Cast Listing

[paradisetitty]

I was thinking, in every story I've written I have found a model or a celebrity who fits the fantasy I create. I wonder if readers would appreciate a 'cast list' so to speak.

I've used pictures to help me describe characters, like I'd have a picture of an online model or actress etc and I'd describe him/her as best I could while never actually telling the reader who the character is based on.

So something like:
Katie - Bianca19
Amy - Karen Gillan

and so on...I'm about to start work on another erotic story so I wanted to know if anyone thinks a cast list is a good idea.

Thanks

 

[TheeGoatPig]

That is the type of thing that I keep to myself. In one of my stories I even went as far as to write each character with the same names as the women they were based on. I changed the names later, but originally they were all named after celebrities and porn stars.

But a lot of people don't know who a lot of these people are. they just want to read your descriptions of what these women look like. They don't want to hear who they look like, or comparison charts. That can turn a lot of people off.

 

[paradisetitty]

Fair enough, I think that imagination and fantasy are often preferable to reality.
It was just an idea

 

[sr71plt]

If you give the list in the text of the story, wouldn't that force the story into the Celebrity category at Lit.?

 

[Harry Leg]

The readers imagination will cast the story. If you tell them who you imagined, it narrows the landscape. Let their minds wander free.

 

[Weird Harold]

and so on...I'm about to start work on another erotic story so I wanted to know if anyone thinks a cast list is a good idea.

To me a cast list or comparing a character to a celebrity demostrates a lack of confidence in your writing skills.

The only proper use of a celebrity for comparison purposes is a deliberately mangled methaphor: She was tall, slim and blonde; she looked exactly like Paris Hilton doesn't.

 

[SydneyBlake]

I agree

The readers imagination will cast the story. If you tell them who you imagined, it narrows the landscape. Let their minds wander free.

I have the same kind of list in my head, but let me give you a compelling reason not to tell your readers: what if they hate the celebrity?

For example, I think Angelina Jolie is one of the most beautiful women in the world, so I've been shocked more than once by men who actually hate her.

So I would resist the temptation if I were you.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I know people who write "RPF" Real Person Fiction. I get disgusted by much of it. Especially when the story is sexual. I think it's unwarranted intrusive, disrespectful.

Hell I've written it myself, and felt sullied and unusual.

 

[sr71plt]

To me a cast list or comparing a character to a celebrity demostrates a lack of confidence in your writing skills.

The only proper use of a celebrity for comparison purposes is a deliberately mangled methaphor: She was tall, slim and blonde; she looked exactly like Paris Hilton doesn't.

First, I think Harry Leg gave the best response.

This comparing a character to a celebrity demonstrating a lack of writing skills confidence, though, like the "Trojan large" issue on another thread, goes too far to an extreme, I think. Evoking a known image, no matter what it is, can be effectively used to get past a necessary, but tertiary, description quickly. The main problem here is to make the identifier well known enough for most the readers to "get" it.

Something like (off the cuff, of course): "Both Dan and Eva instinctively dipped their heads as the Gilligan waiter swept an overloaded tray of dirty dishes in the space their eyebrows had just occupied and shimmied by in the space behind Eva's chair that hadn't been there seconds before. Their noses collided in an embarrassed laugh that served as the ice breaker they'd both needed to get this blind date off the launch pad."

In just one word, the writer dispenses with a pretty clear image of a character who plays a role in the story but isn't worth the description in words it would take to get across the threat he posed.

 

[bronzeage]

Fair enough, I think that imagination and fantasy are often preferable to reality.
It was just an idea

I always start with a physical model of the character. It can be anybody, but a person I know works best. It helps keep the story consistent. No one has to know who I used.