Fictional vs. True TUG stories

[cj2125]

There has been a certain discussion in a story regarding whether it was true or not. As a mod, I feel the need to explain my position about it. Though the mod team doesn't have an official policy regaridng fake "true" stories, based on how we've dealt with them in the past, I think the other mods might agree with me.

True Stories, as the name suggest, are meant to tell personal experiences we've had dealing with TUGs, any fantastic story, including those based on realistic scenarios (aka. My friend tied me up in his houe all weekend without any breaks), should go to Fictional Stories. It's impossible and discouraged to check the veracity of every True Story, even those that might feel fake to some of us, could as well be real, and interrogating every writter won't be constructive. True stories can be embelished for the sake of entertanment, importan details might be left out, or just their memories might paint a different picture of what really happened. None of those aspects make these stories "fake."

But, where we draw the line, is when "true" stories glorify behaviors that are dangerous, toxic or outright illegal if replicated. In the past we have moved against "true" stories that glorified lack of consent or rape (hence we established the current rules). That's not to say that these things can't be depicted in Fictional Stories (as long as no rules are broken), there is an understanding that people will know that the actions depicted in a Fictional Story might not be accurate to reality. The problem comes when True Stories depict those actions, it gives them legitimacy and can encourage other users (particularly young ones) to follow the example. For example, parents punishing their kids by tying them up is mostly okay in a fictional story, while if presented as a true story, I would caution that behaviour can be considered child abuse.

Basically, just enjoy the stories, whether fictional or true, and only question a True Story's veracity (without harrassing the author) if you feel that they are pushing for a problematic behavior.

[StealthCharlotte]

Talking about my story here?. All of it was true, but I understand why you would say it’s fictional so others don’t repeat it. That being said why wasn’t it moved to fiction instead of being deleted (even though it is true)?

[bbb]

Thanks for all you do.

I have posted a few of my experiences, and while they did in each case feature risky behavior (leaving captives alone, breathplay w/o a clear safeword/sound, not having safewords in general with the understanding that the 'TOP' will respect them without reservation), I made it clear that these were really dopey things we did at the time. Thanks for keeping them in the story list. It's good to share experiences so that people's future TUGs will be fun AND safe!

That being said, I do wish our members here would be honest about 'What really happened to them' vs. 'I wish this happened'. I have to be honest: about half the stories I read in the 'True Stories' section leave me privately calling 'BS'. Maybe I'm wrong, but a lot of them have more than a bit of a fakey 'Penthouse Letters' whiff to them. It's OK to burnish little things like the dialogue, but the basic facts (what happened, methods, etc.) should be accurate, IMHO.

It's OK to have a vivid imagination; E. L. James became richer than god writing was originally fan fiction (she the author of the '50 Shades' franchise). Just post is as fiction; please don't BS us, OK?

[Bondage_Addicted]

I sadly find myself agreeing with that as well; I think the large majority -- and it's hard to call everything as such, it really is -- is far from real.
I think a lot of people enjoy the idea that it has happened or is a realistic experience to both write it, and receive feedback for it and share these fantasies and go on. I think the ' real ' experience is much more clumsy.. silly, or a bit wacky sometimes or more intimate.

I had a friend who visited an Australian dominatrix, his experience as shared was SO different than what most would write these days.
Heck, my first tying up experience with my EX was terrible, tying her was difficult and I could not gag her proper!

Not to mention my awkward bondage with my current love where I was bound in my underwear, sweating due the heat as I tried to stumble on words how to explain my desire to be facesat; Which took 15 minutes! It would make for such a short story with such long pause and so much talk!!!
I did get the facesitting, first in my life and was it heaven; but to keep my message short, the real thing is so different and unlike stories out there.
I get that some improvise their stories to make it more fun to read or such.. but I do believe a lot is unrealistic, it's sometimes obvious really.
But so long as it doesn't cross a line, what can we do other then enjoy I suppose? Personally, I would prefer a real story!
Not that I'd write mine, it'll be so boring to read

[Sian91]

Interesting philosophical question: “is any story true?”

