Question from New User

[DR99]

So I've been lurking and reading Literotica for a few years now, and I figured I could sign up to try to write some stories (mostly stuff that I'm into that I can't find good smut of anywhere with the hopes that other people will find it hot too). Problem is, there's something I'm not sure about.

Is it OK to write stories involving fictional characters from other media (comic books, video games, etc.)? And if so, should they be posted in whichever category fits them best (Anal, Gay Male, Erotic Couplings, whatever) or are they all automatically confined to the Celebrities section? Most porn involving characters from other properties (like Star Wars or X-Men or whatever) are all posted in Celebrities, but since they're fictional characters, it just kinda seems odd that the stories would get posted there.

Anyways, thanks to anyone who responds. I dunno when I'll be able to write my first story what with school, games, and TV distracting me, but it'll hopefully be soon.

 

[oggbashan]

If they are existing copyrighted characters i.e. modern and not from Charles Dickens or Mark Twain, then Celebrities is probably the only place for them as 'Fan Fiction'.

It is much less restrictive if you create your own characters.

Another difficulty with Celebrities/Fan Fiction is that Literotica is an international site. Characters you think are well known can be meaningless to many readers.

 

[DR99]

Thanks for the info. The game they're from came out in 2015 and they're not exactly internationally known or anything, so Celebrities is the most likely place.

Is slightly changing the names enough grounds to post them somewhere other than celebrities, or is that frowned upon?

 

[RejectReality]

Honestly, most stuff is tweaked from something that's come before.

If having the exact feel of the setting you're writing in is important, then Celebrities is probably the only real choice, because it's straight up fanfiction. If using the characters from the existing work is important to you, same deal.

If you're writing entirely about characters of your own, existing in that world, then your best course is probably to get rid of the character names, place names, etc., and have your original characters exist in a similar world.

Considering you said it's from a game, then the odds are it's some type of Sci-Fi&Fantasy. Large portions of any fantasy setting aren't unique to that universe, and are borrowed or tweaked from things that have come before. Your use of orcs, or warp drive, or magic swords, or fireballs, etc. is no different than what a million authors before you have done.

Interacting with Elminster, or Raistlin, or Captain Kirk is a different story. So is boarding the Starship Enterprise or finding the One Ring.

Ask yourself, "Do I want to write fanfiction?" That's where you find the line between what belongs in Celebrities and what may be placed elsewhere because you've made it your own.

 

[DR99]

The game is Hotline Miami 2, and apart from it being an alternate history version of the 80s and 90s, it's based in a normal world with not much out of the ordinary (except for masked murderers being a pretty regular occurrence and an alliance between America and Russia). No sci-fi/fantasy elements here, and the setting's not gonna be a very big element.

Now that I think about it, I could probably just rename the characters and take away their distinctive animal masks and it would work pretty well as non-fanfiction.

 

[MSTarot]

The game is Hotline Miami 2, and apart from it being an alternate history version of the 80s and 90s, it's based in a normal world with not much out of the ordinary (except for masked murderers being a pretty regular occurrence and an alliance between America and Russia). No sci-fi/fantasy elements here, and the setting's not gonna be a very big element.

Now that I think about it, I could probably just rename the characters and take away their distinctive animal masks and it would work pretty well as non-fanfiction.

You can take that basic theme and run in almost any direction. Maybe instead of masks they each use a distinctive playing card and leave it to mark their kills. The Ace, The Jack. But who's the King?

The card left behind would be similar to the way V, in V for vendetta, left Violet Carson roses when he killed. A mask hides what's behind it true, but a normal human face can be changed with Hollywood style makeup to make the killer anonymous, something even hard to avoid.

Find "YOUR" story. Pull it together from elements you like but make it distinctively yours. A real good trick is to add bits of yourself to a character, or bits of your past. You likes, your wants, your desires. All make the characters come alive.

Go write it. Don't talk about it anymore, the more you describe it the story the less likely you will be to ever write it.

Go write.

 

[DR99]

The masks aren't really going to be an important part of my story, they're just a recurring motif in the source material, which is why I brought them up. The basic story premise is just "You accidentally find out your best friends moonlight as vigilantes who murder criminals and people who threaten public safety. You end up having to stay with them when some powerful crooks find out you're connected to them. Fucking and kink exploration ensue."

Thanks for the advice though! I'm definitely gonna try to look into figuring out a motif for the group that's not just rubber animal masks.

 

[SamScribble]

This is not an answer to your question, but another question.

If you already have an idea what your story is going to be about (the premise outlined above), why do you need to base it on something which 90 percent of your readers probably won't know the first thing about? Just write your story. Paint your characters. Let the plot unfold.

And good luck.

 

[timelord1963]

plagerize

As long as you do not plagiarize or violate a trademark you should be able to put it anywhere. The only exception is if it has no sex it has to go into non erotic. Even celebrities is generalized. Remember yu can have 10 tags for your story.

I mean just because you have Captain Kirk sodomizing Uhura over his chair while talking to a Romulan captain does not mean you need to put it in celebrities..

 

[RejectReality]

Actually, it does.

There likely are stories that have slipped through the cracks, but the letter of the rule is that fanfiction must be posted to the celebrities category, and stories elsewhere that are reported by users will get moved.

It likely depends upon how much saturation the trademarked setting has in popular culture, but your specific example undoubtedly meets the saturation bar.

I mean just because you have Captain Kirk sodomizing Uhura over his chair while talking to a Romulan captain does not mean you need to put it in celebrities..

 

[Hypoxia]

I've written pieces inspired by comix, songs, and other sources, but not invoking their fictionalized players and settings. I did dip into pre-existing fiction in Bride of Kong, set in a universe where Jurassic Park and the original King Kong are documentaries, with a very few players from Kong. I killed them off pretty quickly and moved on. In Trek terms it would be like crashing the NCC-1701 and following Spock and Uhura's love child's fate. The brief fanfic component is hopefully familiar to many. Anything more subtle would be useless; anything more blatant would be conspicuous. I prefer customized settings.