Do You Emphasize or Downplay the Taboo Part of Incest?

[BuckyDuckman]

I've gone both ways with my incest stories with playing up or nearly ignoring the taboo element of their relationship. I often see the comment about how "the taboo element adds to the thrill." I get that - but where do you fall with emphasizing that taboo in your story?

In some stories, breaking that taboo is damn near a character in itself. However, in my most recent story, I barely touched on it - taking more of an "of course, it's wrong, but we're going to do it anyway" approach.

In other stories, I feel like I overplayed it. Do you have a Goldilock-like sense of where "just right" might be?

 

[KeithD]

As I recall, in the most memorable of the incest stories I wrote under my previous sr71plt account, I tried to give plots where the characters didn't know they were related until at least after they'd been hooked sexually.

 

[TadOverdon]

I think my characters don't struggle against revulsion at the taboo nature of the act, which they acknowledge as an "of course we just don't do things like this, that's weird and upsetting" and devote most of their energy to fighting their overwhelming attraction to just doing it because they really really want.

The Goldilocks zone depends on the set of characters you have and the overall tone of the story.

I had one who'd done taboo things in her (post-eighteen! post-eighteen!) youth and suppressed it, who had to be led to it with her son through most of a book's worth of other encounters.

I've had one who thought it through pretty quickly when an outside encounter reawakened her interest in sex, and she just went for it.

One got a bit tricked by her so-earnest son in a way that would be s-o-o-o non-con in reality but somehow just works out for both of them, out in the wilds of Pornotopia.

I'm working with a character now who's unusually conscious of and willing to acknowledge her fascination with her twenty-five-year-old son and is somewhat cheerfully in therapy for it. Also for impulse control issues. There's trouble brewing there.

 

[Soshameless11]

...I'm working with a character now who's unusually conscious of and willing to acknowledge her fascination with her twenty-five-year-old son and is in somewhat cheerfully in therapy for it. Also for impulse control issues. There's trouble brewing there.

This sounds like a fun read! I'll look forward to it.

 

[NotWise]

I usually downplay the taboo. In three cases the taboo relationship is pre-existing at the beginning the story. That skips any "this feels naughty" sort of clutter completely and lets me dive into racy scenes very early. Readers' comments go both way; some are glad to skip it and some feel like the story is incomplete without it.

Two of those stories are fairly popular. The other one barely has an "H" but probably for unrelated reasons.

The one I'm working on now also downplays the taboo. The story puts the characters through some changes and they come out of it with a relationship. I don't think there's going to be one "we can't" in the whole story.

 

[jaF0]

I've only really done one so far and it happens by surprise ... at first.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think the taboo is an essential element of an incest story. In a way, it's the whole point. It's what makes incest incest as opposed to just being sex between two people.

But it can be handled in a lot of different ways, and to a lot of degrees. At a minimum, there should be at least some substantial resistence and reluctance and some recognition by at least one of the participants that they "shouldn't be doing this." There doesn't necessarily have to be revulsion.

 

[SimonDoom]

As I recall, in the most memorable of the incest stories I wrote under my previous sr71plt account, I tried to give plots where the characters didn't know they were related until at least after they'd been hooked sexually.

What's the best single example of that kind of story you can think of?

 

[oggbashan]

Although I have written a couple of stories in the incest category, it isn't really my thing.

I wrote them to prove to myself that I could. I have. That's it.

Incest doesn't really appeal to me.

As for Taboo? I can't see anything as Taboo. To me, people are people. Different races/different cultures? Yes, they can be interesting to explore the differences but to me colour or creed is irrelevant. If two people fall in love? Why not? They might face opposition from others but their love is important, not the barriers.

 

[jaF0]

What's the best single example of that kind of story you can think of?

Jumping in ....

I can think of a few ways ... long lost relatives, maybe broken homes, siblings adopted out at birth that get together at random and find out afterwards.


But in my story mentioned above, the sudden realization comes during the act.

 

[KeithD]

What's the best single example of that kind of story you can think of?

Here's one. I don't know if it's the best example, but reviewing the sr71plt would be time consuming: https://www.literotica.com/s/in-every-port

The man's gotten around so much he has lost track of who he's fathered.

 

[HeyAll]

There's always a danger of repetition.

