What do you identify with in a character? ...and what annoys you?

[Hotswimmer]

This doesn't necessarily have to be about erotica and I realize this is different for each of us based on who we are, but what do you find attractive in a character personally?
Is there a trait that helps you identify with a principle or secondary character and 'latch' onto them?
What traits do you dislike in a character?

For me, I absolutely despise the stories where characters make a consistently annoying series of unfathomably dumb mistakes or choices, so I like characters with believable intelligence and ingenuity.

I'm not suggesting a character shouldn't make mistakes, and I can make my way through a chapter or two, maybe a half-hour in a movie, but after that, I either drop it or get up and make popcorn while the movie plays out.

 

[SimonDoom]

Good question! This is something I relate to in an erotic story character because it resonates with me personally: a combination of, on the one hand, a certain level of inhibition, reticence, reserve, taboo, and shyness, and, on the other hand, a yearning to bust loose. That combination of traits, and how that combination affects the character's behavior, is one of the key things that gives an erotic story its sizzle for me.

I relate to characters who are verbal, and like to express what they are feeling and experiencing in words, especially if the author is adept with their dialogue.

I relate to characters that perhaps like to overthink things, because I like to overthink things.

I relate to characters who work in offices, because I've spent my whole career working in offices.

Annoying: Characters that do improbable things where the author hasn't taken the time or effort to establish the motive and personality traits that would make those things at least somewhat plausible.

As to your point: I get annoyed at the author, not the character, so if the author does a good job establishing that the character is mistake-prone, it's OK with me if the character makes dumb mistakes.

 

[windar]

Humor and witty dialog, especially self-deprecating...

 

[RetroFan]

One of my pet peeves in fiction is a practice described on the TV Tropes website as 'Character Shilling'. This is where other characters talk up positive attributes of a character but what is described doesn't really come across when we meet this character for ourselves. As a hypothetical, say I wrote an Incest/Taboo story set in the late 1950s narrated by an 18-year-old girl who is really excited about spending time with her male cousin. The girl and other characters extensively say how cool this guy is, but I don't give any practical demonstration of why this character is cool other than the words of the narrator and her friends, then this is character shilling. Please note this differs from the 'Unreliable Narrator' trope, which is a good tool in fiction and well demonstrated in books such as 'The Collector', 'Lolita', 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and 'American Psycho'. I wrote a Loving Wives story with a possibly unreliable narrator a few months ago, but the fans weren't too impressed by my efforts.

A good example of character shilling is the notorious movie musical flop 'From Justin to Kelly' from the early 2000s, where characters extensively praise the main character Kelly, often saying how nice she is. But Kelly doesn't seem all that nice from what we see of her, in fact she seems quite humourless, judgemental and peevish. One really bizarre type of character shilling was in the early 2010s sitcom 'New Girl' where the lead character Jess would explain in detail all her quirky behaviours beforehand. This wasn't funny at all, and needless to say the new girl wore out her welcome with me pretty quickly.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I enjoy a little humor in whatever I'm reading, and try to add some to most of my stories. Sometimes even during a sex scene, I really enjoy it when they break the tension by saying or doing something amusing, especially if it's unexpected.
What I don't like is a character who seems selfish or mean, that is only out for themselves. It makes me wonder how an author can try and explain why their partner would ever be interested in them.
I also like to know what they're thinking, and sometimes use dual POV so the readers know what's going on in both of their heads and what's motivating them, even if they do mistakes.

 

[Auden James]

I'm annoyed by inconsistent characterization, e.g., virginal super studs or magniloquent mutes and their ilk. Character shilling is also aways an annoyance (except, maybe, if subverted for comical reasons or something like that), but, I'm afraid, rather prevalent in LIT fiction, for I remember many a sexual hero—heroized by others, characters or narrators, that is—with nothing heroic about him, neither sexually nor otherwise.

 

[Djmac1031]

Tony Stark is a perfect example of what a great character can be.

In the beginning, he's arrogant, rude, self centered. But somehow still charming and relatable.

As he grows, he becomes more selfless, but never loses his snarky edge either.

He's deeply flawed, but is self aware of it. And while he makes plenty of mistakes, he learns and grows from them.

It's an incredible example of character development and growth.

Pet peeves: perfectly perfect characters who know they're perfectly perfect.

I'm usually turned off by any erotica story that features The Perfect Male specimen who picks up any woman he wants with ease.

Or the woman who drops her panties at the first hint of attention from said Perfect Male.

