Being compelled to write a certain way, vs deciding what to do

[samhasstories]

Followed by homelessness, divorce, and eventual death, laying in a back alley, clutching your latest manuscript, shanked by a desperate fellow writer.

You make it sound so romantic.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Oh, it's powerful juju.

The compulsion to write works just like any other compulsion. I often think writing is it's own form of addiction.

It starts simply.

Then it develops into a habit you have under control.

Then it starts to impact your daily life.

The next thing you know its 3 AM, you have to be up in three hours, and you're frantically typing, thinking "I'll just do one more scene."

Followed by homelessness, divorce, and eventual death, laying in a back alley, clutching your latest manuscript, shanked by a desperate fellow writer.

I wrote a song about that...
https://literotica.com/p/ghost-writers-in-the-sky

 

[Cagivagurl]

This is me taking a discussion out of my positivity thread to somewhere more appropriate.

Some people refer to a story taking over. It needing to be told. It’s contents and plot taking on a life of its own.

Does this really happen, or do we not - as authors - have full control over what we write and how we write it?

For context, the original discussion was around whether or not it is possible to modify your writing to stick within Lit guidelines.

Em

IMO...
When writing a story (Fiction) I highlight fiction only because it's what we write in here. Mostly, agreed some of what we write is real, translated into a fictitious world.
"I maybe different to most. When I write, it comes from a random though, conversation, something I've seen and it grows into a story.
We do have control of the pen (physically)
There are other forces at work (Mentally)
Characters evolve, take on new roles or characteristics. Evolve differently in our subconscious. The story then changes to allow for the new dynamic. Conversations develop, things haave to be said. They create wonderful new opportunities. Ones we possibly didn't see at the start.
I think stories have to change as we write them. They come from small grains of imaginary sand.
The sto

This is me taking a discussion out of my positivity thread to somewhere more appropriate.

Some people refer to a story taking over. It needing to be told. It’s contents and plot taking on a life of its own.

Does this really happen, or do we not - as authors - have full control over what we write and how we write it?

For context, the original discussion was around whether or not it is possible to modify your writing to stick within Lit guidelines.

Em

IMO...
When writing a story (Fiction) I highlight fiction only because it's what we write in here. Mostly, agreed some of what we write is real, translated into a fictitious world.
"I maybe different to most. When I write, it comes from a random though, conversation, something I've seen and it grows into a story.
We do have control of the pen (physically)
There are other forces at work (Mentally)
Characters evolve, take on new roles or characteristics. Evolve differently in our subconscious. The story then changes to allow for the new dynamic. Conversations develop, things haave to be said. They create wonderful new opportunities. Ones we possibly didn't see at the start.
I think stories have to change as we write them. They come from small grains of imaginary sand.
The story often takes a life form you may not have expected. That may give it wings, and may take you the writer in a different direction.
Just my thoughts, and is referencing how I write. Which doesn't make it right.
Just saying....

Cagivagurl

 

[Zootonius]

I've created a female professor who enjoys sampling the student body. The character I created would be the type who'd enjoy a tryst with two bi men. Yet that's not my cup of tea. But one can get attached to character such that it's like she deserves it.

Still mulling over whether to add it in the next chapter.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I've created a female professor who enjoys sampling the student body. The character I created would be the type who'd enjoy a tryst with two bi men. Yet that's not my cup of tea. But one can get attached to character such that it's like she deserves it.

Still mulling over whether to add it in the next chapter.

I’ve never written sex with gay or bi men.

I did have a gay French chef in one story, but the FMC failed to seduce him while body swapped with a supporting MC. Yeah - I know .

Em

 

[Euphony]

I did have a gay French chef in one story

My dream in not Lit appropriate.



Remy needs work/life balance.

 

[intim8]

Some people refer to a story taking over. It needing to be told. It’s contents and plot taking on a life of its own.

Does this really happen, or do we not - as authors - have full control over what we write and how we write it?

It really happens. To me, it is the only way I write. I never, or almost never, have a complete story in mind. I just have a situation, maybe a scene, and very thinly imagined characters. Then I let the characters and the story tell me what they want to be.

But of course, I have full control. Just not full conscious control. My subconscious, or my right brain, whatever you want to call it, has all the control, and it often surprises my conscious mind.

 

[PennameWombat]

This is me taking a discussion out of my positivity thread to somewhere more appropriate.

Some people refer to a story taking over. It needing to be told. It’s contents and plot taking on a life of its own.

