How complex are your stories?

[filthytrancendence]

I saw this thread a few days ago, then saw it turned into punnsville, but I've been thinking about it.

Complexity is a weird metric for a story because it can mean a lot of different things, many of which have very little to do with each other. I immediately started thinking of my favorite movies and trying to decide if they are complex or not.

One is The Big Lebowski. Other than the amazing performances and great characters, what I love is that the plot is absurd and meaningless to the point it can be read as a parody of complex plotting. It's like they sat down and actively chose the dumbest, most unbelievable thing to happen next at every turn. And it works because of the strength of the characters.

So is that complex? I suppose, but it's complex in basically the opposite way of something like a Christopher Nolan script that feels like it's trying to outsmart the audience *glares at Tenet*. So both of these things are complex, and yet in ways that don't even make sense to compare.

One of my other favorites is Inherent Vice, which echos a lot of what I said about Lebowski, except it plays it completely straight. It is a very complex plotted script, except all the twists are absurd in a different way. And whereas Lebowski's theme is a kind of postmodern shrug at the concept of meaning itself, IV uses it's meandering absurdity to eventually pull focus back to something cathartic and human, as if to say, "life is fucking crazy, man, but sometimes you've just got to help a saxophonist out of a jam."

And so I guess that's where I land with the question of complexity. I don't really dig stuff that takes its' complexity super seriously. It's fine, I don't usually hate it, but it's not my thing. Sometimes you've just got to help a recovering addict out of a jam, and if you happen to stumble across an international vertically integrated drug smuggling operation in the process, that's just life sometimes, you know? Complexity's part of life, but it's not really the point of life. So it is in stories.

 

[Britva415]

I like simple plots, in complex situations or with complex feelings.

Like, what actually happens is straightforward, but maybe it’s happening despite some conflict or obstacle, or maybe because it’s happening it evokes a mix of different reactions in the characters.

 

[DeMont]

Complexity is something that has often been on my mind as I've developed as a writer, even when I've not outright struggled with it. A beta-reader of mine one descrived a draft of mine as an exquisite Faberge egg of a plot, unfortunatley he also found a massive crack running down one side. Obviously, and according to the AH mantra, every story is different and every story will be best served by an appropriate level of complexity. But I thought it might be interesting to ask the AHs...

a) How complex do you think you stories are? In what ways are they complex?
b) Have you ever consciously tried to move from writing simple stories to more complex ones? Or visa versa?

To show what I mean by complex, I'll give the example of my most recent story.

It starts with the simple premise of a long term couple trying to fulfill their already agreed desire for a MFF threesome. Things get more complicated because...

Different opinions - the male MC does not like the 'unicorn' the female MC has chosen.
Backstory - the male MC knows the unicorn and has an opinion of her shaped by significant events dating back years.
Growth - the unicorn is, from the start, clealy not the same person the male MC used to know.
Options - a second potential unicorn is introduced to the story, who is more to the male MCs liking but less acceptable to the female MC. At the midpoint it is intentionally not clear if the story will end with a foursome, one of two possible threesomes, or with the MC couple going home mad with each other.
Differing Sexualities - The characters are not omnisexual and their desires for the evening don't always line up.
Secrets and Revelations - The female MC knows more about unicorn 1 than she lets on at the start and that information is revealed at several moments during the story.
Tricks - similarly, but crucially different because the reader is in on it, the male MC attmpts to trick others to get what he wants.
Imperfect Sex - the sex scene when it arrives isn't just wall-to-wall orgasms and is a novel but not completely enjoyable experince for the male MC.
Twist Ending - the story ends with a neat little bow.
Optional Kinks - the couple have a whole bunch of BDSM toys in their car that may or may not get used.

I'm happy with how this story turned out but it had a difficult birth with me completely rewriting more than 50% of the text. Beta readers often suggested losing this or that aspect of the story. I've kind.of decided that complexity is a hallmark of that particular series and that I'm going to embrace there. I am thinking carefully about how complex I make other stories.

