Content guidelines question: Celebrities, prostitution, places and events similar to real ones

[Bramblethorn]

The reality is that even if you publish it, your main character is not her. It is based on her but the moment you took artistic liberties it ceased being her. The character arc you speak of is not something we know Taylor has experienced. So what's the point of keeping her name and likeness?

Also, no matter how accurate a story might be to a celebrity's public image at the time of writing, that image can change in ways that break the story. You never know who's going to do an Allison Mack.

 

[AlinaX]

I loved her in Smallville. :-(

 

[AchtungNight]

Also, no matter how accurate a story might be to a celebrity's public image at the time of writing, that image can change in ways that break the story. You never know who's going to do an Allison Mack.

This is very true. Again, that’s one reason you need to emphasize your stories take place in an alternate reality. In my stories, for example, Marilyn Manson was smart enough to break things off with Evan Rachel Wood before anything stupid or abusive occurred between them. And when she later redefined their relationship as abusive before the press and brought in a super-skilled psychologist to back up her claims… he was smart enough to agree to a settlement with her and drop the elaborate law enforcement impersonation story he made up about Evan, then realize he had a problem dating women with the appearance of manipulation and abuse, then adjusted his habits accordingly. The case between these two celebrities with a past controversial relationship is still up in the air IRL and we may never know the truth of it since it’s even more messy than Depp vs. Heard, but in my ficverse… it’s settled. Manson’s still got issues finding a new record label, but I’m not a big enough fan of him to help with that. And Evan and her usually amicable ex Jamie Bell still frequent the same swinger’s resort too. His wife does occasionally need to scratch her bisexual itch, after all.

As for Allison Mack in my ficverse… I have never been enough into her to write a story about her, but I think we can safely conclude Chloe Sullivan would have been smart enough not to get involved in her actress’s mistakes. Sadly Allison wasn’t that smart irl. I don’t think I need to bother to reconcile the character actress wisdom discrepancies exactly. Allison is having enough trouble doing that herself for her fans.

:sigh: This is why I’m not into celebrities as much as I used to be.

 

[AchtungNight]

For me, I genuinely think your solution is almost as simple as just swapping the name 'Taylor Swift' for something else.

From all your responses here, it is clear that you've thought very intimately about the characters, narrative, and themes of your story. You aren't writing purely out of an attraction or obsession (love or hate) for Taylor. That's good.

But I think you've thought so much about your story that I'd argue you can entirely drop Taylor. Your world and characters sound real, so why does your main character need to be her?

The reality is that even if you publish it, your main character is not her. It is based on her but the moment you took artistic liberties it ceased being her. The character arc you speak of is not something we know Taylor has experienced. So what's the point of keeping her name and likeness?

You can keep almost everything about your character's background, just change her name. The story will work just as well. Swap anything that explicitly makes her Taylor Swift; you can still keep all the same plot, themes, characters, settings, etc. Nothing will actually change.

So, I ask again: why does it have to be her? You say she was an attractive option as a protagonist for lots of reasons, which I get and respect. But now that you've extrapolated those aspects of Taylor Swift, there's no reason to keep her name in the story.





All of these justifications for why you chose Swift are compelling, and they serve as the basis for a really interesting story with a great central character arc. But it simply does not have to actually be Taylor. You can't know her thoughts. Your protagonist is already 100% fictional. Tacking on Taylor's name only hurts your chances. You've done the heavy lifting: you've made your character. All you need to do is change the names and some specific life facts about Taylor, and you're well and truly set.

It can be Taylor Swift in your mind. Readers might even make that connection.

I don't say this to be condescending. You've put a lot of pages (and clearly a lot of thought) into this story. Don't waste it.

I would argue that he can fix things enough by keeping the non consent elements out of it. Taylor doesn’t need to agree to such bs in the real world or in the more sex positive world in which the quality Literotica Celebrity Stories that match my preferences take place. I’m crossing my fingers that this could be one of those until the OP proves otherwise. Hope he can find the ability and gumption to make it so.

And before pinksilkglove or anyone else dares me to forward my stories to my celebrity crushes… no, thank you. They’re not my target audience. I am also content enough with fantasy not to try to manipulate it into reality. Now, if some celebrity were to admire my depiction of them and praise my story… or contact me to discuss it in private… I wouldn’t turn that down. But until it happens, I’m not going to tempt fate. They can initiate it, not me. A past of rejection from cheerleaders who received my love letters has taught me well.

