Off the Reservation.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm writing a story backwards from the end. So far it's going well. Oughta be done by next Saturday. Prolly 3500 words. A gay pol wants to divorce his wife, she doesn't want a divorce, and the court sends them to a marriage therapist to try reconciliation. She seduces the therapist.

 

[Acktion]

I'm writing a story backwards from the end. So far it's going well.

Best of luck. I've heard of this technique and even tried it once or twice but never could make it work for me. It sounds though like it is working for you and I'll be interested to see the results.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm lucky I can write forwards

Only thing I have done is right a sex scene then write a story around it.

 

[sr71plt]

I'm finishing up an anthology of stories of GM sex between a 50-year-old and a 70-year-old. Six separate stories/couples. I think that's an unusual topic too.

And an anthology of ten stories, all of which have a dog as a central character. I think that's an unusual topic for erotica that isn't bestality.

And an e-book on a Mideast terrorism plot told in sections in the perspectives of five different characters looking at the same series of events--and coming to different conclusions. I think that's an unusual topic too.

And I just submitted to Literotica a fact-based story on the GM angle of an East European ambassador to Thailand's defection in the 1980s. Don't see that every day on Literotica.

. . . Oh, this wasn't the "I-need-attention-as-thinking-of-doing-something-special-that-maybe-no-one-else-is-doing-too-without-the-need-the-attention" show and tell thread? . . . Sorry.

 

[lovecraft68]

. . . Oh, this wasn't the "I-need-attention-as-thinking-of-doing-something-special-that-maybe-no-one-else-is-doing-too-without-the-need-the-attention" show and tell thread? . . . Sorry.

What's sad is no one here would think you were being sarcastic with that post. We hear about your self perceived awesomeness on a daily basis.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm lucky I can write forwards

Only thing I have done is right a sex scene then write a story around it.

I hatched the end first, and wondered how to make a story from it. So I had some homeless drunks thinking they were clever but really falling into a trap. The chapter before that involves a homeless woman panhandling for beer money who meets a man needing a small task done in trade for some serious beer money. A woman is murdered before that. And on back to the marriage counseling. Plenty of blackmail and treachery along the way.

If it works out I'll try it again.

 

[lovecraft68]

I hatched the end first, and wondered how to make a story from it. So I had some homeless drunks thinking they were clever but really falling into a trap. The chapter before that involves a homeless woman panhandling for beer money who meets a man needing a small task done in trade for some serious beer money. A woman is murdered before that. And on back to the marriage counseling. Plenty of blackmail and treachery along the way.

If it works out I'll try it again.

Even if it does not work try it again, that's how you can make it work.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Even if it does not work try it again, that's how you can make it work.

It should work, assuming the story works. It's like an old Columbo episode.

 

[Hypoxia]

Ummm, JBJ, I read a few of your standalone short stories, and I noticed something: The have no resolution, no finale. They just run on a bit, then stop. I know you say you like to start with a gag or trick for the ending, then build a story to lead to that. I just haven't seen any endings. Terminations, cutoffs, yes, but not endings. Even worse than me!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Ummm, JBJ, I read a few of your standalone short stories, and I noticed something: The have no resolution, no finale. They just run on a bit, then stop. I know you say you like to start with a gag or trick for the ending, then build a story to lead to that. I just haven't seen any endings. Terminations, cutoffs, yes, but not endings. Even worse than me!

I haven't felt an impulse to read anything by you so I cant comment on your talent, I'm not twitterpated with you enough to wanna please you, and you have my blessing if you wanna put me on IGGY. Unless, of course, you know of some reason your opinion and wares matter.

 

[TxRad]

I haven't felt an impulse to read anything by you so I cant comment on your talent, I'm not twitterpated with you enough to wanna please you, and you have my blessing if you wanna put me on IGGY. Unless, of course, you know of some reason your opinion and wares matter.

Ah yes, called on your bullshit yet again.

People aren't nearly as stupid as you seem to think they are.

