What kind of story does this TG/C title and summary suggest?

[joy_of_cooking]

(reposting because I just figured out I accidentally put this on the general board. Oops.)

I'm workshopping a title and summary. Take a minute and try to imagine what kind of story you'd expect from this:

Title: Kinky bedroom games crack his egg
Summary: Wife's sexy offer leads shoe-loving man's man to euphoria
Category: TG/C

Is it transgender or cross-dressing? Is it a sissy story? Is it mean or sweet? Enthusiastic, reluctant, dubcon, noncon? Are there going to be feelings?

Also, if you don't mind, are you yourself transgender, cross-dresser, sissy, adjacent?

Here's what I'm going for. Any advice appreciated. This is a happy story about a stereotypically masculine AMAB realizing he's trans and transitioning. It won't be exactly realistic, or at least it'll be on the very happy end of reality's spectrum, but I want trans people to read it and I want them to think, hey, this guy has some idea what he's writing about.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

T/CD or TG/C is where you want to put that. I'm a trans woman and pretty much live there with a few exceptions.
The category includes Transgender, cross-dressing, gender swap(chemical and magic) sissy, forced feminization, and a few other things.
IMHO, the happy ending is a good idea.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Yep, agreed that the category includes several different genres of story. What I've learned from Fetish (which also contains multitudes) is that it's important to let readers know what they're signing up for. Given that I'm going for a happy transgender story, how well do my chosen title and summary indicate what I'm trying to do?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Yep, agreed that the category includes several different genres of story. What I've learned from Fetish (which also contains multitudes) is that it's important to let readers know what they're signing up for. Given that I'm going for a happy transgender story, how well do my chosen title and summary indicate what I'm trying to do?

Title is less important than the short description.

Take a look at my catalog. I have a contract with my readers that I only do happy endings, and I seem to do pretty well. I'm looking forward to someone else publishing a story like mine. I get tired of all the sissy, futa, forced fem stuff. More happy endings(both kinds), YEA!!!

 

[karina_jayde]

As a transwoman myself, I would definitely get the vibes that it's a transgender story (rather than crossdressing), due to the 'euphoria' and 'egg' terminology. Definitely comes across as sweet given that it seems the wife is supporting and helping 'crack the egg.' I definitely don't dubcon or noncom vibes from the title or description. And the mention of 'euphoria' definitely hints to me as a potential reader that it's going to have a happy, gender-affirming arc and fuzzy, feel-good feelings.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Egg is a specific enough term that most readers in that category will know what you mean. I might suggest changing it to "cracks the egg" though.

 

[stickygirl]

Mine is probably a niche opinion given that I sometimes read things too literally, but I have no idea what this story might contain. Maybe 'egg' is a colloquial reference with which I'm unfamiliar? The shoe-loving suggests shoe-fetish rather than cross dressing, because having a shoe fetish is not a gateway to realising you are transgender.

Also
"Wife's sexy offer leads shoe-loving man's man to euphoria" This wording feels very clunky and I had to re-read it a few times to finally understand what you meant. Make it obvious to readers or they'll move on to the next story on the list.

You need to think about your real category audience, which will only be 3% trans folk and the rest will be cis gender. From the feedback on my own trans stories, getting your facts right is essential for credibility with the LGBTQ community, but a cracking story line is more important in any genre. Make 'em laugh and cry as well offering hot sex.

I'm trans and have written a little.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Maybe 'egg' is a colloquial reference with which I'm unfamiliar?

I thought "cracking the egg" meant understanding that one was trans. I think it comes from a 2020 comic by Mae Dean? I can't link the comic itself (it's called "Epiphany," part of her "Real Life Comics" series) but it appears I can link a reddit explanation:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/lz7x6k/what_exactly_does_the_term_my_egg_cracked_mean

The shoe-loving suggests shoe-fetish rather than cross dressing, because having a shoe fetish is not a gateway to realising you are transgender.

Yeah, and I definitely want to avoid anything that sounds like I'm pushing autogynephilia.

The idea behind this story came to me after I read some account of a trans person saying that before she realized she was trans, she used to enjoy taking her girlfriend shopping. She now realizes she was using her girlfriend to vicariously "wear" the clothes that she wished she could wear herself. I wish I could link this story but it's lost somewhere in the depths of my browser history.

Anyway, in my story, the rough idea is: the protagonist starts off identifying as a cis/het guy with a shoe fetish who enjoys kinky sex with his wife. He often buys his wife sexy clothes and shoes. His wife's mostly into this, but it gets to be a bit much, and she declares that if he wants her in these uncomfortable shoes he'll have to wear them himself. He turns out to really like wearing them himself. She's supportive, and helps him explore this, eventually escalating to him "cross-dressing" routinely for sex. They are careful to avoid sissy humiliation play, forced bi, etc.

The leap from fetishistic cross-dressing to "the egg cracking" happens when the algorithms notice how much he's searching for female clothing and start advertising MtF trans forums to him. (These forums will be anonymized in the story but I'm modeling them on r/MTFashion and r/TransLater.) He starts wearing women's clothing outside sex, just around the house, and eventually chooses to transition medically using hormone replacement therapy and facial feminization surgery. He (she at this point) remains into women and into shoes, and I hope I will be clear that these are separate axes from gender identity.

