Guidance needed on age in "coming of age" story

[CharlieGG]

Good afternoon Lit authors and mods,

I need a clarification on the Lit rule regarding age in stories.

I would like to write a "coming of age" story (largely true) revolving around two high school friends and some sexual discovery. I think it's a story that a lot of people would enjoy, maybe even relate to and create as many smiles as arousal.

However, I know the site has a rule about "under 18." The story would be about 15/16-year-olds... I could, in theory, write the story about 18-year-olds/19-year-olds instead but I think it would lose some of it's charm.

Anyway, back to the top, I need clarification.... can I write a story involving two kids of this age? Or is this a no-go and I have to "age" the protagonists?

 

[SusanJillParker]

Good afternoon Lit authors and mods,

I need a clarification on the Lit rule regarding age in stories.

I would like to write a "coming of age" story (largely true) revolving around two high school friends and some sexual discovery. I think it's a story that a lot of people would enjoy, maybe even relate to and create as many smiles as arousal.

However, I know the site has a rule about "under 18." The story would be about 15/16-year-olds... I could, in theory, write the story about 18-year-olds/19-year-olds instead but I think it would lose some of it's charm.

Anyway, back to the top, I need clarification.... can I write a story involving two kids of this age? Or is this a no-go and I have to "age" the protagonists?

Your characters must be 18.

Also, as a safeguard that your story is not rejected by Laurel, being that your characters are so young, I'd write, Note: All characters in the story are over 18-years-old. There are no minor characters in this story.

You can write this just before the title.

Good luck

 

[CharlieGG]

I figured that was the answer... Honestly, it might preclude me from writing the story.

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the need for the rule and respect it... but in this particular case, I think it greatly affects the tone of the story. Hmm, I'll have to think about it... I guess there are other stories to write...

 

[Weird Harold]

I figured that was the answer... Honestly, it might preclude me from writing the story.

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the need for the rule and respect it... but in this particular case, I think it greatly affects the tone of the story. Hmm, I'll have to think about it... I guess there are other stories to write...

You can write a romance about characters younger than 18. You cannot explicitly describe any sex scenes involving them, or sexual arousal of them -- even as voyeurs -- nor can you allude to sexual activity involving them "off-screen."

It makes writing a realistic "coming of age" difficult, but Romance doesn't have to involve explicit sex.

 

[PennLady]

I figured that was the answer... Honestly, it might preclude me from writing the story.

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the need for the rule and respect it... but in this particular case, I think it greatly affects the tone of the story. Hmm, I'll have to think about it... I guess there are other stories to write...

You also don't have to write and post here. There are lots of places to post stories. It seems a bit sad to let Lit's rules be the final arbiter of whether you write a story, if you have a story you want to tell.

 

[FantasyXY]

What if his characters were romantically attracted (no sex) before turning 18, then after they were older had their "discoveries"?

Does this site reject stories that have characters that turn 18 at some point in the story?

 

[beachbum1958]

What if his characters were romantically attracted (no sex) before turning 18, then after they were older had their "discoveries"?

Does this site reject stories that have characters that turn 18 at some point in the story?

In my experience to date with Lit, as long as there's no sexual contact of any description (including accidental encounters, or explicit or erotic descriptions of sexual longing, intent, or fantasy by either protagonist) before the watershed age, there is nothing wrong in describing a purely romantic lead-up to a post-watershed sexual relationship. I think a pre-18 yo character wondering what it would be like to hold hands with or dream about marrying the object of his/her dreams one day is perfectly acceptable, anything further is a no-no.

 

[Libratine]

I've seen a lot of posts over the years on Literotica about so-called "coming of age" stories and why or why not they're allowed given the age-18 rule. Almost invariably, the poster laments that they cannot write an erotic story for this site that includes sexually active characters before the age of eighteen. The question that always comes to my mind is:

"Why would you want to?"

No matter what spin you put on it, calling it a supposed touching, romantic tale about two young people exploring themselves and each other sexually (which happens all the time in the world today and we all know it), such a story will end up being singled out by those readers whose Ids are fueled by the fantasies of fucking an under-aged teenager. A writer of such a story, then, would be doing no less than feeding such degenerate appetites.

Yeah, yeah, sex between teenagers under the age of eighteen happen all the time. But if the depiction of that is not meant to purposefully titillate the reader and evoke a sense of arousal, then what's the purpose of writing the story? In other words, why write an erotic story about kids if you aren't trying to encourage sexual fantasies about sex with, or between kids?

If the focus of the story is about sexual exploration and supposed coming of age, I know several people, myself included, who never had a sexual encounter until after the age of eighteen. The scenario is entirely believable if the characters are eighteen, nineteen, or twenty or more years old. Not everyone has the opportunity to jump in the sack as soon as they realize what a penis and a vagina can do together. The difference, however, is the obvious lack of childlike perception and equitable description.