 

[ChimilDetin]

For me, I genuinely think your solution is almost as simple as just swapping the name 'Taylor Swift' for something else.

From all your responses here, it is clear that you've thought very intimately about the characters, narrative, and themes of your story. You aren't writing purely out of an attraction or obsession (love or hate) for Taylor. That's good.

But I think you've thought so much about your story that I'd argue you can entirely drop Taylor. Your world and characters sound real, so why does your main character need to be her?

The reality is that even if you publish it, your main character is not her. It is based on her but the moment you took artistic liberties it ceased being her. The character arc you speak of is not something we know Taylor has experienced. So what's the point of keeping her name and likeness?

You can keep almost everything about your character's background, just change her name. The story will work just as well. Swap anything that explicitly makes her Taylor Swift; you can still keep all the same plot, themes, characters, settings, etc. Nothing will actually change.

So, I ask again: why does it have to be her? You say she was an attractive option as a protagonist for lots of reasons, which I get and respect. But now that you've extrapolated those aspects of Taylor Swift, there's no reason to keep her name in the story.

All of these justifications for why you chose Swift are compelling, and they serve as the basis for a really interesting story with a great central character arc. But it simply does not have to actually be Taylor. You can't know her thoughts. Your protagonist is already 100% fictional. Tacking on Taylor's name only hurts your chances. You've done the heavy lifting: you've made your character. All you need to do is change the names and some specific life facts about Taylor, and you're well and truly set.

It can be Taylor Swift in your mind. Readers might even make that connection.

I don't say this to be condescending. You've put a lot of pages (and clearly a lot of thought) into this story. Don't waste it.

I appreciate your taking the time to make a thoughtful response — including referring to another fear of mine, that her fandom is at a level where people who don't take the time to understand the story would be repulsed by the mere idea of her being in such a situation. I get that sense just from some of the other posters in this thread. I did check: While there are a number of stories here about her here, few are as much commentaries on her real path as they are just using her as a fantasy figure.

Again, part of why I decided to throw the writing on pause, check the guidelines and ask some questions here first.

I also hear what you're saying about just making it about a fictionalized figure like Taylor, or even just not using her name.

I hate that the answer in my head breaks down to "I don't wanna," but it basically does.

More specifically, I'm thinking about the time and effort it would take to write out more exposition to fit the level of detail I have in the story to build a fictional character up to be someone who fits her bill. In what I had written, I had Taylor and Jessica discussing Taylor's history of touring and albums, exes like Taylor Lautner and John Mayer, and so on. You don't necessarily have to explain those facts because they're just facts. With a fictional character, you have to outline all of that, first — almost tell her life story up to that point. I always feel those small, real details are the difference between a story that makes you feel like you're actually in the story's world versus distracting you out of the story to fill in gaps in your own mind or suspend disbelief about what doesn't jibe with reality. To build all that backstory for a fictional character, and not make it feel like I've just created "a cheap knockoff Taylor Swift," feels like a chore.

Plus, at that point, I'd feel like I'd need to fictionalize the rest — Travis, the NFL teams, the city, and so on, and build backstory for all of that, too. And then, yeah, it's all just a fantasy, not a realistic one. Not really interested, honestly. Maybe the poster above who said using a real character is lazy is more right than I initially thought.

The plausibility of all of this, with largely real people, was part of the appeal to me. Without that, I lose the motivation, both to read stories where I fail to get that sense, as well as to think about writing it. Someone earlier mentioned Gilligan's Island and I Dream of Jeannie. While I'm not above saying I wouldn't have minded some time to myself with either Ginger or Mary Ann, actually watching those shows for content never appealed to me. Too implausible that the professor wouldn't have figured out how to build a boat or send a signal somehow. I'm also not a sci-fi guy.

I do think there's a line: At some point, there are known, public celebrity figures who have to know fan fic is being written about them. The line comes with real people who aren't celebs, but for whom you can create fictionalized versions of them and the reader won't know because there's a good chance they don't know the real person. I also referred to real game broadcasters and networks in what I had, but created a fictionalized local TV station and a fictionalized character based off Taylor's real publicist, as those are less-known and I'd hate to make real people in those positions feel called out with real names and ideas. Maybe Taylor is the kind of celeb who transcends that line — who is so real to some of her fans that she's too real for such a topic.

