Money, Wealth, Power re characters

[Brutal_One]

I was just curious in the crafting of your characters how much thought is put into the Money, Wealth, Power they have. Maybe never. But it can colour maybe how you conceive or have them think and act. Does the power and money make them cruel or altruistic. And what about attitudes to other people. I often have characters that may be wealthy or powerful (men in particular) but with that the power can make them nasty pieces of work.

At times a powerful or wealthy female character can be quite erotic by contrast. I guess you can be coloured by the sex you are in creating your character, or more likely base it on someone you know.

But how much do you consider the money, power and wealth they have and does this influence your writing?

Brutal One

 

[KeithD]

They enter, one way or the other, into most of my stories, and I do consider how they are going to affect the storyline.

 

[NotWise]

My characters always have enough money to be self-determining, but I don't think I've written a main character with a lot of wealth. Power is something else. You don't need wealth to wield the power in personal situations. I usually make the person with power self-serving, but not intentionally cruel.

 

[TadOverdon]

I was just curious in the crafting of your characters how much thought is put into the Money, Wealth, Power they have. Maybe never. But it can colour maybe how you conceive or have them think and act. Does the power and money make them cruel or altruistic. And what about attitudes to other people. I often have characters that may be wealthy or powerful (men in particular) but with that the power can make them nasty pieces of work.

At times a powerful or wealthy female character can be quite erotic by contrast. I guess you can be coloured by the sex you are in creating your character, or more likely base it on someone you know.

But how much do you consider the money, power and wealth they have and does this influence your writing?

Brutal One

I write a lot about people with too much money and influence. These are ridiculous fantasies, and they can be fun in different ways than the family in the next apartment or the "average Joe." After all, Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins and Rosemary Rogers knew that people like to fantasize about the rich and famous.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

In my Alexaverse, Karen is an heiress to a vast corporate empire she mostly hates, preferring her chosen destiny as a brilliant physicist. She's married to a man of humble means who is a polymath like herself.

It's an idealized situation, certainly, with philanthropy and altruism in mind, even if Karen believes that people of merit and ability are obligated to look after the masses. Oddly enough, her husband is of much the same opinion.

Incredibly nice wealthy people who are impossible to hate. But it's a feel good story, so I don't mind the stretch.

In two of my other stories, one protagonist of a reasonably successful author, so he and his daughter aren't hurting. In another story, a mother and daughter got a large life insurance payout and with some wise investments live comfortably.

In my time travel comedy, they very often find trans-temporal dealers and will sell things we consider mundane for considerable sums of money. They've sold Mon-chichis, Micronauts, Rock'em Sock'em Robots, etc. The Mon-chichis easily paid for a vacation in Imperial Rome and even bought them a personal slave.

I guess I usually describe the means of my characters, rather than coding in a hard number, like I almost never give a woman's measurements exactly unless it serves a purpose. Poverty-stricken characters while have surroundings that indicate their wretched situation. Karen is far and away my wealthiest character, certainly.

I almost never deal in hard numbers, since it paints me into a corner, and I'm terrible and staying within those bounds. Big flaw of mine.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I was just curious in the crafting of your characters how much thought is put into the Money, Wealth, Power they have.

It's a major consideration in almost everything I write here. I have intentions of posting a How-To on this topic some day, but in brief:

- There are many different types of power. Money, employment, self-knowledge, social status, age, respect, physical strength and health... all these and more can convey some kind of power.

- Power can change over the course of a story.

- The greater the power gap between two people, the harder it tends to be for them to have a happy, healthy relationship. Extreme power gaps make it very hard to achieve informed consent: how free are you to say no to the person you depend upon for a job or a roof over your head?

- There's a lot of story fodder in scenarios where the power gap is large enough to create complications but not so large as to make things impossible. "Rich-meets-poor" romances are always popular.

- There's also a lot of story fodder in scenarios where the power balance between two people changes over time.

When I plan out a story, I often have a mental image of "power curves" for the central characters, and a lot of the storyline is built about that. For instance, "Red Scarf" is about two people who start out with a major power imbalance: Sarah is 23, on her way to a high-paying job, and living independently; Anjali is 16, undiagnosed autistic, and under the thumb of her controlling parents. At that point, any sexual relationship between them would have been extremely problematic (as well as against Lit rules). But as Anjali grows up, learns more about herself, and breaks away from her parents' control, her power curve grows much closer to Sarah's and their relationship becomes much more one of equals.

On the other hand, "Loss Function" is about two people who start fairly close in power and get closer as their relationship develops, but then diverge drastically after one gets ill to the point where their relationship has to change - with a third player growing in power. The point at which two of those curves cross, one on the way up and one going down, is a key moment in that story and I made a lot of effort to show that to the readers.

It can also be interesting to play with contrasts between the power a character actually has and how another character perceives them, and in BDSM-ish stories the contrast between in-scene and out-of-scene power.

