FFN #1

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Issue # 1

This week's editor: kmurray
Interested in taking a turn? Let me know.

Quote of the week:
Sex is emotion in motion. ~Mae West

Creating Conflict & Richer Characters

Often in our rush to get to the "Good Stuff" erotica writers (Particularly us amateurs) tend to forget about the most important part of their story. Conflict is sacrificed to get to the sex such that if you picked up 10 random stories from this site (or others), You'd most likely get 8 or 9 that boil down to the basic premise of will boy get into girls panties, and it ends once he does. Often it is just the scene with no story on either side of it. In order to really make the story stand out, and be a story that is worth returning to time and time again, conflict must be laced throughout the story.

This is one area where we as taboo writers have an advantage over mainstream erotica writers in my opinion. The conflicts are must more abundant - this means you have more choice in what you include.

Consider for the moment the fact that most erotica is written such that the two main characters are a couple. What options do they have for conflict? If they are the happily ever after couple found in the majority of stories, it is often limited to whether they might get caught (if performing in public) -which by the way they almost never do. Or even if it is a not-so-happy couple and one of them is cheating (so the coupling is not a couple), it ends after the sex, missing the opportunity for him/her to have to deal with their guilt over the affair. It could be that the authors always want the story to be a happy story so they gloss over the conflict. After all conflict is bad isn't it?

Not at all! Conflict is what allows us to grow, to change. If there is no conflict, then the characters are at the same point they were when the story started. Sure they may have fucked each other, but that is it. We should write our stories such that we can include as much conflict as we can, until the story is bursting at the scene with conflict.

Let's take as an example your standard teacher-schoolgirl story. In the basic form we have a teacher who invariably ends up fucking the girl (often in his classroom), without much protest (unless he rapes her in which case there is no consequences for it), perhaps with some paddling before hand. In this basic form there is no real conflict. Sure there is the so called conflict of will he get into her panties, but since this is a sex story we pretty much know that is going to happen. How can we improve the story? The ways are endless, but let me give some examples. For most of these I'll be using

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Go ahead read it now- I'll wait for you.

All done? Ok.

First, let us examine why the man in your story is willing to take such a great risk. Is he a habitual pedophile? If so why not add some conflict my putting the cops on his trail? What is his attitude towards being hunted? Is he fearful of being caught? Arrogant? Is he ashamed of who he is or does he embrace it? In Mark's case he appears to be arrogant of the cop hunting him, he doesn't seem to show any fear. It is almost like he has been down this path many times before and has little concern for them. My hope is that Meghan continues to illustrate this and ultimately tell us why. Perhaps there is a backstory where he has eluded them so often it is like an old habit. Perhaps he has a contact on the force keeping him informed. But just knowing that the police are after him and that parents have been warned (granted they don't know who) to watch their daughters adds a level of conflict to the story

How does he operate? Many teacher student stories have the teacher either take the girl in front of the class, which risks losing your reader's credibility unless you have given a reason for why he can get away with such a bold move, or he holds her after (or sends her to detention). In the privacy of this setting he has his way with her and she stays quiet. I always find myself asking why the girl doesn't speak up to someone. More on that later - back to how he operates. You can have him be the brash I am going to fuck you and there is nothing you can do about it, but your story will often be better if you make him work for it. Take Mark in our story, he has a suspicion that Shannon was fantasizing about him, but instead of calling her out on it and fucking her after class he decides to wait. That he thinks he can have a better opportunity at her. Later on in the story we learn that he has been dating her mom with the sole intention of getting at her girls. In fact he manages to work his way into babysitting the girls when their regular sitter back out. The sitter who's purpose is to guard against the pedophile…
Strange that on the same day he decides to wait the sitter backs out, and does so at a time when he is with the mother. That much timing can't be coincidence. Remember the call he made from his bike? Could that have been setting things up that way?

Once he gets some alone time with Shannon, he moves in a calculating way, making Shannon an eager participant in his claiming of her. Again the story could have ended here (boy has gotten into girl's panties), but the author decides to keep on increasing the conflict. They are walked in on by Shannon's little sister. Later on after he has snared both girls once again they are caught again - this time by mom. Though she is furious at first, Mark manages to manipulate her as well. Now we have conflict all over the place. Let's summarize them:
Mark is being hunted by police
Shannon thinks she loves Mark
Mark is using Carol just to get at her daughters
Mark fucks both girls and needs to keep them hooked on him (this is one conflict I'ld like to see drawn out better, but I have a feeling it is her in tent in other chapters to show this)
Carol catches Mark (she could/should call the cops)
Mark forces Carol to admit that she is turned on by the sight
Carol has some sort of inner conflict going on (Why is she turned on by the sight? Does she have a history of being abused? She a closet pedo?)
We also see Mark manipulating Carol in other ways (forcing her to go to work without panties)

Now that we have a list of conflicts (which grows in Meghan's second installment) consider how much richer this is than the "standard" teacher-student story.

My challenge to all of us is to write rich stories which have more than one conflict going on with our characters. If we do, our niche will grow.

Writing challenge:
Write a brief character profile for two characters. This should include a bit more than just name and looks, but it shouldn't be overly long either.

Describe a setting in which a sexual act will occur (do not consider your characters at this point- it is likely they won't be doing it here )

List a sexual act for two/at most three characters to perform. (again this is independent of your characters)

Why all the focus on keeping the items separate you ask? Well that's where the fun of this assignment comes in. I'll place the items in a hat and draw them out to assign to you. Your task is to write a story from them. Now the who/what/where have already been worked out for you, so you should have lots of time to focus on creating deep rich conflicts. Your story can include settings, characters, and acts outside of the ones drawn, but your drawn items should be the central items in the story. Since I am not writing (as the judge) I will have a list of settings/characters/acts that I will add to the hat. Therefore some items may not be drawn.


What's in it for you? 200 GPs for submitting a story based on your prompts. 1000 more for the best story.

Editor's Picks:
Here are some stories worth reading:

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Game Night  (XGC) Caroline's first time with a girl. For Taboo Temptations contest. School girl. #1611115 by Kathryn Ann Summers

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Do you know of an item that we should feature? Let us know about it!

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