Softouch911
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2005
- Posts
- 996
Writers have to "presume" the story we will write is interesting. So how do you begin?
Once you know who your character(s) will be -- whether they are to be flat stereotypes or round, interesting "people" -- how do you give them something to do that is interesting for a reader to read and, more immediately important, interesting for you to write?!
What I like to do is to move my characters into a situation where I'm not sure of how they'll feel or react. That makes me work for credibility and to create a "believable" plot as my people work their way through a situation that feels strange and challenges them.
An example: a handsome professor at State U. interacts with a beautiful co-ed in his class. They are attracted. Two stereotypical characters and motives to begin with. If I have them meet in his office to discuss her grades .... readers will likely start to yawn and I'm left writing another forgettable chunk of porn.
But, just off the top of my head, let's say they don't meet because of the class. Let's say she works in a local mall store. One day while she's leaving work, she sees him leaving the mall, too. He doesn't notice her watching him and following him; her car is parked near his. Backing his car out , she watches him run into the fender of an expensive car. No one is around but her. He gets out of the car to look at the fender.
For me, their conversation from this point on would be more interesting and more telling than one about grades in his office. I don't know where it would lead them, what they would say ... and the characters, challenged and out of their element, would need to get "real."
Of course there are many, many other elements needed to create the tale, and I'll be glad to share some case studies if it will help the conversation, but I'm curious --
how do YOU begin?
Respectfully,
ST
Once you know who your character(s) will be -- whether they are to be flat stereotypes or round, interesting "people" -- how do you give them something to do that is interesting for a reader to read and, more immediately important, interesting for you to write?!
What I like to do is to move my characters into a situation where I'm not sure of how they'll feel or react. That makes me work for credibility and to create a "believable" plot as my people work their way through a situation that feels strange and challenges them.
An example: a handsome professor at State U. interacts with a beautiful co-ed in his class. They are attracted. Two stereotypical characters and motives to begin with. If I have them meet in his office to discuss her grades .... readers will likely start to yawn and I'm left writing another forgettable chunk of porn.
But, just off the top of my head, let's say they don't meet because of the class. Let's say she works in a local mall store. One day while she's leaving work, she sees him leaving the mall, too. He doesn't notice her watching him and following him; her car is parked near his. Backing his car out , she watches him run into the fender of an expensive car. No one is around but her. He gets out of the car to look at the fender.
For me, their conversation from this point on would be more interesting and more telling than one about grades in his office. I don't know where it would lead them, what they would say ... and the characters, challenged and out of their element, would need to get "real."
Of course there are many, many other elements needed to create the tale, and I'll be glad to share some case studies if it will help the conversation, but I'm curious --
how do YOU begin?
Respectfully,
ST