25 June 2001: Madonna -- The REAL Girlie Show by Alexander Tzara

[Weird Harold]

Monday 25 June 2001's story is an author's nomination:

...I nominate chapter 1 of Madonna: The REAL Girlie Show, in the Celebrities category.

That's one I've not really received much feedback on yet. I wrote that, and the next two chapters in an enthusiastic burst of energy. It usually takes me longer to write a story but I was quite pleased with the results of writing quickly in the Kerouac style.

Athough Alexander Tzara asked specifically about Chapter one, the other two chapters are fair game as well if they're relevant to the discussion.

 

[Hullo_nurse]

Madonna

I read chapter one and did find it a tad bit difficult to follow at first. There isn't clear enough definition between the time differences.

I found a couple of punctuation errors, but they did not deter from the story.

I enjoyed the descriptions of how the characters felt, they let me have some idea of the emotions flowing through them.

This story did not get me off, though, as I had hoped it would. Why else read erotica? LOL

 

[Cockatoo]

2sense

Part 2 is by far the best of the three. It gives us a plausible scenario for their meeting and hooking up, rather than just diving into the improbabilites of orgy sex with no explaination, and the sex is really hot. It's also the only one where M's killer-bitch attitude comes across!

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: 2sense

It's also the only one where M's killer-bitch attitude comes across!

This prompts a question about Celebrity Stories in general.

Are celebrity stories lazy writing because you don't have to describe your characters, or are they more difficult to write because the character is so well known?

 

[Cockatoo]

Good question

I've never tried one, because I could never get past the stumbling block of everybody's preconceptions about any particular celebrity. Particularly the celebrities themselves.

It's one thing to write about well-known characters. Sherlock Holmes and Captian Kirk and Spiderman can have stories literally TUMBLE out of them, especially if those stories cover familiar ground.

Now take that character out of context and make them have sex. Again, no problem. Fiction. Fantasy.

Now do it to a real live person that everybody knows about. Errrmn.

I hit two speed bumps in this area. There's the implausibility factor, which in other circumstances is no factor at all. I have no trouble creating the impossible and the preposterous, as long as I feel like it SEEMS real, but tall tales of "I bumped into Joan Severance at the grocery store and she fucked me blue for no reason" just fall into the "yeah, whatever" category as far as I'm concerned.

The other speed bump is Alissa Milano's Mother coming after me with a herd of lawyers. These are real people whose lives we might be intruding upon, and we're using their names and faces- the same ones they have to wear everyday. I have a problem with that, and I think I'm right to.

I doubt Madonna would have a problem with it, though. She works her own mojo better than anyone. She'd probably be disappointed if stuff like this DIDN'T get written about her.

 

[alexander tzara]

I see what you mean about chapter 1, Nursie. The sex is probably less erotic 'cause there's not enough of a realistic build-up.

I think you're right that chapter 2 works the best, Cockatoo. I don't know whether "Emmy" is really Madonna in that chapter but I think that whoever she is she's an interesting character. I actually wrote most of chapter two first before going back to concentrate on chapter 1, and I think it's fresher than the others. Chapter 3 was supposed to be a stepping stone towards Chapter 4 but I lost enthusiasm and never got round to continuing the saga.

Weird Harold - I found it fairly easy to write this story because I had a real person, with a real history and a real character to focus on when I was writing. I wish, though, that once it was written I'd changed Madonna into a different person so that people were less likely to approach the story with pre-conceived ideas about the protagonist. That's probably quite a good way of coming up with engaging characters and plots.

Thanks for all your input. I think it'll help me look more closely at future stories.

I'm a bit disappointed only 3 people discussed the story. Is the Discussion Board starting to lose its momentum a bit do you think? There seemed to be much more indepth discussion towards the beginning. I feel a bit cheated.

 

[Laurel]

Re: Re: 2sense

This prompts a question about Celebrity Stories in general.

Are celebrity stories lazy writing because you don't have to describe your characters, or are they more difficult to write because the character is so well known?

This is a really good question. I'm generally not a fan of celeb fiction because to me often it's a generic porn situation with the celeb's name cut & pasted in ("Then BRITNEY SPEARS took off her top...")... Occasionally, a good one pops in. Dirty Denise's celeb stuff is good (only because she writes damn hot sex scenes). There's a really well done, really funny Star Trek:The Next Generation spoof on the site somewhere. And alex's Madonna series is also an exception.

The key to good celeb fiction, IMHO, is a thorough knowledge of the celeb. Stories where the famous character reacts just as we suspect they would are excellent. Stories in which the celeb speaks and acts like any other character are lame.

Alex makes his Madonna a believable character, so it works for me. I guess that's the key to any story: interesting, believable characters. With celeb stories, it's especially important because they are the focus of the tale, and if they don't ring true then the story collapses around them.