Making the reader's blood boil, and other high-impact plot devices

[Le Jacquelope]

This is inspired by the "Characters you love to hate" thread.

What Literotica stories / scenarios made you mad as hell?

What scenes were so awesome that you just had to come back and read it over and over again?

What Lit stories had greater POTENTIAL, but abandoned it when it was clear that it could have been taken further?

What Lit story inspired you to debate the ramifications implied therein, with others?

I have come to the realization that the secret to the ultimate story, is to maximize all five factors (these, plus having the character that you love to hate). I want to keep the reader mad as hell about a situation, and then deny them the righteous ass kicking the villain most desperately needs, for as long as they will continue to be interested in scanning every next paragraph in hopes of that hour of judgment coming around the next corner. I would consider it the biggest achievement of all if I saw readers going back and forth about a story in the comments section, then having to take it to a forum. Having scenes that you have to gawk at in shock and then read over and over again, as well as seeing an awesome potential plot and pushing it to achieve its maximum impact, are to me the holy grails of writing.

I don't see this a lot in pulpy erotic romance. But when I look at all the "Del Rey" (mainstream publisher) books that I've kept, I notice these four factors.

It has become a guide stone for all the stuff I'm rewriting.

 

[3113]

What Literotica stories / scenarios made you mad as hell?

What scenes were so awesome that you just had to come back and read it over and over again?

What Lit stories had greater POTENTIAL, but abandoned it when it was clear that it could have been taken further?

What Lit story inspired you to debate the ramifications implied therein, with others?

Difficult questions to answer. Most of the time, scenarios that make me mad as hell are badly written ones That is, ones that make me click off the story and never come back to it. For example, one where the writer made a virginal girl go for a stereotypically "evil" lesbian and think she was gay...until she had awesome sex with our male protagonist and realized the joys of heterosexuality. THAT certainly made my blood boil (and I'm hetero!). It was cheap and lazy, and a treatise on the writer's insecurities rather than a true investigation into bisexuality--and I stopped reading it after the first page.

But is that what you meant by "scenarios that make your blood boil"?

Potential unrealized...sigh. Too many of those to count, I'm afraid. I remember one or two in the BDSM categories that started off with interesting premises, then just sunk into "same-old, same-old" as they moved past the first page. By "same old" I mean that they just concluded that their characters only wanted the BDSM lifestyle. Which is fine, but the premise implied that they might need and get more than that, and that the special someone they'd met might be able to give them more than *just* that.

Lit stories that had me discussing the ramifications are usually ones with sexual proclivities that have the protagonist in an emotional quandary. A fetish that's hard to satisfy or get someone to take seriously, a desire that not criminal, but not socially acceptable either.

As for awesome scenes...oddly those are rarely sex scenes. Powerful dialogue, or a description that just hits home is what lures me back. Something that crystalizes the theme of the story and being human.

 

[wickedchicken84]

I have just began writing here, so I can assume that unless I am careful, I will make the mistakes above-mentioned. However, I am an avid reader and one thing that does irritate is the often pressured dialogue. When characters communicate in a story but you can tell that it seems over done, pressured, choppy, when it isnt smooth.

I prefer stories that have an actual "story" in them, not just the all too ordianry sex scene and thats it. When a writer cares enough to add volume to the story is when I can actually become engrossed in the story. When i say volume, I mean plot and climax and resolution. Not just the climax (no pun intended).

I did read a story here that I wish i could find again, very well written I thought and had all the elements i said plus had a very good sex scene. It involved a lesbian on travel who meets with a red headed woman she knows and they have sex with a strapon. That was the gist. What i liked was that the writer took time to describe the room and the way a character positioned a pillow, etc. The desriptions help to imagine the story with clarity. When you dont have to struggle to imagine how this happened or where that object came from or when did he get there kind of things, the story becomes so much better.

It really bothers me also when a story ends and you get the feeling that the writer simply ended it quickly and hastily just to be finished.

 

[3113]

I want to keep the reader mad as hell about a situation, and then deny them the righteous ass kicking the villain most desperately needs, for as long as they will continue to be interested in scanning every next paragraph in hopes of that hour of judgment coming around the next corner.

You better do a damn good job for me then. Because this sounds to me like you're jerking the reader around. And I hate stories and writers who jerk me around. I won't finish their stories, I'll vote low, and I'll never read them again if they seem to be trying to fuck with me rather than give me a good story.

What I mean is that what you describe sounds obnoxious and artificial, to sit there and say, "Hehehehehe! The story doesn't need this, but I'll do it to keep the reader on edge and have a good laugh at their expense!" Not "This will keep the reader on edge, but it has to be done because it's what's best for the story."

Then again, these type of stories are not the sort I enjoy, either to read or write, so I'm probably the wrong person to critique this "genre." My stories rarely have "villains" who do awful things to people and you have to read on and on to see them get the ass-kicking. My stories have people in them. Some are good, some are average, some are awful. In most cases, the awful people don't get an ass kicking--the good folk just realize that they don't want to be with these awful people any longer and they move on. I NEVER put in the awful people with the intent of keeping the reader reading to see what more awful things the awful person can do. They are simply a complication that, like the best complications (IMHO) transform the protagonist.

Having scenes that you have to gawk at in shock and then read over and over again, as well as seeing an awesome potential plot and pushing it to achieve its maximum impact, are to me the holy grails of writing.

Shrug. IMHO, shock is easy. Profoundly easy actually, if you pick the right category and the right item to describe. I've read a lot of books where something shocked me because I was naive or because it was the first time I'd ever thought such a thing, etc. I don't go back and read that book again because what did shock me is now old hat. That's the way shock works--once and rarely again. The buzz dies, and people go onto a new shock.

