I wrote the wrong story

[Writer61]

It could have been worse: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2z39tr still crops up in my mind.

 

[NaughteeDragon]

Many years ago I was writing a story about a couple exploring their sexual boundaries. It was supposed to be a fun happy group sex story. One day I started writing and let the story take me where it wanted to go. A spanking session went bad, it led to huge argument that led to a divorce after the MMC lost his temper and belted his wife after she slapped him. I finished that track of the story, the deleted it a week later. I went back to the fork and wrote the story I wanted to and was much happier for it.
If the fork you take leads to a good story that you like, then do both, but don’t be afraid to burn out an overgrowth that is harming your story.

 

[Actingup]

That's my general approach as well. For this story, I gave her too much reluctance to the event it was building to, so that reluctance took over the story.

For my Winter contest, I apparently made my FMC too bitchy, or so my comments tell me regularly. As did my beta readers to be fair. But that was the character that was in my head, so she stayed what she was.

I’d interrogate the ‘too much’ elements, in the sense that if you want your stories to be character-driven, they need to have personalities. If your MC has taken control of your plot, it’s a reasonable option to just go along for the ride.

(Also, as aside, in some categories, women are perceived by some readers as being ‘too much’ if they so much as have an independent thought during the story - there are a few comments on the current story from Penny and I along those lines, to which we are replying with a gracious smile and an internal ‘go fuck yourselves’)

I think that your path from here is around whether you will be proud of the finished work. If you are, publish, and then come back to the other idea later. But don’t put something out that you can’t take pride in - life is too short for that.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

I'm frustrated with my active WIP and not sure what to do with it.

I had sat down to write a light, but silly sex romp story with specific elements in it. It was supposed to be exhibitionism, group sex and a dash of reluctance all around a lone female in a room of lumberjacks.

What's coming out of my fingers is a lone woman in a roomful of lumberjacks, but it has become heavy and the reluctance has become the dominant theme of the story.

I have not finished the story yet, but I'm not sure what I want to do with it. Finished, I think it will be a passable story, no more. Not one of my better efforts. I still want to write the story that was in my head originally. Should I publish this and then publish a different version of the same scenario in a month or two. This one would probably go in R/NC, which is a new category for me. The story in my head belongs in E&V (or possibly GS). Would it be too weird to write two version of the same scenario. Both would be from her perspective.

I'm torn on this one. Suggestions?

I can relate. Sometimes I sit down to write dialogue with a clear story outline in mind, and then my characters talk themselves into a corner where they have no choice but to reveal a critical plot detail that they shouldn't be revealing yet. And since I loathe the old 'this would all have been resolved if that character had just said something they had no reason to keep secret' trope, I either have to decide whether the story will still be satisfying if taken in this new direction, or, more often, keep a tighter rein on my characters' blabbermouths, go back a few lines, and try to nudge them in a different direction.

On the other hand, I have a WIP that was meant to be a quick romp that I realized, as the characters were talking, had so much more depth to it. It's turning into what may end up being my longest single (unchaptered) work, but it'll probably still be a while until it's ready.

Don'tcha hate it when characters have a mind of their own and don't stick to the script?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Don'tcha hate it when characters have a mind of their own and don't stick to the script?

I wouldn't have any stories if my characters stuck to the script.

 

[Writer61]

IDon'tcha hate it when characters have a mind of their own and don't stick to the script?

No, I am learning that it is one of the joys of writing.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

No, I am learning that it is one of the joys of writing.

I mean, fair. But also ugh. Also, can I talk about another thing? Sometimes I leave a story for a bit (you know, for real life stuff) and then when I come back to it, I'm actually annoyed that it's exactly where I left it. Like, I wrote a story outline, I gave you guys personalities, do I have to do fucking EVERYTHING for you people? Come on, we all know where you're going to end up, just do it already!

 

[Writer61]

I mean, fair. But also ugh. Also, can I talk about another thing? Sometimes I leave a story for a bit (you know, for real life stuff) and then when I come back to it, I'm actually annoyed that it's exactly where I left it. Like, I wrote a story outline, I gave you guys personalities, do I have to do fucking EVERYTHING for you people? Come on, we all know where you're going to end up, just do it already!