To answer another comment above, yes, the vast majority of stuff in the celebrity tab, were it to be put in front of the real celebs discussed, would repulse them. It is all largely us writing out and sharing our fantasies with each other without any thought to actually trying to see them played out. In the end, it's all just a dream, and it's not like we're doing deepfakes where we're actually using the celeb's image and trying to think this actually happened.

I wanted my story to toe that line well: Deviate enough from reality for you to know it's fiction, but to also say, "I could see this happen in reality, too." I like stories here that give people that feeling. That's why I liked the "alternate timeline" idea. In reality, the Lions didn't make the Super Bowl, so the entire premise is academic and fiction, anyway. (FWIW, I'm also not even a Lions fan, though I was rooting for them after my team was eliminated.) But, one can easily envision an alternate universe where they did win. They had a big lead and lost it. And if they did win ...

 

[ChimilDetin]

I would argue that he can fix things enough by keeping the non consent elements out of it. Taylor doesn’t need to agree to such bs in the real world or in the more sex positive world in which the quality Literotica Celebrity Stories that match my preferences take place. I’m crossing my fingers that this could be one of those until the OP proves otherwise. Hope he can find the ability and gumption to make it so.

And before pinksilkglove or anyone else dares me to forward my stories to my celebrity crushes… no, thank you. They’re not my target audience. I am also content enough with fantasy not to try to manipulate it into reality. Now, if some celebrity were to admire my depiction of them and praise my story… or contact me to discuss it in private… I wouldn’t turn that down. But until it happens, I’m not going to tempt fate. They can initiate it, not me. A past of rejection from cheerleaders who received my love letters has taught me well.

As I said, the part I was struggling with the most was trying to figure out how to make Taylor uncomfortable in one of her experiences without it turning into non-con.

Having every experience of her with a customer be wholly positive felt both implausible and a little too much like trying to paint a world that, admittedly, has some darkness in it as one that's bathed in light. There needed to be some conflict. How to make that happen without ranging into that realm ... good question.

That said, though, there's enough iffy-ness about this all that I just don't feel like it's right to pursue.

I am debating — debating — maybe trying to edit the one wholly positive, "Wow that felt good" sex scene into a standalone story. At present, I have Taylor clicking with a guy, taking him back and doing a slinky strip where she lets a custom, white Donna Karan dress slide off her. As she begins to tease him and explore his body — he's a fitness trainer — she opens things up and finds he's somewhat gifted. He then compliments her hair ... for how much it reminds him of Margot Robbie in Barbie. This mildly miffs Taylor, who had been going for that look, but who also wants this guy to know how much better she is than Margot. "I thought Barbie doesn't do this," he says.

"It's not Barbie. It's Becky. And let me show you what Becky does."

And so on.

As we all should be doing with our stories, I tried to make it hot. I kinda want to figure out how to just snip that part out because it was, by far, the most fun part to write.

 

[AchtungNight]

You and I write Celebrity Fantasies for the same reasons. If you feel better scrapping than publishing, it’s your business. But I too hope you find a way to keep that scene if it’s as hot as you describe.

Maybe make it a random girl named Becky who longs to be as famous as Taylor? Maybe someone who works for her in a minor capacity? Maybe Taylor impersonating someone else for the weekend since she has a hall pass the press doesn’t need to approve? Wink wink. Good luck.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

where people who don't take the time to understand the story would be repulsed by the mere idea of her being in such a situation

[No personal attacks or trolling - including creating accounts for this specific purpose. Heated discussions are fine, even welcome. However, personally attacking / kink-shaming a fellow author or reader is not allowed within the Author's Hangout. Threads which devolve into the exchanging of insults will be closed and repeat offenders will be given a timeout, per the AH rules.]

 

[ElectricBlue]

With a fictional character, you have to outline all of that, first — almost tell her life story up to that point. I always feel those small, real details are the difference between a story that makes you feel like you're actually in the story's world versus distracting you out of the story to fill in gaps in your own mind or suspend disbelief about what doesn't jibe with reality. To build all that backstory for a fictional character, and not make it feel like I've just created "a cheap knockoff Taylor Swift," feels like a chore.

But you don't need to do that at all, with a fictional character. One of the "worst" things many new writers do is open a story with a tedious infodump of a character's life history, which has nothing to do with the story about to be told. It's "run away quickly," for many of us. Back click, gone.

