Exploring dark subject matter in stories

[SensuallyAmbiguous]

Wrote a romance story that is ultimately about dealing with loss and learning to love again that I can currently editing. It explores some dark/triggering subject matter such as loss, depression, and suicidal ideation although it doesn't include any actual suicide. These topics are not involved in any of the erotic aspects of the story but are used for character development.

Are these subjects appropriate for stories posted here (with appropriate trigger warnings)?

Also, I intended the story to be more erotic and use some of these themes as backstory for characters. When I started writing though I found myself exploring those aspects of the characters. How do you other writers balance the darker aspects of character psychology while still including the sexy stuff while keeping character actions and motivations believable? You can just mash them together, of course, that I think that leads to unbelievable characters.

Love to hear others thoughts on this.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Yeah, absolutely! Those can be incredibly powerful. Thinking of @redgarters's The Last Song She Wrote. It's an incredibly powerful story that includes discussions of suicide. These themes can be great when it comes to a story around healing and recovering from loss and depression around such events, though they can be used in other ways as well, obviously. Naturally, you'd want to include content warnings.

Trauma informs a lot of my writing, both as someone who has experienced a great deal of it, and who writes characters that have various aspects of psychological, physical, or emotional turmoil to varying degrees. It's one of my favorite tools to add depth to a character, because almost everybody understands what it's like to have events that haunt you, or issues that keep you up at night, recurring fears and and issues.

You can either try to keep it separate from the sexy stuff. For example, characters can discuss it, but when it comes to the sex, the darker elements are kept away from the scene, or are only marginally present. Or you can lean into it, have the sexy stuff be a way to deal with pain, sharing something beautiful in sex as a way to bond and get through darkness, or to help banish it.

These things tend to be incredibly formative for who a character is. Pain is common, and it drives a lot of behavior and shapes people into who they are. It's one of those important aspects of getting to know the character well, understanding not just the dark event(s)/trauma(s) that happened to them, but how it changed them and continues to inform their actions and thoughts to this day. Did they get help and manage to get past it and heal? Is it still eating at them? Is it fresh, an old wound? These are all considerations for how a person behaves with regards to those actions. And that doesn't change when it comes to sex: those behaviors, especially if the darkness is around sex or sexuality, will impact that as well.

All of those use darker elements, with a wide range, to build the characters, make them more sympathetic to the reader, and make the sex more meaningful. That's ultimately what these darker themes can get you: sex that is about way more than sex, which adds extra layers and makes the reader care about the characters, and be happy that they finally find some joy in each other. That deeper emotional connection can really elevate a scene's sensuality and impact.

