Striving for Plausibility

[Wifetheif]

In my own writings, I strive for plausibility. Even if it is a science fiction or horror story I try hard not to let the reader think, "Oh, come on!" Some stories on this site really stretch the limits of credibility. I'm not just talking about instantly orgasming wives, or shrinking violet sisters suddenly up for a threesome with her brother and sister-in-law. I'm talking about following rules. Even in an outlandish situation where magic prevails, there have to be SOME rules. Superman is not invincible, he can be beaten by kryptonite and magic. An all-powerful character is actually quite boring. This problem seems most acute in interracial stories. I realize that many of them are based on stereotypes but even stereotypical situations can be written to seem fresh. There are after all no NEW plots. I know nearly all the writers here also strive for plausibility. The corporate world does not have "nude days" yet. But some L.com writers really come up with ingenious ways to make the unlikely and probably illegal seem quite logical. I've written some incest stories but I find it hard to accept that under normal conditions siblings would simply jump into bed together. I also know that those stories are among the most popular here at Lit.com, so lots of people are clearly at least thinking about it Still, I find them very difficult to write.
How do all of you inject plausibility in extremely unlikely scenarios? How do you make the unbelievable believable? Maybe I can get an angle on writing a story not ordinarily in my wheelhouse. Thank you all in advance.

 

[SimonDoom]

This is one of those great questions about stories that there are many answers to, but there's no definitive answer.

Personally, I enjoy erotic stories that skirt, or sometimes step over, the boundary of the believable. I like to read such stories, and I like to write such stories. When you write those kinds of stories, you're always walking on the edge, and you don't want to fall off. There's no way to walk that line that is satisfying for every reader. Here are my basic thoughts about it:

1. Realism is not important. The key is verisimilitude. This is the appearance of reality. Your story may contain magical or unrealistic elements, but it contains just enough realistic elements to hold the reader. Focus on this idea, rather than on being realistic.

2. Avoid the "too much magic" problem. What I mean by that is that a skillfully written story can make the reader suspend disbelief about almost anything, but not an infinite number of times. One element of magic will almost work, even if it's completely outrageous if done skillfully. But once you start multiplying the magic, you risk losing the reader. Try to build your story around ONE unrealistic thing and making the rest of the story realistic around that.

3. You can't satisfy everybody. If your story has magical elements, somebody's probably going to be pissed off. Some readers will find Mom's fetish about Son believable, and some won't. Don't worry about it. I wrote a story about a magical bikini that a woman bought over the Internet, and when she wore it to the beach it kept falling off her, in ways that became increasingly unlikely and bizarre as the story went on. Some readers liked it. And by the end some readers thought, "This is too much." They're not wrong, but I wouldn't change it. It was what I wanted it to be. But it wasn't for everyone.

4. Work hard on coming up with personal, character-driven reasons why people do weird things. It doesn't have to be that complicated. Consider the incest taboo. Incest stories are always about overcoming the taboo. All the best incest stories take the taboo into account. If Mom wakes up one day and has sex with Son, there's nothing interesting about it. What makes it interesting is that she wants sex but feels conflicted about it because of the taboo. So come up with a motive to overcome the taboo. It doesn't have to be that intelligent or plausible. Just come up with something and work on it. That's the magical element. As long as you don't add lots of other magical elements to it, and you do a decent job sticking to the magic you've introduced, you'll be fine.

5. Don't underestimate how weird people are. It's a big world, and if you can think of something weird, then somebody's probably done it. The key, once you've started with a weird premise, is to stick close to it and do what you can to make it seem quasi-plausible. You'll probably do just fine with your readers if you show a modicum of effort at this.

 

[SamScribble]

Perhaps I have just had an interesting life, but I don’t think that anything happens in any of my stories that hasn’t happened in real life – either to me or to someone I have known. But then I have never written a story about a magic elephant with a talent for picking locks or an incestuous farming family on the planet Grurklus.

