True Stories

[MaudeBlack]

Hi All,

I recently published a true story about myself. It was true for the most part but did contain a small amount of fiction, generally to compress the timeline and to add a few narrative flourishes.

I really enjoyed the process and am planning on writing a few more. Not that my sex life is especially exciting, but that's kinda the point of these pieces.

I'd anticipated the story attracting a few direct messages and comments but was genuinely surprised by the positive response and relatively few 'Let me diagnose you' comments.

I'm still a very new writer, so I guess I'm just asking for any of your experiences with true stories - if it's something you have written, or even if it's okay to write those kind of stories here?

Also, does it change your view on a story or the author, knowing that it is true?

Maude

Xx

 

[THBGato]

The thing is that you can write that a story is true - and many writers do - but that doesn't necessarily make it so. I'm not saying that's the case with your writing at all. Yet many readers are aware, perhaps quite cynically so, of the "true story" framing device. Thus, they might not take you at your word.

On the flip side, there are definitely readers here who cannot separate fiction from reality or the author from the character.

 

[onehitwanda]

"Never believe anything you read on the Internet" - Thomas Jefferson

 

[StrentWriter]

Most of my work is semi autobiographical, with characters and locations changed. I see the work I’ve written as fiction inspired by reality.

Is it okay to publish a story based on reality? Yes.

Would it be okay to post something verbatim? Absolutely not - some discretion for others.

Will knowing some of your work change my view of you Maude? No - if it wasn’t based on some thing you’d experienced or thought about, I’d be surprised. Writers gonna use real life to write fiction. That’s how it’s always been.

I wouldn’t think too much on it. Your work speaks for itself

 

[MaudeBlack]

The thing is that you can write that a story is true - and many writers do - but that doesn't necessarily make it so. I'm not saying that's the case with your writing at all. Yet many readers are aware, perhaps quite cynically so, of the "true story" framing device. Thus, they might not take you at your word.

On the flip side, there are definitely readers here who cannot separate fiction from reality or the author from the character.

Appreciate that.

I don't mind if people believe it to be true or not, that's their business and not the question I was asking.

I'm more interested in the author experience of writing true stories and whether they find it more fun to write than fiction or if their stories start with an element of truth etc.

Xx

 

[SimonDoom]

I suppose it makes a little difference to me. Like THBGato, I'm mindful of the fact that most of us are making stuff up, and somebody who says that a story is "true" might not be telling the truth. But I tend to assume people are telling me the truth on this issue, since it doesn't cost me anything. As someone whose stories are almost entirely made-up, and NOT based on personal experience, I'm intrigued by people whose erotic experiences are wilder and more interesting than mine are. So in some cases the suggestion that the activities are true adds a bit of zing to the story.

 

[StillStunned]

I find it awkward enough to read the erotic imaginings of people I interact with here. Anything that professes to be real would give me the icks.

 

[onehitwanda]

I find it awkward enough to read the erotic imaginings of people I interact with here. Anything that professes to be real would give me the icks.

Icks or Squicks?

 

[MrPixel]

And there's the LitE guideline of not declaring a story as true. It certainly can be true, that's between you and your keyboard, but a big neon "TRUE STORY" is discouraged.

Frankly, some of my earlier stories here are in fact historical recollections of a rather interesting life in the genre and I even say as much. But I don't broadcast that any more and let the story stand on its own merits.

 

[StrentWriter]

I find it awkward enough to read the erotic imaginings of people I interact with here. Anything that professes to be real would give me the icks.

Really? Surely a good portion on what’s written here is based on reality in some way…

Maybe it’s different for me but I - always - assumed most people were drawing from experience or knowledge in some way.

 

[Comshaw]

Appreciate that.

I don't mind if people believe it to be true or not, that's their business and not the question I was asking.

I'm more interested in the author experience of writing true stories and whether they find it more fun to write than fiction or if their stories start with an element of truth etc.

Xx

Many of my early stories contain at least some truth in them. For me, it was about using those true situations to flesh out a story. I didn't find writing those true situations any more fun than most of the made-up ones. Actually, to be honest, I think the fantasy situations were more fun, more titillating and more engaging to me than the real scenes. Maybe it's because those real, lived scenes have played through my head so many times and the fantasy ones are fresh and new. Hmmmmm...maybe it's time for me to make some new real memories?