Lazy sod. You want the kudos of being the author, but won't take responsibility?

 

[TheExperimentalist]

Lazy sod. You want the kudos of being the author, but won't take responsibility?

Nah, that describes people who use AI.

I just want to be a conduit for my characters, but it can also be exhausting. Sometimes I just want to tell them "alright, why don't you go play on your own for a while and let me know how it goes?" but they never do!

 

[NuclearFairy]

Nah, that describes people who use AI.

I just want to be a conduit for my characters, but it can also be exhausting. Sometimes I just want to tell them "alright, why don't you go play on your own for a while and let me know how it goes?" but they never do!

Mine do all the time and then they look right at me and go, "Why aren't you writing this down already?"

Really guys? Stop breaking the damn fourth wall! I write it when I write it.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

Mine do all the time and then they look right at me and go, "Why aren't you writing this down already?"

Really guys? Stop breaking the damn fourth wall! I write it when I write it.

God dammit, same here. The worst is when I'm out somewhere and can't actually write it down, and then we all forget what they said by the time I get home.

 

[NuclearFairy]

God dammit, same here. The worst is when I'm out somewhere and can't actually write it down, and then we all forget what they said by the time I get home.

If I'm lucky I'll be with my SO and can tell him what's going on in my head and that'll help me remember for later. But that only works if I'm at home without children underfoot or in the car.

If I'm really unlucky I'll be drifting off and too comfy to get up.

 

[rthnck]

Let me rephrase my question. Should I throw this one away? It is a publishable story, or would be if finished.

(It is definitely Reluctance not Non Con, which I would never touch.)

And @yowser has a point. I might not write the story I had envisioned. It may not make enough sense for me to write it.

I guess I will follow @Jackie.Hikaru 's advice and set it aside and see what I feel like in a few weeks.

It's very easy to second guess a story that veered away from the author's original idea but that doesn't make it unpublishable. You could name the stories Lumberjacks: A dark fantasy and Lumberjacks: A light fantasy . If it's just for you and you don't like what you ended up with, put it in a drawer and take another shot at the story you want to write. If you enjoy seeing how others consume your story, then toss it to the masses and start writing the next story itching to get out.

 

[iwatchus]

It's very easy to second guess a story that veered away from the author's original idea but that doesn't make it unpublishable. You could name the stories Lumberjacks: A dark fantasy and Lumberjacks: A light fantasy . If it's just for you and you don't like what you ended up with, put it in a drawer and take another shot at the story you want to write. If you enjoy seeing how others consume your story, then toss it to the masses and start writing the next story itching to get out.

I did note somewhere a little ways back. I let it sit for a while, then wrote the light ending. Then I let it sit again and decided to cut roughly a third of the dark beginning to lighten it. It's far from my favorite story I have written, but I published the chimera. I think the stitches still show, but I needed to get it from dangling over my head.

 

[Britva415]

I needed to get it from dangling over my head

Damocles: Light Fantasy plotbunny

 

[designatedvictim]

I can relate. Sometimes I sit down to write dialogue with a clear story outline in mind, and then my characters talk themselves into a corner where they have no choice but to reveal a critical plot detail that they shouldn't be revealing yet. And since I loathe the old 'this would all have been resolved if that character had just said something they had no reason to keep secret' trope, I either have to decide whether the story will still be satisfying if taken in this new direction, or, more often, keep a tighter rein on my characters' blabbermouths, go back a few lines, and try to nudge them in a different direction.

On the other hand, I have a WIP that was meant to be a quick romp that I realized, as the characters were talking, had so much more depth to it. It's turning into what may end up being my longest single (unchaptered) work, but it'll probably still be a while until it's ready.

Don'tcha hate it when characters have a mind of their own and don't stick to the script?

I started a similarly-themed thread last month (A New Scene Ruins the Background). I've since changed and redirected the scene in question, but my habit of writing scenes, then building the tie-in material later, lead me to the point where one in-progress early scene was written in a way that I really liked the scene, but completely screwed up the trajectory of the later story parts I'd already written. (In this case, a scene where one character is encouraging the other to strip for her was written in a way that came across not as a playful scene of encouragement, but a full-on seduction that would seriously alter the story I already had, if left unchanged.)

I hate when that happens.