Does this really happen, or do we not - as authors - have full control over what we write and how we write it?

For context, the original discussion was around whether or not it is possible to modify your writing to stick within Lit guidelines.

Em

Late adding any comment, but I have a feeling about any author who says "the story took over."

No, you just don't want to admit that your original idea was either a) flawed, or b) a new idea is superior.

My clearest personal example stems from my You Promised Me Geeks series. In my original idea, one of the FMCs was Asha, with her twin brother Aron as a supporting player. I'd conceived Asha as an amoral predator who preyed on virgin men and women (it's in NonHuman, after all, call them 'energy vampires'.) But as the story went along, two more refined ideas hit me.

Instead of Asha's pursuit of Tracy being purely predatory, her growing confusion as to WHAT (hunger always there, but also love and friendship, not regular feelings for her) her feelings were made for a richer story. In that vein, thinking over Asha and Aron's backstory, as their 'conditions' were inherited, I thought a bit about their parents. And, making Asha's mother the truly amoral predator allowed the story of the twins to be richer. Something of an evolution, a rebellion against their "psychopathic murderer" parents (to quote Aron from a sequel story.) Most of this stayed submerged in the first story, but it allowed me a better canvas for multiple stories and to roll out revelations.

In this case, there was nothing wrong with my original idea. It would've been a very different story to the one I'd written, and about a half dozen other stories (direct sequels and set-in-the-same-universe stories) would've all been rather different. But IMHO the change made the original better.

As to ideas that I consider flawed, I have a number of 'starts' of stories, or middle scenes, or whatevers, that seemed good at the time, but just so far haven't worked out. I've no issue putting them aside until I truly figure out how to work in their current themes, or to do as above, and morph to something superior.

 

[Voboy]

Late adding any comment, but I have a feeling about any author who says "the story took over."

No, you just don't want to admit that your original idea was either a) flawed, or b) a new idea is superior.

I'd say that, by definition, a statement that a story is assuming a mind of its own is in itself an admission that new ideas are better, and therefore rising to the top.

Is there something wrong with writing that way? Some of us enjoy cultivating those new ideas, constantly, and letting them bubble up. Hell, some of us start writing our stories without much in the way of an "original idea."

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

It absolutely does. I just commented in another thread about one of my first writing efforts. It's a fifty thousand word novel I wrote in about two weeks because it wouldn't let me go. I dreamt about the characters. I day dreamed about them. They talked to me, or I imagined they did. Who knows how creativity like ours truly works.
I've had similar instances with some shorter works. One of my personal favorites was like that. About 7K words I wrote in an evening. It just had to be told.
If you're interested, check it out. I read it again yesterday and I still smile at the end.
https://literotica.com/s/just-a-walk-in-the-park-6

I will admit that, within the story, I have complete control and will always go back and re-read and edit. But the story itself sometimes seems to drive itself, the characters tell me what to say and I just transcribe it. the times it happens are the times I feel most alive as a writer. It's like that delicate point on a sailboat where the wind, sea, and boat meld into one and you feel like your flying.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Of course I get that. My point - not a judgmental one I hope - is that “the story demands to be written this way” is just a way of dissociating the author from the reality that “I want to write it this way.” It’s more palatable to blame an external agent, the story, your muse. In reality, no one is writing your story but you.

Em

I would agree with that one a base level but I ask, where do the stories come from? What inspires us to write them down? Some stories I've written/am writing were hard work, (I'm working on a high fanstasy novel and sometimes it hurts...) others just flow into the keyboard. Why? What's the difference? I'm choosing to write them, but there's something else driving my stories. Perhaps it's an issue I'm dealing with and it's therapeutic, maybe it's something deeper. Perhaps Erato or Calliope themselves are visiting my dreams.
Personally, I choose to allow the fantastic a place to live in my soul. I write predominantly erotic fiction. If I was too staid in the absolute reality of it, I'd be a technical writer. Yuck... LOL

 

[jhealy55]

I think that's the ideal. It feels like we are taking dictation and trying desperately to get it all down before we lose it or it leaves us. We circle back to polish it up to share with others.

I don't think that guidelines are a hindrance. I think they are the key. hardest thing to do is look at a blank page/canvas/keyboard and try to think of something to create.

a haiku or sonnet is much easier to write than free verse. especially if you are only allowed to write one about something as narrow as 'narcoleptic dragons'. the constraints make us bolder in claiming the territory all the way to the boundary. it's the boldness that propels us forward.