A few examples to show how darker elements can really change the vibe and impactfulness of the sex (and mild shameless self-plug, because I need to learn to get better at doing this instead of being too reluctant to even share links when it's relevant):
1. The Goat Who Came for Christmas: Guy has sex with a Christmas goat spirit on what would have been the most depressing Christmas of his life: dad's rapid onset dementia has him in hospice and unaware who his kids are, he doesn't want to burden his sister, he's living alone in his old childhood bedroom at dad's house, hasn't even really unpacked anything. But a straw goat his grandma made him manifests as this sexy goat spirit who helps bring cheer to his Christmas: helps decorate the house, convinces him to go see his sister and her family, goes with him and his sister to see his dad and uses a bit of magic to give him a few hours of lucidity so they can say goodbye properly. Then, Christmas night, they have sex because he feels so grateful to her, among other things, and it's implied that she's actually dealing with her own darkness — feeling lonely and starved of connection for many, many years. Could've just been sexy goat spirit fucks guy, but with this element of depression, grief, loneliness, it's so much more impactful.
2. A Tongue-Tied Valentine: Autistic tamandua dating her first human boyfriend frantically tries to get him the perfect gift for Valentine's. She's been pretending to be what she thinks human guys want from their human girlfriends: cute, demure, not slurping up ants. She frets that if he sees her for who she really is, he'll leave her. She finally decides to get sexy lingerie for him and tries to do a sexy dance, but two-inch-long claws don't play well with Chantilly lace... She has a meltdown, lists all the reasons she can't be the cute human girlfriend he wants: she eats ants, tongue attached to her sternum, kissing him is freakin' hard, and she really enjoys being a dirty little sex monster, not a cute missionary position girl who makes tiny cute moans. But he doesn't reject her like she thinks; frankly, he already knew some of it (not the sex thing though), and tells her he likes her for who she is, not because she's the model of neurotypical human girlfriend (she wasn't doing that good a job at masking). The darker elements around masking and trying to be someone you aren't make the sex all the sweeter and more rewarding because he chooses to be with her for who she really is, and the sex is a way to affirm that and also to allow her to have sex the way she likes it, and he doesn't leave because of that either.
3. The Valentine Debt: A world demons are treated as magical tools that people can summon, control, exploit, harvest parts from, and use as free-use sex toys, because nobody believes they're actually sentient — not dissimilar from AI. Vulpi, a fox succubus, turns the tables on her summoner Alwin, forcing him to realize he'd basically been raping her because the summoning spell forces demons to be compliant and make it look like they're enthusiastic about it (even though he considered himself a good master and didn't hurt her, just used her for kinky stuff). She asks him to make it up to her by spending Valentine's Day treating her like a girlfriend: brunch, dates, movies, fancy dinners. But partway through, he tries to tell her they'll get in trouble, and she makes him tell her he loves her with the spell when he isn't convincing enough saying it on his own. Immediately, she feels awful and decides she's no better than the humans who enslave demons. But Alwin stops her from leaving despite that, because he realizes just how lonely and craving a special connection she is. So, they go out to dinner, shit goes sideways, and when they get back, they have sex, no spells, transformations, or forced fantasies, it's sex as equal partners, affirming her personhood. The darkness makes it meaningful because, for the first time, Vulpi isn't a plaything being used to satisfy someone's appetite for kinky shit — she's his equal and his partner. Very different flavor from the sex scene at the start, where he's face-fucking her and she's forced to say how much she loves it, and he clearly just sees her as some toy.
4. Slippery When Wet: Raya, a tiger shark, is masking kinda like Iraci, but instead of being a human girlfriend, she's acting like the big bad apex predator her family told her she was, and society views her as. Even though she likes cute things and is jealous of her friend and crush Nalani, a dolphin, for being adorable and pretty — she wishes she was too. She never felt connected to the idea that she had to be the big, bad apex predator. Stuff happens, Raya feels like she ruined the friendship by taking advantage of her friend being high and basically throwing herself at Raya, but they talk, clear the air, and Nalani takes Raya back to her place to fuck properly and sober this time. But she knows Raya isn't that big bad shark, and wants to make her feel pretty and cherished. For the first time, Raya gets fully topped, the sex isn't apex shark sex, it's her being fucked by someone who calls her "baby girl" and tells her how pretty she is, and this is the first time someone's really treated Raya this way, and the sex and the way Nalani talks to her confirms that this feeling she had of never quite fitting with the identity she'd been given is real. Basically, a trans metaphor, Raya getting to be the pretty girl instead of the vicious shark she's pretended she was her whole life. You leave all that out, the sex is just a dolphin using a strapon on her shark girlfriend. But with it, it adds so much more meaning to the encounter, and the sex is all about helping to show Raya who she really is, and helping her embrace and see that.

 

[anthrodisiac]

All of which is to say, it doesn't necessarily have to balance, like you said. You don't need the sexiness to offset the darkness. They can work together to enhance one another. The darkness helps give meaning to the sex, the sex makes the darkness "worth" it from the perspective of the reader, because without that darkness, we never would've gotten to this point where someone has realized who they are, or made some realization, or come to terms for trauma or sadness.

Of course, this is just one way to handle dark themes in your story. It doesn't have to turn out well and sunshine and rainbows. It can be bleak throughout. In that case, the darkness can be fetishistic, someone seeking out pain or punishment because of childhood trauma, which made them really like being spanked or dommed, and that helps inform why the person is behaving the way they are: because past pain was taken and assigned sexual kink in the brain for whatever reason.

Really, the best way to handle this is to do what you would do for any other backstory: get to know the character and figure out what their core drives are. How impactful was that trauma or pain in who they are? Maybe it only affects them in certain areas, but not others. Maybe it barely affects them at all. Maybe it's totally consumed them. Like any other element, it can be used to help give someone depth, or as a driver of the story, either directly or as the result of someone acting the way they do because of that darkness.

My theory of writing characters is to make sure they're constructed so that every action they take makes sense as if they were their own person. In-universe logic, basically, explaining their actions. Someone who's never stepped outside their house because of rampant agoraphobia isn't going to suddenelly go rushing out and hitting on everyone at a bar (well, not usually anyway). So it's important to make sure that the dark backstory works to your advantage in creating a character whose actions are internally motivated, not the result of them doing things because the writer is making them do it in order to hit a plot point. To me, that's one of the most important parts of crafting a character in general, because it makes them feel like they have agency, which helps the reader connect and become invested in the choices they make, both good and bad.