 

[PriestOfIshtar]

How do all of you inject plausibility in extremely unlikely scenarios? How do you make the unbelievable believable? Maybe I can get an angle on writing a story not ordinarily in my wheelhouse. Thank you all in advance.

Two things really work for me:

1. The story has a logic, and that logic is consistent. It doesn't matter if the premise is believable or not, so long as the consequences of the premise follow. Erotica is *all* fantasy, right? The reader is collaborating with the writer. The reader wants to believe. So I don't need to create laborious justification for the premise, I just need to write a world that is consistent, given that premise.
2. Fallible heroes. When the story ends up being a transparent wish fulfillment on the part of the author, I (personally) lose interest. I like complexity. I like characters who make mistakes. I like incomplete information that results in choices that go awry. I like characters who have weaknesses as well as strengths. So: given a fantastical premise but consistent consequences; and given that those consequences may be wildly unintended by the protagonist, NOW we have a STORY.

 

[LAHomedog]

I believe a couple of essential points have been mentioned prior. Allow me to underline them:

1. Suspension of disbelief. You cannot have any form of believable fiction or drama without the suspension of disbelief. As you mentioned, can a man fly and have bullet bounce off him? No, but we suspend disbelief with Superman. Do people break into song explaining their feelings or moving life's story along? No, but we accept it in a musical. Does a frat like Delta House/Animal House actually exist, or is Bill Murray going to relive Groundhog Day over and over? You get my point.

You have to establish a reality in your story that allows the reader to suspend disbelief.

2. Verisimilitude. Fiction does not exist without it. Your story/situation must have the appearance of being true.

I call this a "plausible reality." If your reader/audience accepts your premise and situation as plausible, you can make it real.

3. Your characters must resonate as real and they have to believe the situation is real. If it isn't real for your characters, it ain't real for anyone else. If you have established your character and have them take an action in a situation where the reader thinks, "That's never going to happen," you lost them.

4. How do you make the old new again? That's the $64,000 question. There are only 12 musical notes. All music, including all new music, comes from what the artist does with those 12 notes.

There are only eight magic tricks. All magic tricks fall into one of eight categories. Yet every magician, trick, and illusion uses those and makes it new.

You job as the writer, the artist is to take you idea, make it unique to you, establish characters that are unique to your vision with voices that are unique to you, and then tell your story, your plot, your narrative, your dialogue, and the situation in your unique way in your voice.

Good luck.

 

[HeyAll]

It's all about the premise and character motivation.

For instance, if it's a mom/son story, have the mom accidentally take an arousal drug. Or have the mom is desperate need of money.

For a corporate story, have the main character motivated by a major promotion. etc...

If it's a far fetched premise, embrace it. Don't run away from it. Keep it far fetched, but write it realistically. That's the key.

 

[RejectReality]

I've always said I make my living in this name exactly one rung higher on the plausibility ladder than "Is there another way I can pay for this pizza?"

That's all I'm aiming for, and it works for me.

 

[SexyShel]

I think it is all about the person reading the story to accept that what is written in the story is plausible. But if they have not experienced some aspects of sex then it may be difficult for them.

All of my stories, except one, are based on events that I was involved in. Now within she swinging scene none of those events are outrageous or wholly unbelievable.

With other friends in the scene we could recount the events openly.

But to recount those same events at a Vicar's tea party may cause some upset to the guest who may think sex is strictly one and one on a Saturday night in bed with the lights off!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Plausible fantasy anchored by recognisable touches of reality, scientific incredulity anchored by scientific fact, and characters with credible motivation, passion, and erotic frisson.

If you write good, solid characters, all the rest is their stage.

To date, I have written gender shifting mermaids, an astronaut and an alien angel, a Dark Ages magician and several witches, a shape-shifting daemon woman/bird, a spider in a top hat, a sequel in the works with a mantis thief and a seductress beetle - all you need is something real for readers to grab on to as you suspend their disbelief. If you believe your world and keep it consistent, readers will too.