The best characters have to work at things or struggle a bit to finally get that which they desire.

It makes the pay off far more satisfying.

 

[Auden James]

Pet peeves: perfectly perfect characters who know they're perfectly perfect.

I'm usually turned off by any erotica story that features The Perfect Male specimen who picks up any woman he wants with ease.

I'm not sure if this case is as clear-cut as you make it out to be. I, for one, think that there are rather few characters, at least in LIT fiction, who really are perfect (as acknowledged by the narrator) and know it (as acknowledged by themselves); what seems to be far more often the case, at least to my mind, may be classified as a kind of under-characterization wherein a character's purported perfection—sometimes realized only indirectly (we are not directly told so, but all the shenanigans going on point to that conclusion)—only serves the purpose of skipping the drudgery of providing said character with sufficient motivation and qualities to account for her actions and other characters' reactions to her, and so on and so forth.

One of the few LIT stories with a character (in this case also its first-person narrator) who is literal perfection is "More Than Human" by Margin Walker. Is this what you had in mind when talking about the "Perfect Male," Djmac1031? At any rate, the scenario is rather different from what you describe . . .

 

[Djmac1031]

this what you had in mind when talking about the "Perfect Male," Djmac1031?

I'll have to read that when I get a chance lol.

I guess it's more about stereotypes, or just over used type characters: the muscular, confident jock banging the hot, perfect body cheerleader.

Maybe because I'm not THAT guy and never got THAT girl lol.

 

[Auden James]

Well, Margin Walker's story's protagonist is muscular, indeed, but he's banging no cheerleader, though the woman he beds sure is "beautiful." So what about that? Does that arouse your envy too?

But yes, jock banging cheerleader is a cliché, but it's also true, isn't it?

 

[Djmac1031]

Well, Margin Walker's story's protagonist is muscular, indeed, but he's banging no cheerleader, though the woman he beds sure is "beautiful." So what about that? Does that arouse your envy too?

But yes, jock banging cheerleader is a cliché, but it's also true, isn't it?

So I did a quick read through of that story.

It's not my thing.

I'm not saying cliches aren't useful. I'm willing to bet if you browsed my stories you'd probably find a few I've used and forgotten about lol.

I suppose my original intent was simply to say I prefer characters and their motives a little more complicated and interesting than "hot guy meets and fucks hot girl," that's all.

Nothing wrong with the Hot Guy. Nothing wrong with the Hot Girl. Just make it interesting is all I ask.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I suppose my original intent was simply to say I prefer characters and their motives a little more complicated and interesting than "hot guy meets and fucks hot girl," that's all.

Nothing wrong with the Hot Guy. Nothing wrong with the Hot Girl. Just make it interesting is all I ask.

This is the classic question of stroke vs story, porn vs erotica. Both have their place and their readers - who often want one thing but not the other.

The trick is to write a story low on plot, written with the sole purpose of arousal, with good characters. In my head, that's erotica; and you don't need a huge back story to make it work - it can become a singular moment in time, well described, with a small cast that sizzles.

The 750 Word Anthologies can be a good writer's practice place for this - readers don't like them so much (too short, not enough time to get off), but they can be an interesting writer's exercise.

Shameless self promotion time:

https://www.literotica.com/s/garter-belts-and-cigarettes - an example of the former (EB's version of a stroke story, which becomes typical EB, not stroke).

https://literotica.com/s/a-girl-on-the-bus - and of the latter (which then went on as a writer's experiment: how many short chapters will readers sit through to get to a longer pay-off? Answer, five).

 

[Bramblethorn]

For me, I absolutely despise the stories where characters make a consistently annoying series of unfathomably dumb mistakes or choices, so I like characters with believable intelligence and ingenuity.

Agreed - I'm not a fan of Idiot Ball plots. OTOH, fathomable mistakes can be interesting, when you know a character is making bad choices but you can understand why they're making them.

One of my pet peeves in fiction is a practice described on the TV Tropes website as 'Character Shilling'. This is where other characters talk up positive attributes of a character but what is described doesn't really come across when we meet this character for ourselves.

Hell yes. I notice this a lot with female characters who are advertised as strong, smart, independent, but then become utterly passive once the action starts.

 

[JakBird]

All my stories revolve around some variation on the d/s theme, male dominant, female submissive. In that respect I churn out one-dimensional people, yet I do find ways distinguish between them. I'm sure my own prejudices influence character development along line I would like to think of as ideal.