Now sometimes, that "shock" in a story, if it's really well done, also enhances the story (as I feel the twist in Fight Club did) but even then, it's not the holy grail I'd pick for me, personally. For me, the holy grail is to write something that moves someone so they do things differently, or remember it when times are hard. You see Fight Club and you know the twist, and you're no longer shocked the next time. But you can be moved and re-moved by its insights into self-perception and the search for identity. That can stick with you for a lifetime. To me, achieving that, is a holy grail.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

Difficult questions to answer. Most of the time, scenarios that make me mad as hell are badly written ones That is, ones that make me click off the story and never come back to it. For example, one where the writer made a virginal girl go for a stereotypically "evil" lesbian and think she was gay...until she had awesome sex with our male protagonist and realized the joys of heterosexuality. THAT certainly made my blood boil (and I'm hetero!). It was cheap and lazy, and a treatise on the writer's insecurities rather than a true investigation into bisexuality--and I stopped reading it after the first page.

But is that what you meant by "scenarios that make your blood boil"?

That would make me bury my head in shame for my own gender.

I'd say that was a good example, but the whole scenario of turning a lesbian to heterosexuality is so hackneyed, so one-sided for the male, and so irredeemably insulting to women, that it just couldn't fly. I just can't see around the cheese.

Potential unrealized...sigh. Too many of those to count, I'm afraid. I remember one or two in the BDSM categories that started off with interesting premises, then just sunk into "same-old, same-old" as they moved past the first page. By "same old" I mean that they just concluded that their characters only wanted the BDSM lifestyle. Which is fine, but the premise implied that they might need and get more than that, and that the special someone they'd met might be able to give them more than *just* that.

Lit stories that had me discussing the ramifications are usually ones with sexual proclivities that have the protagonist in an emotional quandary. A fetish that's hard to satisfy or get someone to take seriously, a desire that not criminal, but not socially acceptable either.

As for awesome scenes...oddly those are rarely sex scenes. Powerful dialogue, or a description that just hits home is what lures me back. Something that crystalizes the theme of the story and being human.

A fetish that's hard to satisfy and is not criminal but not acceptable? That's a majorly difficult one by my reckoning.

I think it would be far better to look elsewhere for that discussion-worthy controversy, besides sex, and have the sex sprinkled amidst it. Of course, it goes without saying that sex in a Literotica story can have its place without being overly dominating. Yea, it's better to make the story and then weave the sex in...

 

[hmmnmm]

From recent and inexperienced experience it seems to be an oh-so-finely trodden tightrope. An injection of some sort of humor seems almost necessary. OR - some way, some thing - that creates intrigue, and even a morbid caring.

Easy to say, another to do - but it is interesting enough to toy with.

 

[3113]

A fetish that's hard to satisfy and is not criminal but not acceptable? That's a majorly difficult one by my reckoning.

Depends on where it's set. A gay man is not criminal, but a gay man who is a devout evangelical would find acceptability difficult. And though it's not illegal, how easy would you find it if the person you loved said they had a fetish for fucking trees and would you please wear some leaves and stand very still the next time you had sex?

I think it would be far better to look elsewhere for that discussion-worthy controversy, besides sex, and have the sex sprinkled amidst it.

Um...look elsewhere outside of Erotica? I'm a little confused. Are you saying that your question about Lit stories that resulted in us discussing stuff should exclude stuff about sex? If that is what you're saying, then I'm real confused. I mean, it's going to be rare that a Lit story will have me discussing politics or morality or philosophy OUTSIDE of how it relates to the sex because in most cases, the politics, morality, philosophy...even the "shock" you mention, the surprises, shake-ups, villains and all the rest will relate to the sex.

Not always, but this is an erotica site. If we're talking about stories in general, then I'm sure I can name lots of books and stories that had me talking about all sorts of things. But here on Lit, if I'm talking about it, it's probably because there was a sexual twist that got my attention. Nature of the beast.

 

[Vermilion]

Sorry to threadjack but huuuuuuuge <snort> at the image of LovingTongue standing very still, dressed in leaves...

Guess Christmas would be a time of great temptation to someone suffering from that fetish - all the trees dressed up so pretty, and some of them come indoors...


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[Le Jacquelope]

Depends on where it's set. A gay man is not criminal, but a gay man who is a devout evangelical would find acceptability difficult. And though it's not illegal, how easy would you find it if the person you loved said they had a fetish for fucking trees and would you please wear some leaves and stand very still the next time you had sex?

Funny, I was just thinking about a tryst between a very human-looking dryad and a tree, but that is probably not new or shocking. But Shakespeare wasn't original, either. Not sayin' I'm Shakespeare or anything.

Um...look elsewhere outside of Erotica? I'm a little confused. Are you saying that your question about Lit stories that resulted in us discussing stuff should exclude stuff about sex? If that is what you're saying, then I'm real confused. I mean, it's going to be rare that a Lit story will have me discussing politics or morality or philosophy OUTSIDE of how it relates to the sex because in most cases, the politics, morality, philosophy...even the "shock" you mention, the surprises, shake-ups, villains and all the rest will relate to the sex.

Not always, but this is an erotica site. If we're talking about stories in general, then I'm sure I can name lots of books and stories that had me talking about all sorts of things. But here on Lit, if I'm talking about it, it's probably because there was a sexual twist that got my attention. Nature of the beast.

I wrote that wrong, I suppose. There are some high rated novellas in the story archives that almost qualify as non-erotic because of their sex-to-story ratio, or at least the sex looked fairly rare it when I read it. But you're right, usually it is still woven around/related to the sex. What I said sounds like "throw in sex gratuitously" and I apologize for that.