Too much money?

[feel_the_beast]

Posted this as a comment to a story, and it occurred to me it might make an interesting discussion topic here.
I've noticed a LOT of stories here-including my own, oops-have main focus characters who are sufficiently independently wealthy to be able to afford whatever they need, or think they need, to be happy. In contrast to the real lives of most of us, who, if not struggling to just survive, don't have that kind of massive financial oomph. I guess it's because it taps into everyone's fantasy to have such economic power. Unfortunately, it operates as a sort of deus ex machina in our stories, allowing our heroes to just buy their way out of any predicament they find themselves in, instead of finding more realistic and/or creative solutions. I gotta work harder on that aspect of my stories.

Thoughts?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Unfortunately, it operates as a sort of deus ex machina in our stories, allowing our heroes to just buy their way out of any predicament they find themselves in, instead of finding more realistic and/or creative solutions.

That's exactly what it is. If a character is wealthy it solves plot issues without needing any imagination.

 

[Yarglenurp]

It’s that, but also just a convenience thing. If someone has to work and live a real life… that’s not a fun thing to read or write. Imagine reading about your hot cuckold erotica, but it’s all focused on the guy just grinding it to get the annual regional performance metrics processed for the Finance VP’s desk by Monday. 1 page of hot sex, 5 pages of double checking if the difference between pre-sales analyst projections matches with the A/R tally are within threshold on both a district and regional level.

 

[SimonDoom]

I haven't noticed this. My impression is that most stories here avoid issues of "economic reality" because those issues are not relevant to the erotic point that authors want to make. I haven't noticed that characters in Literotica stories are "sufficiently independently wealthy to be able to afford whatever they need."

 

[Yarglenurp]

I haven't noticed this. My impression is that most stories here avoid issues of "economic reality" because those issues are not relevant to the erotic point that authors want to make. I haven't noticed that characters in Literotica stories are "sufficiently independently wealthy to be able to afford whatever they need."

It’s a trope in the genre in general. Lots of kings, princes, billionaires, and supernatural creatures who can just take what they want.

Not so many love interests who dream of good dental care and pray that the mill doesn’t shut down.

 

[intim8]

main focus characters who are sufficiently independently wealthy to be able to afford whatever they need, or think they need, to be happy. In contrast to the real lives of most of us, who, if not struggling to just survive, don't have that kind of massive financial oomph.

I'm not sure if you're referring to characters who are explicitly very rich, or just characters that don't have to worry about paying their bills.

Regrding the latter, it is my view that even a very realistic story has to hand-wave away many aspects of real life. Has to be selective in what aspects of reality it addresses. Otherwise, it'll be 990 pages of minutia and ten pages of plot, which is basically how real life actually is.

Characters don't take a shit, eat breakfast, set their alarm clocks, go to doctor's appointments, etc., unless those matter to the plot. Similarly, a character who is constantly having to figure out how to make ends meet is just a distraction - unless that matters to the plot.

OTOH, making a character exceptionally wealthy is also a distraction if that isn't part of what moves the plot. And yeah, if it is used to gloss over actual issues that do matter to the plot, it is bad writing.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

It’s that, but also just a convenience thing.

Convenience, yes. Nothing more.

Certainly there are good and interesting stories involving wealth and wealthy people but the bulk of lit stories use wealth simply as convenience for the plot.

If someone has to work and live a real life… that’s not a fun thing to read or write.

I take great issue with this. There are innumerable amazing stories out there (and some of them are even on lit) about poor surroundings and poverty and middle class and all other walks of life imaginable. If the drudgery of life is boring in your story, cut back on that part, or write it differently. The guy a cheap apartment and no car for instance is a perfect opportunity for the writer to create a charming or clever man who can still get the girl despite a small bank account and meagre means, but it also means that the writer needs some imagination and has to come up with more plot, very inconvenient. So instead they just make the rich just like in a million other lit stories so that they don't have to do any extra work in getting from intro to sexy time with less plot.

 

[SimonDoom]

It’s a trope in the genre in general. Lots of kings, princes, billionaires, and supernatural creatures who can just take what they want.

Not so many love interests who dream of good dental care and pray that the mill doesn’t shut down.

