illumination

Almost always author write stories where the lighting is completely ignored or everything is perfectly illuminated. I set myself a challenge to write something in a pitchblack setting, possibly with a dusk-night-dawn cycle.


Does anyone have tips to share?

How does lighting affect 1st/3rd person & "all-knowing"/imperfect narration. Or better still, could someone please share a resource or thesaurus for all the different stages of lighting.

I am currently researching this problem and I think you guys will have some interesting stories to share.

litmlove said:

Almost always author write stories where the lighting is completely ignored or everything is perfectly illuminated. I set myself a challenge to write something in a pitchblack setting, possibly with a dusk-night-dawn cycle.


Does anyone have tips to share?

How does lighting affect 1st/3rd person & "all-knowing"/imperfect narration. Or better still, could someone please share a resource or thesaurus for all the different stages of lighting.

I am currently researching this problem and I think you guys will have some interesting stories to share.

Click to expand...

Psychologically, the effect is to provide imperfect knowledge, 1st-person-wise. The narrator and other characters see only what is adequately illuminated. Details in shadows go unnoticed, or guessed-at, or just WRONG. Everything is unreliable. It's a metaphor for life.

For resources, just gargle for light and shadow.

litmlove said:

Almost always author write stories where the lighting is completely ignored or everything is perfectly illuminated. I set myself a challenge to write something in a pitchblack setting, possibly with a dusk-night-dawn cycle.


Does anyone have tips to share?

How does lighting affect 1st/3rd person & "all-knowing"/imperfect narration. Or better still, could someone please share a resource or thesaurus for all the different stages of lighting.

I am currently researching this problem and I think you guys will have some interesting stories to share.

Click to expand...

Even more fun is to try a story where the person is blindfolded. Adding a ball gag just adds to the difficulty.

litmlove said:

Almost always author write stories where the lighting is completely ignored or everything is perfectly illuminated. I set myself a challenge to write something in a pitchblack setting, possibly with a dusk-night-dawn cycle.


Does anyone have tips to share?

How does lighting affect 1st/3rd person & "all-knowing"/imperfect narration. Or better still, could someone please share a resource or thesaurus for all the different stages of lighting.

I am currently researching this problem and I think you guys will have some interesting stories to share.

Click to expand...

Been done, Vin Diesel stared in it..."Pitch Black"

litmlove said:

Almost always author write stories where the lighting is completely ignored or everything is perfectly illuminated. I set myself a challenge to write something in a pitchblack setting, possibly with a dusk-night-dawn cycle.

Click to expand...

I think I'd have to disagree here. Light may not be the focus of a lot of stories, but there are plenty of scenes I've read that take place at night, or in dimly lit places and things like that. If it's important, the author will describe it (well, one hopes, anyway). If it's not, then the reader can imagine.

A story set at night and focusing on the light conditions could be interesting, though.

I think lighting is important to many stories and thus do include it, where it's useful to the story. I just wrote one where the time a crime took place was tracked down to a street light going on--and the light going on was used as the transition point from the characters being in the dark about what was going on and then beginning to see the light.

So, I think the OP "mostly ignored" is a sweeping generalization that may not be a truism.

Actually, I did something like this in my adaptation of the Headless Horseman tale a couple of years ago on Halloween. Since I'm no longer sure just which version was finally submitted and accepted, I'm not certain the struggle with lighting showed through as much as it actually was involved.

At the time that I was writing the sex scene, I was considering that it was happening on the shore of an unlit playa lake during a thundering rainstorm on "all hallows eve" with only brief flashes of illumination from bolts of lightening to actually SEE by. I have no idea if I actually pulled it off well or not since I have tendency to move on almost as soon as it is accepted and rarely look back unless a comment pops up to cause me to revisit it to figure out what they are commenting on.

What I would do if I were you would be place myself in the situation you are trying to write as an experiment. Sit outside through a night such as you describe wanting to set your tale in and see what you can see, hear, feel, smell, and taste of it.

Alternatively, you could just not mention anything covered by sight at all, but dwell on the other four senses for any description. After all, does the absence of sight mean the absence of light or that the one who would see it is actually blind in that spectrum?

I think lighting is one of those things readers don't always notice, so I'm not sure that kind of blanket statement is true. I paid almost obsessive attention to detail to the light in SAD Valentine. Not one reader mentioned the light/dark, which went along with the moods of the character.