 

[Hypoxia]

I haven't felt an impulse to read anything by you so I cant comment on your talent,

Actually, you left this comment on my episode BRIDE OF KONG 03:

STFU

You write well, so STFU and do more writing. Wimp.

I gave it 5 starz.

Thank you.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Actually, you left this comment on my episode BRIDE OF KONG 03:



Thank you.

I can be brutal with a 5. I'm almost certain you got what you asked for, so STFU and take your 5 like a man.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My last encounter with a LIT writer changed my mind about reading any stories and scoring anything ever again. No more. I don't get the part about how I know my shit when I score 5's, and am an imbecile and troll when I don't. So that writer can stick their DIVINE REVELATION up their ass, and stick with the flatterers.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Two sex scenes to do and the story is done. 3500 words.

I hatched another story ending I can fatten into something. Its a LW-NC tale.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You seriously think I'm as stupid as PILOT? I betcha think he's prettier, too!

Yes sir. Maybe more.

 

[Hypoxia]

I can be brutal with a 5. I'm almost certain you got what you asked for, so STFU and take your 5 like a man.

I switched-off voting awhile ago. I'm not here for the brownie points. But I will accept payment in magic mushrooms.

 

[sr71plt]

Ummm, JBJ, I read a few of your standalone short stories, and I noticed something: The have no resolution, no finale. They just run on a bit, then stop. I know you say you like to start with a gag or trick for the ending, then build a story to lead to that. I just haven't seen any endings. Terminations, cutoffs, yes, but not endings. Even worse than me!

The broad-ranging slice-of-life/no resolution story type was introduced by the Chick Lit genre in the late 1990s (JBJ's the Chick Lit equivalent of the 2010s?). JBJ is a grizzly/trailer trash version writer of this, and for the no resolution genre, his writing is pretty good--his characters and scenarios are realistic, if depressing and down-and-out. His writing abilities are certainly above his rating level--but he earned a low rating level from years and years of ticking authors here off by slamming their work without writing anything himself--and by incessantly telling us how to write by just regurgitating the established author he was reading and pretending to be like that week. I think he's only recently made any attempt to write fiction at all, and, for that, he's quite a good writer in storytelling and revealing characters in few words, even if his technicals are nothing to "rite" home about.

I find the pure slice-of-life a worthless read unless it's plopped into a larger storyline (e.g., exhibiting Anne standing at the foyer mirror putting her coat, hat, and gloves on and, in the process, telling us all about Anne and her lifestyle and ending with her walking out the door to do who knows what--or gives a fig, as far as I'm concerned. The Chick Lit crowd seemed to lap this stuff up, though).

I think the pure no resolution end of the genre is interesting, though. The traditional story is supposed to have a dilemma, some form of change, and a resolution. The "no resolution" style stands the traditional perspective on its head, pointing out, correctly to my view, that there's also a meaningful point to a situation that won't change--where the resolution is that there isn't going to be a resolution, that the characters are trapped in their "now" and aren't going to get out. This can be a point of truth, I think, that's very realistic to many actual situations. The kicker to this story type is that the point needs to be conveyed to the reader or what is written becomes pointless.

In the few of JBJ's stories I've read here, I've gotten that point. The point may have been given so quietly that some other readers didn't get it, which means that, yes, the stories don't have much point to them then.

The "no resolution" form of story is a legitimate story type, however. It might show the restricted limits of an author, though, if that's all they write. I don't know how many of JBJ's stories you've read and found them all to be that way. I've only read a few and found what I've read to be that way, but I think it's a legitimate story form and try to write that form myself from time to time, so the very few of his stories I've read haven't bothered me in that way. With me it's more the headscratch of why the story is on an erotica site at all. What I've read has been depressing, gritty, and not erotic. I won't say it wasn't well written though, or that it didn't avoid the flabbiness, wandering around, and inclusion of a lot of irrelevant links that I see in a lot of the other stories on Literotica. The stories I've read of his stick strictly to the world he's creating and every word contributes to that build.

