Making blackmail believable

[Rogue25]

Hello

So I have been contemplating writing something with more substance around blackmail but struggle to make the victim be so forced into a corner that sex is the only option or even how to construct such a story?

Any tips or ideas? Should it be instantaneous or should the person have to consider "the offer" for a few days?

Any pointers would be good.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The quicker you close the deal the less time the blackmailee will have to figure out how to slip out of the trap. Give any person enough time and they will find a way to wiggle out or even turn the tables.

Then there are people like me, who don't give a crap what you might think you have on me.

 

[Rogue25]

The quicker you close the deal the less time the blackmailee will have to figure out how to slip out of the trap. Give any person enough time and they will find a way to wiggle out or even turn the tables.

Then there are people like me, who don't give a crap what you might think you have on me.

Cheers Zeb!

 

[Sean Renaud]

Honestly if your issue is believability then simply skip right over it and leave it as what TvTropes defines as a Noodle Incident. You know something happened at some point in the past but it's never discussed in any detail. Usually it's stuff like in the Avengers where Black Widow and Hawkeye keep going back and forth about some mission in the past but it never evolves beyond: This is like that time in Cabo! "You remember Cabo much differently than I do."

For blackmail I'd simply have the black mailer have a manilla envelope. You never talk about it other than any time she gets feisty he reminds her that he has it. It could be a magazine she's not proud of posing for when she was a kid, it could be proof she was embezling funds. It could be evidence that ties her to the fucking Manson Murders and completely exonerates Charles Manson. It doesn't matter one bit. The only thing that matters is that she desperately doesn't want this information being made public and that's all we ever need to know about the subject.

Because you're absolutely right, most blackmail stories hinge heavily on the woman simply submitting to something that she should probably ignore. A few times it's not, I can buy a woman selling herself to avoid jail time for embezlement or to avoid someone in her family going to prison. But usually it's "ha ha I have photos of you in your undies and I'll show your hubby. Mwahahahahahaha!"

The quicker you close the deal the less time the blackmailee will have to figure out how to slip out of the trap. Give any person enough time and they will find a way to wiggle out or even turn the tables.

Then there are people like me, who don't give a crap what you might think you have on me.

There are no people like you, including you. Everybody has something in their lives that they wouldn't risk for just about anything.

 

[lovecraft68]

Want to make it believable?

The woman says...."Fine post the fucking video and I'll see you in court prick...oh, and by the way I just taped this conversation."

But I'm sorry I am ruining the fantasy that in order for a woman to avoid a sex scandal she would....submit to being repeatedly gang raped.

There is no way to make blackmail stories on porn sites truly realistic, its like incest, you can try, but even the best attempts are still eye rolling in real life.

Erotica suspends reality to varying degrees in every category so....don't sweat it, all people want in Black mail stories is total sexual degradation of the woman(or man sometimes) peppered with a healthy dose of rape.

The crowd there isn't intelligent enough to understand a real story and if you make them think they will get blood in their hair from the bloody knuckles they drag on the ground.

Sorry, I know I'm holding back here...

 

[Sean Renaud]

Problem being that's actually less believable in general. Most people in general would at least be somewhat worried about certain kinds of video getting out. Go a head sue the guy, send him to jail for life the damage is already done. And that's assuming it's even illegally gotten. There are lots of "life after porn" stories that suggest it's really hard to do much after that. And she was recording some random conversation? The fuck is this woman? Batman? That's what pisses me off about him. He knows shit that there is simply no way of him knowing. Like how alien technology functions.

I think you deeply over estimate the shit that goes down in real life. The main difference is that real life doesn't have to be realistic. If you wrote a story about a painter turned soldier who tried to take over the world and exterminate a race of people and along the way teamed up with an brutal emperor whose soldiers were so loyal they'd blow themselves up to kill the enemy you'd be laughed out of the publishing house. Yet we both know what I'm talking about and that it was very very real. Fiction has to make sense. That's the issue.

