Things You Don't Know About Your Own Stories

[RetroFan]

Like most authors on the site, some of my stories are pretty straightforward, but others have twists and turns or ambiguities never resolved. Of the stories you have written over the years, do you have any themes that remain ambiguous, and even you don't know the real answer to them as the author? Here are some of mine:

LEARNING TO LOVE LOUISE: This sad romance story reveals that the main male character Paul's younger co-worker and friend Jane is in fact dead all along, and was his late fiancee who died years earlier. But whether Jane is a figment of Paul's imagination or an actual ghost is never resolved, and even I can't decide.

CHEATING ON A CHEATING WIFE: The narrator of this LW story is Jeff, a creepy cuckold simp of a husband whose narration must be called into question. But while Jeff is without doubt an unreliable narrator and some readers did pick up on this, just what is true, half-truths, exaggerations or complete lies is not clear to anyone, least of all me and I wrote it.

THE LOST HOURS WITH ANNABELLE: In this story which was part of the 2022 April Fools contest, narrator Jim takes tall beauty Annabelle - the daughter of house guests staying for Easter 1962 out of a picnic on the Saturday. Jim and Annabelle, both 18, hire a rowboat and go out on Melbourne's Yarra River, where they appear to drift off to sleep for a few seconds, only to awaken more than six hours later with the weather having changed. Neither can explain this time slip and losing so many hours, and when Annabelle and her family return to Adelaide she and Jim lose touch, what happened remaining unexplained . Many years later in 2019, Jim now aged 75 and a father and grandfather volunteers to go in a stage hypnosis show and starts having weird flashbacks to that day, culminating in a strange dream from which his wife struggles to wake him in which he appears to remember what happened during this lost time. Then Jim by chance comes across a South Australian newspaper, and sees Annabelle's obituary and that she died the same day he was hypnotised and had the strange flashbacks and dreams. So what really happened? Did Jim and Annabelle simply fall asleep, and his dream was just a dream? Was it something to do with the hypnosis? Or was it something supernatural, the memories of the lost time coming to Jim in a dream when Annabelle died? Sorry, but even I don't have the correct answer.

CRAZY CORNELIUS & THE MAGIC PILLS: This Erotic Horror story set in 1998 concludes with Cornelius vanishing without trace, never to be seen or heard of again. Don't worry, he's a sociopath and no great loss to society. But while Cornelius is declared legally dead 7 years later, his true fate remains a mystery even to me as the author.

EXPLORING WITH MY BIG BROTHER: The narrator in this story is 18-year-old Matilda, a student who goes urban exploring with her much older half-brother Tyler in a creepy abandoned theme park in the Gold Coast region of Queensland, Australia. Odd and eerie things happen in the park, but is what happening supernatural or is it all in the head of the young woman un-nerved at her spooky surroundings?

 

[Altissimus]

No, in a word. For me, understanding my characters is what enables me to write them effectively, and I can't do that if I haven't figured out everything that's relevant to the story. (They still surprise me, from time to time, doing things I hadn't expected - but when this happens my general reaction is "wow, that's better!") I often have pages of notes on character development that never make it into the story. So no, no surprises here. Sorry.

 

[YDB95]

I'm sure there are things my readers could tell me about my characters that I didn't realize myself, but I can't recall that ever actually happening here. It's just the way it is when the great majority of readers don't comment on the stories.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Only one, but the whole premise was stupid (a "twist" in the last paragraph, gee what a lame surprise). So I don't care, I'll never resolve it; and my character doesn't care either. He's quite happy in other "business as usual" stories.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Magnum Innominandum is one of those "cosmic horrors the human mind was not made to comprehend" stories, and having a human mind myself, I'm not sure exactly what happened to Ruth, or what Josephine might've seen if she hadn't turned away as the last veil came off.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I re-use a bunch of characters. So I started wondering what might happen if my characters Laura (Educating Laura, Smoking Hot) and Rachel (Gas Station Guy, I Say Ass: Contrasts and other ISA stories, also in Homesick Halloween) met each other.

Rachel gets introduced to lesbian sex by Laura wanting someone on the rebound, is what (Meaningless Kisses).

But then, that means Rachel has heard of Richie since she was 18 (he shags Laura and introduced her to BDSM in EL), because she and Laura stay in touch for some years. Then he's a colleague of Rachel's in the ISA series. So how did they first meet, and what happened when they did?

Had to think about that.

Filth, obviously.

Even dirtier than I'd thought.

Nearly finished writing it. Should be done this week, if they'll both shut up and stop chatting about irrelevant stuff.

Similarly, the end of Smoking Hot has a coda mentioning two minor characters meeting at a wedding, "That's how Gareth and Gaz got together. Don't call them Gary; I swear that's the only thing they have in common sometimes." What happened at the wedding? How did they react to being set up with a stranger?

