Fantasy or Reality Ramblings?

[JackLuis]

Question, I have read a good number of stories here and they range from Realistic to Fantastic.

Being a good Virgo, I have tended to try and stay on the realistic side, except when I decide to get a little weird and start inventing. (I think it's my Leo cusp the perverts me.)

I just read a story about a straight guy who is convinced to suck a car salesman's cock, in order to get a discount and make his girlfriend keep fucking him. Plausible, although the author didn't address the issue of precum squick much. It was kind of a "Illustrated Story" but without the illustrated part. It would have made a good comic book.

Another example of this is the 'Endless Fountain of Sperm" that pervades the porno/Lit world. An interesting idea, from a mans perspective, although realistically 30-100 mL doesn't go all the far, nor coat the car windows nearly as thick. I'm not sure how attractive this is to women?

What about the 'Pearl Necklace" trope? It seems to me that a woman might object to that. I did however find an article that claimed the the proteins in cum was a good anti-wrinkle cream, but I wonder if that is propaganda or science.

Now I realize that there are 'different Strokes..." and there is the fact that people come to Lit to escape their reality, so there has to be some Fantasy in the story of a pathetic geek getting laid by the 38DD Blond who loves the taste of his cum.

The taste of cum never seems to be realistically described though, so I sometimes wonder if the author never felt/tasted the 'splooge covering his tongue in ecstatic wonder.'

Then there is the 'smell of pussy.' Most of the descriptions of the scent of a woman's pussy are fantastic. (Why do you think they call it stink finger?) I myself have driven home after a date, taking sniffs of my finger to relive the date, but it always struck me as a little perverted.

And, of course there is the legendary 12" dick!

Also, it seems to me that the balance that has to be struck varies with genera. Romance should be more real, maybe, but how realistic can Non-Human be?

I suppose that for a writer to lead the reader into the most outrageous 'suspension of disbelief' is a mark of his skill, but...

I wonder about these things.

 

[JackLuis]

I put this here because of space on the front page.

On the subject of reality and controversial subjects.

Indonesia denies its female circumcision practices are female genital mutilation

An interesting article. Cultural sensitivities can be a bitch.

Goose-Gander?

Reasonable compromise or fanaticism?

 

[chocolatecookie3]

I'm going to respond to your first post because it's less serious.

I love the taste and smell of pussy, but I could live without tasting cum. I hate getting it everywhere, too.

I try to be realistic, but then sometimes I think my experiences don't match others.

 

[JackLuis]

CC3, not ignoring your valid opinion, thanks for responding.
The second post is troubling to even think about isn't it.

I was researching (googling really) Damon Runyon because of another thread and found an interesting book on Gutenberg.

Form a 1921 book called
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30601/30601-h/images/titlepage.png

Law of Size

¶ The larger any part or organ the better its equipment for carrying out the work of that organ and the more does it tend to express itself. Nature IS an efficiency expert and doesn't give you an oversupply of anything without demanding that you use it.

I was thinking of Johnny Holms.

I haven't read it all and not sure how serious to take it, but it might be another arrow in your quiver.

 

[MatthewVett]

Question, I have read a good number of stories here and they range from Realistic to Fantastic.

Being a good Virgo, I have tended to try and stay on the realistic side, except when I decide to get a little weird and start inventing. (I think it's my Leo cusp the perverts me.)

...

What about the 'Pearl Necklace" trope? It seems to me that a woman might object to that. I did however find an article that claimed the the proteins in cum was a good anti-wrinkle cream, but I wonder if that is propaganda or science.

...

Then there is the 'smell of pussy.' Most of the descriptions of the scent of a woman's pussy are fantastic. (Why do you think they call it stink finger?) I myself have driven home after a date, taking sniffs of my finger to relive the date, but it always struck me as a little perverted.

I'm sorry, I just love how the first few sentences were, "I believe in astrology and consider myself a realist."