It's probably an unrealistically optimistic story, especially in how it handles the reactions of friends and colleagues and completely elides the medical and financial hurdles of medical transition, but...I don't know, I don't feel like writing a grim story right now. The news provides enough grimdark content.

Anyway, does the connection between shoe fetishism and being transgender make more sense now? I'm happy to hear if this seems inaccurate or disrespectful.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

He (she at this point)

As an aside, I think I just figured out why so many trans stories are first-person. Not only is it often about the protagonist's internal experience, but also there's just the mechanical issue of switching pronouns in the narration if you do third-person. Anyone have any advice on this?

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Ooh, maybe I'll do most of the story in third person using male pronouns, but the prologue and epilogue in the first person, after the protagonist has switched to female pronouns.

 

[StillStunned]

As an aside, I think I just figured out why so many trans stories are first-person. Not only is it often about the protagonist's internal experience, but also there's just the mechanical issue of switching pronouns in the narration if you do third-person. Anyone have any advice on this?

As a complete outsider with no personal knowledge of the emotions involved: start with "he", slip in the odd "she" here and there, particularly at high-stress or emotional moments, and gradually shift to "she" everywhere.

If it confuses the reader, so be it. That's the character's state of mind too, so bring them along for the journey.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Ooh, maybe I'll do most of the story in third person using male pronouns, but the prologue and epilogue in the first person, after the protagonist has switched to female pronouns.

I play with first/third person on a lot of my stories to emphasize the internal angst of "breaking the egg," since that metaphor is already in use in this discussion. For example, from a story pending release.
---

“Unless you want her to keep stealing your panties, she needs to go shopping. Besides, I think I left my panties from last night behind that 7-11. I really need some daily wear things, too.”

“So, she’s staying, staying?”

“For a while. Besides, I heard a rumor you were a little sore. I thought maybe I could kiss it and make it better when we got back from the mall.”

It’s the little things that speak the loudest sometimes. That simple shift, going from third person to first, ‘she’ to ‘I’, told her more than anything else I could have said.

 

[stickygirl]

Okay, I'll add egg-cracking to my idiom list! Maybe I've heard it down the line and the context made its meaning obvious?

Trans-porn often focuses on the transition itself, but I've only written one such series and that was indeed first person. Projecting into ones true gender through sexual fantasy ( masturbation ) is surely a common pathway, but one which is likely to start at an age banned by the site, so that's out. There have been numerous late-transitioners - Jennifer Boylan 41yrs, Laura Jane Grace 32yrs, Julia Serano 31yrs, Lana Wachowski 35yrs so you might want to check Wiki for their bio's to inform your story line and spark some ideas.

Thank you for avoiding the ( kink-dressing ) / autogynephilia trap and your story outline has more credibility as a result . Strictly speaking Blanchard and his crackpot theory was debunked years ago but the term still recognised outside of academia - a bit like the wolf pack 'alpha-male' bunkum.

There's as much mental change as there is physical following HRT, so expect the sexual orientation lines to blur a little as a result. You haven't given a time frame and what you've described would probably take several years but there's plenty of online references out there for help. If you going to include erections after HRT, make sure it's with viagra.

That's more than enough from me. Hope this helps a little, but I think you're on the right track anyway.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

There's as much mental change as there is physical following HRT, so expect the sexual orientation lines to blur a little as a result. You haven't given a time frame and what you've described would probably take several years but there's plenty of online references out there for help. If you going to include erections after HRT, make sure it's with viagra.

Yeah, I started to look into all that and then decided to take the lazy way out. My current plan is to sidestep all of that by closing with him bringing up medical transition with his wife, and then jumping forward an unspecified number of years to a brief epilogue.

That's more than enough from me. Hope this helps a little, but I think you're on the right track anyway.

Thanks! I see the Q&A thread in your signature, and I've also found @AWhoopsieDaisy 's. I'll post for a...technical consultant? sensitivity reader? if I manage to get a workable draft completed.

 

[Britva415]

(reposting because I just figured out I accidentally put this on the general board. Oops.)

I'm workshopping a title and summary. Take a minute and try to imagine what kind of story you'd expect from this:



Is it transgender or cross-dressing? Is it a sissy story? Is it mean or sweet? Enthusiastic, reluctant, dubcon, noncon? Are there going to be feelings?

Also, if you don't mind, are you yourself transgender, cross-dresser, sissy, adjacent?

Here's what I'm going for. Any advice appreciated. This is a happy story about a stereotypically masculine AMAB realizing he's trans and transitioning. It won't be exactly realistic, or at least it'll be on the very happy end of reality's spectrum, but I want trans people to read it and I want them to think, hey, this guy has some idea what he's writing about.

For people who know what "egg" refers to, this title and description will do just what you intend.

For people who don't, they won't get that it's a TG story until they read it. They'll probably take it for a CD story.