With rare exception I do not describe any character's appearance. That I leave for the reader's imagination (think of old time radio dramas from 30s through early 50s). The rare exception is when appearance is deceiving, and it's central to the plot.

What's important in my stories is the inner workings of each character's mind, to explore the mental rather than crank out more of the usual "he did that, then she says this, then they get to the physical in record time" type story. Not the What and the How, but the Why.

I'm an electronics engineer by trade. A consumer picks up a smartphone and tries out what it does. I take off the cover to see why certain design decisions were made, to balance tradeoffs of form, function and cost. That same mental slant comes to bear when creating stories and crafting the people who inhabit them.

DO I succeed in capturing wildly different world views? Some feed back says yes, some no, some suggest anatomically impossible acts before I try to write another story. But even if I fail, it may still be the stuff of dreams for a few readers out on the fringe.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Characters I identify with - any faced with dilemmas which they reason through and make sensible decisions about, and have concerns I can understand from the situation. The character I most identified with on Lit recently was a lad growing up on a NZ sheep farm, because it was a well-written story encouraging you to identify with him. Never been to Oceania or been a boy nor done sheep-shearing...

Ones which jerk me out of a story are inconsistent with what I'm being told. Read one a while back where a girl student decides to seduce her professor and blackmail him so he gives her a better grade. She's a complete minx, gets naked, then has no condoms, nor does he, and asks the guy to fuck her up the ass because she's a virgin.

At which point I'm going "Bollocks you are, love", totally unable to believe in her. The only reason I kept reading was because the prof was done rather well and said roughly the same thing in American, and gave her a right earful before and after obliging. I could believe in him even if I thought it very unlikely that a couple would mention condoms and discuss them but then decide not to bother (if they hadn't mentioned them or their lack, I wouldn't have noticed!) He at least had the motive - her naked ass right in front of him, no trust that it would ever happen again, fuck now or forever regret it...

Other characters I find hard to believe in are ones either magically well-off compared to their jobs (eg Friends), or for some reason desperate for money and considering prostitution. There's a hell of a lot of range in between there, which we don't see much.

 

[ElectricBlue]

At which point I'm going "Bollocks you are, love", totally unable to believe in her.

This is why I love a Brit. Laughed out loud at that one, KQQ .

 

[Kumquatqueen]

This is why I love a Brit. Laughed out loud at that one, KQQ .

I can't recall what the American prof said, but it wasn't as elegant, for sure.

 

[8letters]

One thing that takes me out of stories but yet I see it a lot in Literotica stories is someone nonplussed when they find out their lover has had sex with someone else. Typical example:
Scene: Wife comes home after working late at work and gets in bed with husband. They start making out.
Husband: While you working late, I fucked your best friend. She wants to have a threesome with us.
Wife: That's so hot. Fuck me now.

In my head, the wife replies, "What the fuck! You cheated on me with my best friend while I was earning the damn rent! Get the hell out of here! I'm divorcing you, and I'll never talk to that bitch again!"

One thing that makes me identify with a character is them dealing with work issues - having to work late, having to deal with unpleasant coworkers, doing tasks that they don't enjoy, etc.

 

[RetroFan]

Agreed - I'm not a fan of Idiot Ball plots. OTOH, fathomable mistakes can be interesting, when you know a character is making bad choices but you can understand why they're making them.


Hell yes. I notice this a lot with female characters who are advertised as strong, smart, independent, but then become utterly passive once the action starts.

With regards to character shilling, I just remembered the worst case I have ever seen. It was from the 1967 musical movie 'Doctor Dolittle', a notorious production nightmare starring Rex Harrison, Anthony Newley and Samantha Eggar, which turned out to be a boring and poorly received mess when it finally made it into cinemas. In an early number, Matthew (Newley) sings a song called 'My Friend the Doctor' which praises the titular Doctor Dolittle no end and makes him sound like a wonderful if somewhat eccentric man. Matthew also praises Dolittle in non lyrical ways to his young nephew. So what happens when we finally meet the titular Doctor, played by Rex Harrison? He turns out to be a grumpy old prick, who is arrogant, aloof, condescending and dismissive, not only with people but his animal patients too.

 

[AlinaX]

But... the pushmepullyou!