Or look at it this way - when you meet someone for the first time, do you know anything about them at all? No, you don't, and there's the story - getting to know them. It's the same for readers with fictional characters, getting to know them as the story unfolds.

Also, you're assuming readers will have the same obsessive knowledge you have about Swift, but that is a massive false assumption. I, for example, know she's a very attractive blonde singer, but I couldn't tell you any song she's ever sung, and the only other name in that great litany of names you've given is John Mayer, and that's because he's a muso who had a Dumble amp at one time. The latter interests me, none of the rest of it does.

Sure, I've got a story called Taylor Swift 's Lipstick, but only because it's a gorgeous shade of red.

That's a big issue with fan-fic, I reckon, assuming readers are as interested or obsessed as you are. For so many of us, it's the biggest shrug of all, and move on. Which is a shame in a way, because you can clearly write (if all of this is to go by), but I'll never read it. But if you wrote an original character, I might.

 

[AchtungNight]

For the record I’m no coward. I’m also a proud fan of many hot celebrities who would gladly do to them every single thing I feature in my stories with their cooperation- and I publish my stories online because I am glad to hope they would cooperate in the commission of said acts- without blackmail, misrepresentation, or any other nonconsensual elements. The heroic characters in my stories do not engage in such behavior. They may lie for a time, but they drop the acting once they’re sure their sexual partners are okay with their reasons and understanding. I do see my characters as people- imperfect people- and I treat them accordingly. Taylor has talked about making mistakes in her songs- this could be another for her. I know my most frequent male main character was such a mistake in my ficverse once upon a time.

Danica Patrick and other celebrities have been known to self-google. If any celebrity ever does that and finds my stories and confronts me about them, I will gladly discuss the issue with them. But I’m not going to initiate the confrontation and make quality fanfic cognizant on their approval. SNL doesn’t have to do that when they point out very real concerns about Donald Trump, why should I?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

[No personal attacks or trolling - including creating accounts for this specific purpose. Heated discussions are fine, even welcome. However, personally attacking / kink-shaming a fellow author or reader is not allowed within the Author's Hangout. Threads which devolve into the exchanging of insults will be closed and repeat offenders will be given a timeout, per the AH rules.]

 

[ChimilDetin]

You fucking coward.

Yeah, I don't want to deal with this, which is more why I'm writing about not pursuing the story at this stage than, well, pursuing the story.

And you're right: I haven't had a lot of success with women in my life, so strip clubs, porn and Literotica have been the fallback. I even thought I could take what I'd learned from what I enjoy from those and create some quality content of my own, but I guess I'm a coward for asking if it'd be a good idea. I could have just not said anything at all, but asking is apparently more cowardly. Gotcha.

But you don't need to do that at all, with a fictional character. One of the "worst" things many new writers do is open a story with a tedious infodump of a character's life history, which has nothing to do with the story about to be told. It's "run away quickly," for many of us. Back click, gone.

Or look at it this way - when you meet someone for the first time, do you know anything about them at all? No, you don't, and there's the story - getting to know them. It's the same for readers with fictional characters, getting to know them as the story unfolds.

Also, you're assuming readers will have the same obsessive knowledge you have about Swift, but that is a massive false assumption. I, for example, know she's a very attractive blonde singer, but I couldn't tell you any song she's ever sung, and the only other name in that great litany of names you've given is John Mayer, and that's because he's a muso who had a Dumble amp at one time. The latter interests me, none of the rest of it does.

Sure, I've got a story called Taylor Swift 's Lipstick, but only because it's a gorgeous shade of red.

That's a big issue with fan-fic, I reckon, assuming readers are as interested or obsessed as you are. For so many of us, it's the biggest shrug of all, and move on. Which is a shame in a way, because you can clearly write (if all of this is to go by), but I'll never read it. But if you wrote an original character, I might.

On the one hand, no, when you meet someone the first time, you don't know anything about them. But on the other hand, when it's someone famous, you can go and find out. I was watching the Grammys with my wife last night and found myself explaining to her who Mark Ronson was and how much cool production stuff he's done.

Like I said, I actually went and looked up details on Swift and Kelce when I thought they might work in the dialog. I wouldn't call myself a fan of either.

I don't know if I feel like that "tedious" infodump at the start of a story is as bad as you might think. I think it's a question of those who are detail-oriented versus those who aren't. Some of us like, nay maybe get off on, on detail. Some people talk about the sizzle and the steak. I've always said to not underrate the sizzle. Without going to find it, your lipstick story sounds a little like one particular detail as is.