Fictional stories are fiction. Okay.

True stories are a memory. But your memory ! And mine! Are not perfect. We are not video recordings, films or digital files with perfect play back. Our memories are affected by feelings, but our previous experiences and our experiences since. Each time we thing about a memory it change’s slightly.

Example: think of an event. Your first tie up, your wedding, a good football match or concert. How much do you actually remember. Maybe actually remember one minute, thirsty seconds, ten seconds, hit you fill the rest.

If you wrote a wholly true story using inky what you remember it would be. “I was with my friend when she said why don’t you tie me up, so I tied her feet together and her hands behind her back and gagged her with a scarf. She struggled for a bit and escaped so she tied me up.” And that’s it.

You have to put your feelings, half remembered or imagined or wished for items or you will not write a story worth reading.


Soooo. If a story sounds too fantastic to be true, it probably is. If it sounds embellished , it could have happened. If it is boring as hell, it probably did.

[Xtc]

Here is, as far as I could remember it, a true story: https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=600

Why don't we use our experiences to give a bit of realism to our fictional stories? Here is the fictionalised version: https://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=601

[Terry]

I used to write quite a bit of fanfiction several years ago what would involve someone being tied up and gagged almost everytime. Nowadays I use ChatGPT or Character.AI what isn't always perfect but still fun nethertheless. As is is fanfiction, it is always fictional and always tends to use characters what are not human also especially the captor.

[Reidy]

I assume most of the stories posted here have an element of fiction to them, even those based on true experiences.

And that is fine, so long as the stories are interesting and well written, I don't care if they aren't 100% truthful.

[Xtc]

Or, as professional journalists say: never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

[takeru]

I think the ' real ' experience is much more clumsy.. silly, or a bit wacky sometimes or more intimate.

Oh, I really want to document some of my first IRL experiences and post them here anonymized with the involved person's consent. Yes, they have been fairly silly and clumsy and, smiling at them as I recall them, is part of the joy

[ricktied]

Didn't even read the whole post and I agree with it.

[GaggedandBound24]

hard to tell which ones are real or fake on here sometimes.

[Bastian]

Interesting philosophical question: “is any story true?”

Fictional stories are fiction. Okay.

True stories are a memory. But your memory ! And mine! Are not perfect. We are not video recordings, films or digital files with perfect play back. Our memories are affected by feelings, but our previous experiences and our experiences since. Each time we thing about a memory it change’s slightly.

Example: think of an event. Your first tie up, your wedding, a good football match or concert. How much do you actually remember. Maybe actually remember one minute, thirsty seconds, ten seconds, hit you fill the rest.

If you wrote a wholly true story using inky what you remember it would be. “I was with my friend when she said why don’t you tie me up, so I tied her feet together and her hands behind her back and gagged her with a scarf. She struggled for a bit and escaped so she tied me up.” And that’s it.

You have to put your feelings, half remembered or imagined or wished for items or you will not write a story worth reading.


Soooo. If a story sounds too fantastic to be true, it probably is. If it sounds embellished , it could have happened. If it is boring as hell, it probably did.

Yes, memories aren't perfect.
I debuted here writing an episode happened to me when I was 12. I began writing and every time I closed a chapter I thought: "oh no, I forgot that detail". For this reason sometimes I edited chapters already written, other times I added elements in the following chapter. I slightly embellished the story but this time because I'm already a professional writer and I'm used to do in this way also when I'm writing real facts.
I have not still written other real episodes relating my tie up games with my cousins because being them just innocent games I do not have detailled memories for every of them. Only one deserves to be mentioned in this board and maybe in the future I'll write it here. But I think I will embellish it too.

[Terry]

Most TUG stories that I write would be blatant fiction as they use characters from established franchises and in a lot of cases, many characters doing the tying wouldn't even be human either.

