Incest; a category that despite its controversial subject matter and legions of dedicated trolls is still far and away the most popular category on Literotica. If you are motivated by votes, comments, and moving up the favorite author list, Incest is the category that will ensure a huge response. If done properly.
What do I mean by properly? Because of its ‘squicky’ nature and association with jokes about rural south trailer parks there are many who denigrate the category saying the readership and authors are unintelligent and…trash.
It should be noted that many of these same people enjoy rape stories and tales of mythical creatures having sex with humans. A strange code of ethics some people have. Take a deep breath and say it with me. “Your kink is okay, my kink is okay, her kink…”
That stereotype is also unfounded. The reason many incest reader’s comments seem semi literate to the eternally snarky is incest is a worldwide fetish and many readers are English as a second language.
Yet these individuals make the effort to reach out and comment to the best of their ability. So truth be told it’s easy to see the ignorance lies on the other side, not ‘our side’
Many of the readers I have corresponded with are well educated and professional and because of that there is an even bigger thrill from something they are not “supposed” to read which is why so many readers are anonymous in incest. Dirty little secrets are more fun when they’re secret.
But due to that ‘lowbrow’ reputation many authors seem to think that simply replacing “Gina’s tits” with “Mommy’s tits” has now created a quality incest story. After all, just give the people their ‘family fucking’ and you have yourself a hit, right? Wrong.
Make no mistake, even a mediocre incest tale will get more attention than stories in many other categories, but there is a far cry from the two hundred or so votes and a dozen comments a stroke incest tale can receive- to go along with a score in the high three’s to low 4 range- and a story that can go well over a thousand votes with dozens of comments and a much higher score.
Literotica is a free site. We authors are paid in votes, comments, favs and feedback, don’t you want to get the biggest paycheck possible? Well if you do, then the trick is to realize incest is more than sis blowing you instead of Gina doing it. In my time here I have garnered a large following of readers and have enjoyed many successful stories in the incest genre.
But that’s now. Like everyone else I started from scratch here with no fan base and writing what I hoped were stories people would like. As I have continued to write and experiment I have learned many do’s and do not’s of Incest.
A lot of the insight I have gained has come from corresponding with the readers and paying attention to what they say. So the first pointer I’d like to give is one that extends to every category; listen to your readers.
Not the trolls who tell you you’re sick (because they are mad they just jacked off to your story) or to the “Oh, my God, you’re just the best ever” because that is equally bogus and not useful at all. Trust me, you only wrote the best story ever until the next story they read. But in between there is good constructive feedback we can learn from.
Having said that; I have stated many times my stories are my babies and done my way. I hope for people to enjoy, but if they don’t…it is not the end of my world. I care about sharing my vision and at times it is a popular one at times its not, but it’s always mine. I mention this because there is a difference between hitting some sweet spots and selling out.
One of the great things about lit is you can either write to appeal to the masses or create your own style and they will find you. The latter is the case for me as I have written the same type of story from day one and as time has passed more and more readers have been drawn to it.
To date I have obtained a nice balance of writing what I want, but appealing to a large readership and so can you.
The tips I am about to give appeal, like everything else, to a certain faction of incest, not the entire genre. That faction, if not the biggest, is the most active when it comes to rewarding you, the author.
Why? Because you made the effort to tell a ‘real’ story and create characters they grow attached to and become passionate about. So passionate they are compelled to comment.
A well developed tale inspires people to think and tell you what they think. But a stroke story? Those are one handed reads and as soon as the reader Jacks or Jills off, they are done. Sometimes they get off before the end and will click off without voting.
So the things I am going to touch on are based on getting the reader to react to more than the sex and want to tell you about it. These little tricks and devices have given me great results and if you follow them you will have a much better chance of getting what we strive for here the; vaunted Red H and a full ‘recent activity’ page.
Before I go further-and since I am ‘talking to the readers’- I am going to take a moment to answer the three questions I have been asked most in my four years of writing taboo tales here. Okay, they are questions two through four. Question number one still remains “When are you going to fuck off and die, you sick prick?”
The answer to that is only the good die young, so please, mister anonymous, don’t get your hopes up. This writer of sinfully salacious sexy sister seductions and marvelous mommies mounting mischievous mama’s…boys. (Yeah, I know, I ran out of M words. What do you want for free?) isn’t going anywhere.
First question: Do I write my stories from experience?
No. I know the sexy response is to wax nostalgic on all the adventures I shared with my mom, but in reality, unless ‘what the hell is the matter with you?’ was mom speak for “Hey baby, hop on.” There was no interest on her part. For me? I do admit to wanting to touch my mother inappropriately, but realized matricide is a crime.
I was however, many years ago, involved in what could best be described as a ‘pseudo incestuous’ relationship and hence my love of taboo erotica.
Second question and most frequently asked, okay sometimes asked. Alright, one reader who later admitted they were drunk and requested to have their e-mail retracted asked “Why do you enjoy writing incest stories?”
The answer to that question is the challenge.