And turning to JBJ, if you insist on blogging us with your "I'm going to tell you about each one of my stories that's in formation just to get attention" posts, you're going to need to be thick skinned enough to see posts focused on your writing and your individual stories posted to your "HEYLOOKATME" blogs. It also might help if you didn't blog so often with an "I'm rediscovering the wheel" preen--because, trust me, you aren't rediscovering any wheels here. They very well might be new to you, but some of us were busy writing and discovering these aspects about writing before we were spending our time telling others how to write without having done any of it ourselves.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The broad-ranging slice-of-life/no resolution story type was introduced by the Chick Lit genre in the late 1990s (JBJ's the Chick Lit equivalent of the 2010s?). JBJ is a grizzly/trailer trash version writer of this, and for the no resolution genre, his writing is pretty good--his characters and scenarios are realistic, if depressing and down-and-out. His writing abilities are certainly above his rating level--but he earned a low rating level from years and years of ticking authors here off by slamming their work without writing anything himself--and by incessantly telling us how to write by just regurgitating the established author he was reading and pretending to be like that week. I think he's only recently made any attempt to write fiction at all, and, for that, he's quite a good writer in storytelling and revealing characters in few words, even if his technicals are nothing to "rite" home about.

I find the pure slice-of-life a worthless read unless it's plopped into a larger storyline (e.g., exhibiting Anne standing at the foyer mirror putting her coat, hat, and gloves on and, in the process, telling us all about Anne and her lifestyle and ending with her walking out the door to do who knows what--or gives a fig, as far as I'm concerned. The Chick Lit crowd seemed to lap this stuff up, though).

I think the pure no resolution end of the genre is interesting, though. The traditional story is supposed to have a dilemma, some form of change, and a resolution. The "no resolution" style stands the traditional perspective on its head, pointing out, correctly to my view, that there's also a meaningful point to a situation that won't change--where the resolution is that there isn't going to be a resolution, that the characters are trapped in their "now" and aren't going to get out. This can be a point of truth, I think, that's very realistic to many actual situations. The kicker to this story type is that the point needs to be conveyed to the reader or what is written becomes pointless.

In the few of JBJ's stories I've read here, I've gotten that point. The point may have been given so quietly that some other readers didn't get it, which means that, yes, the stories don't have much point to them then.

The "no resolution" form of story is a legitimate story type, however. It might show the restricted limits of an author, though, if that's all they write. I don't know how many of JBJ's stories you've read and found them all to be that way. I've only read a few and found what I've read to be that way, but I think it's a legitimate story form and try to write that form myself from time to time, so the very few of his stories I've read haven't bothered me in that way. With me it's more the headscratch of why the story is on an erotica site at all. What I've read has been depressing, gritty, and not erotic. I won't say it wasn't well written though, or that it didn't avoid the flabbiness, wandering around, and inclusion of a lot of irrelevant links that I see in a lot of the other stories on Literotica. The stories I've read of his stick strictly to the world he's creating and every word contributes to that build.

And turning to JBJ, if you insist on blogging us with your "I'm going to tell you about each one of my stories that's in formation just to get attention" posts, you're going to need to be thick skinned enough to see posts focused on your writing and your individual stories posted to your "HEYLOOKATME" blogs.

Thank you, PILOT, I appreciate the kindness.

David Goodis was better at it than me, his endings are called 'suicide notes' because only one of his creations ended better than it started. Most of his characters are Skid Row bums or bottom tier thugs. My style is prolly closer to Talmage Powell, who also wrote endings of futility. He never saved any lives, and his characters are usually all villains or morally bankrupt. Nelson Algren is another writer of the same school. And all of them tried to best Raymond Chandler.

 

[TxRad]

Yes sir. Maybe more.

Changing posts is so pigtails in the inkwell. You can do better.

 

[sr71plt]

This is just an aside, but speaking of "off the reservation," every time I see in feedback comment on the forum or appended to a story that the commenter needs to like the protagonist of a story, I want to upchuck.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Changing posts is so pigtails in the inkwell. You can do better.

I'll use Grecian Formula for you.