 

[TadOverdon]

I look for realism, believability and credibility of plot in porn to about the same degree that I do in Marvel superhero movies. Or Buffy or Angel. The outlandishness of it is the appeal.

No, I don't think I've ever sat through a fantasy or a modern adventure movie (examples of the latter being shows like the Fast and Furious movies) and said "this could happen" or "I know people like that." Not really. Well, maybe Buffy. A little. If I enjoy the scenarios and the writing is vivid and not too bad that's great.

Plausibility is a little different, and I'm for it. Like, Peter Parker is going to have a problem going home to Aunt May when he's been beaten so badly that it hurts to take his mask off. I'll buy that.

I like some humor in the stories, at least to the extent of some of the characters realizing from time to time how ridiculous their lives are.

I like it if the writer seems to have some understanding of biology, before they go ahead and ignore it or exaggerate it out of all reasonable shape.

 

[TadOverdon]

Yeah, that's it in a nutshell.

Most of what I do starts with notes about one or more or more sexual scenarios defining the relationship between the participants. If I get an image of one of the characters usually female, and she starts to move on the page or have a thought that entertains me I'll write more.

I was thinking this morning about how the last few books have started out with one plot and version of the characters in a file and wound up as entirely different. Some version of the relationships between two or three characters have remained, the overall setting remains, but everything else just mutates. One book was built around a character returning to their hometown and getting involved with a naive old friend who'd never left. In the end, the character who had moved to the city became the one who stayed home and the more reserved character became a stranger moving into the town. But in some ways deeper than just their names they didn't just adopt one another's characteristics and "flip." The one who'd stayed home was still the more aggressive and (superficially) extroverted, still had the same family relationships.

And...some of this comes back once again to the distinction between plot and story. There's a single story that dominates almost all commercial romance fiction, for example, which is that of the female protagonist overcoming their own doubts and misgivings and pain and outer obstacles to find true love with someone who is initially inappropriate or unavailable. And if it's told from the POV of a male protagonist, it's still about the woman, although she may be portrayed as even more explicitly unique and wonderful in the end as seen through the eyes of the smitten dude.

(Are queer romance novels very different? They're still a tiny fraction of commercial romance).

Something like that. And there are a thousand plots built around that, most of them similar and most of them forgettable as soon as you pick up the next book. Oh, and most of them ridiculous when you scratch the surface.

 

[DanDraper]

You're never going to get it completely plausible, the best you could do is to make it as close as possible. For the readers, they have to have some suspension of belief in order to enjoy the stories because some things will come up that will seem implausible to them.

Lately I've been delaying my stories so I can go over them a few times to fix any errors that I can find. I try to make them as perfect as possible but in the end you have to realize it's not going to be entirely realistic.

If you're going to continue writing Sci-Fi stories, then you will have a bigger problem there. Sci-fi is filled with implausibility. I enjoy sci-fi a lot, and I see all the time how some of my favorite tv shows or movies don't seem plausible. But I still enjoy them anyway.

The point is to make is to write out the stories as best you can, make sure it's not riddled with errors and the stories have some kind of plausible scenario, even if its not as realistic as you know it could be.

 

[TadOverdon]

1. Realism is not important. The key is verisimilitude. This is the appearance of reality. Your story may contain magical or unrealistic elements, but it contains just enough realistic elements to hold the reader. Focus on this idea, rather than on being realistic.

This, too.

The reader starts out being on your side. Unless they've been handed your story to write a review before 11:00 AM or find another job, they want to love what they're reading. If someone is looking for something in a certain genre or to fulfill a certain kind of fantasy, you don't have to convince them to accept the conventions of the genre. Magic wands and spaceships? Sure, if that's what I'm scanning for to begin with.