(I think I got one message saying it was too dark to see in one scene, the reader seemed to have forgotten or not noticed that there was a fireplace- just enough light.)

TxRad said:

Even more fun is to try a story where the person is blindfolded. Adding a ball gag just adds to the difficulty.

Click to expand...

And to the fun, heh heh.

But I digress. I wrote a piece years ago (and should maybe adapt it from a blog entry to a sex story) that mirrored this idea. It's about sitting in the desert on a moonless night, somewhat stoned, and watching the infinite shading of the sky from black to violet to red to glaring yellow to blinding white, and back again, over the course of 18 hours. True story. No datura involved, not that time.

I like some ideas mentioned above -- the lightning-flash perception; focusing on the other senses; the blindfold, yes. I might suggest reading about photographic lighting, how lights and shadows can reveal and conceal exactly what the lighting director wants. Maybe also study how shadows can be manipulated and distorted -- and also how we (mere humans) only see what we EXPECT to see. (Cf the experiment of the gorilla at basketball practice -- most of the audiences only watched the ball and never saw the ape.)

Yeah, a lot could be written about twisted perceptions.

litmlove said:

Almost always author write stories where the lighting is completely ignored or everything is perfectly illuminated. I set myself a challenge to write something in a pitchblack setting, possibly with a dusk-night-dawn cycle.


Does anyone have tips to share?

How does lighting affect 1st/3rd person & "all-knowing"/imperfect narration. Or better still, could someone please share a resource or thesaurus for all the different stages of lighting.

I am currently researching this problem and I think you guys will have some interesting stories to share.

Click to expand...

An important aspect of editing is, culling details that aren't relevant to the story. Otherwise you might end up with a slow paced and heavy piece of literature that will lose many of the readers before the they get to the good parts. One example of this you will encounter frequently here on Literotica is the "flashback-to-when-we-met-in-high-school-even-though-it-has-absolutely-no-relevance-whatsoever-to-the-plot". Another - more rarely used here - are overly detailed descriptions of the scenery. The lighting will often fall under the latter.

You might be familiar with the narrative principle known as "Chechov's Gun" - whatever you encounter in the story should either be relevant for the plot, a red herring or used to set the mood. In other words, you will often get a better and leaner story if you use an undetermined location at an undetermined time under undetermined lighting conditions.... unless one of those have direct relevance in the story, like for instance:

"I snuck through the dark house towards her lighted bedroom. She had no way of spotting me through the door as I hid in the shadow and watched her with the neighbors wife..."

In that case you use lighting as a device for making a plausible way for a peeper to watch without being spotted.

StrangeLife said:

An important aspect of editing is, culling details that aren't relevant to the story. Otherwise you might end up with a slow paced and heavy piece of literature that will lose many of the readers before the they get to the good parts. One example of this you will encounter frequently here on Literotica is the "flashback-to-when-we-met-in-high-school-even-though-it-has-absolutely-no-relevance-whatsoever-to-the-plot". Another - more rarely used here - are overly detailed descriptions of the scenery. The lighting will often fall under the latter.

You might be familiar with the narrative principle known as "Chechov's Gun" - whatever you encounter in the story should either be relevant for the plot, a red herring or used to set the mood. In other words, you will often get a better and leaner story if you use an undetermined location at an undetermined time under undetermined lighting conditions.... unless one of those have direct relevance in the story, like for instance:

"I snuck through the dark house towards her lighted bedroom. She had no way of spotting me through the door as I hid in the shadow and watched her with the neighbors wife..."

In that case you use lighting as a device for making a plausible way for a peeper to watch without being spotted.

Click to expand...

This also raises the age old question of how much detail is too much or too little. Too much drags the story down and too little doesn't paint the whole picture. It's a fine edge to get it right. Lighting is just another part of it.

litmlove said:

Almost always author write stories where the lighting is completely ignored or everything is perfectly illuminated. I set myself a challenge to write something in a pitchblack setting, possibly with a dusk-night-dawn cycle.


Does anyone have tips to share?

How does lighting affect 1st/3rd person & "all-knowing"/imperfect narration. Or better still, could someone please share a resource or thesaurus for all the different stages of lighting.

I am currently researching this problem and I think you guys will have some interesting stories to share.

Click to expand...

Are you a first time writer, or did you have a profile before?
If "Serendipitious" is your first I'm impressed.