And lets be honest, as disgusting as it is at the end of the day you kinda get two choices here. Either you think Bill Cosby (amongst tons of frat boys) is innocent and these women just want to ruin a good man's name and get some cash or blackmailing happens and really isn't much more difficult than "You don't want to lose your job or scholarship do you?"

 

[Zeb_Carter]

...
There are no people like you, including you. Everybody has something in their lives that they wouldn't risk for just about anything.

What you would be afraid of, I certainly am not afraid of, getting out. I have skeletons, but if they got out, I wouldn't care, they mean nothing. Nothing.

If you think you can dig it out and use it to your gain, go ahead. But you will not worry me in the least with what you think you have. Tell anyone and everyone, I don't care. In all likelihood it would be false or mean nothing to anyone.

There is nothing that can hurt me.

 

[Sean Renaud]

What you would be afraid of, I certainly am not afraid of, getting out. I have skeletons, but if they got out, I wouldn't care, they mean nothing. Nothing.

If you think you can dig it out and use it to your gain, go ahead. But you will not worry me in the least with what you think you have. Tell anyone and everyone, I don't care. In all likelihood it would be false or mean nothing to anyone.

There is nothing that can hurt me.

It doesn't have to be a skeleton. I know nothing of your family but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say if you were given the choice between giving Mr. X a blow job and him putting a bullet in your daughter's head you'd be on your knees instantly.

I don't really buy that there is nothing in your closet that you wouldn't want out because somethings are a matter of degrees. That however I won't argue with you on because that's mostly your opinion at the end of the day.

 

[CyranoJ]

The most common real-life hooks for actual blackmail are: having evidence of the other person having committed a crime (the kind of evidence that could jail them or get them deported or something); having evidence of their having committed adultery or some other act socially unacceptable in their peer group that could get them shunned or divorced; having some kind of leverage over the life, freedom, health or career of a close family member.

The "illicit photos" trope arguably has less teeth in the age of the celebrity sex tape, but even that apparently still works in some cases to judge from a news search, so clearly not everyone is as blase about it as Kim Kardashian.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't see the problem. You just have to make the one blackmailed more scared of something being revealed then in giving up sex. It's just something that they would believe would tilt the scales--could be anything from uncharged crime in their past or having been a call girl before landing a husband in the public eye to their child not being their husband's to their own public reputation. (A former U.S. speaker of the house just got fingered for paying $3.5 million to keep a homosexual relationship out of the public eye. Giving sex would seem a lot cheaper than that.)

 

[Zeb_Carter]

It doesn't have to be a skeleton. I know nothing of your family but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say if you were given the choice between giving Mr. X a blow job and him putting a bullet in your daughter's head you'd be on your knees instantly.

I don't really buy that there is nothing in your closet that you wouldn't want out because somethings are a matter of degrees. That however I won't argue with you on because that's mostly your opinion at the end of the day.

I don't have any children, so the threat would be meaningless and I would kill him instead.

Anything else?

 

[Sean Renaud]

I don't have any children, so the threat would be meaningless and I would kill him instead.

Anything else?

That's why I said I know nothing about your family. I don't believe you're such an evil bastard that there is nobody, mother father, wife, sister, brother, best friend that you wouldn't let get shot in the face over something as silly as your pride. But maybe I'm wrong. MAybe you are cartoon villain evil. I've been wrong before. Maybe this is one of those times. If it is I hope one day you find someone you give a shit about though. I mean shit I'm lonely as fuck and I have people I wouldn't let get shot.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Charles Willeford wrote the best blackmail encounter ever.

A detective was desperate for an apartment in the city. But all he had was a mom who fucked her son, drugged him, and killed him with heroin. He couldn't prove it, and the son needed killing. Mom killed the kid for 25K of drug money the boy had.