Comshaw

 

[Vladamier_Dracul]

"Never believe anything you read on the Internet" - Thomas Jefferson

This is cool!

 

[BellaBestia]

I think the old adage of “write what you know” would prevent a lot of stories here ever being written… that said there is an element of the real in erotica, there had to be. Can a virgin write about gang bangs? Of course but much research and reading other people’s descriptions would have to be done before attempting and it would still be second hand and sound like it.

I’ve had readers ask me if what I write ever happened to me, expecting, I don’t know, titillation? Too much “reality TV” and amateur porn uploads has made people voyeurs with the immediate expectation of a writer being a truthful exhibitionist. I always reply that I extrapolate creatively from only an element of my lived experiences. That seems to soften their burgeoning interest.

 

[StillStunned]

Icks or Squicks?

Icks, squicks and nervous tics.

 

[onehitwanda]

Icks, squicks and nervous tics.

Better than dicks and ravenous ticks, I suppose.

 

[ronde]

Yes, you can write a "true" story as long as you don't claim it to be true in your text. It really doesn't matter if you do or don't state that the story is "true". Most readers won't believe you either way.

 

[yowser]

Robbie Burns, Bawdy Ballads:

If you can’t get fucked this Saturday night,
You’ll never get fucked at all.
There was fuckin’ in the haystacks, fuckin’ in the ricks,
You couldna’ hear the music for the swishin’ o’ the pricks.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

And there's the LitE guideline of not declaring a story as true. It certainly can be true, that's between you and your keyboard, but a big neon "TRUE STORY" is discouraged.

I thought that I remembered this from the guidelines, so I'm glad that you mentioned it.

I frequently insert verifiable truths into my stories, about myself and others. Then there are locales and events that are also factual.

I have received a lot of positive feedback from readers who appreciate the reality that these techniques bring to the tales. It allows them to become more engaged with the characters and the plot even if they know that it is still fictional at its core.

 

[EmilyMiller]

True Stories​

I’ve published fictionalized versions of real events without any problems (the degree of fictionalization varies from a thin veneer to major changes from reality). Like you my stories are exaggerated, compressed in time, may combine things that actually happened years apart, and include entire fabricated sections - either to aid the plot or add dramatic tension.

There is no problem with this ‘inspired by real events’ approach. But be prepared for;

1. People doubting the veracity of what you write (especially if any of the sex is out of the mainstream)
2. People thinking the fabricated stuff is also real (I guess how are they meant to tell?)
3. People thinking you want to do what happened in your story with them (this has happened to me a lot )

I’d also say if you lean heavily on any other people to create your characters, please check that they are OK with this.

It also makes sense to obfuscate and mislead a little to preserve anonymity.

Good luck with writing

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hi All,

I recently published a true story about myself. It was true for the most part but did contain a small amount of fiction, generally to compress the timeline and to add a few narrative flourishes.

I really enjoyed the process and am planning on writing a few more. Not that my sex life is especially exciting, but that's kinda the point of these pieces.

I'd anticipated the story attracting a few direct messages and comments but was genuinely surprised by the positive response and relatively few 'Let me diagnose you' comments.

I'm still a very new writer, so I guess I'm just asking for any of your experiences with true stories - if it's something you have written, or even if it's okay to write those kind of stories here?

Also, does it change your view on a story or the author, knowing that it is true?

Maude

Xx

Many of my stories contain autobiographical elements, and I have one series which is completely true, only the names have been changed (some of them). It's my catharsis story, my greatest sadness and one of my deepest loves. Time has passed, and she's not been the only one, but still...

The thing is though, I also have stories where readers have commented, "Thank you both for sharing," which means those readers thought it a true story, that the characters were me and someone else; whereas in fact the leading characters were both completely fictional (although the locations were somewhere real).

That is, if you write well enough about vividly real characters, there's no way that readers can ever tell the difference. Equally, I could write true stories, announce them as such, and readers are just as likely to say, "Nah, that could never happen."

It's not so much whether a story is true or not, but whether you can make it truly believable.