I can't speak knowledgeably about the stories you read. The vast majority of erotic stories I've read at Literotica do not feature "kings, princes, billionaires, and supernatural creatures." They feature ordinary people. In most of the stories I've read, the characters are not wealthy. Economic issues don't arise because they're not relevant to the story. I can't imagine why "dental care" would come up in a Literotica story unless it was a fetish.

 

[Yarglenurp]

Convenience, yes. Nothing more.

Certainly there are good and interesting stories involving wealth and wealthy people but the bulk of lit stories use wealth simply as convenience for the plot.



I take great issue with this. There are innumerable amazing stories out there (and some of them are even on lit) about poor surroundings and poverty and middle class and all other walks of life imaginable. If the drudgery of life is boring in your story, cut back on that part, or write it differently. The guy a cheap apartment and no car for instance is a perfect opportunity for the writer to create a charming or clever man who can still get the girl despite a small bank account and meagre means, but it also means that the writer needs some imagination and has to come up with more plot, very inconvenient. So instead they just make the rich just like in a million other lit stories so that they don't have to do any extra work in getting from intro to sexy time with less plot.

Ok, I actually agree with you in general. I love reading work-related books. Fun way to live another life.

But I meant specifically for masturbation stories.

 

[NotWise]

I've noticed in my own stories that my characters usually have enough resources that they don't need to spend plot space worrying about money. I don't think any of my characters are wealthy, but they aren't poor, either.

Other writers have different approaches with good results.

 

[KeithD]

I haven't noticed this. My impression is that most stories here avoid issues of "economic reality" because those issues are not relevant to the erotic point that authors want to make. I haven't noticed that characters in Literotica stories are "sufficiently independently wealthy to be able to afford whatever they need."

This. Stories don't have to include everything and the kitchen sink even if real life does. I don't have characters use the toilet every couple of hours of time covered in stories. I don't feel obligated to write the totality of economic reality in my stories either.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

This. Stories don't have to include everything and the kitchen sink even if real life does. I don't have characters use the toilet every couple of hours of time covered in stories. I don't feel obligated to write the totality of economic reality in my stories either.

Of course they don't. Absolutely correct. In many stories economic means are completely irrelevant and often aren't even mentioned if they don't need to be, which is good. But wealth for lazy plot is a thing. I wouldn't say rampant at all, but yeah, it's out there kinda common and it's a thing.

 

[Yarglenurp]

This. Stories don't have to include everything and the kitchen sink even if real life does. I don't have characters use the toilet every couple of hours of time covered in stories. I don't feel obligated to write the totality of economic reality in my stories either.

Eh. I’ve seen plenty of stories where the author mentions an inheritance, trust fund, a high paying job, etc. It’s just a mechanism to justify how a guy can focus on sex and/or sexual non-sex.

 

[MyBareTorso]

I just want my exhibitionist, sex addicted recurring MC to be able to have lots and lots and lots of sex... that's why I've made him super hot and super hung and given him a nebulous, self-employed IT job that allows him to be financially comfortable. With my stories here on Literotica, I'm interested in sex, and not the difficult realities of life and work. That's just me. I appreciate that others go for a little more realism in their writing (and reading)...no judgement etc etc...

 

[Cagivagurl]

It's definitely easier to write stories where the characters can move freely. Although sometimes. It is nice to make them struggle.
Maybe it's laziness, or perhaps just living a little fantasy while writing... Who knows.

Cagivagurl

 

[MrPixel]

I can see where most of you are coming from, and, yeah, my MMCs are sometimes portrayed as financially secure.

However, I've made the most recent MMC's independence obtained through smart financial management such as moving to a small town because the cost of living - especially housing - is cheaper, and stretches his and his wife's nest egg a little further. He saves a buck or two by doing home repairs himself, pays attention to the price of gas, and his wife drives a 25-year-old car they joke about. The younger couple that moved into their home (a polyamory fantasy) has jobs that schedule their time and their ability to play freely, and they contribute to the joint coffers for the day-to-day. Then there are things like, "You spent how much on booze for the party?" and suggesting to a restaurant server character that she should dial back the PDAs with the MMC at her job because they affect her tips when the male customers notice that she's taken... or so they think.

While the sex I write is pure fantasy, their and their friends' living situation is not. I strive to be real about it, including some sex situations putting their jobs at risk. Ample discussion among the characters of the perils of work-adjacent sex play is the primary theme in my latest story, Barstow - Almost Caught at Work.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Characters are exactly as wealthy as they need to be for the story to happen.