But the taboo should be played up anytime there's a sexual dynamic. Both in dialogue and narration. That's what makes these stories so hot.

It's also good to avoid mentioning the taboo when they do normal things, so they can just be normal and have that regular dynamic. It builds contrast.

 

[macymadison]

Agree, I think as a reader and writer of incest, I want to think about how wrong it is over and over and over....

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I usually downplay the taboo. In three cases the taboo relationship is pre-existing at the beginning the story.

Interesting concept that never occurred to me.

Equally interesting - the comments saying "if it's not played up, what's the point of it being incest?"

 

[TadOverdon]

This discussion of what "should" and shouldn't or "must" be part of a story about incest has gotten me thinking about something that I've noticed in quite a number of hard-core porn stories that revolve around such acts...notably, for my purposes, a number of mine.

So, the TL;DR take is: Sometimes It's Not About The Incest.

Simply, a big part of the charge of porn for many consumers is simply They're Doing What They Shouldn't. And people get turned on by a lot of different "shouldn't."

Incest is so far out there by itself that it's like a supercharger for other kinds of fantasies.

Some readers get a sexual charge out of seduction, either from the POV of the seducer or the reluctant partner whose resistance must be overcome or both. Incest represents a far higher barrier to seduction than, oh, marital fidelity (that old thing). But the process of the forbidden seduction overcoming a nearly insuperable moral barrier that the seduced believes that they value most highly is what's exciting for those readers. In another such story the character might be a virginal bride-to-be or a nun (we're not going for originality points, here, okay).

Some sex stories are really about a character who's so sexually rapacious that they haven't a care for conventional or moral boundaries in who they'll fuck - period. If that's what's getting the reader off, then whether the character is ready to fuck their kin at the beginning of a story or works up to it depends on the individual story - what's their arc about this time, are they becoming that kind of person or are they the catalyst for what happens to other people. But again, this is the sort of story that showed up a lot in The Pearl and Victorian porn along side other tales of Cads and Libertines and the erotic charge was not really the violation of the family taboo itself, it was about the gleeful and unfettered amorality of the omnivorous character. Incest is just the seasoning to the fantasy, which is: This woman/man will do anything to get off, including ___!

This was drawn to my attention recently, shortly after I joined up here and posted my first story on lit and got one or two very negative comments based on its being "in the wrong category." The plot is about a woman screwing her son, but a great part, maybe the greater part, of the sexual charge is cuckoldry. And thus I made my early acquaintance with the He-Man-"Loving-Wives"-Haters Club.

Sometimes, the story is about Laertes.

 

[NotWise]

Interesting concept that never occurred to me.

Equally interesting - the comments saying "if it's not played up, what's the point of it being incest?"

I originally started using pre-existing relationships with "A Christmas Tart," where an overwrought mom and son do it on the kitchen table in the first scene. They talk about their relationship later.

I don't agree with those comments. Taboo is taboo, and you don't have to over-stress it if you have a good story told well.

Since my first few stories, the most I normally do is repeat the relationship during sex scenes: "Mom bit my ear when she came," "My sister closed her lips around my cock," etc. That has the extra advantage of giving the reader more variety in the repetitive names, pronouns and titles.

 

[lovecraft68]

For me all erotic stories regardless of kink need some conflict. I like to have a reason that whatever the action is there's a reason the character is initially adverse to it, or its their first time so I do them slow burn style.

Incest is the ultimate line to cross so I don't think it should just be like, hey, yeah, why not? I think there needs to be conflict, hesitation, maybe some shame in being attracted to the family member.

All that makes it a bit more real, and build up the heat in the character and reader for when that line is crossed.

But I understand your question as far as okay, how long before you pull the trigger, and I think that its an instinctual thing. I think I start off a story, but at some point I feel the story begins telling itself to me, and I just feel where it should go and when.

On the other side of the coin where its barely noted like sis is, "hey, I'm horny, you're horny, wanna play?" and make it that casual, that's an easier story to write because you don't end up burdened with all the angst, confusion and build up,

 

[lovecraft68]

I usually downplay the taboo. In three cases the taboo relationship is pre-existing at the beginning the story. That skips any "this feels naughty" sort of clutter completely and lets me dive into racy scenes very early. Readers' comments go both way; some are glad to skip it and some feel like the story is incomplete without it.