Otherwise, I fear it becomes a news article or the summary I wrote earlier. "This person did this, this and this. The end."

The fun is in the details. "Facing away from Jonathan, she stood straight upward with a wide stance and her feet just beyond her shoulders. She turned her head to her left and slowly slid a narrow spaghetti strap off that shoulder with her right hand, allowing it to fall loosely down her arm to her side. She then slowly turned her head toward her other shoulder, reached with her left hand and slid that strap down, causing it and all the white straps that made up the back of her dress to fall down to her hips. Her back was fully exposed to him, while she knew her bare front would be as soon as she turned to him."

I think you want to paint a whole picture, and part of the picture involves including and getting all the little things right. That includes with dialog and details therein.

Eh, whatever. I'm a coward and I should probably shut up.

 

[AchtungNight]

I did ask my ex-wife if it was okay to base a character on her once, and she agreed it was fine. One of my fondest memories.

Another was Alicia Witt giving me a free VIP pass to one of her concerts about eleven years after I put out erotic fanfics about her online. Yeah, she may not know I did such things, but I'm sure she could find out if she wanted to. And I give her full license to come after me if she wants to. But she hasn't. Nor have any of my other many celebrity subjects. Not in all the years I have done this. I don't think they need or want people like you arguing on their behalf.

I do have the cooperation of my imaginary fantasy versions of various women. That's enough for me.

Are your stories perfect? Probably not. But I'm not calling you out on the imperfections. I too will admit I haven't had a lot of success with women in real life. Have you enjoyed more success with your preferred partners, whoever they might be? If you have, congratulations. If not, well, better luck in the future. I already know you're not the sort of woman I'd like, so it's probably good there's no attraction to me on your part. None here either.

I would hope that as a fellow artist you would show me some solidarity. Guess that was a unrealistic expectation. Fine, you're right- I'm a coward and a person who has made mistakes. I ask for peace between us. Please buzz off and let this thread die.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

[No personal attacks or trolling - including creating accounts for this specific purpose. Heated discussions are fine, even welcome. However, personally attacking / kink-shaming a fellow author or reader is not allowed within the Author's Hangout. Threads which devolve into the exchanging of insults will be closed and repeat offenders will be given a timeout, per the AH rules.]

 

[AchtungNight]

I

Exactly what harm am I perpetuating? My stories have never depicted good fun consensual sex in anything but a positive way. Non-consent is never depicted in anything but a negative shameful way. I invite you to read my stories and see if you can prove me wrong.

Go ahead. Or is your argument too important for you to be challenged?

You already know of what I'm afraid. I don't need to answer that.

It's a slippery slope, shaming kinks. If we shame sex in general, we will be dooming our own race.

For the record, I am not lying about my ex or Alicia Witt. I am telling the truth. You can disbelieve me all you like. You are wrong. Deal with it.

All the explanation I intend to give here- the most frequent male main character in my stories shares my first and middle name, the first syllable of my last name, and many other personal details about me. He has been with many celebrities. In 2010 I married a woman and gave up writing erotica for a time to concentrate on my marriage, writing that marriage into my online stories with my then-wife's full cooperation. I also wrote in our divorce much later and the offscreen character on whom I based my MMC's first wife (she's similar to Lillith from Frasier) is based on my ex. She's aware of this and cooperative too. She knows it's part of my therapy to ease the depression I feel because of our divorce. You can fight depression through art, didn't you know?

Keep digging your own grave. We'll see who wields their shovel better in the end.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

[No personal attacks or trolling - including creating accounts for this specific purpose. Heated discussions are fine, even welcome. However, personally attacking / kink-shaming a fellow author or reader is not allowed within the Author's Hangout. Threads which devolve into the exchanging of insults will be closed and repeat offenders will be given a timeout, per the AH rules.]

 

[AchtungNight]

I

Perhaps I do feel shame. But I'm not taking my work down either. Not as long as there are people whom it entertains.

I have thought of that truth you mention many times. Go ahead, knave, keep twisting it. I will avoid your trap. Or die in it if I must. Referencing my favorite poem-

 

[mildlyaroused]

More specifically, I'm thinking about the time and effort it would take to write out more exposition to fit the level of detail I have in the story to build a fictional character up to be someone who fits her bill.