So the detective took mom out on a date, and back home in bed, he puts it to her: He reveals all the details of her crime and offers her freedom if she leases her apartment to him, tonight, now. She calls her lawyer, and accepts the offer.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Want to make it believable?

The woman says...."Fine post the fucking video and I'll see you in court prick...oh, and by the way I just taped this conversation."

I think Lovecraft has a fetish for strong women who call the shots. They certainly exist, but there are also women who cave under pressure. Blackmailing someone into sex - pressuring women into sex in general - isn't exactly unheard of. The problem is that to make it work you need a female that's socially inexperienced enough not to know her options, has enough to lose that she's genuinely frightened of the consequences, and has so few resources for defense, that she'll yield. In short what I'm describing is the 16 year old who just had sex with her girlfriend and CANNOT let her parents find out. You cannot write that story here. Even if you could, it would be tawdry and exploitative to the point that I don't think you'd get many readers.

I don't buy the generic manila envelope thing though. If I don't understand what drives the character, I don't care about the character and then the sex scene won't work. You have to understand the horror of her situation to make the villain really black and the sex really purple.

What you presumably want is the beautiful heiress that "needs to be taken down a peg or two". But now we're back into Lovecraft's presumed territory - those are the women with enough social understanding and experience and friends, that they can fight back.

The basis probably needs to be a criminal activity where the criminal/victim is looking at 30 years of jail time. An hour of sex starts to look affordable. But now you get to work out why the victim doesn't' save a little DNA evidence and press a rape charge.

Given a week I could probably construct SOMETHING that would be believable, but I'd have to have so much character sketch and background in the story that I'd fall asleep before I got to the sex scene. There's a reason that when I want nonconsent, I start with kidnapping. If you're going to have the villain be ruthless anyway, there's no point in fussing around with something as dicey as blackmail. Blackmail says "if I control your mind, the body will follow." True, but hard to sell. Kidnapping says "If I control the body, the mind will follow" - also true, and far darker and more erotic because it speaks to a person's fear of yielding to the darkness within that in themselves that they deny.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

That's why I said I know nothing about your family. I don't believe you're such an evil bastard that there is nobody, mother father, wife, sister, brother, best friend that you wouldn't let get shot in the face over something as silly as your pride. But maybe I'm wrong. MAybe you are cartoon villain evil. I've been wrong before. Maybe this is one of those times. If it is I hope one day you find someone you give a shit about though. I mean shit I'm lonely as fuck and I have people I wouldn't let get shot.

I'm old, really old. I no longer have anyone that close to me. Besides, I'm always armed. And I'm a crack shot. I'll drop you before you drop me. Not braggin', fact.

Any argument, any threat you might come up with no longer applies to me. There is nothing I'm embarrassed about. Nothing I need to hide. Nothing anyone can use against me to bend me to their will. I am free. I do as I please, while conforming to the law. I have no fear of what other people think is something to be fearful of.

And I sleep like a baby at night my conscience clear in my sunset years.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Fair enough, that makes you a major exception to the rule though. I wouldn't base a realistic story around you though.

 

[CyranoJ]

I'm always armed. And I'm a crack shot. I'll drop you before you drop me. Not braggin', fact.

I am the last surviving member of my Psionic Ninja Clan, and I live in an underground concrete bunker where I practice the psychic martial art known as kokoro no michi twenty-three hours a day -- I've reached fifth-dan, where I can cut a Volkswagen in half with my mind -- with only target dummies stolen from a nearby firing range for company. And yet I am able to understand in principle that people will do things to protect their loved ones, and that this was Sean's point.

 

[Sean Renaud]

But can you catch a bullet with your teeth?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Fair enough, that makes you a major exception to the rule though. I wouldn't base a realistic story around you though.

Neither would I, although in my younger days, there may have been some foibles I wasn't proud of at the time. But as the saying goes, "time heals all wounds."