Two of those stories are fairly popular. The other one barely has an "H" but probably for unrelated reasons.

The one I'm working on now also downplays the taboo. The story puts the characters through some changes and they come out of it with a relationship. I don't think there's going to be one "we can't" in the whole story.

I have issues writing shorter stories in general, so with incest they run long because of all the its wrong, should I, would she....

But I have a series of anthologies which each contain three stories in the 5-7k range and in those the relationship has been on going so the story is usually them carrying on in a way where they might get caught or another device to spine it up a little seeing as in these works the characters are already comfortable with what the're doing.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Hmm... interesting. I suppose I play up that they are related in some way, more than I ignore the relationship. As I deal mostly with Mom/Son or Sister/Brother, I can't help but delve into the thoughts of the characters as they love each other.

So, I guess I emphasize that taboo part of incest.

 

[TadOverdon]

I treat it, I guess, as just one of the hang-ups characters have to get past. It's generally the hardest and most extreme, but even that depends on the character. The women who have the least trouble with it do tend to be supporting characters rather than the protagonists. And in most stories I think I've been at least as interested in what comes afterward as in how they get past the hang-ups. Their problems are their marriages, or careers, or self-abnegation of different kinds.

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

If the 'taboo' element is limited solely to reluctance, that gets tired quickly. Family dynamics are, however, quite fun to play with if you’re partial to that sort of thing. I think that’s what is crucial to the category.

The other thing I play up is 'mommy-talk'.

 

[Euphony]

In other stories, I feel like I overplayed it. Do you have a Goldilock-like sense of where "just right" might be?

Just as with mattress choices, I don't believe a universal "just right" exists.

Personally, I set a tone and strive to keep it.

If it is more along the building a relationship end of the spectrum, I'm far more likely to use the relationship as a conflict point not a taboo/fetish multiplier. An interesting offshoot of that can be, once the relationship has reached solid footing, establishing their acceptance of it by taking ownership of it and playing with it in their sexuality.

If it's more about lust/meeting more physical needs, then it's fun to let the protags use it as a lust multiplier. On some level, the taboo is driving actions so might as well let them succumb to it, accelerate it when the natural "are we gonna do it" lust starts to stale.

Incest is such a fascinating category in that it has vocal "happily ever after" and fetishy minorities.

Tough to middle bed it to just right so I pick an initial path and march towards it. Then I may mix back the other way but that requires keeping a keen attention on foundations I've established and conflicts that would naturally crop up in a major gear shift.

 

[DanDraper]

I've only worked on a few involving cousins and currently working on one more like that. I do my best not to bring up how taboo it is that much, but it's kind of hard not to bring that up at all. Most people in society don't accept that kind of sexual relations so its kind of hard to make it sound more mainstream than what it really is.

.
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[Vix_Giovanni]

So, the TL;DR take is: Sometimes It's Not About The Incest.

I originally started using pre-existing relationships with "A Christmas Tart," where an overwrought mom and son do it on the kitchen table in the first scene. They talk about their relationship later.

I don't agree with those comments. Taboo is taboo, and you don't have to over-stress it if you have a good story told well.

Since my first few stories, the most I normally do is repeat the relationship during sex scenes: "Mom bit my ear when she came," "My sister closed her lips around my cock," etc. That has the extra advantage of giving the reader more variety in the repetitive names, pronouns and titles.

I agree that I/T isn’t always about the taboo. I think there’s multiple paths.

I think one of the best written I/T that’s not “about the I/T” I’ve read on Lit (obv not like I’ve read them all) is NotWise’s “Working for Mom”—it’s an erotic thriller that takes risks and pulls them off well. The pacing in the M/s relationship strikes a great balance between titillating the reader with the taboo while focusing on the plot and character motives.

My main writing project is an I/T romance—the taboo is an afterthought; it has none of the typical genre tropes, and for me, it’s a compliment that some readers even forget it’s I/T. The F/d relationship is just a mundane fact in the story. It’s a romance, and the drama comes from building a meaningful life with someone while simultaneously dealing with office/careers projects and politics, travel, interactions with coworkers, friends, family, and that kind of stuff.

 

[oggbashan]

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is all about the Taboo of meeting someone from a rival household.

That plot can be used for religious or cultural differences that cause families to oppose lover's choices.