I will say this: in my eyes the biggest reason to keep Taylor as Taylor is, as you've said yourself, that you'd lose interest in the story if she was just some random. The plausibility, the little slice of real life - that's fun, and motivating.

And our minds work in mysterious ways. Sometimes my editor reads my novels and thinks something seemingly superfluous should be changed, but I've grown attached. I don't necessarily understand why, but my story would simply feel wrong if I changed it.

I still think changing Taylor to a fictional person wouldn't be as arduous as you think. You don't have to change the moments where they talk about past album tours or past boyfriends. All you need to do is nominally rename them. But if making that change would kill your interest, don't do it.

It comes down to whether you value the writing process or the publication of the story more. I think we can get caught up here on how best to get something published (because that is fun, and its valuable to share your work), but if I had never published anything and never could I would still write. Writing for the hell of it is a great artistic pursuit.

I totally respect not wanting to change Taylor to something else. You've made good points. So I'd say keep writing it as it is under the assumption that it won't get published: enjoy the process, keep the fingertips hot with inspiration, make those characters dance on your page. Then once you're done you can try your luck here, and if Laurel says no then maybe somewhere else.

Good luck! You are very articulate, so I'm sure whichever course you take will serve you well

 

[AchtungNight]

I will say this: in my eyes the biggest reason to keep Taylor as Taylor is, as you've said yourself, that you'd lose interest in the story if she was just some random. The plausibility, the little slice of real life - that's fun, and motivating.

And our minds work in mysterious ways. Sometimes my editor reads my novels and thinks something seemingly superfluous should be changed, but I've grown attached. I don't necessarily understand why, but my story would simply feel wrong if I changed it.

I still think changing Taylor to a fictional person wouldn't be as arduous as you think. You don't have to change the moments where they talk about past album tours or past boyfriends. All you need to do is nominally rename them. But if making that change would kill your interest, don't do it.

It comes down to whether you value the writing process or the publication of the story more. I think we can get caught up here on how best to get something published (because that is fun, and its valuable to share your work), but if I had never published anything and never could I would still write. Writing for the hell of it is a great artistic pursuit.

I totally respect not wanting to change Taylor to something else. You've made good points. So I'd say keep writing it as it is under the assumption that it won't get published: enjoy the process, keep the fingertips hot with inspiration, make those characters dance on your page. Then once you're done you can try your luck here, and if Laurel says no then maybe somewhere else.

Good luck! You are very articulate, so I'm sure whichever course you take will serve you well

This is why I have never altered a celebrity in one of my stories into another character. I have done it for characters based on not-as-famous people, but that's been easier.

 

[ChimilDetin]

I will say this: in my eyes the biggest reason to keep Taylor as Taylor is, as you've said yourself, that you'd lose interest in the story if she was just some random. The plausibility, the little slice of real life - that's fun, and motivating.

And our minds work in mysterious ways. Sometimes my editor reads my novels and thinks something seemingly superfluous should be changed, but I've grown attached. I don't necessarily understand why, but my story would simply feel wrong if I changed it.

I still think changing Taylor to a fictional person wouldn't be as arduous as you think. You don't have to change the moments where they talk about past album tours or past boyfriends. All you need to do is nominally rename them. But if making that change would kill your interest, don't do it.

It comes down to whether you value the writing process or the publication of the story more. I think we can get caught up here on how best to get something published (because that is fun, and its valuable to share your work), but if I had never published anything and never could I would still write. Writing for the hell of it is a great artistic pursuit.

I totally respect not wanting to change Taylor to something else. You've made good points. So I'd say keep writing it as it is under the assumption that it won't get published: enjoy the process, keep the fingertips hot with inspiration, make those characters dance on your page. Then once you're done you can try your luck here, and if Laurel says no then maybe somewhere else.

Good luck! You are very articulate, so I'm sure whichever course you take will serve you well

Thanks for steering this thread back on point, and for more kind words.

Again, some of the reactions here ... I'm thinking I don't want to swim in this sea.

Could it be done? Probably. But like you say, I just don't know if my mind works that way. I'm struggling in my head to dream up a popstar-like character that wouldn't ring as basically a Swift ripoff. I know a few singers for cover bands and whatnot in real life. If I could figure out songs and an image for a popstar character, I'd probably just go to those friends and offer to be their manager, LOL. Sometimes we hit walls.

Worth a shot, and like I said, I enjoyed writing the parts I wrote. Some fantasies are best left in our own heads.