I think lighting can certainly be a relevant detail. I mean, it's kinda commonly used as a mood setter, or talked about in that way. The glowing hues of sunset, the brilliance of the full moon illuminating everything beneath it. Candles, fluorescents, neon... put each kind in a setting and change the scene altogether.

I have a story here that features an elaborate stage dance at sort of a nightclub, showcasing a particular woman's skill. The lighting (as well as music) was very crucial to building that scene. Darkness, to an eerie blue glow, to a wash of neon pinks and purples. Swirling lights, flashing strobes, glaring lasers... it was quite an ordeal, and all to build the ambience of the dancing doll on the stage.

The intent was to cast her in this aura that made her seem as angelic as she was ghastly to the main character. And it made her eyes shine like stars. Now granted that's artificial lighting, but lighting nonetheless.

Darkness is just as effective in writing. Darkness dulls vision and forces us to rely on our other senses, and can confuse the mind. In 1st person POV, this can work wonders for immersion. Like the blindfold example earlier, or in horror where our senses and our mind play wicked tricks with us in the dark.

Lighting doesn't have to be included, but it's another tool, a supporting detail. Like anything else, use it wisely and it can really help setting a scene and a mood.

Have to agree. If the story takes place in a cafe, it has cafe lighting--the lighting of cafés that you, the reader, have frequented. Pick a bulb, bring it with you, like a little portable star. Shine it were you like.

Now, if the story takes place in "Le Pousse Cafe", a hopping little joint in alternate reality Paris, where the works of famous impressionists come to life and mingle with the customers--leaving messy pastel handprints on bare skin--where the lights are always kept low to hide the true harshness of the brush strokes, I'll provide the illumination, and direct it where it needs to go.

StrangeLife said:

"I snuck through the dark house towards her lighted bedroom. She had no way of spotting me through the door as I hid in the shadow and watched her with the neighbors wife..."

Click to expand...

Pardon me, but is that the same as "Sneaked" [as in 'creep' ] ??

Handley_Page said:

Pardon me, but is that the same as "Sneaked" [as in 'creep' ] ??

Click to expand...

It is - but apparently mainly popular in the US at the moment. It would have been more correct to use sneaked.

litmlove said:

Almost always author write stories where the lighting is completely ignored or everything is perfectly illuminated. I set myself a challenge to write something in a pitchblack setting, possibly with a dusk-night-dawn cycle.


Does anyone have tips to share?

How does lighting affect 1st/3rd person & "all-knowing"/imperfect narration. Or better still, could someone please share a resource or thesaurus for all the different stages of lighting.

I am currently researching this problem and I think you guys will have some interesting stories to share.

Click to expand...

During one of my contest stories. I submitted a story for Nude Day called 'The Goats' about two boys who were stripped nude for a tradition held for years by high school seniors. They were locked in a concrete shed and I wrote them having sex in the dark. I was accused of having my character see a little too much, when all he had for light was moonlight through a small crack in the ceiling.

http://www.literotica.com/s/the-goats

But as far as light for interesting settings, In my other contest story 'Stars, Sulfur, and the Taste of Ash' I have two college boys having oral sex in a cornfield while being over-lit by fireworks from a fourth of July viewing.

http://www.literotica.com/s/stars-sulfur-and-the-taste-of-ash

If you haven't been able to tell, both are MM. But you asked for interesting examples for light and sex.

And reading the OP again I realize they were asking for tips.

Focus on touch and taste. I enjoy sex scenes when they become tactile. Do that while focusing on how little the main character can see. That's what I do for first person.

If I'm zoomed out a little into third person, I focus on how the partners are either eager or hesitant, sleepy or wide awake, alert or drugged. I really focus on the power dynamic between the partners. In the dark, feelings are rawer, and words don't get in the way, so a lot of time, underlying aggression or tenderness can come out in the dark, even if the characters are at odds with each other during the day (like sleeping with an ex-wife, cheating at a party, at a one-night stand with a guy you don't quite trust, etc.)

It makes for interesting nonverbal information about both characters (main perspective and antagonists or allies alike) and can get pretty intense at times. I've dealt with scenes like that in my zombie apocalypse story and during a story that I'm working on now that will be called 'Not Good People'.

Then you'd get not only the light effect but you could also synchronize the fireworks bursts with the ejaculations.