There was actually a study once, "Does Semen Have Antidepressant Properties?" from the Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol 31. No. 3, June 2002, pg 289-293. They found that women who had sex without condoms, and therefore came into direct contact with semen, were less likely to be depressed than women who had sex with condoms and otherwise therefore avoided semen. So there's possibly another benefit to the whole pearl necklace thing.

I've never actually been wild about the smell of pussy, myself, but I recognize that other people are, so in it goes.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm sorry, I just love how the first few sentences were, "I believe in astrology and consider myself a realist."

There was actually a study once, "Does Semen Have Antidepressant Properties?" from the Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol 31. No. 3, June 2002, pg 289-293. They found that women who had sex without condoms, and therefore came into direct contact with semen, were less likely to be depressed than women who had sex with condoms and otherwise therefore avoided semen. So there's possibly another benefit to the whole pearl necklace thing.

Would be interested to know whether they were able to go beyond correlation to establish causation. An alternate interpretation of that correlation would be "women who are more risk-conscious are more likely to be depressed, and also more likely to use condoms to mitigate risks". In which case ditching the condoms would be counterproductive!

Re. taste/smell: this depends a LOT on diet, among other things.

 

[JackLuis]

I had launched this as a discussion of the balance to be struck between fantasy and reality in stories. Considering we have to attract repeat readers to succeed, yet owe ourselves the freedom to explore.

How 'far fetched' can you pull off without jerking the reader's disbelief button? Or end up making cartoon 2D characters who are little more than stereotypes to strut on background slides of 'the Bar' or 'the Tennis Club".

It really is a 'marketing' question.

 

[chocolatecookie3]

I consider it a success when people email me thinking I was writing a true story. It was really weird to get that comment on a story about an angel.

On the other hand, I had a character use a laxative in an anal story and that was questioned.

 

[lovecraft68]

I put this here because of space on the front page.

On the subject of reality and controversial subjects.

Indonesia denies its female circumcision practices are female genital mutilation

An interesting article. Cultural sensitivities can be a bitch.

Goose-Gander?

Reasonable compromise or fanaticism?

Female circumcision has nothing to do with culture, but the humiliation, torture and debasement of women. They do it so women cannot enjoy sex. pure and simple.

I don;t think they need to bother. Half the time the women over there on that side of the word are forced into sex with men they don;t want to be with under the guise of marriage.

the other time they are being raped.

 

[slyc_willie]

Also, it seems to me that the balance that has to be struck varies with genera. Romance should be more real, maybe, but how realistic can Non-Human be?

That's part of the challenge. My current story is a Non-Human one, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job of keeping everything as realistic as it can be, with the added factor of something that is obviously outside the normal realm of human experience. This is part of the reason why -- though I normally can't stand most stories on the subject -- the whole vampire/werewolf sub-genre is so popular (in my opinion). It is rooted in the world we already know, and effort is made to explain how our reality exists as we know it with the added dimension of a very active supernatural aspect.

Conversely, I find a lot of Romance stories to be ironically fantastic, simply because of the whole "perfect man/perfect woman" trope. I think it would be easier to meet a real vampire than it would to meet somebody perfect.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Readers want PRETTY WOMAN in 57 yummy flavors.

 

[chocolatecookie3]

Female circumcision has nothing to do with culture, but the humiliation, torture and debasement of women. They do it so women cannot enjoy sex. pure and simple.

I don;t think they need to bother. Half the time the women over there on that side of the word are forced into sex with men they don;t want to be with under the guise of marriage.

the other time they are being raped.

I don't think such a broad generalization can be true. Just like people in arranged marriages can be happy, surely some couples can also have good sex.

 

[TxRad]

I don't think such a broad generalization can be true. Just like people in arranged marriages can be happy, surely some couples can also have good sex.

You are jousting with a closed mind on this subject with him.

 

[JackLuis]

Readers want PRETTY WOMAN in 57 yummy flavors.

That is a generalization, perhaps only true for ~45% of the prospective readers, and considering that women read more than men, perhaps not even that.

