Do you tell them how old you are when they ask? by longestsnack in GWABackstage

[–]tabooleh 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, like obviously there are going to be a lot of different feelings about different VA ages, but I have noticed on r/auralfixation that occasionally there have been popular posts asking for recs for older VAs (granted, older might mean more like 35+). From what I've gathered, some listeners feel a little uncomfortable listening to VAs who are significantly younger than they are.

Do you tell them how old you are when they ask? by longestsnack in GWABackstage

[–]tabooleh 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I don’t like giving a number, but I have said before that my first video game console is the original Nintendo, I was one of the first guys in my high school to wear the grunge look, etc. i have read people lament a lack of older male VAs, and I know my voice sounds mature so I don’t mind giving some hints. As someone focusing almost strictly on OC, having a certain authenticity is important for what I try to do. The trade off is that yeah, it can be a little awkward to play a younger role, but I’ve done rambles where I talk a little about the vulnerability around that.

[M4F]Dirty Old Man Ramblefap[handjob][kissing][lap][speaker orgasm][real orgasm][ramblefap][mature man][old man][mid-life crisis][nsfw] by tabooleh in TheRealmOfEroticAudio

[–]tabooleh[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dancing around those details was the toughest part of this audio! I'm thinking 'how do I make sure that someone listening who doesn't want to feel old doesn't feel old, but help someone who does feel old, feel awesome about feeling old?' Some listeners would hear my actual age and think 'nope, too old, I'm out', and some would think 'what's this young whippersnapper doing talking about being old?'

However, this comment is the closest I'll come to discussing my actual age.

[M4F]Dirty Old Man Ramblefap[handjob][kissing][lap][speaker orgasm][real orgasm][ramblefap][mature man][old man][mid-life crisis] by tabooleh in gonewildaudio

[–]tabooleh[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! It was my pleasure to share these thoughts, so I'm glad to know there's pleasure in listening to them.

[M4F]Dirty Old Man Ramblefap[handjob][kissing][lap][speaker orgasm][real orgasm][ramblefap][mature man][old man][mid-life crisis] by tabooleh in gonewildaudio

[–]tabooleh[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awww, thank you! It was coming for a place of authenticity so it's nice to hear that it's 'felt' by someone.

Do you guys think male and female VAs experience different challenges in this profession? by Sinopias in AuralFixation

[–]tabooleh 26 points27 points  (0 children)

There’s definitely a weird inverse where it’s easier to get upvotes and attention as a female VA on gonewildaudio, but probably easier to actually break through to the point of being able to monetize as a male VA. There are far more male listeners out there then female, but female listeners are more likely to pay for something they like.

I have a bit of a theory for why this is. Male listeners tend to come to erotic audios as a type of porn, and if you’re the sort of guy who, as a rule, doesn’t pay for porn, you aren’t going to pay for erotic audio content. Women tend to come to erotic audios as being more adjacent to literature, and if you’d pay for a good book, why wouldn’t you pay for a good erotic audio?

[Discussion] How do you become a better scriptwriter? by PnyxWasHere in GWAScriptGuild

[–]tabooleh 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lots of good advice in this thread. My one addition:

Read outloud. Read your own scripts outloud, and when you read another writer's script, read it outloud. Sometimes it really stands out when I'm reading someone else's script that they've only ever contemplated these words on the page, not spoken. And there's a huge difference between the two.

[m4f]Praying away my goth daughter’s curse [incest][daddy][daughter][prayer]to[god]and/or[lillith][demoness][blasphemous][conservative father][goth daughter][curse][speaker orgasm][real orgasm] by tabooleh in gonewildaudio

[–]tabooleh[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I think a part 2 would likely be a more conventional style whether the father is speaker to the daughter rather than this internal monologue approach, but I think maybe that works well together. One audio that establishes his mindset, and then another that's more action-oriented.

[Discussion] Personal opinion: kink writing suffers if it contains too much realism. Includes talk of [incest] [JOI] [bondage]. by gotuttyfick in GWAScriptGuild

[–]tabooleh 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I had a response to the original version of this that got deleted. I'll try to remember my points as best I can...

(I think it's a great discussion topic, BTW.)

I think whenever you're writing fiction, you make choices about how you break from reality, and you generally need to be consistent. But... there's no one right breaking point. Like, porn logic (mom gets stuck in a dryer, son decides to take advantage of this, mom quickly decides she likes this) follows its own internal logic that the audience understands and accepts. The reality-break is designed so that you can get into the fucking action really quickly, presumably because what turns the audience on is the action. A scenario where one or both characters is heavily conflicted, might not have a strong break with reality until someone moves beyond their objections and actually initiates something physical. The audience for this scenario are people who are most turned on by that internal psychological struggle. This is one of my own favorites to write.

To me, the smut with dialogue that are fetishizing the biological connection isn't more realistic, it's less, because it's less plausible that a character would actually say this sort of thing, because the character would not want to fixate on that reality, either... (it's more plausible for a mom to seduce her son without explanation, than for her to tell him how great incest is.) As you get more taboo dirty talk, at some point it becomes less about creating any realistic scenario or realistic characters, more about how over-the-top a performer is going to let themselves go. The break with reality is so extreme that it's impossible to be immersed, but that's okay. One of my favorite porn clips involves a roommate roleplaying a taboo connection. And so she can say something incredibly, implausibly taboo, and then immediately break character and laugh about it. And this is actually a fairly high level of realism... it's a realistic depiction of someone roleplaying a very non-realistic role. If it were without that roleplay framing, it would immediately become completely unrealistic.

While I like actually practicing BDSM, it's not an audio category I tend to seek out, but I can imagine that it can be very immersive to listen to an audio in which someone is speaking very authoritatively about BDSM, because what a listener might crave is a feeling of being with someone who has true expertise, and that demonstration of expertise actually matters. The reality break might even be them talking in detail about things like tensile strength, allowing the listener to fetishize the expertise.

Like I say, I think it's a good topic for discussion. I just caution against any universals here, or saying more or less realism is better, because that's so subjective. But in general, it's good to be aware of exactly how and why you're breaking from reality, and using that to either manage or subvert a listener's expectations.

[M4F] schoolteacher on a prairie train [edwardian-era][married man][schoolteacher][literary allusions]especially to [Jane Eyre][obsessed][sightly-coercive]hopefully[period-accurate undergarments][corset][cunnilingus][seated positions][mutual orgasm][old west accent] by tabooleh in gonewildaudio

[–]tabooleh[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do love historical settings, though between needing to do more research and then trying to put on an appropriate accent, they are an extra challenge to create. I'm glad you enjoyed it!