 

[StillStunned]

Wrote a romance story that is ultimately about dealing with loss and learning to love again that I can currently editing. It explores some dark/triggering subject matter such as loss, depression, and suicidal ideation although it doesn't include any actual suicide. These topics are not involved in any of the erotic aspects of the story but are used for character development.

Are these subjects appropriate for stories posted here (with appropriate trigger warnings)?

Also, I intended the story to be more erotic and use some of these themes as backstory for characters. When I started writing though I found myself exploring those aspects of the characters. How do you other writers balance the darker aspects of character psychology while still including the sexy stuff while keeping character actions and motivations believable? You can just mash them together, of course, that I think that leads to unbelievable characters.

Love to hear others thoughts on this.

Write where the story leads. If it's not erotic, that's OK. I began a story that was supposed to be about trolls and fairies in Central Park, and ended up being an exploration of introversion and how it affects relationships. No sex, but readers like it.

Lit is intended for erotica, but there's an audience for everything. Straightforward sex stories, complex character-driven stories, dark erotica, non-erotic stories, revenge stories both erotic and non-erotic. Write it, and people will read it. Write it well, and they'll connect with it.

This is an excellent place for practising writing. Don't try to limit yourself by saying "no, I can't or won't do that." Give it a go, and see where it takes you. Don't feel obliged to make it sexy if it feels right without.

 

[FrancesScott]

It explores some dark/triggering subject matter such as loss, depression, and suicidal ideation although it doesn't include any actual suicide.

I published a story that deals with (among other things) PTSD leading to depression and suicide ideation. It placed third in a competition.

Elsewhere I deal with bereavement and trying to live again. Including in my highest-rated story.

My WIP focuses on the aftermath of CSA.

And I thoroughly recommend @redgarters luminous story that @anthrodisiac mentions. But it’s a tough read.

 

[Erozetta]

Wrote a romance story that is ultimately about dealing with loss and learning to love again that I can currently editing. It explores some dark/triggering subject matter such as loss, depression, and suicidal ideation although it doesn't include any actual suicide. These topics are not involved in any of the erotic aspects of the story but are used for character development.

Are these subjects appropriate for stories posted here (with appropriate trigger warnings)?

Also, I intended the story to be more erotic and use some of these themes as backstory for characters. When I started writing though I found myself exploring those aspects of the characters. How do you other writers balance the darker aspects of character psychology while still including the sexy stuff while keeping character actions and motivations believable? You can just mash them together, of course, that I think that leads to unbelievable characters.

Love to hear others thoughts on this.

They can be very appropriate.

Dark content can be difficult to traverse in a tactful way as too much and it can come across as trying too hard to make something tragic.

It's a thing that needs to happen or be discussed with purpose in erotic writing.

One More Night has allusions to suicidal ideation woven throughout. It's ultimately a story about trying to learn when the right time to end a relationship is and what the risks are when you try and try to make it work past that line. At what point do you accept that it's feeling stuck and obligated in your relationship that is driving your suicidal thoughts? How bad do you need to let it get before you feel like you aren't an asshole for divorcing your husband, who has never met your needs and has been a constant emotional drain on you? And what happens when someone else learns the truth of your situation and makes a genuine effort to care?

Principles of Pain: The Watcher has self doubt and self destructive behavior on full display. This is a girl who intentionally breaks her life over and over again when she gets too close to getting better. She's terrified of what it would mean to get better. To be functional feels incredibly overwhelming to her, so she self sabotages, until a therapist sees what she's doing, indulges her, then refuses to let her leave treatment with him.

Tainted Love explores masochism and past trauma. It dives into self sacrifice and understanding a partner's needs more than even they do. It's dark and it's light in that everything that is done, is done because of a desire to care for someone who is utterly broken and afraid to ask for what she wants in fear of being "too needy."


Then there's How Villains are Made, which isn't on Lit. But it explores kidnapping, male rape, torture, murder, grief, miscarriage, abandonment, adultery, obsession, and other such themes all wrapped up in a Dom/sub dynamic that is about as unhealthy as unhealthy can get, but still falls under risk aware consensual kink until the end. Everyone in this story is baseline traumatized and trying to heal, but fall into comforting and destructive dynamics in a co-dependent way after bonding through an event they weren't sure they would survive. It goes heavy and it goes dark, and it's incredibly sensual.

Anthy laid a lot of it out in their posts, but the idea that darkness must be avoided for escapism basically tells a whole swath of people they don't belong here and are unwanted in the space because they aren't fluffy softness. And frankly, fuck that.