And just personally, I'm not one of the readers of sci-fi who wants to see several pages of semi-scientific justification for a ship traveling faster than light. Just hit the button and go. I know that there are people for whom this rationalizing is a big part of the appeal of the genre. I also know that I've been pointed to sci-fi books by smart people and told that they are "hard science fiction" and when I've read them the science is full of bad analogies and passing off superficial readings of some current hypothesis or another to justify nonsense. And what I realized is that my devoted friends choose to let themselves be hoodwinked, just a little, because they want to love the story.

 

[jomar]

You refer to something Tolkien often discussed: the suspension of disbelief. I think that if your characters and plot events have "internal consistency," the reader is able to suspend disbelief so that almost anything can happen. The plausibility will be based on how well you maintain the internal consistency of your story.

This...internal consistency.

You can make up any crazy world you want, but you have a to follow the rules of that world. The hero/heroine diving into another dimension to live to fight another day can be a deus ex machina womp womp, or a delightful turn if it’s been at least alluded to or if the wildly unexpected is part of the rules.

 

[HappySpouse]

I think the more outlandish the setting and/or plot are, the more character driven the story should become. If you try to explain to me the logic and physics behind an elevator to Mars, you need some genius writing; but if you introduce me to a compelling character and tell me about what they did on the elevator to Mars, then you won’t have to explain anything about its workings that doesn’t affect their actions.

Of course, there are exceptions to everything. I’m sure it wouldn’t take long to locate a fantastical masterpiece with shallow pointless characters. There are no rules. I have played music with more than 12 notes. I don’t agree that there are no new stories. There is a chance that we have hit all of the themes, but every person that lives and dies is a brand new story, even the imaginary people.

 

[8letters]

I've written some incest stories but I find it hard to accept that under normal conditions siblings would simply jump into bed together. I also know that those stories are among the most popular here at Lit.com, so lots of people are clearly at least thinking about it Still, I find them very difficult to write.
How do all of you inject plausibility in extremely unlikely scenarios? How do you make the unbelievable believable? Maybe I can get an angle on writing a story not ordinarily in my wheelhouse. Thank you all in advance.

I write I/T stories, mostly brother-sister. Here's what I do to try to make them plausible
1. The brother and sister are not interested in each other initially
2. The brother and sister are between relationships
3. The brother and sister are isolated together for some reason
4. Because there's no one else to spend time with, the brother and sister spend time with each other
5. The relationship between the brother and sister slowly develops in a series of steps. Each begins to see how the other really compliments them
6. The brother and sister each deny that they are developing feelings for the other
7. At some point, the brother and sister can't deny their feelings anymore, and cross the line

 

[shivadancer]

I wrote about this once in a piece;

It is perhaps too much to ask of the reader to believe that the course of this story would unfold as it did, indeed the couples participating, in spite of having journeyed deeply into pleasure throughout the meal, found themselves wondering if they too were not experiencing a dream. Perhaps the combination of foods had somehow produced hallucinatory side effects. The weight of your disbelief is fully felt, but it our charge to portray the truth. In fact it is questionable whether our narrative would be worthy of any interest at all had this path not been taken - let alone whether the reader might be inspired to take the journey with us.

 

[TadOverdon]

I find it hard to accept that under normal conditions siblings would simply jump into bed together. I also know that those stories are among the most popular here at Lit.com, so lots of people are clearly at least thinking about it.

I'll stick my neck out and say that a minority of people who enjoy reading about incest as fantasy do so in the belief that it's something that would occur between well-balanced adults under "normal conditions." Hopefully, therefore, they're not reading it as a how-to manual either.

If you read enough sex fiction (it doesn't take that much) and especially if you look at the adult comic books and so forth out there you see that the intrigue of outlandish violations of what's normal or even possible is most likely the greatest attraction of sex stories for the greatest number of people. For most people to get a charge out of it, there seems to need to be fundamental transgressions of what's socially acceptable, permitted and of what people are willing to do.

I'm really fond of Sam Delany's definition of Pornotopia.