It is however true that a pretty woman can draw in some readers, of both sexs.

A handsome man also helps but it is hard to 'show' his/her handsomeness in text and his/her beauty is 'in the eye of the beholder.'


I should add at this point I was thinking about selling ebooks and wondering how to "Make Big Money with Smut." Like Pilot and LC68 do.

 

[TxRad]

That is a generalization, perhaps only true for ~45% of the prospective readers, and considering that women read more than men, perhaps not even that.

It is however true that a pretty woman can draw in some readers, of both sexs.

A handsome man also helps but it is hard to 'show' his/her handsomeness in text and his/her beauty is 'in the eye of the beholder.'


I should add at this point I was thinking about selling ebooks and wondering how to "Make Big Money with Smut." Like Pilot and LC68 do.

That last part is easy. Write plenty of stories and get them out there with eye catching covers in as many formats as possible on as many retail sites as possible. Then write more stories and repeat.

 

[JackLuis]

That last part is easy. Write plenty of stories and get them out there with eye catching covers in as many formats as possible on as many retail sites as possible. Then write more stories and repeat.

Maybe I'm over analyzing?

If LC can sell incest and Pilot can sell GM maybe my fuck books will sell?

 

[slyc_willie]

Maybe I'm over analyzing?

If LC can sell incest and Pilot can sell GM maybe my fuck books will sell?

I don't do half bad and my best seller is neither incest nor gay.

 

[JackLuis]

A snip on demographics of ebookers

The press release notes that eBooks and digital publishing are the bright notes in an otherwise dim industry outlook. The also offer the following info:

57% of book buyers are women yet women purchase 65% of the books sold in the U.S.
Mystery books are the most popular genre for book club sales, with 17% of all purchases of mystery books coming directly from book clubs
Generation X consumers buy more books online than any other demographic group, with 30% of them buying their books through the Internet
21% of book buyers said they became aware of a book through some sort of online promotion or ad
Women made the majority of the purchases in the paperback, hardcover and audio-book segments
Men accounted for 55% of e-book purchases

some conflict in their numbers but, hey, it shows the sexual differences.

 

[JackLuis]

Confessions?

Felicia Day, “Vi” on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is cuckoo for the Kindle for that very reason. She writes in her blog that “as an insane reader of genre paperbacks, I’m absolutely in love with it. It would be great if Amazon sold it in a physical store somewhere so people could check them out themselves. I think they would sell a lot more of them. They especially make great gifts, as they’re an indulgence most ppl won’t allow themselves per say, but if you’re looking for a REALLY nice gift for a family member or friend who loves books or travels a lot, you couldn’t go wrong.

“Now for the ‘come clean’ part: I’ve read like, 6 books this week and ordered about 10 more. And no ordinary books: Pure unadulterated TRASHY-ROMANCE books! Check out my GoodReads shelf vaginal-urban-fantasy, it’s bloating to an alarming degree. It’s stuff I never would have checked out at the Barnes and Noble, because the gleaming and oily man chests would have made me blush too much [unless I was drunk, but that’s a previous blog entry ]. I’m delighted to be reading ridiculous werewolf/demon/vampire-Alpha-male fiction with no guilt.”

If vampires and werewolf story sell, how realistic does it have to be to sell big?

And while writing both books I was half thinking that sex sells so putting explicit sex scenes in my stories people will only encourage people to buy them, I have found that in reality I have missed the target with both potential demographics. For the people who want to read literary fiction there is both not enough literature and way too much sex in my stories. And for those potential readers interested in sex well… the average erotic book has something like five “cum shots” per chapter so going two and a half chapters between vanilla sex scenes was just not floating their boats.

That'll put a strain on the disbelief.