I talked through this exact process in the authors note of the longest thing I've ever written in such and abbreviated timeframe, where I started trying to write a Christmas story for a contest and saw a sexy gif that changed everything. I was hanging onto the tail of that dragon all the way through and it led me to unexpected places in that story. it was probably the most fun I ever had as a writer. It's still a hot mess that needs a ton of editing, but I love it for all the mad energy it gave me while it felt like it was writing itself.

 

[Mastered_again]

I'm not sure if it's characters speaking to me and saying, "No, no. I wouldn’t do that." Or if my subconscious is telling me that I'm being unfaithful to the characters I've created. Either way, I know somethings off and I'd better slip into their shoes, especially if they're black patent leather stilettos.
As to lit rules, I never have to consider them as coloring outside those lines holds no appeal for me. Repugnant, actually, in most cases.

 

[Zootonius]

I’ve never written sex with gay or bi men.

I did have a gay French chef in one story, but the FMC failed to seduce him while body swapped with a supporting MC. Yeah - I know .

Em

BTW, Em. I wrote and posted that MMF as part of a story. Your turn.

 

[EmilyMiller]

BTW, Em. I wrote and posted that MMF as part of a story. Your turn.

Eek! Writing challenges .

Em

 

[Zootonius]

Eek! Writing challenges .

Em

Peer pressure

 

[EmilyMiller]

Peer pressure

Seems somewhat familiar.

Oh, and look! No girls.

Em

 

[Zootonius]

Seems somewhat familiar.

Oh, and look! No girls.

Em

And do all female lab workers flout their cleavage? What is particularly awful about this image is that she doesn't seem to know how to use a microscope.

(I will not derail this thread... I will not derail this thread...)

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Seems somewhat familiar.

Oh, and look! No girls.

Em

Maybe there were...
Eve ate the apple first, you know.

 

[EmilyMiller]

And do all female lab workers flout their cleavage? What is particularly awful about this image is that she doesn't seem to know how to use a microscope.

(I will not derail this thread... I will not derail this thread...)

That is fucking hilarious.

We need models for a science shoot. Must be busty and have no clue what they are doing.

Em

 

[Zootonius]

That is fucking hilarious.

We need models for a science shoot. Must be busty and have no clue what they are doing.

Em

Note how she pulls back her luxuriant blonde hair to make sure you get a clear view of her heaving boobs. Shades of a porn shoot.

 

[jhealy55]

And do all female lab workers flout their cleavage? What is particularly awful about this image is that she doesn't seem to know how to use a microscope.

(I will not derail this thread... I will not derail this thread...)

Huh. Just went back to check. Turns out there IS a microscope in that pic.

 

[TheRedChamber]

That is fucking hilarious.

We need models for a science shoot. Must be busty and have no clue what they are doing.

Em

Not strictly relevant, but somehow I'm reminded of this sketch and, since it's my goal to eventually post everything Mitchell and Webb have ever done on this forum, I'm going to roll with it.

 

[GrushaVashnadze]

whether or not it is possible to modify your writing to stick within Lit guidelines.

Em

I start out by writing what I want to write - that is, what I think needs to be said, combined with what I like to say. I publish it in the form I want on my blog. Then I smile.

Then I start to worry about how to get it published on various websites. And I curse.

Example: The urtext of Snow White and the Seven Dildos is on my blog. This version of the story is coherent, powerful, funny, hot as fuck, and absolutely focussed on what it wanted to say. The version on Lit is watered-down, because of the age rules here. And the version on Lush is watered down, because of their rules on non-consent. But I know how the story really goes: and that's what matters at the end of the day.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I start out by writing what I want to write - that is, what I think needs to be said, combined with what I like to say. I publish it in the form I want on my blog. Then I smile.

Then I start to worry about how to get it published on various websites. And I curse.

Example: The urtext of Snow White and the Seven Dildos is on my blog. This version of the story is coherent, powerful, funny, hot as fuck, and absolutely focussed on what it wanted to say. The version on Lit is watered-down, because of the age rules here. And the version on Lush is watered down, because of their rules on non-consent. But I know how the story really goes: and that's what matters at the end of the day.

You could've put the pure form on AO³.

If by chance something I've written won't fit on any site I intend to publish on, with plot and premise as intended; I'll save it for self publishing. I only intentionally slightly altered a story, once. And it was fanfiction, actually. As my premier fanfic, I had originally wrote three versions; one for ffn, ao3, and here. The version here got deleted, so I combined the lit version and ao3 version. I won't be doing that again.