Write what feels natural to you. Write it as dark as you'd like as long as you stay within the rules. Bring sensuality into it as a tool of healing and expressing desire even if society says you should be irreparably broken after trauma and your sexuality is forfeit because you've experienced something painful that should leave you a husk of a person. Because that's just a lot of bullshit that makes people who haven't had much difficulty in life feel comfortable as they don't want to step outside of their fluffy world to see how others love, survive, and thrive with sex as a base component of their healing and surviving process following very real and difficult traumas in their lives.


And I'll add that these are some of the best writers of dark stories:

HannahBaird
SeraphNocturne
AwkwardMD
EarlyMorningLight
BenjaminCarlisle
Lovecraft68

 

[Ianus4]

These topics are definitely worth discussing. In addition to the ones already mentioned above, let me bring one more to your attention—it’s one of the most heart-wrenching things I’ve ever read here: Charity Begins Next Door by @Tx_Tall_Tales

 

[EmilyMiller]

Exploring dark subject matter in stories​

I’ve written about:

1. Bereavement multiple times
2. Trauma response multiple times
3. Self-esteem issues leading to destructive behavior multiple times

I think you are good

 

[redgarters]

This is an interesting question. I agree with everyone above, that not writing the darker elements of life into stories would make them not representative of real life. Eroticism comes in many forms, and darkness can be a part of that, or offset more joyous elements, or be used to set up character backgrounds, emotions, choices... it's endless really.

I've more often than not found my stories spark to life in characters that have some darkness in their backgrounds. The death of a spouse, addiction, sexual abuse, questioning self worth. I often see those elements as the beginning of the road, an important part of who my characters are. The stories then often show the journey away from these dark events or feelings and into the light of hope and love. In that way, the darkness makes the light shine more brightly.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Dark content is needed to build believable characters.

Nobody is perfect or leads an ideal serene life. Something happens or something in their past shapes the person to react differently to what's happening today.

My swinger lifestyle MFC, Jan, grew through her teen years with a mother who had PTSD from her son dying in a car accident with her, and the mother couldn't look at her daughter without breaking down crying remembering her lost son. Jan developed a strong personality with the attitude "Get the fuck over it and move on!" about everything in her life. Her past is often touched on in various stories and was best described in "Lifestyle Ch. 11 - Demons Past" when she returns with her husband to the vacant house where she grew up.

My "Aftermath: ..." stories are about the PERFECT, monogamous couple whose lives were torn apart after she was raped. The assault changed her, and her husband could no longer deal with her changed needs. The first version of the story is just from the husband's POV. But the second version of the story, "Aftermath, Just Loving You" has her explaining to a therapist what happened and why she's now different.

And my story "A Band of Sisters and Brothers" is about PTSD in the military, and the tensions faced by the spouse who stays behind while their other deploys to face danger and death.

"Neverland, Don't Go Back There!" is about a woman who grew up with drug-addict parents.

"It’s None of Your Business!" deals with alcoholism in a marriage.

The dark content in those story shape the characters and situation to help explain WHY they are who they are in the sexual situations. I used that dark content in Loving Wives stories to try showing the BTB crowd that sometimes people cannot be who you think they should be.

 

[lovecraft68]

As others said there is no issue with it content wise and a lot of people identify with these topics because as many of us know, life is full of pain in one form or another.

But one thing to consider is at times-and depending on category-it can lead to a lower score than happier more fun tales because some people don't like doses of realism and real life BS in their erotica.

For an example, Incest is far and away the most viewed category here and leads to a lot of votes and comments.

My first series here was averaging 50 votes and a half dozen comments per chapters while the average was in the hundreds and two-three dozen.

Why? Story was a bleak 20 year story of a broken brother and sister and their trials amid their relationship.
Depression
Drug addiction
Suicide attempt
Mental illness
Abuse booth physical and sexual
The occult
violent BDSM sex.
Graphic physical violence as there were several fight scenes sprinkled in.

But "My sis has big tits" were getting ten times the attention. It does take some dedication and will to power through a long series or story knowing the reason its not getting high numbers that some strkers do is because the shit isn't a joke, but real.

This is a fantasy site, the results of real can vary.

But never let that stop you.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

This is a fantasy site, the results of real can vary.

Probably the best way to describe what the majority of readership in Literotica is looking for.

 

[Bazzle]

Replying to this one too

I have got a couple of dark themed stories

This one is a "based on a true story" sort of one. I interviewed this anonymous reditor

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-fat-drunk-chain-smoker its scoring just under a red H...

Also at the request of "darksider" of the smoking fetish community

https://www.literotica.com/s/sliding-down-the-bank

Its not erotica in a sense, and it is rather sad. BUT it was requested and I wrote it...again scoring just under the red H.

