Romantic Vacation

SikFuk said:

Sometimes I tease the reader with "this is a fictionalized account of a real-life event." I like thinking the story I'm reading really happened, although usually it's painfully obvious it didn't.

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I have a couple stories on Lit that are based on real events, but they aren't descriptions of what really happened. Again, because what really happened is pretty dull and would probably require years of context to understand it the way it really happened. The OPs story is something I might tell during a coffee break at the office. "Yeah, we went to this island. It was fucking beautiful and we fucked like bunnies. Hey, are there any more maple bars over there?"

What I've learned from songwriting is that the listener doesn't know the characters the way the songwriter does. When the songwriter sings "I love you," the line is packed with emotion - his emotion. The listener doesn't give a flying fuck because the listener doesn't know the character. It's the same thing with telling a story. The reader needs to know the characters - get invested in the characters - in order to want to find out what happens. "She had an hourglass figure" tells me nothing about the character. "She had an hourglass figure rapidly running out of sand" does, (assuming the reader knows what an hourglass is.)

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Very good point. Some of the "this is real stories" begin with, "my wife...let's call her Rita, but that's not her real name." Who gives a fuck what her real name is. We don't know her. You could give us her real name and we wouldn't know or care. Just tell me something about the character that makes me care.

Remember the 19th Century books that used initials? Two Years Before the Mast everyone is known as L. or R. Or the Frank Harris autobiography, My Life and Loves. Everyone was X. or Y. or whatever. Some novels did the same. Give them a name. We don't know from real and don't care.

Same with details. Make it up or tell the truth, whatever. We don't care because we don't know any different. We want to hear the story. Give me what I need to know to understand the characters, what they do and why they did it.

Anyway, gotta go. I'm picking up my wife, let's call her L., for a romantic weekend. That's not her real initial, of course.

Let's call me...

rj

Don't forget the tentacles. Hey, it's a beach scene so tentacles are mandatory. SRP usually lacks tentacles… and drama. A story needs drama. Maybe not Chick Daney drama, or even tentacles. But SOMETHING. Forbidden love, or coitus interruptus, or group fun with hiccups. Whatever.

Hypoxia said:

Don't forget the tentacles. Hey, it's a beach scene so tentacles are mandatory. SRP usually lacks tentacles… and drama. A story needs drama. Maybe not Chick Daney drama, or even tentacles. But SOMETHING. Forbidden love, or coitus interruptus, or group fun with hiccups. Whatever.

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.... Coituis interruptus fail due to strong hiccup attack?

Jenny17 said:

.... Coituis interruptus fail due to strong hiccup attack?

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There are at least 7 ways I can think of that would make that really, really uncomfortable.

Lustful_Intentions said:

There are at least 7 ways I can think of that would make that really, really uncomfortable.

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I can only come up with 5, and 3 of them involve sand in unfortunate places. But the muscular contractions that go with strong hoccups...could be rather stimulating. Fair to say?