Since I'm already ranting.... What's the deal with writing characters in such a way that a disclaimer of "all characters engaging in sexual acts in this story are eighteen years of age or older" would be considered necessary anyway? Are the characters, supposedly eighteen, written in such a way that without the disclaimer, they could be believed to be fifteen, fourteen, thirteen years of age?

Actually, I know the answer to that question, because I've read numerous stories on Literotica in which the characters as written blatantly act in ways that could only be considered realistic if they were actually in middle school. I have no doubt that such stories are purposefully written with a wink and a nudge, including the disclaimer at the beginning but then going on to describe female characters as very petite, with "budding" breasts and "naturally almost hairless" vaginas squealing with uncommon delight at their first view of an erect penis.

Sure, there are women and men out there, well into their twenties, who would blush and act years younger during their first sexual experience. But the motivations and descriptions wouldn't be as childish and wide-eyed. While human beings are emotionally mature, in general, until sometime in their twenties, there is still a substantial difference between the ways a fifteen-year-old and a twenty-year-old would view sex.

I'm sorry (well, not really), but any time I see a question about under-aged characters in an erotic story, I have to assume that the person asking the question either secretly or not so secretly wants to write a story that appeals to the closet pedophile. And if they don't, and truly want to write a coming of age story about sexual beginnings, is there really a reason to be explicit? I mean, if the focus is not on the mechanics of penetration and fluid exchange, and rather on the emotional process and the consequences of becoming sexually active, then such a story would be equally, if not better, served by simply "fading to black" at the appropriate moments.

But then such a story would have to go into the non-erotic section, and probably wouldn't get many views. Or strokes.

Bottom line: there's no reason why a "coming of age" story has to be about giggling, blushing, embarrassed young teens who fumble at bra straps and slap their hands to their faces with wide-eyed gasps of "oh my god!" the first time they see someone else's exposed genitals. And if they don't act that way, there's no reason to make them fifteen or so years old in the first place.

A good writer can make any scenario believable. Or at least they'd try.

 

[Hypoxia]

Thou shalt not write of under-18s having sexual experiences or thoughts, nor of others having sexual thoughts about them. "Under-18s" means anyone appearing to be a human under age 18, even one hour before their 18th birthday. No depictions of sexual activity, period. You may *describe* but not *depict* past underage sexual activity, such as, "She was knocked-up at 16, just like her mother before her," but nothing more explicit than that. If you personally *need* to write a hot-n-horny sexual coming-of-age tale of 16-yr-olds, go right ahead, but do not submit it to LIT -- it *will* be rejected.

 

[Laurel]

However, I know the site has a rule about "under 18." The story would be about 15/16-year-olds... I could, in theory, write the story about 18-year-olds/19-year-olds instead but I think it would lose some of it's charm.

I think you've answered the question yourself. If changing the age of the characters would cause it to be less effective/make little or no sense, then your best course of action is to post that particular story on a site which allows such stories.

Authors will sometimes try submitting a story, upping the age of the characters without changing anything else. If we catch this, we will reject this. If we don't catch this, you are likely to be excoriated by readers who will feel like 1) the plotline makes no logical sense and the characters are ridiculous and 2) that you're trying to bypass site rules and "trick" them into reading something they have no interest in reading. Readers will often report such stories to us, and when we check we find them to be liberally 1-voted and mean-commented.

So, I would suggest that you place that story elsewhere and submit your other work here.

 

[Laurel]

What if his characters were romantically attracted (no sex) before turning 18, then after they were older had their "discoveries"?

Does this site reject stories that have characters that turn 18 at some point in the story?

In my experience to date with Lit, as long as there's no sexual contact of any description (including accidental encounters, or explicit or erotic descriptions of sexual longing, intent, or fantasy by either protagonist) before the watershed age, there is nothing wrong in describing a purely romantic lead-up to a post-watershed sexual relationship. I think a pre-18 yo character wondering what it would be like to hold hands with or dream about marrying the object of his/her dreams one day is perfectly acceptable, anything further is a no-no.

Correct. Backstory is fine. Explicit description is not.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I think a pre-18 yo character wondering what it would be like to hold hands with or dream about marrying the object of his/her dreams one day is perfectly acceptable, anything further is a no-no.

Unless the character is under, say, 15, or you're writing Giselle from the movie Enchanted, that would belong in Fantasy, not Romance. And a story about anyone that young and naive, anywhere but in the non-erotic section, would creep me out.

(Having just seen Enchanted, there was a funny bit:

6-year-old girl, darkly: "And you know... boys only want one thing."
Innocent Giselle: "And what is that, dear?"
6-year-old, exasperated: "I don't know. No one will tell me."

Very funny, especially in context. But out of curiousity I googled "what do boys want". Her innocence would have been gone by the 4th web hit.)

 

[Hypoxia]

I wrote a story where 13- and 15-yr-old siblings had explicit sex. But first I transformed them into adult banana slugs. No underage human sex, see? (And then they met a cruel end -- but no spoilers, now!)