is a signifier of 'skill'/confidence. As for writing them sloppy? I wish! I’m still a bit of a chicken when it comes to going all out with the descriptions etc. Slowly changing it up though.

Another porny thing I indulge in is the whole 'every woman is bisexual' thing. HOWEVER, I do try to give space for chemistry and genuine romance/interaction between female characters. I avoid the: "we’re having a threesome and because it’s a threesome the straight wife will put her tongue up the babysitter’s asshole" thing. Yet, now that I’ve written that sentence I think I’ll write that scene.

 

[davion2308]

I have abandoned stories over this

I feel like I have to break away from tropes. I have written stories, committed 10k words or more, and thought, "Hell, this has been done a bunch of times and I'm not executing it any different way."

I'll just stop right there. I'm done. I don't want to recycle a trope without having at least some kind of hook or angle that's unique. And, sure, everything's been done already but at least I'm trying to break away.