Saturday, February 12, 2011

Saturday - Third Post

WRITING

Thought I'd devote a few paragraphs to writing.  Naturally, I'm talking about stories that interest us.  Having written a lot - I mean over 60 novelettes (all over 20,000 words) about forty custom stories  (Somewhere between 12 - 15,000 words) and over 100 stories from 2- 10,000 words) I can claim some experience.

The thing I try to drum into anyone who wants to get a story down on paper?  Make DAMN sure that you have an ending in mind.  It's crucial. 

I don't know how anyone else writes.  Don't have a clue.  So?  I can only state my own methods.

I used to fantasize every night.  I'd got to the stage that I couldn't sleep without running a fantasy through my head.  Naturally, my fantasy would have a 'hot button' in it - a theme that was central to the whole story.  Then I'd work on the idea, fairly patiently - gradually getting the hot button down pat - then adding things that reinforced the humiliation - then gradually built to an ending.

I'd play with this in my mind for some nights, then write it down.  I've always been lousy on a keyboard so you better believe that I spent a lot of time, getting my story down.  Which was probably just as well - gave me time to see errors and, at the same time, make any necessary adjustments to the ending.  (There was nothing sacrosant about an ending that I started with - I could change it to suit new facets that I'd built in - but it STILL fitted my story.

Now, the following is true.  As long as I played with this fantasy in my head at night, it was great.  Could turn me on for MANY nights in a row.  But the moment I got it down on paper?  It lost all power to sex me up.  Maybe years later, I could read it and get turned on but that was about the only way I could appreciate my own writing.

Now, I'm guessing about other people here - and may be wrong.  But I learned - the hard way - that if I ever got so excited over a hot-button that I couldn't wait to put it down on paper?  Didn't think of possible re-inforcements or an ending?  What I wrote ended up in a cemetary of unfinished stories - and believe me, I had an extensive cemetary - even knowing what I knew about endings.

Anyway?  I've set this up so that this is actually the first post you'll read.  I've given an example of a hot button / reinforcement thingie below,

2 comments:

  1. There's a lot of reasons why a story of mine will end up in the cemetary, even though I usually have a sketchy kind of idea how it ought to end. Very often, I have a problem with a key part of the story arc. Some important event is simply too difficult for me to write, I get distracted by some other project, and the years roll by.

    Like most of the stories written in this genre, mine are a combination of semiautobiographical material and wish-fulfillment. Writing is a safe way for me to explore situations I couldn't handle in real life.

    For me to stick with a story all the way to it's conclusion, I really have to become obsessed with it, to the exclusion of all other things. If I'm not crazy obsessed with something, I tend to wander off chasing butterflies.

    Dark themes tend to depress me, which is why I usually have a positive message in the stories I finish.

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  2. I love the dark themes. Preferably the arrogant, overconfident male who is enjoying his high status and then over the course of the story transforms himself into a submissive female, often in some stereotype like the maid or secretary.

    The best stories construct some a least half plausible reason for him to initially go along with his feminization. Usually believing that it will only be a very temporary situation. Before he can regain the initiative he has lost his fortune, position and gender.

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