Been working on that for a few years now. Got them into bed, but appears they're remarkably resistant to that relationship...

 

[lovecraft68]

In a Mother's Love Never Dies, Trevor-who's father passed away several years ago-has fallen in love with his mother. He has thoughts both lusty and romantic about her, and its driving him crazy and he wants to tell her how he feels, but is afraid she'll think he's sick and be upset with him. On the way to a Halloween party she's killed by a drunk driver.

A year passes and he's still dealing with grief, his unrequited love, and guilt because he feels if he told her how he felt maybe it would have worked out, and she wouldn't have gone to the party because they would have been a couple or he would have went with her....you get the point.

He has a friend named Amber who has been in love with him for some time and hasn't been shy about asking him out and pretty much saying she's a sure thing if he's interested. But she can't break through his funk. But her mother is a medium and she's been getting into it as well and gets Trevor to agree to a seance to contact his mother so he can talk to her.

Mom possesses Amber. Its her voice, spirit, mind, but in Ambers body(other than an eye color change) he confesses his feelings, Mom admits she knew and would have been receptive but held back for the same reason he did, they end up having torrid sex which ends with him still in her arms and her telling him to move on and she sees Ambers love for him and can see he has feelings for her that's he's been fighting because of her, it ends were her telling him to say I love you, and when he does Amber is back to herself and its him saying it to her, and the mother left her with the memory everything of the sex and love making but with it being her name Trevor was saying.

The ambiguity is....is it incest? Mom's spirit, but not her physical body, and a case can be made for it not being incest because physically this isn't his mother, but some still think it is because its who she was at the time. My personal feeling is its not, but I never say that anywhere I've let the readers think what they want. Interesting enough I had one reader throw a third option saying he thought Amber had somehow discovered his feelings for his mother(she'd known him since middle school) figured out she'd never have him if he didn't get closure and faked the entire thing.

The eye change could have been a quick slipping in of contacts while his eyes were shut, but I feel the voice throws that theory away, but it was fun to see someone come up with another angle to show they put some thought into the story

 

[NoTalentHack]

In one that I’m writing right now, a husband finds a video of his wife having sex with another man. It’s on an old VHS from the late 90s, and she’s dead. It becomes clear, throughout the story, that while other people believe she never cheated before or after, the husband will never know, nor will the reader. Keeping in that mindset, neither will I.

Well, unless I write a prequel.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

In one that I’m writing right now, a husband finds a video of his wife having sex with another man. It’s on an old VHS from the late 90s, and she’s dead. It becomes clear, throughout the story, that while other people believe she never cheated before or after, the husband will never know, nor will the reader. Keeping in that mindset, neither will I.

Well, unless I write a prequel.

Schrödinger's Adultery

 

[MediocreAuthor]

I suppose I could say that I don't know exactly what will occur after the end of Eldritch Pact. I won't spoil the ending, but at the completion of the story, Stavos finds himself in the middle of an incredibly complex love triangle.

I have no real interest in continuing the story, but if I did, I'd have to figure out exactly how the 3 characters would behave and interact together. I suppose I know the broad strokes, but not the finer details.

Several people immediately asked for a sequel, but I don't see it happening. Stavos has reached the end of his quest, and he'll gladly deal with whatever repercussions are necessary.

 

[MelissaBaby]

In my Halloween story, Toll Booth, I have no idea as to the nature of the primary male character. Maybe he's a ghost, maybe a demon. He might even just be a person unstuck in time. Are his intentions toward the female antagonist benevolent or malicious? Don't know. And I like that. I think it's what makes the story work.

 

[Stacnash]

In my Halloween story, Toll Booth, I have no idea as to the nature of the primary male character. Maybe he's a ghost, maybe a demon. He might even just be a person unstuck in time. Are his intentions toward the female antagonist benevolent or malicious? Don't know. And I like that. I think it's what makes the story work.

I added it to my reading list last night, I love Halloween stories.

 

[Carnevil9]

I like to include ambiguity in my stories, leaving something of a conundrum for the reader. My latest story, "Cum On My Glasses," is about a young man who has two ongoing sexual relationships. One is with a beautiful and sweet young coed, the other with a nasty old professor. He knows he can't keep seeing both of them, and has to make a decision. I did have him make the decision, but I invited readers to comment on what they would have done in his place, because I could see people coming down on either side of the fence.

 

[madelinemasoch]

Things I don't know...

What to do with Leya and Jamal in CC, at this point.