 

[ElectricBlue]

The fun is in the details. "Facing away from Jonathan, she stood straight upward with a wide stance and her feet just beyond her shoulders. She turned her head to her left and slowly slid a narrow spaghetti strap off that shoulder with her right hand, allowing it to fall loosely down her arm to her side. She then slowly turned her head toward her other shoulder, reached with her left hand and slid that strap down, causing it and all the white straps that made up the back of her dress to fall down to her hips. Her back was fully exposed to him, while she knew her bare front would be as soon as she turned to him."

That's fine, that's describing action in a story, providing the little details.

That's not "the tedious info dump" I'm referring to - the type that generally begins with a long description of this and that, all in the past, with very little to do with the story.

 

[AchtungNight]

For the record, Celebrity Fanfiction can be an interesting sea to navigate. But you also have to be ready to deal with certain creatures of the deep.

When I wrote my story series featuring a certain Scientologist celebrity as a happy swinger defying her religion's negative image by living her beliefs positively and still being a happy ethical slut, I had to deal with a troll farm telling me I was crazy and getting me banned from my top publisher at the time. Thankfully I found other publishers with more flexible minds.

People who are offended by certain fantasies and thinking that we should all share their mindset is another danger. This isn't my first time facing off with someone with such arrogance. Probably won't be the last.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I loved her in Smallville. :-(

So did at least one author on this site who included her in a Celeb story a couple of years before the NXIVM stuff broke. They had a "why did you write a story about this predator?" comment from somebody incapable of reading dates.

 

[ChimilDetin]

That's fine, that's describing action in a story, providing the little details.

That's not "the tedious info dump" I'm referring to - the type that generally begins with a long description of this and that, all in the past, with very little to do with the story.

I actually feared going on too long with some of the exposition I had.

Before I got to anything remotely erotic, I started the whole thing with a scene of Taylor & Travis watching football in Taylor's stadium box after Travis' AFC title win to find out who they'd face in the Super Bowl. That scene advanced the alternate timeline idea — the Lions kick a field goal rather than go for it — while also implying the Tay/Trav relationship could be as much PR as romance. They like each other, sure, but acknowledge they really haven't had much quality time together between her tour schedule and his in-season regimen. When they are together, they aren't taking advantage of the time to be, or even look, all that intimate, with him watching the game and her scrolling her phone. When you stop to think how crazy both their lives are, it does seem implausible they've seen each other much other than the times they've been in the same place publicly. Plus, they're both very focused, highly driven, successful people, and it makes sense in that moment that he be focused on his next opponent.

I also have a scene of Taylor Face Timing her publicist & Travis in which the bet is introduced and Travis lets her know he'd win, and even if not, he'd be willing to be at the club when she's there because he thinks it could be some secret fun — it's later implied that he knows what goes on there, but doesn't really mind. That was followed by the scene of her leaving the game after his injury, a scene with her flying into Detroit as we incorporate the details of what her publicist & Billy B had worked out — an unprompted sizable payment to the publicist and anonymous cash donation to Travis' hospital, as well as the ability for Taylor to delay her appearance until she felt it was convenient and comfortable a few months later — a scene of Billy B providing her transport to her hotel in his limo and spinning the experience positively, and her spending her first afternoon clearing her head to prepare for a different kind of performing.

It took quite a while to get her introduced to Jessica and start with that dynamic, much less any of what I know a lot of people often skip to in these stories, anyhow.

Honestly, the exposition was where I thought, "Damn, this could use some editing."

I mean, part of what I wanted to do is yes, write a story with these erotic elements, but also a story about celebrity, celebrity privilege, celebrity relationships and how the very different worlds some of these folks live in compare to others'. I had the publicist bring up the bet as almost a kicker to end a daily call in which the publicist makes it clear Taylor won't be appearing at certain second-tier awards shows again unless those shows make sure it's worth her while (i.e. she wins) — a real, semi-controversial topic that's been discussed with awards shows below the EGOT level. I wanted it to range into a lot of real places, then go to very different places.

As is, part of me thought, "It takes a while to get to the good stuff." But, I also thought it set up a lot of the rest of the story.

 

[AchtungNight]

Whoa. You’re calling Taylor’s success into question? Dude, that is a no-no on many levels far as I’m concerned. People in general, celebrities or otherwise, have the right to the accolades their art has earned.