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I am the last surviving member of my Psionic Ninja Clan, and I live in an underground concrete bunker where I practice the psychic martial art known as kokoro no michi twenty-three hours a day -- I've reached fifth-dan, where I can cut a Volkswagen in half with my mind -- with only target dummies stolen from a nearby firing range for company. And yet I am able to understand in principle that people will do things to protect their loved ones, and that this was Sean's point.

And Harry Potter is real.

 

[CyranoJ]

But can you catch a bullet with your teeth?

Just basic blocking, first thing they teach you.

 

[Sean Renaud]

You ain't the Master. I'ma go find Bruce Leeroy.

 

[CyranoJ]

Hahahaha...

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

(A former U.S. speaker of the house just got fingered for paying $3.5 million to keep a homosexual relationship out of the public eye. Giving sex would seem a lot cheaper than that.)

This. Now, remember, this is a former (that is, retired) guy forking over epic amounts of cash. Few politicians at the start of their career (Wiener anyone) could sustain a hint of scandal. Or a Lawyer. Or teacher. Or any number of other jobs with public faces that require the aura of respectability. Or any number of facebook connected millineals who would just die if everyone on their "friends" page found out that...

And the courts would, in many cases, not benefit the victim in any real sense, since the secret would then get out.

 

[TheMalevolence]

I think Lovecraft has a fetish for strong women who call the shots. They certainly exist, but there are also women who cave under pressure. Blackmailing someone into sex - pressuring women into sex in general the sn't exactly unheard of. The problem is that to make it work you need a female that's socially inexperienced enough not to know her options, has enough to lose that she's genprotagonist htened of the consequences, and has so few resources for defense, that she'll yield. In short what I'm describing is the 16 year old who just had sex with her girlfriend and CANNOT let her parents find out. You cannot write that story here. Even if you could, it would be tawdry and exploitative to the point that I don't think you'd get many readers.

I don't buy the generic manila envelope thing though. If I don't understand what drives the character, I don't care about the character and then the sex scene won't work. You have to understand the horror of her situation to make the villain really black and the sex really purple.

What you presumably want is the beautiful heiress that "needs to be taken down a peg or two". But now we're back into Lovecraft's presumed territory - those are the women with enough social understanding and experience and friends, that they can fight back.

The basis probably needs to be a criminal activity where the criminal/victim is looking at 30 years of jail time. An hour of sex starts to look affordable. But now you get to work out why the victim doesn't' save a little DNA evidence and press a rape charge.

Given a week I could probably construct SOMETHING that would be believable, but I'd have to have so much character sketch and background in the story that I'd fall asleep before I got to the sex scene. There's a reason that when I want nonconsent, I start with kidnapping. If you're going to have the villain be ruthless anyway, there's no point in fussing around with something as dicey as blackmail. Blackmail says "if I control your mind, the body will follow." True, but hard to sell. Kidnapping says "If I control the body, the mind will follow" - also true, and far darker and more erotic because it speaks to a person's fear of yielding to the darkness within that in themselves that they deny.

I'm sure if our antagonist was determined enough he/she could get around this; Perhaps they make it clear to their victim that unless they (the antagonist) sends email to an undisclosed account every week then an automatic system will post the incriminating information on FaceBook or something. Though I suppose this would mean that the blackmail "relationship" would have to be a regular, long term thing.

Perhaps this could be used as a plot point; The protagonist falls in love with somebody else whilst he/she is still being blackmailed into regular sex with our antagonist. Providing the blackmail is strong enough, they'd have to effectively cheat on their partner... And there's your problem. But how would the main character solve the problem? Some of the darker people here might want the story to end with the protagonist being caught by their partner and, hell I don't know, submitting to their blackmailer or something. In my opinion, much more entertaining is the ending where he/she confides in their partner and together they fight back against the antagonist. Heeey, there's a full plotline! Hero is being blackmailed, Hero enlists the help of their partner to escape said blackmail, Hero succeeds/fails.