Literotica has many categories, but if you remove Sci-fi/fantasy, Nonhuman and Erotic Horror-categories that by nature suspend reality- all other categories are fetishes and situations that can happen.
But incest? Incest, as we all know, is in reality, a disturbing situation and I believe both the authors here as well as the readers are aware of that and it’s not what we are looking for. What are we looking for? We want incest Literotica style; Eighteen plus, fun, consensual sexy and romantic pairings between family members.
Now, how to justify it? First let me point out there are two types of stories here in any category. Stroke, which are stories designed to be one handed reads and others that make an effort to have some substance with their stroke.
There is an audience for both here, but stroke has it easy. When reading for masturbation, do you really care why mom decided to give her son a blow job, or why a formerly prudish sister bends over and begs her brother to fuck her? Nope, just go for the ride.
Now a story that is meant to be more than that? It’s not an easy task to take such an implausible scenario and make the reader say, “I could see that happening.” For me, that’s the fun of writing these stories; to take something not only farfetched, but about the only thing our society still frowns upon, and have it seem real.
In every erotic story there is a moment where reality does take a back seat to porn absurdity, but it doesn’t have to start that way and if an author can lay the ground work of believable characters in a unique situation that absurdity can blend in with the story itself and become rational. So I find writing these stories a difficult, yet rewarding, writing exercise.
The last question is one I have been asked by both experienced authors as well as newcomers is why do I feel my incest stories do well and how could they get theirs to be well received. Those e-mails are what inspired me to write this piece.
There’s more than one answer to that question, one of which being to simply keep at it. The more stories you have the larger your readership becomes and the more positive votes you get. But you still have to gain those readers and the key is to write a certain way and be consistent with it to find more readers who share your vision of the genre.
I have built a reputation for writing long, detailed stories that focus on far more than just fucking, but the things that lead to that crossing of the line between siblings or parents and their adult offspring. On that note, it’s time to get to the real point of this essay and that’s the keys to writing a successful incest story on literotica.
I am going to preface the rest of this by repeating that on lit there is an audience for everything and there is no flat out right and wrong style of story to write. But what I have seen from both my own stories and others in the category leads me to believe that when trying to achieve the best possible score and get that recent activity page lit up like a Christmas tree, there are things that work far better than others.
Let’s go back for moment to my comment about the misconception that incest readers are less intelligent or discerning than those of other categories. Unlike most genre’s, authors do not write incest through experience, but more from fantasy. Yes, there are those that will go on and on about what they did with their family growing up and perhaps they did, but for the most part incest is a fantasy rather than ‘deed’ kink.
Because of that it adds to the challenge to write a convincing story as there is not a lot to base it on. If you’ve had group sex, you can write it, bi-sexual, BDSM…all things people can write from real events, but incest…not so much. The risk in those categories is obvious; if you’ve never done it and can’t “fake it” you get caught with your pants down.
So there are authors here who feel they can easily put it past the ‘less than’ incest crowd and make a token effort and expect accolades for it. Sorry, but, no. Like any other genre the incest readership knows what it wants.
Taking a simple everyday porn premise and sticking in the buzz words of mom, sis, or daddy is not enough to create a truly memorable incest tale. Like all categories the incest readers know when the author is sincere or being disingenuous and simply posting copy paste efforts; throwing as much ‘family’ wordage in as possible because they are looking for some quick strike attention and votes.
What do I mean by that? Quite simply put those stories have no heart and believe it or not what drives a successful incest story is emotion. A son just fucking his mother is okay for some, but what the readers really crave is a four letter word. No not fuck, not even lust, but…love.
Despite the bad reputation the category has and its inherently disturbing nature, the incest crowd is a soft fun loving bunch. They are romantics at heart; it’s just a strange kind of romance. But that doesn’t mean a story where little sister says “I love you” after her four brothers gang bang her, achieves that, again…you need to mean it and make them feel you mean it.
So let’s walk through the steps to accomplishing your incestuous masterpiece and then we will address the all important detail of “Incest romance” Now the following can apply to any incest ‘pairing’, but as it progresses my examples are going to lean more towards mother son as it’s the biggest sub category within incest, but again it’s all plug and play with any story, you want to write.
First, your title. This will sound like a no brainer, but sometimes obvious things are what we miss. Whatever the ‘pairing’ is, make use of it in your title and your tag line. Mother/son stories should have mom in the title.
Mother works, mommy works, but I feel Mom is the best term to use, but that’s subjective, the use of it should not be. The readers are browsing a list of stories and you need to tell them, “Hey, here is what you want.”
I learned this right off the bat. My first mother/son story here was called “Weekends with Laura” the score on it is fairly good, but the votes and comments way below the norm. Why? Because who the hell is Laura? Why is Laura in incest? The reader would assume if it’s in the category that she would have to be a mom or sis, but why make them think and chance them wandering away?
Now fortunately for me, it was not a total loss as my tag line read “Kevin loves older women, especially his mother” so if they got past the title they saw what I was writing about. So putting your buzz word in a title is big if you want to get your story clicked on.
