fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2260 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2260 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

__________________________________________________

08.

__________________________________________________

09.

__________________________________________________

10.

__________________________________________________

11.

__________________________________________________

12.

__________________________________________________

13.

__________________________________________________

14.

__________________________________________________

15.

__________________________________________________

16.

__________________________________________________

17.

__________________________________________________

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 080 secrets from Secret Submission Post #323.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've never shipped a couple that would have to cheat to be together before. But suddenly I have a new OTP. In canon both are married with kids. Their spouses never appear onscreen and are just mentioned now and again. I really want to write fic where my OTP hook up because - well - shipping.

I don't know how to write it, though. I don't want to bum readers out or harsh the squee by dwelling too much on adultery. At the same time, I don't want to catipult them out of the story with ridiculous handwaving. How have others handled this problem? Do you have any advice?

Well, the obvious way is to have some shit happens that separates them from their canon wives. Or make an AU where both their spouses died several years before, or divorced them, or something. Make the spouses go away somehow. That's the simplest solution. You could also try an open relationship sort of thing.

Or, if you're not going for fluff and romance, you could roll with the adultery thing and see what happens.

Yes. You could be a bad writer like this person said.

Or you can actually deal with the more complex ideas of cheating and the actual anxiety and issues it would cause.

I think it's valid to want something that's not heavy, serious stuff dealing with complex, dark emotional issues in a starkly realistic manner

idk tho

OP

The thing I'm trying to deal with, I think, is finding the middle ground between both. I don't want to sacrifice emotional realism - I want it to ring true. At the same time, I want to write about my ship together for wish-fulfillment, happiness and fluff. I don't want it to turn into a story about infidelity.

It's tricky trying to gauge where convenient elimination of two spouses for the sake of the plot crosses the line and collapses suspension of disbelief. Currently flailing back and forth across a spectrum between your position and that of AYRT.

It's fanfiction. We only want complex issues when they get our emotional rocks off, and infidelity doesn't do it for some people. So...no.

Bad writing for the win, I guess. :)

Long as you admit it you are fine.

To clarify - one of the characters has cheated before. The other's spouse travels a lot, and it's canon that they don't discuss feelings or communicate much. So I could wrangle the adultery not being out of character. It's just how to structure a story without making the issue of cheating uncomfortable for the readers I'm fretting about.

The traveling spouse dies in an accident, this spurs your OTP closer together and an affair happens, the other spouse finds out, DRAMA of the "i can't believe you would do this to me ~again" kind, separation of the married couple and some dealing with the kids and/or friends, happily ever after.

This seems like it might have a good balance to it.

ayrt Thanks, it was the first thing I thought of and seemed to fit well enough.

I'ma kinda agree with Noodly, here. You've got a built in motivation for cheating, with this character at least. The world is not black and white -- infidelity does not automatically create evil, unsympathetic characters, especially when it's borne from an already rocky relationship, as opposed to cheating for cheating's sake become somebody's hot and the character just can't keep it in his pants.

Open or poly relationship? Or an amicable separation?

Just be concise about it. Have a decent number of scenes where each side of the OTP interacts alone with their spouses for the length of the fic, just enough to have the marriage present, or just have the spouses absent and have the OTP character(s) thinking about being very lonely before falling into the relationship. Also have them think of or talk about the consequences of an affair a couple times, but not constantly. I think the best place for concern over the affair to be just when it's starting and when they're interacting with their kids. If you do it right you'll only really need a couple paragraphs or scenes each to handle the guilty/discovery/reaction of others parts of it. You don't need everyone they ever knew to react, just one close friend in a conversation, then have quick mentions of everyone elses.

In short, if you give a little bit of time to the necessary guilt and focus more on how the affair makes them happier (which people in affairs probably do anyway) I'm sure your readers will be happy.

Cheating is a thing that happens, OP. Sometimes, it's even a thing that happens for legitimate reasons, such as a couple being together for political or social reasons rather than for love. Cheating is not always a case of one person leaving a happy relationship, as most people portray it to be. More often than not, a cheater cheats because there is something about the other person that fulfills something they were missing from the first relationship.

It can be as simple as a sexual reason (ex. that other person could share a kink that their spouse is unwilling to fulfill) or as complex as an emotional need. My current favorite OTP is an m/m relationship where one partner is a very traditional (albeit bisexual) father who remains married for the sake of not losing contact with his daughter. The way I write it, he doesn't even mention his marriage to the man who is his lover, just keeps all of the contact in the guise of a job that keeps him away from home for weeks at a time.

You don't necessarily have to harsh anyone's squee to write about cheating, but it's better to handle it realistically than to gloss it over. The best relationships to read about can be the messy, complicated ones. It also doesn't preclude fluff, haha.

Hope that helps.

A good middle ground could be emotional infidelity, where the OTP are in love and tempted despite being married, but don't actually physically cheat. There's a world of difference between the two: one is an uncontrollable private emotional reaction, the other is a conscious choice.

After that, have their spouses find out (non-simultaneously, to make it realistic), try to deal with it, and then eventually dump the OTP because the spouses don't want to be married to people who are in love with someone else (what you said about them having rocky relationships already could realistically speed things up). And you CAN start the fic with a good portion of this having already happened in backstory rather than hashing the entire arc out scene after scene in the action of the plot -- as long as the breakups don't just suddenly become a non-issue and don't get neatly tied up and forgotten.

[ SECRET POST #2260 ]

Writing Infidelity in Fic

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic

OP

Re: OP

Re: OP

Re: OP

Re: OP

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic

Re: Writing Infidelity in Fic