M-Y-Erotica
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2005
- Posts
- 229
I would absolutely love to read stories from authors about how they write. There are plenty of bits here and there in the Author's Hangout to read - about dialogue, about character and plot, etc., but I think it would be a blast to hear how some of my favorite authors sat down and wrote that story I love of theirs. To get the idea started, I decided to do it myself.
First, you should read my most recent story Nothing between us:
http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=241818
Done? Long, huh? Well, now my story of this story will make a little bit of sense.
This story was different for me in that it was a retelling of another. I came across another story on Literotica, which I liked the idea of very much, but I wanted to tell it again from my own point of view. I first asked the original author permission, which he kindly gave. From this I had a few elements to work with: a young couple who had been friends and neighbors for a long time; they were virgins; they liked each other and would fall in love, engaging in a little looovvvve-making; the woman was Asian and the man Caucasian; and their parents seem to want this to happen and made themselves scarce.
OK, that's what I had to work with, so it was time to get busy. For some reason, I thought of the guy as a bit country, but her not so much. I made the setting a new suburb, eating into the old countryside where he lived. I also wanted to give the woman a more specific heritage than Asia. There's about 3 billion people in Asia. A lot of suburbs are eating into the rural areas in Minnesota around the Twin Cities and there is a very large Vietnamese population there, so voila, our heroine was now Vietnamese-American. Uh-oh, problem. I wanted her home on Spring Break but also in a nice short dress outside. But Minnesota is still covered in snow in early March, or can be. The story moved south to Arkansas, so I chose the only large city I knew of in the state, which was Little Rock. The only other thing I knew at this point was that they liked each other madly, but some how didn't realize it themselves. They had been practicing at being friends and denying anything more for so long, it had covered over their real feelings.
At that point, I just started writing. No more planning things out. Why not start with our hero, Jake, learning that our heroine, Thuy, was home. Why Thuy? Just one of the most common Vietnamese names around. I perused Vietnamese sites until I had a list of names to choose from and went with one. As I wrote, I tried to add bits to show that they were still young, only 20, and not terribly mature emotionally. I also started adding reasons to like our main character. He was very smart; he was loyal; when his mother got ill and his family needed him, he left school and started working. So what if he could do integral calculus and linear algebra? He could also move furniture and make an honest living too, and he had enough character to not be above it.
Thuy arrives. They talk about things that smart 20 year olds talk about. The parents all disappear. Thuy sees Jake with his shirt off. Damn, he's gotten hot as he's turning into a man!
When they head out to dinner, some emotions start bubbling up. As they talk about their relationships, unconsciously, each begins to want to be the person they are talking about. They're jealous. They realize that you can't wait forever, because life goes on and eventually it will be too late.
I am still writing completely linearly at this point. I do no major revising at all until the story is completely done. I can only do a few pages at a time, so periodically I have to read back to see what's going on, but I resist the urge to do more than cross out a word here or there.
As the couple begin to talk about the possibility of dating one another and wondering why they never had before since they were such friends, things start to turn. Jake is interested now. Or, more accurately, he knows he is interested now. He has to stay away from her when she falls asleep, because he is not sure he would be the person he wants to be if he is in physical contact with her.
At this point, I didn't want things to happen immediately. I thought about the touching starting that first night, but I didn't see them making the switch that quickly. It takes time to get over a mental block. Also, I needed Jake to actually work. If I am trying to build any credibility for him by having him take classes and work 40 hours a week, he's got to actually work some time, not hang out with a girl for three days straight, so off to work he goes.
The next day, the flirting is higher now as they make the adjustment. More sexual innuendo, more looking and watching. Then Thuy does it. She makes the move by curling up against him.
This is where the story got hard for me. In the writing, the time began to roll on. It took me days to slowly work them through a touch all the way to sex. I don't know why it took so much time. I guess making silly jokes is easier than the physical. I still never revised. The only big decision was the safe sex one. Somehow the image of the two of them standing under the flourescent lights of a gas station picking out condoms to use was terribly erotic. I don't think it came out as erotic, as much as funny, but the idea of holding your loved one's hand as you selected the proper equipment for losing your virginity to one another was hot. I wouldn't let this idea go, even though it seemed to break the momentum of the sex. You will have to judge if it was worth it.
