The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[sirhugs]

Peeping back in after a lengthy abscence from this forum but not from Literotica.

 

[NotWise]

Welcome back, @sirhugs. Don't make yourself so rare.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Welcome back, @sirhugs. Don't make yourself so rare.

Yep. And good to see you haven't vanished in an Arctic blizzard, like so many others.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

The weatherman finally got it right and we got some afternoon rain. While welcome, it only encourages the weeds to thrive. Today will be cloudy and about 10 degrees cooler but the humidity will still be off the charts,

There's a fresh pot of coffee going in honor of @sirhugs popping in. The teapot is hot and there are donuts and cookies on the counter.

I'll be over in the corner working on my story. I seem to be running out of steam so the break to edit my entry for the 2025 Crime and Punishment Story Event will be welcome.

 

[TheRedLantern]

The laws of physics are suspended at my gym.

We've had a cold front (mid to high 60s) all week. The lobby of the building is ice cold. Yet inside the gym the AC is on, they have fans everywhere, and it's in the mid 90s. This was right when the gym opened, so there hadn't been anyone inside for about 6 hours.

I suspected that physics was relative when I realized that minutes on the treadmill seem to take WAY longer than minutes while I'm in bed trying to think of an excuse to skip going to the gym.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I'm having ice cream for breakfast cause my throat hurts too much for anything else. I managed to get the kids off to school before collapsing, but now I've got to find the energy to feed the chickens.

I don't think I'll manage laundry or writing today though.

 

[TheRedLantern]

I'm having ice cream for breakfast cause my throat hurts too much for anything else. I managed to get the kids off to school before collapsing, but now I've got to find the energy to feed the chickens

I think I would require every emoji to express the full range of emotions on the journey from "ice cream for breakfast" to "throat hurts" to "kids off to school" to "feed the chickens."

 

[NotWise]

I'm having ice cream for breakfast cause my throat hurts too much for anything else. I managed to get the kids off to school before collapsing, but now I've got to find the energy to feed the chickens.

I don't think I'll manage laundry or writing today though.

Sounds like a story unfolding.

I'm finding it very hard to maintain focus on rewriting an in-progress story that hit a wall. I got a few gaps fixed, and I'm staring at another little problem, but I think I'll tend to the garden first.

 

[TheRedLantern]

that hit a wall

Why not post a minimal outline of the beat(s) that you're stuck on here or in another thread (or in DMs if you don't want your ideas too public)?

I had a story shelved for 8 weeks because I felt like "it just didn't work." I sent a 4 paragraph outline to another author, who responded an hour or two later with a suggestion that I break a scene that I was particularly proud of into two shorter scenes with a bridge between them.

It took me a few days of doing my best solo Gollum impression ("Nooo! Not My Precious Gloryhole Scene! We Needs It!") before I was able to see it with fresh eyes, but she was totally right. I took her suggestion, rewrote that part, and was so into the story that I wrote the next chapter, too.

Maybe someone will see your story from a perspective where the way around your wall presents itself. Or, maybe just typing it out will suggest an answer.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Maybe someone will see your story from a perspective where the way around your wall presents itself. Or, maybe just typing it out will suggest an answer.

LOL isn't that the truth!!!!! ANother pair of eyes or just bouncing ides around with someone else is often the best way to break thru that barrier - and also to improve something your writing. FResh eyes make a HUGE difference

 

[TheRedLantern]

LOL isn't that the truth!!!!! ANother pair of eyes or just bouncing ides around with someone else is often the best way to break thru that barrier - and also to improve something your writing. FResh eyes make a HUGE difference

I almost tagged you as the person who had read my outline and made the suggestion, but was like "Chloe never comes into the coffee shop thread, no need to draw her attention here."

See, people, this is what you need. Someone who's one step ahead of you.

 

[NotWise]

The story (Girl in the Photograph) follows two arcs in Hector Soto's life, one personal and one professional. In his personal arc, the ghost of Geisha Shizu emerges from a ~155-year old ambrotype photograph that he's owned for many years and becomes his lover. In his professional arc, as originally written, he's an engineer and robot-manufacturing entrepreneur. His son/plant manager points out that the company can't continue on its current path, and Hector has to rescue his own company.

The two arcs merge at the end of the story, but I'll leave that to your imagination.

The story hit the wall because I didn't know enough about robot manufacturing or about entrepreneurial finance to write his professional arc. I re-imagined Hector as an attorney who pulls his family together and heads off future financial problems. Now I have to rewrite the story.

Not sure how I'll categorize the story.

 

[Omenainen]

The story (Girl in the Photograph) follows two arcs in Hector Soto's life, one personal and one professional. In his personal arc, the ghost of Geisha Shizu emerges from a ~155-year old ambrotype photograph that he's owned for many years and becomes his lover. In his professional arc, as originally written, he's an engineer and robot-manufacturing entrepreneur. His son/plant manager points out that the company can't continue on its current path, and Hector has to rescue his own company.