As for your tag line; like any other story, a description, but also the “other half” of your taboo coupling. I missed that in my example “Kevin” who is good old Kev? The son…but again, call it out! People don’t search by names they search by “mom, son, dad”
Also important in the tag line is a nice hook, a tease, a little flair.
Title “Mom will do anything.” Tag line “Desperate mother agrees to a porn shoot…with her son!” read that out loud with the pause and in a shocked tone, “With her son!” Yes, cheesy, but this is the thrill they are looking for, so don’t roll your eyes, just go for it.
Another thing to keep in mind is if your story is not straight up mother/son and you are going to introduce another kink, make sure your title and tag calls it out.
The reason is twofold. You want to draw people who also like that kink and may give your story a look because of it, but more importantly if that kink turns someone off you would rather them be forewarned and not read it than give you a bomb.
Title “Mom is bound to Please” Tag line “Anna’s bondage fantasies are fulfilled, by her son.” Note that bondage is called out in title and description and “By her son”, again the shocking taboo disclaimer.
Titles can be “stroky” or “serious” and I don’ think either will affect a reader clicking. However there is a fine line. “Mom loves to Suck” is pretty “porno” but in a fun way and it could still be a “story” now “Gangbanging my mother’s ass” is going cause people who enjoy the aforementioned “Love” to give an eye roll and wander off.
Now that we have our catchy and to the point title and tag, let’s get to some of the things incest readers enjoy or do not enjoy.
The number one no-no in incest is non consent. No added element to an incest story will get you flamed as much as non consent will. Why? My personal theory is we all know real life incest is molestation, abuse and rape because it’s generally done to under age children and by older relatives. Incest readers know that and they are defensive of the category because that’s what the “real world” associates their kink with.
So when it shows up here, they get upset. Incest readers want their family encounters to be a consensual, fluffy, clean dirty fun; a good time had by all and of course…romantic. Happily Ever After rules in incest as much as romance.
Rough sex is something that’s frowned upon, even consensually. This was taught to me by how small the readership was for my Siblings with Benefits series which featured rough sex and hardcore BDSM.
The series did well score wise, but while stories like “Oh, sis fuck me” were getting 300 votes, SWB was getting 75. This was driven home by a comment that to this day makes me laugh “Good sir that is no way for a loving brother to treat his beautiful big sister!”
Now that comment is funny, but informative. Look at his wording “loving brother, beautiful sister” that’s what the readership wants!
They want happy sweet couplings, they can be raunchy and dirty, mom/sis can act and talk like porn stars, but there has to be that emotion behind it to give them the best of both worlds and it also adds that “consent” and safe feeling that these stories are not the abuse of true incest.
Depressing storylines are also not as well received (see author LaRascasse for well written but depressing examples) All of my mother son stories range from the high 4.6’s into the 4.8’s except for one which lingers around 4.5.
That story “Mama’s Boy” was lower voted because the storyline features an abusive alcoholic who mistreats his wife and son. So although I stress write what you wish, be aware these stories will not see top numbers.
The next ‘dislikes’ I am going to give are subjective, because again, there is something for everyone. So these ideas are not ones that will necessarily get you flamed, but are only for a certain faction and the point of this is taking the sweet spots over the some like it some don’t.
Family orgy incest. Not everyone is into this and it takes the already implausible and throws it into absurdity. Having the entire family hopping on comes across as pure stroke. Although an entire family can love each other they are not going to ‘fall in love’ with each other.
So the romance ticket is out the door with your plausibility, the taboo is gone because if the whole family is doing it, who cares? And that means there is no conflict and no threat of being caught and punished. Will some love it, of course, but a lot of readers will pass it by.
Involving others: Another ‘faction’ aspect. The people who are into the type of story I am discussing are protective of the taboo love affair going on between the family members.
This is a lot stronger instinct in brother/sister. They don’t want sis having any cock but their brothers and the other way around. It ruins the fantasy ‘loving relationship’ come on people, we all know it’s wrong to cheat on your sister!
It is worth noting that in mom/son many are fine with dad still being in the mix with mom to add an element of sneaking around and conflict and guilt that mom is sleeping with both(note, not talking about the strokers; they want both doing her at once, I know cause…well I wrote one.
Hangs head in shame) But seeing dad is dad and he was there first its okay…now have mom have a boyfriend she is tagging when not with her son…prepare to be bombed.
When it comes to daddy/daughter the rule of thumb is stories where the daughter is the aggressor are better received than the father seducing the daughter. The reasoning for this is a dubious double standard.
Mom seducing son? Just fine, just a hot cougar who happens to be related to her cub. But dad after the daughter comes with some rape connotations even if the author is writing full consent. It may not get you trolled, but it will score a bit lower than daughter being hot for daddy.
Now for the “Do’s” First and foremost dialogue. What are we reading for in this category? It’s not to hear, “Oh, Susan, please…” its “Oh, mom, please…” make use of your buzz words in your dialogue and your narrative.