Quote Originally Posted by Satan_Klaus
I agree about the need for solid background. Point is: too much detail will bore the reader, too little will make him stumble over the logical gaps that you didn't fill. The middle ground is very difficult to find.

On the gradual thing and the waking of latent desire: The story will certainly run much smoother if the victim is reluctant but somewhat willing.

One of my main questions is how far would someone being blackmailed be willing to go to preserve her secret? Real life blackmail is usually about money to an amount that the blackmailed is able to pay AND continue his usual life. Giving up all you own is asking for too much, the victim would just turn to the police and suffer the exposal of her secret.

Satan_Klaus

PS: Here is a blackmail story I wrote and that was rather well received.
http://www.bdsmlibrary.com/stories/s...p?storyid=3544
1) I think the "running smoothy" of a story doesn't depend on wether the victim is reluctant or willing as such. It depends on the possibility for the reader to understand the inner logic of the actions and reactions of the characters in the story. But in general it might be much easier to write a story providing such inner logic, if the victim is more or less relucant because this stresses the conflict and induces tension.

2) I wouldn't say, to much detail will bore the reader. I heard that there are even people who read Tolstoj.
It just depends on the ability to connect the information with the plot.
I think it is if very uninteresting if you read "he was tall, about 6 feet, had black, ravish hair, dark eyes, smooth skin, and so on."
You can explain this all while the plot is already going on.
For ex.: if you want to describe the aversion of a chararcter to something specific, it might be better to bring in some memories of the character to some situation before where this is obviously.

3) Don't always make it too clear: this will destroy the tension of the confilct.
The reader needs to draw own conclusions from what she/he has already read to what is going to happen. To say it simply: for the reader the tension works always by some uncertainty between (a) what she/he thinks will happen (b) what she/he hopes that it will happen and (c) what she/he slowly understands, what is going to happen while going further with reading. To make this possible a reader needs information about the background of the characters. Otherwise she/he can't develope any idea at all. A simple thing to provide such information without going into detail is using stereotypes of characters, which provide such information because the reader can conclude from other stories she/he has already read so far.

Alexandra