Tug Cliches

[bondagefreak]

Thanks so much for the reply! I can imagine this topic could go down a whole rabbit hole about the issue of representativeness in these stories, occupation, race, etc.

I hadn't been following that thread recently, but thank you for calling my attention to it. Yeah, my guess had been that the distribution of portrayals is kind of just a reflection of the distribution of readership interests. I've also been following some of Bound & Gagged too!
I like the flip on the typical portrayals, especially with the age difference iirc. I don't know if "skater" counts as a still common choice of dom, in the broader realm outside tugstories, but I definitely appreciate how the jocks in the more recent chapters seem to be taking a more 'bland' role.

The discussion has been pretty fruitful! I really like the philosophical replies regarding differences between BDSM culture rules and fraternity portrayals.

Thanks again for the links!

No problem, buddy.

On the subject of representation, I think the authors tend to write about what they know or what they're exposed to in every day life.
As a mod, I have access to every user's general location on the world map (through IP address info) and it's come to my attention that the casts being featured in stories written by American/Canadian authors tend to be much more racially diverse than my own.

In contrast, I live in a part of the world that is almost completely white, French-speaking and of catholic descent.
Living in a medium sized city with an 97% Caucasian population, most of the characters I write about tend to be a reflection of the people I see/work with/know.

Same thing for the character "occupation" classification. I try to break the mould (ex: Using a scrawny skaterboy as a makeshift Dom, bullies being gagged with a twink's socks, jockish sons being gagged with their father's socks, twink vs twink battles, etc) but my go-to Dom characters are the body-building construction worker/labourer-types, simply 'cause that's something I know and identify heavily with.

In other words, I write what I know.
In some respects (at least when it comes to racial and occupational diversity) other authors do the same.

There are a lot of stereotypes being portrayed here. But as a whole, I do believe the stories on this forum break the mould pretty often.
Lots of different styles and characters.


Really glad to hear you've been following some of Bound and Gagged!
You should seriously consider reading from the start though.
The story doesn't make much sense if you're just reading recent bits without starting from the beginning.

I think you'd find the storyline arch and characters far more enjoyable if you started chapter one and worked your way up from there.

You should definitely chime in some time!

[ChiDrag221]

No problem, buddy.

On the subject of representation, I think the authors tend to write about what they know or what they're exposed to in every day life.
As a mod, I have access to every user's general location on the world map (through IP address info) and it's come to my attention that the casts being featured in stories written by American/Canadian authors tend to be much more racially diverse than my own.

In contrast, I live in a part of the world that is almost completely white, French-speaking and of catholic descent.
Living in a medium sized city with an 97% Caucasian population, most of the characters I write about tend to be a reflection of the people I see/work with/know.

Same thing for the character "occupation" classification. I try to break the mould (ex: Using a scrawny skaterboy as a makeshift Dom, bullies being gagged with a twink's socks, jockish sons being gagged with their father's socks, twink vs twink battles, etc) but my go-to Dom characters are the body-building construction worker/labourer-types, simply 'cause that's something I know and identify heavily with.

In other words, I write what I know.
In some respects (at least when it comes to racial and occupational diversity) other authors do the same.

There are a lot of stereotypes being portrayed here. But as a whole, I do believe the stories on this forum break the mould pretty often.
Lots of different styles and characters.


Really glad to hear you've been following some of Bound and Gagged!
You should seriously consider reading from the start though.
The story doesn't make much sense if you're just reading recent bits without starting from the beginning.

I think you'd find the storyline arch and characters far more enjoyable if you started chapter one and worked your way up from there.

You should definitely chime in some time!

Thanks for the very insightful information! I've been really impressed by the length of that novelistic work; do you consider it your magnum opus? I remember reading the beginning chapters up to a point, and then reading the last chapters working backwards up to a point, but I suppose time constraints kept me from reading the middle portion Some parts were reminiscent of your older work, The Bondage Buddies: All Taped Up, now lost in the mists of time, of course.

And yeah, that seems very much plausible to me - writers will tend to present a cast whose demographics reflect the range of people they tend to see in their personal experiences. What tends to be represented will be a reflection of the people in the lives of who tends to be authors of the works - if there are few Asian baristas in the author's location, there will tend to be few Asian baristas in the story casts.

[bondagefreak]

Thanks for the very insightful information! I've been really impressed by the length of that novelistic work; do you consider it your magnum opus? I remember reading the beginning chapters up to a point, and then reading the last chapters working backwards up to a point, but I suppose time constraints kept me from reading the middle portion Some parts were reminiscent of your older work, The Bondage Buddies: All Taped Up, now lost in the mists of time, of course.

