Booleanean
Experienced
- Joined
- May 14, 2023
- Posts
- 38
The last couple of months I've been poking away at a story. It all started with the idea of two couples hiking out into the wilderness to camp together, and things slowly escalating fulfilling the long held fantasy of the main POV character and her partner to do a full swap.
I flesh out the characters a little. Straight female, main POV and her heteroflexible male partner, together since college, idly interested in polyamory or other forms of consensual non-monogamy. Bi couple (male and female), together for a year. They're both bi, but while she's out to everyone, he's only out to her. Give them all some hobbies I vaguely know something about, plan to throw some pop culture references in there cause I'm a millennial and that's humor. Create the setting, campsite, foraging spot, pebble beach, deep spring water pool past some berry bushes, height of summer.
I start out simple, some off screen sex between nonPOV characters, some on screen between main POV and partner, a quick game of Truth or Dare that turns into two steamy same sex massages.
Okay, I don't mind my characters deciding they're different than I thought they were originally. I adjust the scene a little to sprinkle in some stuff about the protag getting worked up, feeling a strong emotional bond to her female friend that's deepened as the massage gets to more intimate parts of her body, questioning her sexuality. Plan a future scene where the two women talk about their feelings, how straight doesn't want to hurt bi or take advantage, how bi doesn't want straight to feel pressured. They talk about demisexuality and how one person can have different attraction types to same and different gender people.
This was supposed to be a quick stroke story, something for Summer Lovin' with the heat being a character in the story for lots of sweaty sex, skimpy and absent clothing, and everyone being on vacation to boot. Maybe a couple chapters of buildup to a big full swap scene where everyone stuck to their own orientations, with maybe some light play between the guys cause there's too many stories about couples swapping and the girls playing together. Then a quick half-chapter epilogue where the orgies continue the rest of the trip, and a month or two later where they're all playing Strip Catan together back home or whatever. Fade to black, print it, ship it, start the next idea.
Sixty thousand words later, and one of the characters is sobbing in the other's arms because they can't stand the idea of the trip ending and having to be apart from their new love, the other two are carefully exploring their expanded friendship and in denial about the fact that they're truly, madly, deeply in love. I'm openly weeping while I'm writing these scenes, having flashbacks to saying goodbye to long distance partners in airports, spending nights alone. The epilogue is happy for them, but with every sentence I write, I'm more and more depressed.
I'm editing it now, and I'm going to miss the ever loving fuck out of these characters. There's not much more to tell about them, so I doubt I can go back. I wrote 35k words in the last week to finish it off when I finally felt like I knew the characters really well. The story clocks in at 85k words after the first edit cut 20k words, but it's probably only going to grow a bit again as I sprinkle in some foreshadowing in earlier chapters, clarify some situations and descriptions, and write the one sex scene I had to skip because it's set after the sad part (the characters get three time-skip paragraphs to recover), and I just couldn't get into the right mindset. I might even have to cut it, cause if I can't make the switch, will my reader be able to?
How is everyone else's experience with writing? Do your characters lead a life of their own and rewrite your story for you? Do you often get so attached to your characters, you can actively feel their emotions, or you wish they were real? Does finishing a story leave you raw and depressed?
I flesh out the characters a little. Straight female, main POV and her heteroflexible male partner, together since college, idly interested in polyamory or other forms of consensual non-monogamy. Bi couple (male and female), together for a year. They're both bi, but while she's out to everyone, he's only out to her. Give them all some hobbies I vaguely know something about, plan to throw some pop culture references in there cause I'm a millennial and that's humor. Create the setting, campsite, foraging spot, pebble beach, deep spring water pool past some berry bushes, height of summer.
I start out simple, some off screen sex between nonPOV characters, some on screen between main POV and partner, a quick game of Truth or Dare that turns into two steamy same sex massages.
Okay, I don't mind my characters deciding they're different than I thought they were originally. I adjust the scene a little to sprinkle in some stuff about the protag getting worked up, feeling a strong emotional bond to her female friend that's deepened as the massage gets to more intimate parts of her body, questioning her sexuality. Plan a future scene where the two women talk about their feelings, how straight doesn't want to hurt bi or take advantage, how bi doesn't want straight to feel pressured. They talk about demisexuality and how one person can have different attraction types to same and different gender people.
This was supposed to be a quick stroke story, something for Summer Lovin' with the heat being a character in the story for lots of sweaty sex, skimpy and absent clothing, and everyone being on vacation to boot. Maybe a couple chapters of buildup to a big full swap scene where everyone stuck to their own orientations, with maybe some light play between the guys cause there's too many stories about couples swapping and the girls playing together. Then a quick half-chapter epilogue where the orgies continue the rest of the trip, and a month or two later where they're all playing Strip Catan together back home or whatever. Fade to black, print it, ship it, start the next idea.
Sixty thousand words later, and one of the characters is sobbing in the other's arms because they can't stand the idea of the trip ending and having to be apart from their new love, the other two are carefully exploring their expanded friendship and in denial about the fact that they're truly, madly, deeply in love. I'm openly weeping while I'm writing these scenes, having flashbacks to saying goodbye to long distance partners in airports, spending nights alone. The epilogue is happy for them, but with every sentence I write, I'm more and more depressed.
I'm editing it now, and I'm going to miss the ever loving fuck out of these characters. There's not much more to tell about them, so I doubt I can go back. I wrote 35k words in the last week to finish it off when I finally felt like I knew the characters really well. The story clocks in at 85k words after the first edit cut 20k words, but it's probably only going to grow a bit again as I sprinkle in some foreshadowing in earlier chapters, clarify some situations and descriptions, and write the one sex scene I had to skip because it's set after the sad part (the characters get three time-skip paragraphs to recover), and I just couldn't get into the right mindset. I might even have to cut it, cause if I can't make the switch, will my reader be able to?
How is everyone else's experience with writing? Do your characters lead a life of their own and rewrite your story for you? Do you often get so attached to your characters, you can actively feel their emotions, or you wish they were real? Does finishing a story leave you raw and depressed?