 

[PennameWombat]

I was just curious in the crafting of your characters how much thought is put into the Money, Wealth, Power they have. Maybe never. But it can colour maybe how you conceive or have them think and act. Does the power and money make them cruel or altruistic. And what about attitudes to other people. I often have characters that may be wealthy or powerful (men in particular) but with that the power can make them nasty pieces of work.

As a rule, most of my characters are at the opposite end. Many of them are college students from middle- or working-class backgrounds who survive on a combination of scholarships, grants, student loans, part-time jobs, savings from summer jobs and use of family connections for cheaper housing. All of this gets touched on but not laid out in fine detail. Such as a female student who hates her roommate (it's mutual) but neither can afford to split without finding a similar deal. The one ingratiates herself with a boy-girl couple to get to stay at their place regularly (that she has to fuck both of them is the 'cost' she bears, not too unhappily ).

Lack of owning a car, so figuring out how to get around, comes up regularly.

At times a powerful or wealthy female character can be quite erotic by contrast. I guess you can be coloured by the sex you are in creating your character, or more likely base it on someone you know.

But how much do you consider the money, power and wealth they have and does this influence your writing?

Brutal One

I do have a young female student and her brother, heirs to a trust fund once they graduate, but they have allowances while students that put them well beyond most of their acquaintances (described above). The female uses it, but she's not intentionally cruel about it. Although outsiders might view it that way if they look closely enough.

I also have some criminals. Not always poor ones.

Other stories it's clear the characters are 'comfortable,' usually professional occupations, but still needing to work. They don't have so much money they never think about it, but they don't have to worry about hitting the next rent payment.

I only have one story with a female that fits your description (A Dream of Age and Beauty), it's one of my older stories and rather out of line with most of my others. It's subtle, but Yvonne does use her position to essentially draw her younger boyfriend in. He works in tech, so not skint, but her status is not something he ever expected to reach.

 

[SamScribble]

In 'Vanessa: Architect of My Destiny' https://www.literotica.com/s/vanessa-architect-of-my-destiny, Vanessa's husband is not without wealth and has a tendency to use his wealth to get what he wants. Some readers thought that this made him a bad person.

 

[HeyAll]

Only if it's an angle worth exploring. I typically prefer middle-class characters.

One of my favorite stories that I've written is Girl Genius about a wealthy young woman who happens to be a genius and a professor. It was really fun writing a character like that, how she's so smart, yet bratty.

 

[LAHomedog]

I always consider it. If they do or do not have money, do or do not have power, those are essential elements to a characters personality and also who they are interacting with. That is a basic component of human nature.

I don't understand how you could not consider it when building your character. It doesn't have to be the story -- even though it could be -- and it does not have to be the dominant personality trait, but money, or lack of money, power of lack of power changes everything in this world.

It's a cliche, but people are attracted to successful people. or take pity or want to help those that are not.

Here is my basic observation of human development and sexuality:

1. First, it is physical and mental attraction.

2. When we are younger, it frequently is less about the money you have and more about your hopes and dreams and enrolling the other person into your hopes and dreams.

3.At some point it becomes about who you are in life. Success, failure, stature, social status, etc.

I ask everyone one to roll with me and consider this observation:

Planes fly in jet streams. Mostly for safety, but because that is the circle in the atmosphere where they belong. Rockets fly at the top, then jet's, then major prop planes, then small craft and then helicopter.

A small craft cannot go up to the jet's stream and vice versa except to f take off and landing.

Social status is the same way. Mostly it is an accident of birth. If you are born into royalty, you will always be royalty. That is your jet stream. If you are born rich, part of the POSH, social register set, that is yours. Rich professional, yours. Etc.

A person can go up in a jet stream through business success, Bill Gates or stardom/fame, or politics, even education. But if you are born into one, unless you do something egregious, you can never be thrown out of your birth jet stream.

Some rise, don't fit and are rejected. Happens all of the time.

My late father was a big deal doctor. Not a small family doctor, big deal doctor. I was born into that jet stream A rich kid. I'll never sink lower. Even if I had no money.

Showbiz lifted me up two or three levels. Not to Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Barack Obama levels, but up. I will never leave where I am now.

I always consider what jet streams my characters are in. The same or different. Both make for interesting character development and stories. Even if it isn't part of the story and merely who you character is.

That's how I access money and power in a character.

 

[rescatooor]

I have one cinderella story with a poor girl getting together with a rich young man who exercises quite a bit of power over her. It was borderline BDSM. Rich young man, though controlling and calculating, was not a bad person though. Maybe a little cold.

I have one upper middle class couple. Well-to-do husband who basically earns the money for both him and wife. This is in a cuckold story, so her dependence on him assures him that she will never really leave him. It's intentionally a little fucked up.