Yes, definitely my magnum opus.
Actually, B&G far outdates "The Bondage Buddies". I'd started production of B&G in late 2010, about five years before "The Bondage Buddies".

It's never too late to pick up from the beginning though.
Several reviewers ([mention]Pup Wingletang[/mention] being the most recent) have recently started from the beginning and made it all the way to the current chapters, all in the span of a few weeks. I have a lot of readers working their way through the story and dropping reviews every ten chapters or so.

If you liked "The Bondage Buddies" that much, you should really seriously consider giving B&G a real, proper readthrough.
The things you've enjoyed about it so far will be far more enjoyable when you read it the way it was meant to be read.

[Pup Wingletang]

For me, clichés are heavily tied up with the concept of lazy and unimaginative writing. There's a whole building block of ideas and themes that get used time and time again within the genre of TUG stories - any one of them can become a cliché if it is used without imagination. However, with imagination they can be turned into the most amazing and unique stories.

Looking at the initial examples given I would agree that 'everyone is an expert knot tier' and 'always rope and tape on standby' are definitely clichés if nothing else is given to substantiate them. However, even if we just combine these two ideas into the same story we get a much more realistic scenario. Add in a few hints to their prior experience and we now have the makings of your perfect TUG story top. The concepts themselves are key elements in many TUG stories - the lack of imagination in using them makes them clichés.

I don't think a lack of detail in tie up scenes can really be classified as a cliché. I think this is very much a personal preference. Whilst a lack of detail could be classified as lazy/unimaginative writing I think it very much has to be looked at in the context of the overall story and what the author is trying to achieve with their writing. For example, [mention]bondagefreak[/mention]'s 'Bound and Gagged' has some incredibly detailed passages whilst [mention]Volobond[/mention] s 'It's a Business' is far less detailed by comparison. However, both authors have created well written, inventive stories with great plots, multiple complex characters and lots of imaginative and varied bondage. I love both these stories - they stoke the imagination in different ways but with the same end result . Just because one takes an entire chapter to describe a gagging whilst the other does the same thing in just a few lines doesn't make the first automatically better than the second in my opinion.

Clichéd characters have also been mentioned. A character generally feels clichéd if they are not developed and are left as a one dimensional stereotype. Giving a character their own unique multi-faceted personality is the best way to counter this. Letting the character grow and develop throughout the story also helps. The characters need to feel real and believable. Just because a character fits a typical architype doesn't mean they are automatically clichéd.

The same goes for classic locations and scenarios. They only become clichéd if the author fails to bring their own unique take to them.

I guess one of the most powerful things you can do with clichés is use them to subvert expectations. Make the audience believe the story is going in the traditional, clichéd direction and then turn things on their head. Just make sure the twist you use isn't clichéd itself!

Of course, sometimes it might be fun to read a story full of clichés. It won't be inventive or push boundaries but it will probably feel safe and comforting. After all clichés exist because they represent ideas that people respond well to.

[Nightly Binds]

I don't think a lack of detail in tie up scenes can really be classified as a cliché. I think this is very much a personal preference. Whilst a lack of detail could be classified as lazy/unimaginative writing I think it very much has to be looked at in the context of the overall story and what the author is trying to achieve with their writing. For example, @bondagefreak's 'Bound and Gagged' has some incredibly detailed passages whilst @Volobond s 'It's a Business' is far less detailed by comparison. However, both authors have created well written, inventive stories with great plots, multiple complex characters and lots of imaginative and varied bondage. I love both these stories - they stoke the imagination in different ways but with the same end result . Just because one takes an entire chapter to describe a gagging whilst the other does the same thing in just a few lines doesn't make the first automatically better than the second in my opinion.

Ah yes true,, looking at it now, it's not really much of a cliché for me as it is preferred tastes in writing as you said, I guess I just mostly do see it as a bit unimaginative when it pops up more then a few times, but it's nothing that should really make a story bad, , like you say lots of well written works can have simple scenes of characters being tied up or struggle and not go into much detail of it.i guess it could be chalked up to how or why it's done for the stories sake.

Also everything else you said about clichés. I think that describes it down pretty well, clichés certainly can and usually do give a sense of, " what to expect and recognize " when you read a story, it'd be something we all understand at least, even if it's not doing anything new or something that'd make it stand out. it's just how one can go about using them that'd matter.