On the subject of the implausibility of superheroes, Alan Moore did a seminal thing in the 80s (well, he really did it two or three times) with his Watchmen series, where he set forth the pretty self-evident proposition that people who tried to live as superheroes and masked crusaders do in the comics would be an emotionally fucked-up lot and that those with real powers would be disasters waiting to happen.

Don't try to lay out a plausible narrative for Bruce Banner remaining to any degree a moral, responsible and functional human being. Because he couldn't. Just show me that he is that, a "good man," and show me that he transforms into the Hulk and back, and I'm either going to take that ride with you or I'm not.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'll stick my neck out and say that a minority of people who enjoy reading about incest do so in the belief that it's something that would occur between well-balanced adults under "normal conditions." Hopefully, therefore, they're not reading it as a how-to manual either.
.

My view as well. Obviously, I don't know what the statistics are, and I can't see into readers' minds, but I think for most people erotica is a fantasy space where they imagine doing things that in the real world they don't really want to do.

My view is that the sex drive is so strong that under the right circumstances it's not too hard to imagine someone doing just about anything. As an author, all you have to do is set up the characters, give them the motivation, and tee up the situation, and -- voila -- amazing things can happen.

 

[TadOverdon]

My view as well. Obviously, I don't know what the statistics are, and I can't see into readers' minds, but I think for most people erotica is a fantasy space where they imagine doing things that in the real world they don't really want to do.

My view is that the sex drive is so strong that under the right circumstances it's not too hard to imagine someone doing just about anything. As an author, all you have to do is set up the characters, give them the motivation, and tee up the situation, and -- voila -- amazing things can happen.

Completely agree.

What works for different people has a lot to do, I think, with what notions about people you find fun to entertain - to read and to write.

Go back to the Hulk, for a moment: the idea there is that a rampaging powerful angry monster is fundamental to Banner and to people in general. It's something that he normally contains. Until it first happens, he is clueless that it is his essence.

So, there's the porn premise. If my characters fight with themselves it's not usually to get past their resistance to doing the "wrong thing," it's a fight against their innate urge to just do it! LOL

 

[KeithD]

Internal plausibility to the story as it has constructed its bounds should be enough. Sexual arousal is the main goal of erotica and this frequently includes fantasy, sugar coating, and/or exaggeration to get there.

 

[LAHomedog]

I write I/T stories, mostly brother-sister. Here's what I do to try to make them plausible
1. The brother and sister are not interested in each other initially
2. The brother and sister are between relationships
3. The brother and sister are isolated together for some reason
4. Because there's no one else to spend time with, the brother and sister spend time with each other
5. The relationship between the brother and sister slowly develops in a series of steps. Each begins to see how the other really compliments them
6. The brother and sister each deny that they are developing feelings for the other
7. At some point, the brother and sister can't deny their feelings anymore, and cross the line

These are also great story-bullet points for a lot of stories. Any situation where a "line has to be crossed" such as losing your virginity, cheating on someone, breaking one's religious vows, a punishable workplace romance.

You have laid out for everyone's benefit the basic spine for the story outline of any story where the relationship is forbidden (for any reason) and carries with it some risk.

(The are variations of course, but those variations are how one arranges music's 12 notes.)

Nicely done.

 

[Bramblethorn]

A lot of discussions about "plausibility" are really about something else. Consider these story outlines:

#1: Bob is a good guy fallen on hard times. His store isn't getting the business it used to, his truck just got stolen, and his wife is sick. In desperation he buys a lottery ticket, he wins the grand prize, pays off all his debts, gets his wife the treatment that saves her life, retires from business, and buys a Ferrari.

#2: Bob just won the lottery! He pays off all his debts, gets his wife the treatment she needs, retires from business, and buys a Ferrari. But it turns out money ain't everything. A bunch of false friends try to take advantage of him, and he finds himself getting into bad habits, blowing through money, and alienating his real friends. In the end he gives away the rest of the lottery winnings, trades in his Ferrari for a more serviceable truck, and goes back to running his own business.