If my male MC meets the hottest hooker at a hotel bar and she charges $800 for the night then the MC is going to have $800 + some undisclosed amount in his wallet because neither me nor my readers want the next 4k words to be about how he went back to his room and jerked off all night.

On the other hand, if my female MC is sitting in the hotel bar and she's offered $800 dollars for the night under the misunderstanding that she's a hooker, it's going to be exactly when she's financially troubled enough that $800 dollars would be really useful for, say, vetinary bills for her sick puppy, not one week after she's paid the rent, gotten a Christmas bonus and won a grand on scratch-cards and when Rover's made a full recovery.

That said the majority of my characters are different levels of comfortable because, as others have said, financial troubles don't always make for good reading (unless the cause the character to do something crazy). I've had a couple of characters so broke they literally didn't have enough money to travel back home. I've written Henry VIII and James Bond, but not in such a way that their wealth was important. It might be fun to write an insanely wealthy character for a change.

(For the chain story, I did propose a Bill Gates nerd type third-richest man in the world character who sells his software company and buys a porn studio instead, but nobody(ish) went for it. I may have to do it on my own).

 

[Bramblethorn]

Posted this as a comment to a story, and it occurred to me it might make an interesting discussion topic here.
I've noticed a LOT of stories here-including my own, oops-have main focus characters who are sufficiently independently wealthy to be able to afford whatever they need, or think they need, to be happy. In contrast to the real lives of most of us, who, if not struggling to just survive, don't have that kind of massive financial oomph. I guess it's because it taps into everyone's fantasy to have such economic power. Unfortunately, it operates as a sort of deus ex machina in our stories, allowing our heroes to just buy their way out of any predicament they find themselves in, instead of finding more realistic and/or creative solutions. I gotta work harder on that aspect of my stories.

Thoughts?

Wealthy protagonists very often are about escapism and/or power fantasy, but that's not the only way they can be used. It's difficult having a healthy and equal relationship with somebody who's at a very different position on the ladder and that can be interesting to explore in a story.

 

[feel_the_beast]

Thanks for sharing guys, good points all.

 

[THBGato]

I'm not much of a fan of the Cinderella storyline. (Likwise the whole "my parents died when I was a teenager" is also overdone.) When it is done well, the wealth imbalance actually becomes a potential obstacle or bone of contention between the lovers, rather than something that makes life easier. See GinnyPPC's Catering Girl https://literotica.com/s/catering-girl-ch-01 or JCMcNeilly's Hero Worship https://literotica.com/s/hero-worship-pt-01

 

[StillStunned]

Overall, I like my characters to be believable and relatable. In one story, part of the plot is driven by the conflict between the narrator's desire to join his girlfriend for a threesome, and his work commitments. In another one I'm writing, about a student who rents a room with an older woman, he worries about the cost, and decides to become a vegetarian to save money.

My sci-fi and fantasy sometimes have wealthy nobles, but only if it makes sense. Sligh's background is revealed about 35k words into "The Rivals", but it doesn't (or shouldn't) come as a surprise, and it helps move the plot forward. The narrator in "The Countesses of Tannensdal" comes from a privileged background, but without it there wouldn't be a story. And Dunia in "The Dome" is a member of the Dome's ruling council. Again, a plot point.

In my stories, as in real life, money doesn't matter until it does.

 

[nice90sguy]

The love of money is the root of all my plotlines.

Well, some of them. Money is a proxy for power, and a lot of my stories are about power exchange.

 

[alohadave]

The only time I really pay attention to money in stories is when reading harem/breeding stories. I find myself wondering how the MC and harem is going to support multiple wives/partners and the inevitable multiple children.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Money's only ever mentioned in my stories to buy coffee. It's implicitly there if there's a road-trip, in various cars, but as an erotic trope? Not necessary for me.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Eh. I’ve seen plenty of stories where the author mentions an inheritance, trust fund, a high paying job, etc. It’s just a mechanism to justify how a guy can focus on sex and/or sexual non-sex.

I wrote a story in the Hallmark Channel style that involves a large inheritance and responsibilities that come along with it. Those responsibilities are the central theme.

If you like to throw your characters into unusual situations, suddenly showering them with money (and responsibilities) is a fine way to do it.