 

[AchtungNight]

There is a lot I don’t know about my own stories. Comes from interest in incorporating realism and fictional alternate reality versions of various celebrities. I did not know Leah Remini’s future when I cast her as a reformer of her former religion in Counseling. Nor did I know Evan Rachel Wood would one day become a popular figure in the anti-sexual assault movement when I cast her in such a role in my adult fanfic The Rendezvous. Nor did I guess Alicia Witt would one day have a transformative experience similar to Bruce Wayne’s when I featured a character based on her dressing up as Batgirl for a Halloween party (she’d be a great Barbara Gordon, do you agree?). Nor did I know Keri Russell would one day become popular for diplomacy and using her fists when I depicted her with similar interests in my fanfic. The list goes on. Am I a divinely inspired prophet or just an obsessed fanfic author who gets to know his characters very well through exhausting internet research? I let the audience decide.

 

[Djmac1031]

In one that I’m writing right now, a husband finds a video of his wife having sex with another man. It’s on an old VHS from the late 90s, and she’s dead. It becomes clear, throughout the story, that while other people believe she never cheated before or after, the husband will never know, nor will the reader. Keeping in that mindset, neither will I.

Well, unless I write a prequel.

No time / date stamp on the video?

 

[Djmac1031]

When I wrote my Sci Fi alien abduction story, The White Room, I left a LOT of unanswered questions.

Why did the aliens choose these two particular strangers?

What was the ultimate purpose of the experiments conducted on them?

Why did they need them to create a child together?

I left these things unanswered, because i had no answers.

Took me over a year to write a sequel and finally answer most of the questions.

 

[TadOverdon]

This is very silly, but...I don't know why the women in my Greenleaf books behave like porn chicks.

Which is ridiculous. They behave that way because they're porn chicks. They were porn chicks when I was introduced to most of them. They're in porn novels. They have one job and they do it.

The problem for me was that at one point in the last one I wrote, years ago, one of them asked another "why are we this way, in this town?"

And after that, it bothered me that they had noticed that they acted like porn chicks, were puzzled by it and I didn't have an answer for them.

 

[DarkCosmos]

In the first writing I posted here, Organism, I make it a point not to directly state where the alien entity that infects the crew comes from or how old it is. I imply that it's even older than our current universe, but that's left intentionally vague.

The simple truth is, I don't have a clue where the organism originally comes from or why it's in an ancient alien temple on an unexplored planet. All I truly know is what it is and what it does.

 

[Voboy]

The simple truth is, I don't have a clue where the organism originally comes from or why it's in an ancient alien temple on an unexplored planet. All I truly know is what it is and what it does.

I was the same with the alien adversaries in my SF series. I gave them names and technologies, but I didn't describe them because I have no clue who they are.

 

[StillStunned]

I just submitted a voyeur story for publication. I don't know whether the narrator is male or female, and I don't really care.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Things You Don't Know About Your Own Stories​

I’m not sure that this falls into the OP’s intended definition, but I frequently find myself tying later events back to some random thing that I wrote earlier.

Example:

In my current work-in-progress, a character throws a plate of food off a table. At the time, I was merely showing how angry he was.

Later, I was focussed on the person who made the food. A chef for whom food is religion. The other character’s act was the ultimate disrespect and led the chef to do something that furthered the plot.

But I had no idea about the importance of the food throwing until about 3,000 words later.

I have no idea if this is serendipity, creative use of what you have, or the subconscious in action. But I find it happens a lot. More so than having to go back and retrospectively add something to earlier text.

Em

 

[Carnevil9]

I just submitted a voyeur story for publication. I don't know whether the narrator is male or female, and I don't really care.

I have a similar story, but not voyeur oriented. It has a narrator and one other character, and is told all in dialog (monolog actually as only the narrator's speech is written) and I deliberately worded it so each character could be male or female and it would still work. I can't claim it was altogether successful, but it was a fun challenge.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I never knew my cuckolding stories, written by request, were autobiographical. Or that I was an N lover, who hated his white husband, and that I was a white wife. These things escaped me. As I'm a lesbian, married to another lesbian, am black, and have never cheated on my wife, I don't know how I missed all the other stuff posters have accused me of being.

 

[dasgoodshit]

I’m not sure that this falls into the OP’s intended definition, but I frequently find myself tying later events back to some random thing that I wrote earlier.

I do this as well. In Sophie's Fall, I introduced the knife in Act I because it would be ridiculous for her character to not have one. In Act II, I surprised myself when the MC said he left the knife where he found her and that he "err, doesn't like weapons." I had no idea where this was even going until Act III, when it all came together. I also did this in my latest story, Boot Camp Blues, with the wad of cash. I had no idea that was coming until the words spilled onto the page.

I imagine that there's a great many things that I don't know about my characters, because I let them tell me what to type. I created them, I think, but at some point it's almost as if they are as real as I am.