I daresay if I posted the first story, readers would complain that the lottery win is "implausible". I very much doubt I'd draw that criticism on the second one. But they are the same story! I just made different choices about where to start and where to end. I could even put both of them together and have the lottery win in the middle.

The lottery win isn't any more improbable in #1 than in #2. But it feels very different. In #1, it's used as a quick fix to Bob's problems. Readers will feel unsatisfied because they were expecting Bob - and me - to earn his happy ending, and instead he gets it through sheer luck. In #2, it's part of the premise, setting up challenges that Bob has to overcome.

A lot of "plausibility" discussion is really about that sense of earned versus unearned outcomes. Readers will accept a lot of stuff as a premise for a story that they will not accept as a resolution to that story.

Going back to the Superman example: I'm not a big comics reader, I can't claim to have read a lot of Superman's stories, but I suspect that if I went through all of them this one would still be one of my favourites. There are a bunch of implausible things in that, the usual Superman stuff: he flies, he has laser eyes, he comes from another world. But none of them are very important to the challenge of that story. He has to earn his victory much the same way anybody else would in the same situation, and that's what makes the story memorable.

 

[lovecraft68]

Although people take shots at the category because either they don't like it, or are pissed that it gets the most play here, Incest can be a challenging category to write in providing you are aiming for more than "Mom's hot, why not"

I've written some stories that are really out there, its more about just enjoying the kink,. but I've done quite a few where my goal was to take this absurd(and disturbing in real life) kink and make people say, this could happen.

A lot of my best efforts in this use darker storylines because its a messed up situation in real life to be with a parent or sibling so I create messed up scenarios and and trouble characters.

One of the best comments I ever received-I printed it and still have it taped to my desk-was back in 2010 on my Siblings with Benefits series.

"I will no longer be reading this series, its well written and the characters compelling, but due to the stark reality I find it far more disturbing than erotic"

Stark reality as in drug addiction, abuse and other dark subject matter, the characters were broken in their way and could only be whole when they were together.

Damned red dress dealt with grief and alcoholism. Return of Molly Minx focused on a former porn star returning to the industry twenty years later after her husband died to provide for her son...who discovers who she is and develops a twisted infatuation with her...their first sexual encounter was her acting "full porn star" with him as well as being angry and trying to show him he didn't want her...ended up a hate fuck and of course things get better

I recently published for sale an incest possession story that was an 84k novella/novel...mom becomes possessed by a demon who's goal is fueling incestuous desires...sounds cheesy but it turned into a view into sexual repression fueled by religious guilt.

They're not for everyone, but the fucked up angles and conflicted confused and imperfect people make them a lot more plausible than stories where a sister sees her brother's dick and has to jump on.

 

[TadOverdon]

It's kind of pointless to get pissed that the incest category gets the most play here, because it's the most or one of the two or three most popular topics in porn anywhere you go and in every era.

My first exposure to "erotic writing" was a used copy of the Grove Press collection of The Pearl which the guy at the bookstore had no business selling to a thirteen-year-old (he probably had not the first idea what he was selling). I was pretty shocked that it seemed like very third story in every issue was brothers and sisters and cousins, Oh My! The Victorians were crazy for it.

As far as I can tell it was the most prolifically-produced category of porn paperback in the 70s and 80s. It's like, incest and interracial dominate erotic comics online (along, maybe, with a disturbing number of serious torture comics).

And people joke about how many "step-family" videos are out there, because the so-called mainstream porn producers want to be very careful about producing material that might be ruled obscene somewhere, and are even more averse to offending the credit card companies and banks who make their businesses possible. and therefore mostly stay away from "real incest," Yet they know the demand for incest material is so large and dependable that they're still determined to get as much of that market as they can.

Why should that be so? I have no theories to explain it that are worth a damn. I only know that it's true.

George R.R. Martin told a funny anecdote in an interview where he had a conversation with a porn producer who parodied Game of Thrones, and the guy told him "There's no way we can do the Jamie/Cersei story in the parody. You can do it on HBO, but not in porn."