[Nightly Binds]

For me, Fiction is certainly more free range, out there and allows ideas that would not really ( or not easily ) happen in real life, that is what we call suspension of disbelief, were as in true stories, you expect it to be realistic because real life obviously is more grounded the fiction

A do find a lot of true stories to be a bit farfetched still and I gather a lot are not the %100 percent accurate depiction of what happened, in fact I believe some are completely made up. specially those that glorify dangerous and immoral actions with out consequences.

With fiction you can depict a lot more and get away with a lot more, the ideas can be more silly and over the top. it's written more like a story, where real life..doesn't fallow a plot it's more random.

Now not to say that I think everything in fiction is okay, with fiction pending on the setting there need to be some grounding to realism, if a story is set in the real world, then there needs to be things that work like our real world too. like the idea you mentioned about A parent tying up a kid as punishment, that would be easier to show in a fiction story were as in real life it'd be child abuse....in fiction though pending on how sever it is it can still be seen as Taboo and illegal, I can't stand when a fictional story depicts immoral and illegal things that should be called out but never are.
but it all comes down to presentation. how far one will take it.

Overall I enjoy fiction stories more because I know they are going to be a bit farfetched or offer more crazy ideas, but at the same time I expect them to have a balance of realism in them too.

[wannabetiedup]

I am drawn more towards the true stories because I get an extra kick out of them knowing that someone has experienced it. I acknowledge and expect some embellishments but that isn't a problem. There are a few stories though that are in the true story section which fall into the "nah, that didn't happen", and in these cases I wonder why that person would lie rather than put in fiction setting.

I do enjoy the fiction too when the scenarios are closer to real life possibilities.

[kiwi]

I think that at least for myself there’s a bit of a BS meter with the “true stories”.

No other way to describe it than I can kinda tell (to my own understanding) when elements are exaggerated or downright fabricated (the girl next door and her aunt both just wanted to tie me up out of the blue scenario or something etc) , but something about the veracity behind stories (again mostly just vibes based on the writing) are a bit more appealing/discernible due to the level of detail.

[Jeffpa1967]

I never question anything in the true stories, unless it's really crazy (aliens came down and captured you for bondage research or I found a spell book and cast a enchantment that tied me up)
I think it would be insulting to question them on it because there is nothing to prove it's real or not.
A lot of details might get left out. Who really wants to read a whole chapter about fumbling with the knots or awkward attempts at positions. Its boring. I could include our arguements (had some good ones), extreme detail that has no bearing on what happened (the carpet was a cream colored with eggshell colored walls), mundane daily things (we went to the store to get milk and bread) , etc. but again it's boring.
I left a lot out if my experience because it was a lot of the same thing repeatedly. Didn't have that much variety, once something worked we stayed with it for a while. And people might be surprised that there wasn't a happy ending, so sorry for the people that have been reading it to give that away.
Maybe people are jealous that they didn't have a good experience or think they deserve it more then the person telling it. The "if it didn't happen to me then it couldn't of happened " mindset.
I just know that it needs to be crazy way over the top for me to question it, but then I'm just reading for a story and not to judge it.

[Snozzberry]

Remember there are 3 different truths; My Truth (the way i rememberit), Your Truth (the way you remember it , The Real Truth ( the way it actually happened which no one remembers because they didn't see everything that happened).

🖐🖐

[Vivianbound]

I completely agree with your sentiment. As long as the stories show safe use of bdsm practice, I don't see why it should matter too much about what is "fake" or "real" the stories are there for the enjoyment of people to read. The only time that something like this would matter is if you are progressing a cyber relationship to a "real" one . At which point, they should really be conversations in PM anyway. We have all had some good and bad experiences in life, the way we remember them will always be glorified in some manner. After all I can't think of anyone who just remembers an average Tuesday. You always remember the best of times or the worst of times and even then your mind will glorify the good moments and exaggerate the bad points.

Thats why you so often get 2 people telling 2 different stories about the same event with both people swearing it's the truth.