question about content

[Jtzmm]

Okay, I've mentioned a couple of times on the forums that I'm working on a long, plot-based story, but that's only partially true. I was working on it, but progress has halted indefinitely while I try to figure out how to continue.

The story is, as I said, heavy on the plot, and not all of that plot is about sex. (Though I've stuck sex scenes in any place they'll fit, it's nowhere near the 'new position every chapter' of most of the stories here.) But I'm sure that no story appeals to everyone, and every story appeals to at least a few people, so it's not so much that that I'm worried about.

My main problem is that not too long ago, while writing a chapter, it occurred to me that I might inadvertantly be breaking a site rule. You have to understand that there are many possible ways to die in this story, and many characters besides the main one that wind up dying as well. It wasn't my intention for the deaths to do anything other than add tension, atmosphere, and sometimes be unsettling or disturbing, but the last thing I wanted was for some sicko to get off on it or for the story to be deleted as containing snuff.

I've gone back through and removed any actual sex acts in the ending chapters, and moved other deaths 'offscreen', but is that enough, or is there something like the 'under 18' rule where you avoid writing in deaths like you avoid writing in children, no matter what the context?

The thing is, I feel I've weakened the story somewhat by doing this, and I've actually considered going in the other direction entirely, by cutting out all the unnecessary sex, adding in all the necessary violence, and posting it on another site entirely.

I'm at a bit of a loss here...does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[Zingiber]

The moderators read this forum, so you could probably get some suggestions here.

You could post an example ending thread with sex, if you felt OK about exposing some of the plot, to give a sense of what you're struggling with.

I think if there is sex in a scene with a character who dies later on in the same scene, and the character's death is plot-related, but isn't motivated as sexual torture or murder for sexual gratification, it could pass. If it feels like the sex scene and the death scene are too close together, you might want to break the thread between them.

Thinking of other stories, it looks like Prisoner on Tau Ceti Two deals with this via thread separation between sex and death scenes, and the deaths aren't portrayed as sexually gratifying (though there's an attempted murder that might be sexually motivated), as does The Sacking of Andrapur (for the main character; in other threads, bloody battle precedes sex). Defender of Tarraco keeps the out-of-bounds stuff implied or offstage.

Does that give you any perspective on your own story?

-Z.

 

[Jtzmm]

Yes, that helps a little, and as I've said I've moved most of the death scenes to their own chapter and otherwise tried to separate them from the sex.

Without giving away too much of the plot, it may clarify things to explain that most of the main characters are vampires, and a lot of my difficulty has stemmed from the fact that seducing people and then killing them is kind of what vampires do.

 

[Torg]

Yes, that helps a little, and as I've said I've moved most of the death scenes to their own chapter and otherwise tried to separate them from the sex.

Without giving away too much of the plot, it may clarify things to explain that most of the main characters are vampires, and a lot of my difficulty has stemmed from the fact that seducing people and then killing them is kind of what vampires do.

If those characters rise up as vampires, then I don't see a problem. It's part of the genre. (YMMV, as well as that of the PTB.)

Also, though vampires often kill as part of seduction and sex, the death is usually not violent. More of a surrender to the vampire and death. Much different than graphic snuff porn. My opinion.

 

[Jtzmm]

More of a surrender to the vampire and death.

Would that be all right, then? A couple of the ones I've removed are like that, there's no violence at all, but they're the only ones where the sex and death scenes couldn't be completely seperated.

In this story the dead characters usually stay dead, too, and don't 'rise up' as vampires accept in special cases. (I figure the world would be completely overrun if every vampire went out making more vampires every night, so this is my own take on them, though I've liberally borrowed from White Wolf and Jos Wheden, I admit...)

 

[jakelyon]

Sounds OK

Without actually reading it your topic and treatment of the subject sound OK to me. My interpretation of the site rules is that they are trying to rule out snuff sex, and serial killer sexual predator type stories. Yours sounds like more a fantasy/horror kind of treatment.

I think you should just submit it and let it be read on its own. You can easily edit it a bit if one of us thinks it goes to far.

 

[Jtzmm]

All right, just what I'd hoped to hear, thanks!