 

[Kumquatqueen]

With regards to character shilling, I just remembered the worst case I have ever seen. It was from the 1967 musical movie 'Doctor Dolittle', a notorious production nightmare starring Rex Harrison, Anthony Newley and Samantha Eggar, which turned out to be a boring and poorly received mess when it finally made it into cinemas. In an early number, Matthew (Newley) sings a song called 'My Friend the Doctor' which praises the titular Doctor Dolittle no end and makes him sound like a wonderful if somewhat eccentric man. Matthew also praises Dolittle in non lyrical ways to his young nephew. So what happens when we finally meet the titular Doctor, played by Rex Harrison? He turns out to be a grumpy old prick, who is arrogant, aloof, condescending and dismissive, not only with people but his animal patients too.

The 2020 film of it was worse. I didn't even realise until 90% of the way through that Robert Downey Jr was even trying to do a Welsh accent, and spent the rest of the film wincing. Dick van Dyke, all is forgiven...

 

[Bramblethorn]

With regards to character shilling, I just remembered the worst case I have ever seen. It was from the 1967 musical movie 'Doctor Dolittle', a notorious production nightmare starring Rex Harrison, Anthony Newley and Samantha Eggar, which turned out to be a boring and poorly received mess when it finally made it into cinemas. In an early number, Matthew (Newley) sings a song called 'My Friend the Doctor' which praises the titular Doctor Dolittle no end and makes him sound like a wonderful if somewhat eccentric man. Matthew also praises Dolittle in non lyrical ways to his young nephew. So what happens when we finally meet the titular Doctor, played by Rex Harrison? He turns out to be a grumpy old prick, who is arrogant, aloof, condescending and dismissive, not only with people but his animal patients too.

If you haven't read the Wiki entry on the making of that film, it's worth the time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Dolittle_(1967_film)#Production

A couple of highlights:

The final scene with a giant snail was complicated not only by the poor design of the large prop, but because the island's children had recently been struck by a gastrointestinal epidemic caused by freshwater snails, and mobs of angry locals threw rocks at it. Around this time, Jacobs was hospitalized after having a heart attack. Within a month, filming had fallen 39 days behind schedule in which the production crew had to decamp back to California for reshoots.

...

.. over 1,200 live animals were used in the film including dogs, pigs, birds, and even giraffes, all of which required understudies. There are anecdotes of a goat who ate Fleischer's script and a parrot that learned to yell "cut." In one instance, ducks for the film were placed on a lake, but had apparently forgotten how to swim and began to sink, and crew members had to jump into the water to save them. Animals also bit and defecated on the cast and crew, including Harrison.

Sounds like the "grumpy old prick" part wasn't acting.

Also, this scene:

 

[Bramblethorn]

One thing that takes me out of stories but yet I see it a lot in Literotica stories is someone nonplussed when they find out their lover has had sex with someone else. Typical example:
Scene: Wife comes home after working late at work and gets in bed with husband. They start making out.
Husband: While you working late, I fucked your best friend. She wants to have a threesome with us.
Wife: That's so hot. Fuck me now.

In my head, the wife replies, "What the fuck! You cheated on me with my best friend while I was earning the damn rent! Get the hell out of here! I'm divorcing you, and I'll never talk to that bitch again!"

There's the rub with "unbelievable" characters - that scene isn't too far off my real life, but if I told some of my poly stories on Literotica I expect a portion of my readers would find them implausible.

(Though after a long day working, my partner's reaction would more likely be "oh cool, I'm going to bed but tell me about it in the morning" than "fuck me now".)

 

[Kumquatqueen]

There's the rub with "unbelievable" characters - that scene isn't too far off my real life, but if I told some of my poly stories on Literotica I expect a portion of my readers would find them implausible.

(Though after a long day working, my partner's reaction would more likely be "oh cool, I'm going to bed but tell me about it in the morning" than "fuck me now".)

Some readers are beyond help - I'm not going to put a happy poly story in Loving Wives... but I think the point is people writing quotes like the above without having explained the couple's open or whatever relationship first, or at least when the partner blithely mentions having fucked someone else.

Round here the response would be more like, "That's nice. So I get a weekend away with Bob, then? And when's our next date night? Better make sure we have a ready meal so neither of us flakes out. Fucking Covid..."

 

[Bramblethorn]

Some readers are beyond help - I'm not going to put a happy poly story in Loving Wives... but I think the point is people writing quotes like the above without having explained the couple's open or whatever relationship first, or at least when the partner blithely mentions having fucked someone else.

Yeah, that's fair. It's definitely the kind of thing you'd discuss ground rules about first.