In Veronica, Izzy is stuck with her cousin in part due to the enormous wealth Veronica's family has. Rich girl antics: while Veronica does not exactly view Izzy as her inferior, she is used to getting what she wants as well as getting away with more. Hence why Izzy turns into Veronica's puppet.

 

[SimonDoom]

Some, but not much. I agree that power, money, status differences, wealth all in the real world have a dramatic impact on how people interact with one another. But my stories, for the most part, do not emphasize realism. I see them as fantasy stories. I hope that I add just enough realistic touches to draw the reader in and suspend disbelief, but I often don't do much more than that.

A few of my stories emphasize power/wealth differentials -- where one character is much wealthier than the other, and it affects the way in which they interact.

I suppose all father/daughter, mother/son incest stories contain power imbalances of some sort, but most incest Literotica stories, mine included, avoid a lot of the real-world issues that arise in those relationships. My incest stories definitely are fantasy stories.

 

[TadOverdon]

A few of my stories emphasize power/wealth differentials -- where one character is much wealthier than the other, and it affects the way in which they interact.

I suppose all father/daughter, mother/son incest stories contain power imbalances of some sort, but most incest Literotica stories, mine included, avoid a lot of the real-world issues that arise in those relationships. My incest stories definitely are fantasy stories.

Same here.

I think of "porn people" as kind of like Marvel superheroes. Stuff that would cause disabling trauma in any of us, they just shake off before punching the other guy through a wall.

I think Patton Oswalt was the comedian who said "Real world Bruce Wayne grows up to be an emo poet, not Batman." LOL

 

[MajorRewrite]

My characters have been mostly middle class. A couple of low income folks are the exceptions.

I like to read stories about characters on the lowest end of the scale. Stereotypical “trailer trash”. JimBob44 does a good job with that. It creates an unusual and interesting setting for the story.

 

[ElectricBlue]

My incest stories definitely are fantasy stories.

Dang. I thought they were coz your Mom was hot .

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Dang. I thought they were coz your Mom was hot .

Now I'm just waiting to find out that Blue is in fact Simon's dad...

 

[SimonDoom]

Now I'm just waiting to find out that Blue is in fact Simon's dad...

It's easy to understand that you would think that, because he has much more of a thing for my mom -- even though he hasn't met her and she's near 80 -- than I do.

I assure you, however, that it is not so. Unless EB is just a made-up alter ego by my dad. And I don't even want to think about that.

My incest stories -- I hate to disappoint people to say it -- are not based on real life. I'm sure that's surprising to some considering the extremely realistic way that I depict mother-son relations, and the spontaneous, sweaty activities that accompany those relations, in my tales.

 

[Djmac1031]

I wrote my male lead in my Jenna series as a "regular Working Joe," with a boring job and a budget.

10 chapters later, I do kinda wish I'd made him a bit wealthier, so he could be free to lavish his young lady friend with gifts and trips etc.

But having to keep it real is a good challenge, and makes me work harder to come up with ideas for him to be able to be generous in a more realistic way.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I assure you, however, that it is not so. Unless EB is just a made-up alter ego by my dad. And I don't even want to think about that.

He's in denial. His mom is one hella sexy woman, I've got the Polaroids to prove it .

 

[Bramblethorn]

Unless EB is just a made-up alter ego by my dad.

Take it to Story Ideas, please ;-)

 

[lovecraft68]

I never had much interest in writing a wealthy character, especially a male, then fifty shades of stalking and the wave of trash "billionaire dom" stories it kicked off were the end of that ever being a thing I write.

As Notwise said power is a different story because it cane be shown in many ways and is different things to different people.

 

[SimonDoom]

Take it to Story Ideas, please ;-)

Hey, he started it!

And I don't want to go down that path.

 

[TadOverdon]

I guess the thing that frequently works for me in terms of power imbalances, at least in terms of keeping me interested in writing a sex scene, is when I've been thinking of it in terms of one character behaving as the aggressor or seducer and then deciding as I get into it that it's going to be the other way around.

It happens surprisingly often. And then I know something about the character that I didn't.

I mostly frame wealthy characters along the lines of the middle-class fantasy of "the rich:" indolent pleasure seekers who can do whatever they want whenever they want. Because I write fantasy.

https://media.giphy.com/media/Wpz1Hl1BqlaMw/giphy.gif

(The missing pixel is murdering my OCD)

 

[HeyAll]

Also, I really like writing/reading erotica stories where the main character is heavily motivated by money.

Not in a way that it's so easy, but struggles morally about it.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Like Wombat, I write a lot of students who don't have much money, and also scientists (ditto). Sometimes this is relevant to situations they find themselves in, and same for other characters (eg Gas Station Guy is working there for money). The closest I've got to writing wealth is a guy with a well-paid job but got life insurance payouts when his wife died, so paid off most of his mortgage. In contrast the person he gets together with lives in an identical flat in the same building, but shared with a friend, and earns half as much, partly from being 10 years younger. All of which informs the dynamic between them.