I struggled writing my first incest story. For the record, I don't approve of incest in real life. Literotica does take a bit of the sting out of the category by requiring all characters being at least eighteen years old. Still, I never thought of my Mom, Dad, brothers or sister in THAT way.

Okay, I'll admit, there was this one cousin, but she was a distant 3rd cousin and once you start getting that far removed from your family, she could have just as easily been a neighbor. Oh, and for the record, nothing ever happened between us. She never knew of my crush.

Literotica runs a Survivor Challenge where authors are challenged to write in as many different categories as they can in the course of a single calendar year. It's a great little idea for attracting stories to lesser categories and building a bigger library of material. (It has been announced that 2014 would be the last year of that competition.) Trying to fill in my scorecard meant the Incest category was staring me down.

Incest remains a popular category. It's my understanding that it's THE most popular category. Personally, I find that remarkable. It has never been my go to category for a bit of solo fun, but then again, I'm not going to judge anyone else's fantasy life. I like lots of things few others enjoy. The readers of incest, in general, are a jovial bunch. They are liberal with their comments, mostly kind and supportive, and are often generous with their ratings, too.

My break-through for writing incest came while watching a crappy b-horror movie whose title has been lost to me. The story focused on a brother and sister team trying to solve the mystery and avoid being hacked to bits. The actors portraying the brother and sister had a lot of synergy between them and it sure didn't translate as brother/sister synergy! I kept expecting them to kiss or make out. Had the story suddenly suggested they weren't really brother and sister, I would have believed it.

With their crappy acting firmly in my mind, I wrote my first incest story and discovered something remarkable: there's built in tension to writing incest. Because incest involves a huge taboo, everyone knows no one should be doing what they are doing.

There are ways to make incest more palatable. The writer can make the characters step-brothers/sisters/parents. If it's a step sibling/parent, then people aren't really related, are they? So, if they have sex, they're unlikely to churn out deformed babies or whatever.

I considered taking that route when I wrote my first incest. I did a bit of research among other incest writers on Literotica and realized, "Screw it, go all hog." It makes sense. If incest is always wrong (and I believe it is), then why hold back with the fantasy? Make'em full on brother, sister, mom, or dad. Go all the way or don't go at all.

So, that's what I've done. They've always been completely related and not cousins, nieces, or nephews, though those ideas hold some appeal to me, too. Why? Because you don't see your aunts/uncles/cousins as often as you see your regular family.

You see, that's part of my problem with incest. Once you cross that line, you can't uncross it unless someone gets married or moves away. You can't unsee it. If it happened, it happened, and it's always going to be there like a scar or a badge of honor.

For this author, here's the challenge and appeal of writing incest: It begins with setting up a firm premise. In my recent story, "My Sister the Christmas Cruise Slut," I made the brother very reluctant to do anything with his sister. A few readers objected to that approach, but I think it's what makes the story more believable in this realm of unbelievable stories. I took a similar approach with "Marlee Pegs Her Dad, a CFNM Story" where there are limits on the amount of fun Marlee has with her Dad because, well, incest!

I removed a story I wish I had kept up: "Nude Day with Mom." In that story, it's a slow transition to nudity between a mother and her son before the sex happens. Prior to that, there was a story about a daughter showing up naked on her eighteenth birthday and another story about a brother blackmailing his sister.

Blackmailing is an easy hook, though it feels so easy that I hate using it. I struggle to find a different twist, a way to make it more believable that the participants are doing what they are doing, sort of like I did with "Not With My Twin!"

Twin-cest has it's own appeal, which brings up the concept of the incest sub-cultures. There are people out there who want to see families fucking and having babies together. Sorry, I'm not sure I can write something like that without it turning into a farce. But, then again, isn't all of it a farce?

Part of the allure of writing incest for this author is the built in dynamic of family members crossing that taboo line and becoming intimate. Typically, we don't develop that sort of familiarity with another person until we've been married to our spouses for years - and that's a relationship that started out with sex. The other challenge is finding a way to make it feel believable, though I think the believability requirement is low.

I'm always hesitant to re-enter the incest category. Some of the private messages and end-of-story comments can get rather outrageous. Time will reveal what my muse brings us. Again, for the record, I don't approve of incest in real life, however, if my incest stories can entertain, that was always the point in the first place.