As I got near the end, the idea that they had always been deeply smitten with one another and were unconsciously holding off from other people took hold of me. That's what the story became about. It wasn't supposed to end so happily. It was to be a little bittersweet. Thuy has to go back to school. There would be miscommunications and uncertainties about the future. But when I hit the last line (before the parents bit), I loved it so much, I stopped right there and refused to go on. I didn't plan a simple happy ending, but that's what I got. As soon as I wrote the last lines I thought of the old classic song by Fats Waller "Aint Misbehavin'" about someone waiting for the only one they want to come home. I titled the story Ain't Misbehavin' and finally started revising.
I ended up not choosing to do any major structure changes. I mostly deleted and deleted. I wanted to delete more because I was afraid the story was just too long, but I never could get myself to do more than words here and there. I also started adding the Ain't Misbehavin' theme through-out the story. I went back to the restaurant scene and revamped it so that the whole scene was about them knowing they were waiting for someone, but just being too dense to really see they were waiting for the person across the table.
Editor time. I sent the thing in two pieces to a few volunteer editors. To be honest I got carried away, because I wanted people to read the story so bad. I sent it to two people I have worked with in the past. Then I found a couple college age editors, because I wanted that point of view. I wouldn't recommend this. Find one or two people that you like working with who are really good and stick with it. I was about to send my story to every Editor on the site because I just wanted people to read it now! now! Two more weeks later, I get all the revisions back and work them into my story. I also suddenly had the idea in the scene near the end where they are about to consummate that there were no longer going to be hidden barriers between them. Nothing between us. But that phrase is ambiguous. It can mean that there is no barrier between us, or that there is nothing joining us together. I went back up to the first page and had Jacob declare that there was nothing between Thuy and him. I had a new title. Aint Misbehavin became Nothing Between Us, and with the last two edits I had a shift in the relationship from a declaration that there was nothing between them to the end where there were no barriers keeping them apart anymore.
I submitted and a week later on Valentine's Day, the story is published.
My story of a story.
I hope some other authors will share their own stories. It is the entire purpose of this thread and I hope my story will get you inspired to spill it.
First, you should read my most recent story Nothing between us:
http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=241818
Done? Long, huh? Well, now my story of this story will make a little bit of sense.
This story was different for me in that it was a retelling of another. I came across another story on Literotica, which I liked the idea of very much, but I wanted to tell it again from my own point of view. I first asked the original author permission, which he kindly gave. From this I had a few elements to work with: a young couple who had been friends and neighbors for a long time; they were virgins; they liked each other and would fall in love, engaging in a little looovvvve-making; the woman was Asian and the man Caucasian; and their parents seem to want this to happen and made themselves scarce.
OK, that's what I had to work with, so it was time to get busy. For some reason, I thought of the guy as a bit country, but her not so much. I made the setting a new suburb, eating into the old countryside where he lived. I also wanted to give the woman a more specific heritage than Asia. There's about 3 billion people in Asia. A lot of suburbs are eating into the rural areas in Minnesota around the Twin Cities and there is a very large Vietnamese population there, so voila, our heroine was now Vietnamese-American. Uh-oh, problem. I wanted her home on Spring Break but also in a nice short dress outside. But Minnesota is still covered in snow in early March, or can be. The story moved south to Arkansas, so I chose the only large city I knew of in the state, which was Little Rock. The only other thing I knew at this point was that they liked each other madly, but some how didn't realize it themselves. They had been practicing at being friends and denying anything more for so long, it had covered over their real feelings.
At that point, I just started writing. No more planning things out. Why not start with our hero, Jake, learning that our heroine, Thuy, was home. Why Thuy? Just one of the most common Vietnamese names around. I perused Vietnamese sites until I had a list of names to choose from and went with one. As I wrote, I tried to add bits to show that they were still young, only 20, and not terribly mature emotionally. I also started adding reasons to like our main character. He was very smart; he was loyal; when his mother got ill and his family needed him, he left school and started working. So what if he could do integral calculus and linear algebra? He could also move furniture and make an honest living too, and he had enough character to not be above it.
