Authenticity. Is it a thing for you? Do you have it in your stories? Do you recognize it?

[WendyTrilby]

This is an exciting topic for me. While most of what we write on LE is fiction, usually based on fantasies we have conjured up, authenticity is still important to me. When I look at porn online, I find myself drawn to legitimate amateur work where I can see real people having real sex. They may be in love or just knocking one out; either way, they are doing it just as you or I might. When I read erotica, I look for sex that reads like the sex I've experienced. And that makes it accessible to me as a reader or a viewer. Real sex is clumsy. Leg cramps, wet spots, stains, smells, blemishes, hair where you don't want it, no hair where you want it. We've all been there, and it's not only fine, it's plausible. When something is plausible, we become invested in that story because we can see ourselves in that story.

While my stories tend to have cinematic twists and turns, the sex is always raw. My characters grunt and sometimes fart. Sometimes, they have not bathed or were unprepared to have sex and have not shaved. Their underwear might not be clean or match. But one thing is certain: It reads real, and it reads highly erotic.

- Wendy Trilby

 

[EmilyMiller]

Authenticity. Is it a thing for you? Do you have it in your stories? Do you recognize it?​

I’m maybe splitting hairs, but what I aspire to is self-consistency. For example, I have an FMC who is addicted to semen and will only fuck bareback. She has an OF site and uses it to arrange bareback gang bangs with subscribers. This is to feed her addiction. She also has an impregnation fetish and isn’t on any form of birth control. So, this is clearly ludicrous, verging on satire. But… I at least try to make her behavior consistent with her character.

I suppose I made what little name I have for myself round here writing tentacle porn in space. I could have just written it, of course. But I came up with a quasi-scientific reason for why the tentacle monster (actually a cute giant octopus) existed, was telepathic, and could shift shape. I even had a back story for why he went after [not so] helpless humanoid females, and an alien society rationale for interspecies sex.

None of this is really authentic. But it’s consistent with the rules I have set up for both stories.

@Djmac1031 and I have had a lot of fun figuring out the realms and inhabitants of our Angels & Demons stories. The world building is a blast.

Emily

 

[Djmac1031]

I think my version of "authenticity" is that I can't write about a subject that doesn't interest me, or fake a kink.

I can make up all kinds of bullshit, don't get me wrong. But if my heart and head aren't into it, it's gonna show in my writing, right?

 

[STrent]

Authenticity to me, for my writing, is that I’m drawing from real life. So most of my stories are semi biographical and I exaggerate elements to make it more of a story.

But the setup, the location, the characters (bar names) and the dialogue have to be authentic to the memory I have of them.

The few stories I have written that are entirely made up read more awkwardly. Strangely enough, one of the four I have published so far on here falls into that category, and is the lowest rated of my stories thus far. So maybe there’s something in that.

 

[NormalMarriedWhiteGuy]

Authenticity to me, for my writing, is that I’m drawing from real life. So most of my stories are semi biographical and I exaggerate elements to make it more of a story.

But the setup, the location, the characters (bar names) and the dialogue have to be authentic to the memory I have of them.

The few stories I have written that are entirely made up read more awkwardly. Strangely enough, one of the four I have published so far on here falls into that category, and is the lowest rated of my stories thus far. So maybe there’s something in that.

I am a relatively new author (only 6 published so far) so I draw on real life experience. Though embellished in parts, the basic plot of each story was very real actually did happen to me. I want to branch out and do pure fantasy but I am not there yet.

 

[Ren_eh]

After I published my 173d Jane Bondage "novelette", 'Pussy and Pricks Galore', some readers let me know that they didn't think that my knockout of a double-jointed contortionist . . . "under-the-covers operative" . . . 'Triple-O' secret agent . . . whose cover was that of a 60-year-old exotic dancer and research librarian was "real." Some also didn't believe that her brother was the famed Mmmmm, creator of fantastic and futuristic sex toys and top secret weapons for the 'Mission Insatiable' team.

But I swear it's all 100% autobiographical .

 

[Sappho_CGN]

What is really the meaning of authenticity here?

That you describe only things you have experienced?
That your characters are created according to existing persons?
That the characters and the action seem meaningful?

I think Tom Clancy wrote:

"What is the difference between reality and fiction? Fiction must make sense."

No one would believe the story how I I got to know my husband and what happened till we married.

 

[AG31]

What is really the meaning of authenticity here?

That you describe only things you have experienced?
That your characters are created according to existing persons?
That the characters and the action seem meaningful?

I think Tom Clancy wrote:

"What is the difference between reality and fiction? Fiction must make sense."

No one would believe the story how I I got to know my husband and what happened till we married.

From the OP. "I think I'd call the quality authenticity. I believe that the author was sharing something that really turned him on."

 

[Sappho_CGN]

@AG31

that sounds that i should be like reality, could happen

 

[TarnishedPenny]

AG31 - your quest for Authenticity reminds me very much of Robert Pirsig’s quest for Quality. Like your Authenticity, Pirsig felt that Quality was critical, but could not be defined.

And yes, it exists in good writing.

Excellent thread.

 

[KeithD]

"Authenticity" is not a control term for fiction. I think "plausibility" is a better fit.

 

[AG31]

"Authenticity" is not a control term for fiction. I think "plausibility" is a better fit.

Not at all what I'm after. Check out one of my example stories, Pleasure and Pain, it's certainly not plausible and isn't even very well written.

From my OP: "I believe that the author was sharing something that really turned him on."

 

[Ren_eh]

AG31 - your quest for Authenticity reminds me very much of Robert Pirsig’s quest for Quality. Like your Authenticity, Pirsig felt that Quality was critical, but could not be defined.

And yes, it exists in good writing.

Excellent thread.

We can always look for the signs of excellence.