My dear @TheRedChamber, stories that you set out to write end up as complex as they need to be in order to "tell the story". That has been my writing maxim since I first put pen to paper, writing fiction, in high school (1975) Now, all these years later, I haven't strayed from that. Depending on the type of story you are telling, what you wish to convey to the reader and how you wish to convey it (the key components of any tale) the words required will vary depending on the ebb and flow of the story.

Typically, in writing schools and groups, you will find that the structure of a "short" story, for example, comprises 'Introduction, Escalation, Conclusion', a pretty standard set up for beginners. Later on there may be a change to rearrange the order of those components like they do on television sometimes. The key thing, no matter what the structure is that the tale will tell itself. That's one of the toughest parts about competition writing where you may be constrained to a maximum number of words.

When I write I let the story come out as it will, I never question, nor consider, complexity or form until I am proof reading for the first time.
Respectfully,
D.

 

[big_cane_sugar]

I have written some complex plot stuff with multiple dynamic characters here in the past, but for whatever reason I haven't been interested in that lately. Now I'm more interested in (relative to my tendency to tangle things up) minimalism.

 

[WendyTrilby]

I write layered erotica that braids three narratives into a single, unified whole. I call these works Portmanteau.

Each piece typically contains three loosely connected storylines, with one main “A” story supported by two equally weighted “B” stories. Instead of telling them separately, I switch between them, allowing moments to resonate across the threads. Sometimes the crossover is minor—characters from different stories might share the same elevator. When that happens, I show the ride in both stories, but always from a different perspective.

Occasionally, characters from one story become the focus of the second or third story. Lastly, I love twists in my stories, and this storytelling technique is perfect for that.

This structure makes my work more expansive—closer to reading three stories at once. To keep readers invested, I write with intensity, particularly in erotic scenes. I emphasize the raw, relatable details of sex—the sounds, the smells, the dampness, the stains—because intimacy is rarely neat. I also highlight the unpolished qualities of my characters: heavy breasts that sag, coarse body hair, large areolas. Features that might make someone feel insecure are, to me, just as erotic as any idealized “perfect” body. My readers respond strongly to this honesty because it reflects the truth: sex is messy, real, and human, and when written to feel real, it resonates.

Stylistically, I draw inspiration from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction—not for its violence, but for its nonlinear, interwoven storytelling. My only drawback is that these stories usually run longer than an optimal three pages, which means they don’t reach the same broad audience as shorter pieces. Still, the readers who stick with them leave the most rewarding feedback, often praising both the originality and the immersive narrative design, and the unbridled sex that sometimes forces me to take a cold shower before I submit.

 

[TiberiusPrime]

I love complexity. I also love simplicity. It just depends on the type of story I feel like writing. I'm not one who writes a "stroker" though. I write stories that include a lot of sex, I don't write pure sex stuff. I've tried and I hate results.

Most of the time I like "building worlds". Adding details that the reader can easily see in their mind's eye. My Dark Fairy Tales story is such a story.

 

[sirhugs]

Isn't that a bit like asking the guy in the shop if his pizzas are the best in town? Why don't you just read a few and work out the answer? And I don't mean that you need to read a few pizzas.

mmmm pizza... not just for breakfast anymore

 

[Nightaelf]

I’m currently working on a story about a time traveler. And that in itself brings a whole lot of complex situations with it, because you might want to write about all kinds of things in a story like that, but it all still has to make sense. Right now I’ve reached a point where I’ve basically written myself into a corner, and for the moment I don’t know how to get out of it. I might even have to rewrite a large section just to bring the logic back in.

I think a complex story is only interesting to read if it actually holds together. Even if you’ve made it all up, even if it doesn’t exist in reality, it still has to come across as convincing when you read it. Writing something complex just for the sake of making it look interesting doesn’t really seem enjoyable to me.

The stories I’ve written up until now were mostly based on events from my own life and from other people’s lives. They didn’t really deal with a lot of complex structures, but instead with developed, detailed characters. And now I’m working on something much more complex, with both detailed characters and elaborate ideas. But I notice that the complexity of my ideas is what’s making me stall in the writing.