Thuy arrives. They talk about things that smart 20 year olds talk about. The parents all disappear. Thuy sees Jake with his shirt off. Damn, he's gotten hot as he's turning into a man!
When they head out to dinner, some emotions start bubbling up. As they talk about their relationships, unconsciously, each begins to want to be the person they are talking about. They're jealous. They realize that you can't wait forever, because life goes on and eventually it will be too late.
I am still writing completely linearly at this point. I do no major revising at all until the story is completely done. I can only do a few pages at a time, so periodically I have to read back to see what's going on, but I resist the urge to do more than cross out a word here or there.
As the couple begin to talk about the possibility of dating one another and wondering why they never had before since they were such friends, things start to turn. Jake is interested now. Or, more accurately, he knows he is interested now. He has to stay away from her when she falls asleep, because he is not sure he would be the person he wants to be if he is in physical contact with her.
At this point, I didn't want things to happen immediately. I thought about the touching starting that first night, but I didn't see them making the switch that quickly. It takes time to get over a mental block. Also, I needed Jake to actually work. If I am trying to build any credibility for him by having him take classes and work 40 hours a week, he's got to actually work some time, not hang out with a girl for three days straight, so off to work he goes.
The next day, the flirting is higher now as they make the adjustment. More sexual innuendo, more looking and watching. Then Thuy does it. She makes the move by curling up against him.
This is where the story got hard for me. In the writing, the time began to roll on. It took me days to slowly work them through a touch all the way to sex. I don't know why it took so much time. I guess making silly jokes is easier than the physical. I still never revised. The only big decision was the safe sex one. Somehow the image of the two of them standing under the flourescent lights of a gas station picking out condoms to use was terribly erotic. I don't think it came out as erotic, as much as funny, but the idea of holding your loved one's hand as you selected the proper equipment for losing your virginity to one another was hot. I wouldn't let this idea go, even though it seemed to break the momentum of the sex. You will have to judge if it was worth it.
As I got near the end, the idea that they had always been deeply smitten with one another and were unconsciously holding off from other people took hold of me. That's what the story became about. It wasn't supposed to end so happily. It was to be a little bittersweet. Thuy has to go back to school. There would be miscommunications and uncertainties about the future. But when I hit the last line (before the parents bit), I loved it so much, I stopped right there and refused to go on. I didn't plan a simple happy ending, but that's what I got. As soon as I wrote the last lines I thought of the old classic song by Fats Waller "Aint Misbehavin'" about someone waiting for the only one they want to come home. I titled the story Ain't Misbehavin' and finally started revising.
I ended up not choosing to do any major structure changes. I mostly deleted and deleted. I wanted to delete more because I was afraid the story was just too long, but I never could get myself to do more than words here and there. I also started adding the Ain't Misbehavin' theme through-out the story. I went back to the restaurant scene and revamped it so that the whole scene was about them knowing they were waiting for someone, but just being too dense to really see they were waiting for the person across the table.
Editor time. I sent the thing in two pieces to a few volunteer editors. To be honest I got carried away, because I wanted people to read the story so bad. I sent it to two people I have worked with in the past. Then I found a couple college age editors, because I wanted that point of view. I wouldn't recommend this. Find one or two people that you like working with who are really good and stick with it. I was about to send my story to every Editor on the site because I just wanted people to read it now! now! Two more weeks later, I get all the revisions back and work them into my story. I also suddenly had the idea in the scene near the end where they are about to consummate that there were no longer going to be hidden barriers between them. Nothing between us. But that phrase is ambiguous. It can mean that there is no barrier between us, or that there is nothing joining us together. I went back up to the first page and had Jacob declare that there was nothing between Thuy and him. I had a new title. Aint Misbehavin became Nothing Between Us, and with the last two edits I had a shift in the relationship from a declaration that there was nothing between them to the end where there were no barriers keeping them apart anymore.
I submitted and a week later on Valentine's Day, the story is published.
My story of a story.
I hope some other authors will share their own stories. It is the entire purpose of this thread and I hope my story will get you inspired to spill it.