 

[JackLuis]

One last one, before I leave.
Wikipedia has an entry on Erotic romance novels

Erotic romance novels take the reader beyond the bedroom door where more traditional romance does not breach that barrier. The sex scenes, while explicit, are there for the purpose of character development. Erotic romance should not be confused with pornography. Works of pornography consist of sexual acts without a plot line. Erotic romance however includes well-developed characters and at least one primary plot with the possibility of subplots. The primary and/or subplots can stand alone without the explicit sex, but the characterizations in the story will suffer dramatically if the sexual content is removed.

Pornography

Pornography is often distinguished from erotica, which consists of the portrayal of sexuality with high-art aspirations, focusing also on feelings and emotions, while pornography involves the depiction of acts in a sensational manner, with the entire focus on the physical act, so as to arouse quick intense reactions.[1][2] A distinction is also made between hardcore and softcore pornography. Softcore pornography can generally be described as focusing on nude modeling and suggestive, but not explicit, simulations of sexual intercourse, whereas hardcore pornography explicitly showcases penetrative intercourse.

Maybe they need some help fleshing out their articles?

 

[JackLuis]

Well one more,

Do fantasy romance novels outsell reality based novels?

Each individual has different tastes but the industry being flooded with reality romances is perhaps too much for buyers who flock to books that provide unique and fantasy romantic experiences and stories. The trend has also led many writers to focus more on imagination while writing their books rather than facts or real world stories. According to a few bestselling authors, providing unique plots, out of the world and exploitable characters along with a shocking yet mind blowing and captivating story will definitely land you in the best sellers list. The current demographics of romance novels market has majority of its readers who are females, particularly young teenagers, single ladies and even married women. All of this goes to show that the majority of readers will prefer a book that has elements of fantasy, rather than one that is based more on real world scenarios.

 

[JackLuis]

I found our Pilot's page!

Good one pilot.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I had launched this as a discussion of the balance to be struck between fantasy and reality in stories. Considering we have to attract repeat readers to succeed, yet owe ourselves the freedom to explore.

How 'far fetched' can you pull off without jerking the reader's disbelief button?

Complex question. I can deal with werewolves and vampires more easily than I can deal with plots that are physically possible but don't seem emotionally credible. (And don't ask me to define "emotionally credible" at this hour of the day.)

My view of the reader/writer process is a bit like negotiating a loan. The writer gets certain concessions from the reader ("I'm going to have magic in my story" or "I'm going to have an unlikely coincidence") and they have to give the reader a payoff in return: "here's a talking frog with some interesting thoughts about life from a frog's perspective" or whatever.

In magic stories, the author usually gives a lot of thought to the payoff, even if they don't see it as a payoff. I've never read a story where magic existed but was unimportant to the story.

But in a lot of porn, the payoff for accepting a 46-24-46 woman is simply that the writer is telling you about a 46-24-46 woman. For some readers that may be a worthwhile payoff; for me it's not.

 

[JackLuis]

Complex question. I can deal with werewolves and vampires more easily than I can deal with plots that are physically possible but don't seem emotionally credible. (And don't ask me to define "emotionally credible" at this hour of the day.)
-
But in a lot of porn, the payoff for accepting a 46-24-46 woman is simply that the writer is telling you about a 46-24-46 woman. For some readers that may be a worthwhile payoff; for me it's not.

I think that was the wiki's distinction between Porn and Erotic, that the sex is part of the story, not all the story. I know I walked that line in Spreading Seeds

The very point of the whole story was to have Josh fuck as many women as he could, while reliably inseminating them. I gave him a day, or two off between chapters and hinted of plots and subplots, but it was really just Josh Spreading Seeds.

A lot of my stuff comes from trying to figure out how to plausibly get the characters into unusual situations. Sometimes it's the characters that create the story, some times the story generates the characters

 

[Dyslexicea]

Then there is the 'smell of pussy.' Most of the descriptions of the scent of a woman's pussy are fantastic. (Why do you think they call it stink finger?) I myself have driven home after a date, taking sniffs of my finger to relive the date, but it always struck me as a little perverted.

Jack when did you become a recruiter for my side of the fence?