So my two dark emotional not really erotic fetishy stories have done OK on Lit.

 

[MrPixel]

Barstow - Elysian Fields is a thriller about a grad student returning to finish her PhD. In resuming her swinging/dating life around school she inadvertently gets sucked into a sex cult situation. People she has casual relationships with seem to vanish, bodies (and bits thereof) are eventually found in the surrounding hills, with the cult leader and minions arrested in a raid; she escapes with the FBI's assistance. Fugitive "enforcers" from the compound pursue her back to her home far away knowing she's a material witness, the thugs perishing in a very-high-speed car chase.

 

[D_K_Moon]

I don't necessarily try to make my characters sexy, I try to make them believable. Death, depression, dark thoughts etc. are all a part of life. Write what you want, write for yourself, don't write for readers who can be as fickle as the weather on spring long weekend.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I have written some pretty dark stuff, but in my stories, the darkness is always met with hope and strength. The dark is beautiful. Without it, we couldn't see the stars.

My most recent submission may be my darkest, but from the comments it has received, readers saw the beauty.

Yankee Bayonet

 

[EmilyMiller]

Exploring dark subject matter in stories​

“Hi,” I began, “first time at the symposium?”

She briefly looked sideways at me, said, “Yeah,” and went back to typing into her laptop.

“Um… where are you based?” So smooth, Jake. So smooth!

This time she didn’t even move her head while replying, “Northeastern.”

“Oh, great. I’m at Cornell. Jake. Jake is my name.”

Silence.

“And you…?” I ventured.

“Natalia Petrov,” came the clipped response. I was clearly annoying her.

“Wait… the Natalia Petrov? The one who wrote that groundbreaking Nature paper on weakly interacting massive particles?”

Once more she turned her head. But this time she didn’t turn it back.

“Jacob… Cohen?” she asked.

“Yeah, it was cool you cited my supersymmetry work. Um… thanks, I guess.”

“You’re… cuter than your departmental photo,” she said, touching her cheek with her fingertips.

“Want to…”

“Go somewhere private and discuss dark matter?” she interjected. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

 

[BeechLeaf]

At last, someone's picked up on the dark matter.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I have a handful of dark stories, things that deal with death, both accidental and premeditated, abuse, rape, child trafficking, depression ect. But only one so far that has sex in it.

Neptune's Blessings, is about a merman who is in an abusive situation, a horribly abusive situation, and his best thought on how to cope with it, is have sex. Usually it works well as a distraction, but on at least one occasion, thoughts of his abuser intruded during the act.

I've another one I'm working on where the protagonist has trauma that he doesn't think about. However it's severely affecting his love life so he's going to have to work on that trauma somehow. I wonder if he can manage that and never actually think about what the trauma is. Doesn't seem likely but we'll see how the writing process goes.

 

[PadTy]

Come to think of it, I think most of my stories have a very dark undertone. They rarely originate that way.

Fulfillment is a story of obsession and rejection.

Tutto a Posto is about how we can never really know another person.

The Mighty Oak is played mainly as comedy, but originated from the idea of an anthropomorphic tree visiting a furniture store. Yeah, it's weird.

Like and Subscribe is pure satire (with blowjobs and stuff) but includes the end of the world.

Best fitting the theme of the thread is Magnificent Desolation. It's a story about isolation and regret. Also, hard fucking.

Finally, A Teaspoon of Trouble includes Death as a character.

Stories in the queue include a time travel story about regret and death, a lesbian story about isolation, and another uncategorized story with blowjobs and physical violence.

I never really thought about these stories being "dark" before, but through the lens of this thread, yeah.

I think it adds a little dramatic depth.

 

[Baztrachian]

masochism

Brings to mind an old joke:

A sadist and a masochist are sitting together at a bar.

The masochist says to the sadist, "Beat the shit out of me!"

The sadist thinks for a moment and then quietly says, "No."

 

[Erozetta]

Brings to mind an old joke:

A sadist and a masochist are sitting together at a bar.

The masochist says to the sadist, "Beat the shit out of me!"

The sadist thinks for a moment and then quietly says, "No."

Luckily for me, I know how to hurt myself better than anyone else ever could.

 

[Baztrachian]

Luckily for me, I know how to hurt myself better than anyone else ever could.

We all do, my friend.

 

[anthrodisiac]

At last, someone's picked up on the dark matter.

I was going to say something, but I didn't want to be a WIMP.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

At last, someone's picked up on the dark matter.

Once my fanfic gets approved, someone will have dealt with dark energy as well. Not the same as matter, but the vibes are in the same frequency.