 

[HordHolm]

Another thing to remember is that there isn't really any empirical 'true' when it comes to stories - they're only ever from an author's POV. Someone else experiencing the same events will certainly have a different impression of 'truth'.

Anyhoo, the only caution I would add about the autobiographical story is to change enough detail about it to make yourself unrecognisable, however unlikely you may believe it is that you could be identified from your story.

 

[alohadave]

Surely a good portion on what’s written here is based on reality in some way…

I doubt that. Maybe some is inspired by real life events, but for me, it's all made up.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Really? Surely a good portion on what’s written here is based on reality in some way…

Yes and no. So I’ve never been fucked by a sentient giant space octopus (I live in hope), but those scenes were informed by analogous () experiences.

Having a female collossal space squid traverse my entire digestive tract and then that of a friend… yeah that was made up .

 

[StrentWriter]

Yes and no. So I’ve never been fucked by a sentient giant space octopus (I live in hope), but those scenes were informed by analogous () experiences.

Having a female collossal space squid traverse my entire digestive tract and then that of a friend… yeah that was made up .

Yeah, fair comment.

Never change Emily!

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I'm of the belief that Paula Fox is right on saying that all writing is autobiographical. Some people do use their own lives as inspiration and created whole careers with it; Henry Miller being one of them. Roman à clef is probably one of the greatest genres to read, but it's also one of the genres to easily miss.

When I read stories that are roman à clefs (the Miller who posted in this thread has some cool examples on her page), I don't focus on whether what I'm reading is a true account, a piece of fiction, or something inbetween. See, I'm not reading a Marcel Brion book where he is taking me to the life of good ol' Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart from the days when he was a sperm cell inside his father's ballsack until the day he died, as he criticises the pieces good ol' Amadeus wrote throughout his life. I'm also not reading a textbook, so I don't expect to have a million sources listed on the back.

I didn't care if Bukowski lied through his teeth all over Post Office, or all of that was real; same goes with Miller's (the man, not the young Literotica lady) Tropic of Cancer. What mattered to me in these books is the mythos of the stories. Whether they were based on real events or not matters not. What I'm saying is that, ultimately, I like it when things are based in true events, and there's no shame on admitting that, but that's not the whole reason to write a roman à clef, or the whole reason to read it. It is the mythos from the inside, what the troubles are, what the characters go through, how do they react... Any embellishment, any fiction, whatever sauce that you put in there is always, always, always, ALWAYS there to serve the story. And I understand that. I'm not here for facts or a detailed retelling about it, I'm here for the story. You're not precisely broadcasting to the news or writing a news for a newspaper, you're making art. There's a difference.

Sure, there are readers who can't separate fact from fiction, and there are others who think the author is full of themselves. That's inevitable, but then again, I stopped chasing the reactions that I don't want, and if that's what I get, then I'll collect them into little bingo cards because they are not the people that I write for. Roman à clefs can be very personal. But honestly? Your writing is valid, write whatever you want.

I write roman à clefs too. Not exactly about my sexual experiences (or at least not yet). I know I still say it, but both a story that I hope to submit sometime around this week, and in The Woman at the Speakeasy, the whole thing is that everything is fiction. Nothing about them is real. The roman à clef part comes from the universe. The whole civil war on the latter, the oppression, the paranoia, the violence... all of that was real. It was based on my experiences throughout the summer of 2024, when pretty much a very one-sided civil war broke out in my country. There's also an exercise that I wrote in one of the Stunned Cat's threads that is pretty much a fictional retelling about me as I made my way to the place that sentenced me into political persecusion, down to the stray dogs and the homeless man. The only fictional part was the sex worker at the end. That happened the early morning on the day before the war broke out.

All I did was turn things more violent, but in retrospect I think real life became more violent as time went on. I also, in-universe, switched the names of real life political figures and real life parties involved in it, sprinkled some fictionalized ones in, and even blurred the names of the real life countries and cities involved, but that blurring was done very poorly on purpose, because the whole reason I had to write this universe is that I've had enough of the political tribalism, I've been hunted down for no reason other than bad luck, and I decided to burn the whole status quo to ashes and dance naked on top of it as the world shatters and falls.

So, if the story hit right, it doesn't really change my view on the author. It makes them more honest. Unless, of course, you're Frank Dux and are actively trying to pass fiction as reality.