The two arcs merge at the end of the story, but I'll leave that to your imagination.

The story hit the wall because I didn't know enough about robot manufacturing or about entrepreneurial finance to write his professional arc. I re-imagined Hector as an attorney who pulls his family together and heads off future financial problems. Now I have to rewrite the story.

Not sure how I'll categorize the story.

No suggestions, but I feel for you. I once set out to write about toxic femininity in corporate environments and ended up writing sappy lesbian romance instead. It was stupidly hard for me to stay motivated to write about the professional side of the story, so it shriveled up quite a bit from how I originally envisioned it.

 

[NotWise]

No suggestions, but I feel for you. I once set out to write about toxic femininity in corporate environments and ended up writing sappy lesbian romance instead. It was stupidly hard for me to stay motivated to write about the professional side of the story, so it shriveled up quite a bit from how I originally envisioned it.

Shriveling the professional arc would have been a solution. It wasn't a path I wanted to take, hence rewriting it to something closer to my experience.

If I were to write "toxic femininity" in a corporate environment, my characters would have been straight. It may not ring true for you, but "southern belle" is a trope that begs to be nasty, divisive, and manipulative in the sweetest sort of way.

 

[MrPixel]

The heat has finally departed, so outside chores await. C insists, rightfully so, that we unroll the temporary fencing to keep the dog next door out of the yard. She is apparently in love with ours, and every time she's let out off-leash she... uh... "lets him know how much she wants him" by marking in his running area. This morning C was out on the stoop supervising Sky, and the little bitch (a cute poodle mix) ran over to the patio and peed everywhere in her excitement. Apparently Sky's neutered state doesn't seem to register with her.

We'll do the fence this evening. It's been several days since indulging in a margarita with lunch, so I'm due. Decision after yesterday's doc visit is whether frozen, or not. Frozen means more sugar in the mix, and doc cautioned the trend with my blood numbers needs to be better addressed. Oops.

 

[TheRedLantern]

Me: email asking client which steps they did or did not take since the last time we'd talked

Client: WHAARRRGARBLEBLERGITYGOBBLEGOBBLEGOBBLE BUT YOU SAID BLAHBLERGFLARGFLARG AND THEN NO ONE BLACKBLUEGORMFUNKDAFRIED!!!

Me: Deep breath

Me: I'm gonna call that 2 hours on my timesheet. Only 29,998 more to go for that private island

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Little old lady airplane passenger: "Pardon me Stewardess, but I speak WHAARRRGARBLEBLERGITYGOBBLEGOBBLEGOBBL"

 

[Omenainen]

"southern belle" is a trope that begs to be nasty, divisive, and manipulative in the sweetest sort of way.

Living this side of the pond, I have mercifully been saved of this. In other words, I have no idea what “southern belle” refers to, though I have heard the term before. Anyway, that story is done, I’m not interested in bitchy ladies, and I learned in one go that I’m not interested in writing about corporate settings. Guess my characters need to be independently wealthy from now on

 

[NuclearFairy]

Living this side of the pond, I have mercifully been saved of this. In other words, I have no idea what “southern belle” refers to, though I have heard the term before. Anyway, that story is done, I’m not interested in bitchy ladies, and I learned in one go that I’m not interested in writing about corporate settings. Guess my characters need to be independently wealthy from now on

Or, simply have the whole story take place outside of the office and simply make passing references to how they earn their money.

 

[Omenainen]

Or, simply have the whole story take place outside of the office and simply make passing references to how they earn their money.

Yeah, but work is so gruesome and takes up so much time, it’s much easier to write about people who are just floating around… like on a vacation, or authors, or rich people with nothing better to do than fuck around. In other words, work is seldom sexy. Except in the On the Job event of course

 

[iwatchus]

Living this side of the pond, I have mercifully been saved of this. In other words, I have no idea what “southern belle” refers to, though I have heard the term before. Anyway, that story is done, I’m not interested in bitchy ladies, and I learned in one go that I’m not interested in writing about corporate settings. Guess my characters need to be independently wealthy from now on

Bless your heart! It's good that we're all just friendly here, isn't it.

 

[Omenainen]

Bless your heart! It's good that we're all just friendly here, isn't it.

So it’s that vibe, eh? Maybe I should educate myself, though somehow this feels like knowledge I could live without and be perfectly happy.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

'Southern Belles' can be the bitchiest of bitchy bitches.

 

[NuclearFairy]

A southern belle is similar to a white lotus.

 

[NotWise]

"Southern belle" is a stereotype for women from the deep south--or at least for those who play the role. Polite kindnesses can be veiled insults. "Bless your heart" may mean they think you're an idiot. You hardly ever know what they want until they stab you in the back and take it. Etc.

My mother-in-law described herself as a southern belle, but she didn't fit the stereotype.